Roots exude metabolites that affect the composition and activities of their microbiome. Korenblum et al. show that the microbiome in turn affects metabolite exudation, not only locally but also systemically (shown using a split-root system). They call this response SIREM: systemically induced root exudation…

If you want a great plant, select for a strong, vigorous, high-yielding individual; this is also the outcome of natural selection. But if you want a great field of plants, these traits may not be as suitable, because the plants will expend energy competing between themselves. When seeds from many plants…

Review: Deep learning for plant genomics and crop improvement One of the goals of plant science is to use the molecular phenotype (genome, transcriptome, proteome) to predict the whole-plant phenotype. Deep learning approaches can potentially begin to do this, starting with a training dataset, and…

Sakuraba et al. show the existence of multilayered regulation systems for the rice ONAC054 transcription factor, which is involved in abscisic acid-induced leaf senescence in rice. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00569 By Nam-Chon Paek, Department of Plant Science, Seoul National University,…

‘Senescence’ originates from the Latin word senescere, to grow old. However, the process of leaf senescence is not simply the passive death of the leaf but instead represents an active and highly regulated process of nutrient remobilization from older leaves into developing parts of the plant to…

Magda Julkowska Magdalena.Julkowska@kaust.edu.sa   In response to stress, secondary messengers and rapid and reversible protein phosphorylation contribute to signaling cascades that generate unique signatures indicating stress type and severity. Activation of stress-induced signaling cascades…

Wu et al. investigated MED25 recruits splicing factors to regulate the alternative splicing of JAZ genes in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell (2019). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00583   Background: The jasmonate (JA) signaling pathway controls resource allocation between growth- and defense-related…

Xing et al. use advance microscopy to show that phospholipase D functions in the response to powdery mildew. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00534  by Jingjing Xing, Xiaojuan Li, Xiaohua Wang, Xueqin Lv, Li Wang, Liang Zhang, Yingfang Zhu, Qianhua Shen, František Baluška, Jozef Šamaj,…