Research

Piercing-sucking insects secrete saliva while feeding through specialized mouth parts called stylets. Saliva plays critical roles in insect digestion and nutrition, and regulates plant defense responses, but the specific metabolites involved have not been characterized. Shangguan et al. reported the…

Plant interactions with beneficial microbes are good strategies to survive biotic and abiotic challenging conditions, but the mechanisms that plants use to recruit these interactions, specially belowground, remain scarcely known. Schulz-Bohm et al. designed an olfactometer system to analyze the long…

Review. Use it or average it: Stochasticity in plant development (Curr. Opin. Plant Biol.) In this interesting review, Roeder describes the importance of stochasticity in plant development. She starts off with an explanation: “A process that can be analyzed statistically but not predicted precisely…

As a biotrophic fungus, Ustilago maydis (corn smut fungus) relies on living plant tissues for sustenance. Once U. maydis cells of compatible mating types fuse on a leaf surface, they produce a dikaryotic filament with a specialized infection structure—the appressorium—that penetrates epidermal cells.…

Cyclins and cyclin-dependent protein kinases (CDKs) are critical regulators of cell cycle progression. Although CDK1 is essential for mitosis in animals and fungi, CDKA, the plant and algal ortholog of CDK1, is not essential for cell division in Arabidopsis (Nowack et al., 2012). By contrast, CDKB is…

Nature.  With the advent of advanced molecular techniques and tools, the detailed scrutiny of a plant’s physical attributes fell to the wayside. Focus has shifted from physiological characterization of a board range of species to detailed genomic work being done on a few select model organisms and,…

The nucleus is a dynamic organelle whose positioning and movement is highly coordinated throughout plant development and differs between cell types. Upon the initiation and subsequent elongation of root hairs, the nucleus moves from a central position to the tip of the growing root hair. Nakamura et…

The heterotrimeric SNF1-related protein kinase 1 (SnRK1) in plants is an orthologue of yeast SNF1 (sucrose non-fermenting 1) kinase and the mammalian AMPK (AMP-58 activated protein kinase). A significant array of genetic evidence during the past years has identified SnRK1 as a key regulator of cellular…

Ambitious plant synthetic biology projects are driving the evolution of advanced DNA assembly techniques that permit efficient and rapid assembly of multiple transcriptional units (TUs). Pollack et al. have incorporated features of individual techniques into a single “general purpose DNA assembly…

In order to use wild rice relatives for future crop improvement, the differences and similarities between wild and domesticated genomes need to be understood. Stein and colleagues sequenced the genomes of two domesticated varieties and seven wild species, unraveling 15 million years of evolutionary history…

Cytokinin is a phytohormone involved in many plant processes such as cell proliferation, apical dominance, leaf senescence, tissue patterning, organ initiation, environmental responses…  To allow for effective control of all these processes, cytokinin concentrations need to be continuously adjusted.…

Gene redundancy and/or developmental defects of higher order mutants make it hard to study the role of individual components of auxin signaling. Structural biology approach can provide a detour that circumvents endogenous auxin signaling. Removing of the phenyl moiety of F79 in the auxin receptor…

Genes that confer pathogen resistance have been recognized for a very long time, and the first of these R genes was cloned 25 years ago. Kourelis and van der Hoorn examine lessons from the more than 300 R genes whose gene products are known, and from this analysis identify nine different mechanisms for…

Strigolactones (SLs) are plant hormones with pivotal roles in plant growth. Being conserved among all plant species, they’ve been recruited by plant-associated microbes as plant-derived molecules allowing microbes to detect plants, exchange signals and establish interactions with them. In this review,…

Ecosphere. Hampton and Labou investigated the employment figures for recent recipients of PhDs (degree awarded between 2000 and 2011) in ecology from US-based institutions. They found that less than 20% of the PhD recipients are in tenure-track positions at research-focused, PhD-granting universities.…

