Plant defenses against herbivore or pathogen attack involve the coordination of multiple hormone-mediated signalling networks, including the jasmonate (JA) and brassinosteroid (BR) pathways. Jasmonate is an oxylipin phytohormone that triggers the transcription of defence-related proteins and secondary…

Circadian rhythms are ubiquitous among living things. A core set of so-called clock genes and their products assemble an oscillatory network that provides a rhythm to anticipate dawn and dusk (Hsu and Harmer, 2014). The circadian clock regulates the day/night rhythms of plants and light itself has many…

During fruit ripening in tomato and other flowering plants, the seeds contained within the fruit normally become dormant. However, under certain physiological conditions, seeds can germinate within fruits, a phenomenon called vivipary. Vivipary can substantially reduce yield and product quality in vegetables,…

Raxwal et al. uncover the roles of the RNA helicase and ATPase UPF1 in regulating gene expression. The Plant Cell (2020) https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00244   By Vivek K. Raxwal and Karel Riha  CEITEC Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic   Background: Gene expression, i.e., the…

Salt stress is a major abiotic factor restricting crop growth and productivity. Excess sodium (Na+) causes ion toxicity and ion imbalances.  Maintaining lower Na+ accumulation in shoots is crucial for salt tolerant plant species and genotypes under salt stress.  Lower shoot Na+ accumulation in plants…

Extreme temperatures often negatively impact plant productivity. Both heat and cold induce transient Ca2+ influx into the cell cytoplasm. Cui et al. (10.1104/pp.20.00591) have investigated the function of two closely related cyclic nucleotide-gated ion channel (CNGC) proteins, OsCNGC14 and OsCNGC16,…

Pollen tubes elongate very rapidly at rates of several micrometer per minute and strictly in one direction: this process involves the intense local secretion of cell wall material at the tube tip. Consequently, there is a massive incorporation into the plasma membrane (PM) of excess membrane material…

Willems et al. establish that meristem organization and development rely on Anaphase Promoting Complex/Cyclosome-mediated breakdown of a cyclin.   Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00208 By Alex Willemsa,b and Lieven De Veyldera,b aDepartment of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics,…