Plant Cell.  Li et al. studied epistatic (non-additive) interactions amongst the network of transcription factors controlling aliphatic glucosinolate biosynthetic pathways, which are well-described and have diverse roles in plant defense. Specifically, the authors measured metabolite levels and transcript…

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. The shoot apical meristem (SAM) is essential for the adaptation of aerial plant tissue architecture to changes in the environment. This paper by Landrein and colleagues connects changes in the plant environment (soil type, soil fertility, nitrate concentration) to changes…

Nature Comms. Phytochromes can exist in two states: an inactive state Pr and an active state Pfr. They convert into each other by light absorption. They can also revert to the inactive state by a light-independent thermal relaxation process called dark reversion. Phytochrome B is the primary receptor…

Nature news feature: The lost art of looking at plants Nature.  With the advent of advanced molecular techniques and tools, the detailed scrutiny of a plant’s physical attributes fell to the wayside. Focus has shifted from physiological characterization of a board range of species to detailed genomic…

By Catalin Voiniciuc, Markus Pauly, and Björn Usadel All plant cells are surrounded by complex walls that play a role in growth and differentiation of tissues. Walls provide mechanical integrity and structure to each cell, and represent an interface with neighboring cells and the environment (Somerville…

Approximately half of all ethylene-responsive genes are downregulated in the presence in ethylene (Chang et al, 2013), but this repression has received relatively little attention compared to the ethylene-mediated activation of expression. The known positive regulators of ethylene signaling include ETHYLENE…

Zhenlin Yang is featured first author of Structure of the Arabidopsis JMJ14-H3K4me3 Complex Provides Insight into the Substrate Specificity of KDM5 Subfamily Histone Demethylases Current Position: PhD Student, Shanghai Center for Plant Stress Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese…

Xiangsong Chen is the featured first author of Canonical and Non-canonical Actions of Arabidopsis Histone Deacetylases in Ribosomal RNA Processing Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow in Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, University of Wisconsin-Madison Education: PhD in National Key Laboratory…

Histones undergo myriad covalent modifications - more than 100 types have been identified in the 50+ years since Allfrey, Faulkner, and Mirsky (1964) found that increased histone acetylation was associated with genomic regions of active transcription (reviewed in Zentner and Henikoff, 2013). Enzymes…

Roots grow into new regions of the soil in their constant quest for water and dissolved minerals. This crucial task is made possible by the root meristem and stem cell niche, where neatly arranged stem cells quickly divide beneath a protective root cap. Stem cells give rise to transit amplifying cells,…

Polycomb-group (PcG) proteins are part of an epigenetic memory system that regulates global gene expression throughout development in multicellular eukaryotes (Butenko and Ohad, 2011). Sophisticated mechanisms recruit high molecular weight complexes of PcG proteins to specific targets in the genome.…

In plants, the balance between stem cell renewal and loss is carefully maintained by intricate regulatory networks. Although the root and shoot apical meristems can in principle continue to grow and self-renew indefinitely, the floral meristem is terminated once flower formation is completed. The precise…

We are pleased to introduce to our readers our new team of assistant features editors at The Plant Cell. These talented and energetic young scientists are passionate about plant science and dedicated to communicating the importance and fascination of plant biology to a wide audience. They will work with…

Nat. Genet. Silencing of transposable elements (TEs) is mediated epigenetically by DNA methylation, relying partially on RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM). RdDM-induced DNA methylation undergoes a global reprogramming in the male germline, allowing expression of imprinted genes regulating fertility…

BioRxiv. Transcriptomic changes at the cellular level are of key importance in specialized cellular types. Therefore, transcriptome analysis at a cell-specific resolution is a powerful tool to learn about biological processes. This analysis is however limited by technological boundaries of microdissection…

Cell. In a very interesting report, Salem et al., showed evidence of an alternative mechanism supporting how the degradation of pectin, a very hard to metabolize component of the cell wall, has directed the evolution of herbivory in insects and arthropods. Recent reports have indicated that horizontally…

Ecol. Lett. C4 photosynthesis represents a biochemical CO2-concentrating mechanism that increases Rubisco-mediated carboxylation of RuBP and reduces photorespiration. However, there is an energy cost associated with C4 photosynthesis, and so it is presumed to become advantageous over C3 photosynthesis…

Cell. The tomato plant has been of keen interest to mankind for centuries, and its domestication led to delicious fruits much larger than their wild, bitter-tasting ancestors. Domestication of tomato had many intended outcomes (increased fruit size, less bitter taste), and several unintended consequences.…

eLife. Free air CO2 enrichment (FACE) has been used to surround plants with an elevated concentration of CO2 (eCO2) during growth, and has consistently conferred an increase in carbon assimilation and plant productivity.  However, the effect of eCO2 on nutrient status of the plant is unclear due to…

Plant Physiol. Heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding (G) proteins participate in numerous processes including the regulation of hormonal responses and environmental stress. G proteins are composed of three subunits: Gα, Gβ, and Gγ. AGB1, a Gβ protein, forms a non-covalent dimer with a Gγ subunit,…

Nature. Through the activity of hundreds of membrane receptors, plants can sense the extracellular environment and tune their growth and responses to abiotic and biotic stimuli in an elegant and complex way. Despite their pivotal role, only a dozen of receptors have been characterized in plants and very…

Plant Cell. Plants sense competitors through phytochromes. Phytochromes detect the reflection of far-red light from nearby plants, resulting in a reduced red:far-red (R:FR) ratio. The reduced ratio causes shade avoidance responses which modify shoot and root system architecture. This paper by van Gelderen…

Ann. Botany. Melatonin was first identified in plants in 1995. Since then, it has been found to be involved in many aspects of plant response to biotic and abiotic stress. Chen et al. investigate the effect of melatonin during lateral root (LR) development in alfalfa and Arabidopsis seedlings. Exogenous…

BioRxiv. Barley powdery mildew is an important asmocycete disease caused by the fungus Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei.  Previous literature in this field has investigated susceptibility genes as important targets to develop resistance. A well-known example of this, is the MLO gene, a negative regulator…

New. Phytol. Ustilago maydis causes corn smut disease on maize which is characterized by plant cancerous symptoms forming tumours on all aerial parts of host. The fungus deploys organ-specific effector proteins to re-program organ primordia to enormous tumours, however the cellular dissection of these…

Plant Physiol. Extracellular ATP induces plant defense responses but the mechanisms involved are largely unknown. The paper by Tripathi et al. shows how extracellular ATP serves as a danger signal in plant defense and its interaction with the signalling pathways of other stress hormones, e.g. jasmonate…

Nature. Cuscuta sp. commonly known as dodder, is an obligate parasitic plant that colonizes a broad range of host plants and obtain water and nutrients by specialized feeding structure called haustorium.  Literature suggests that this specialized structure is involved in bidirectional movement of viruses,…

Science. As our ecosystems are changing rapidly, more studies are needed to document them. One of these important events is “coral bleaching”, a phenomenon that occurs due to environmental stress and when coral hosts lose their algal symbionts or zooxanthellae (Symbiodinium spp.), showing the white…

PLOS Biol. Guard cell size is, in general, inversely related to stomatal density. It is advantageous for plants to maximize their photosynthetic capabilities by generating higher rates of gas exchange, thereby incorporating more CO2 to help drive this pathway. However, the number of cells that can occupy…

Guest Editor: Dr. Amey Redkar Amey is a postdoc at The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, UK and has been a Plantae Fellow since September 2017. He is working to understand the interaction of plants and pathogens during disease development. His current research which is funded by EMBO Long Term Fellowship…

Godfroy et al investigate basal cell fate determination in the brown alga Ectocarpus https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00440 BACKGROUND: Brown algae are multicellular photosynthetic marine organisms living on rocky shores across the globe and representing one of the most developmentally complex groups…

Zhao et al. demonstrate that duplicated genomes in maize and soybean followed distinct trajectories over millions of years https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00595 By Meixia Zhao, Biao Zhang, Damon Lisch, and Jianxin Ma Background: Over evolutionary time, many organisms, particularly plants, have periodically…

Scharff et al. investigate function of anti-Shine-Dalgarno sequence in chloroplast ribosomes https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00524 By Lars B. Scharff BACKGROUND: Cells of plants contain three different systems for protein synthesis: in the cytosol, in plastids, and in mitochondria. Proteins in the…

Robinson et al. develop a method to measure mechanical properties of plant tissue with cellular resolution https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00753 Background: Plant growth is controlled by the extensibility of the cell wall and the turgor pressure inside. The spatial regulation of these properties…

Dinoflagellates in the genus Symbiodinium have the ability to enter into endosymbiotic associations with corals, providing the metabolic basis for the highly productive and biologically diverse coral-reef ecosystems, as well as with other cnidarians, including sea anemones and jellyfish. The Symbiodinium-coral…

Boron (B) is an essential micronutrient for plant growth and development. Its major physiological function is to maintain the structure of the cell wall by crosslinking pectic polysaccharides through borate-diol bonding of two rhamnogalacturonan II molecules. B is immobile in most plant species. Therefore,…

Heterosis refers to the tendency of a crossbred individual to show qualities superior to those of both parents. The phenomenon has been exploited extensively in agricultural breeding for decades and has improved crop performance enormously. Despite its commercial impact, knowledge of the molecular basis…

Mineral deposits occur in many, but not all plant leaves. In those leaves that do have minerals, the mineral type, morphology and the distributions within the leaves are under strict control. In fact, mineralization in certain leaves is a well-preserved trait throughout evolution, indicating that such…

Anthocyanins are vacuolar pigments derived from the phenylpropanoid pathway that are produced in many different plant species. The role of anthocyanin accumulation under stress in vegetative tissues is probably linked to the scavenging of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants…

Cotton (Gossypium spp.) is a globally cultivated globally crop of vast economic importance. Pathogens and pests are major limitations to cotton yield and quality. Verticillium wilt, caused by the fungus Verticillium dahliae, is the disease most detrimental to cotton production. Cotton bollworm (Helicoverpa…

PLOS One. Endoreduplicated cells grow in size as their DNA content increases. The distribution of size was observed to be Poisson. This allowed the authors to create a mathematical model with a single parameter which describes the probability of exiting endoreduplication. The model recovers cell size…

PLOS One. Plant stomatal opening is controlled by phytohormones, among other factors. This article models the phytohormone signaling response in guard cells using ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Sixteen components in this system were analyzed by constructing 16 different models and determining…

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. GENIST (gene regulatory network inference from spatiotemporal data) is a new algorithm developed by de Luis Balaguer et al to predict new gene interactions and transcriptional regulators (available at https://github.com/madeluis/GENIST). The algorithm combines inference of…

PLOS Biol. This article describes a stochastic mathematical model of the stomatal closure network responding to abscisic acid (ABA). The Boolean network is constructed from a comprehensive literature review of the components’ dependencies. The model’s predictions agree with experimental data 90%…

Sci Reports. Both starch degradation and accumulating sucrose levels are related to the circadian cycle, although it is unknown which is the primary regulator. The authors created a mathematical model wherein the circadian oscillator responds to sucrose. The model predictions were experimentally validated…

Front. Genetics. In this paper, the authors model the metabolism in Arabidopsis using Petri nets (PN). PNs are dynamic models that use “tokens” to represent movement between the places and edges of the model, representing the products of a reaction. The model was simplified using reduction techniques,…

Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA. Xanthophylls zeaxanthin and lutein are involved in the nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) pathway which is triggered in response to excess photons. The roles of zeaxanthin and lutein in NPQ are studied using mathematical models and Arabidopsis mutants. The authors hope that future…

This week's papers were seleted by Renee Dale. Renee is a PhD student in biology and an MS student in statistics at Loiusiana State University who is studying mathematical biology and biostatistics for plant biology applications. She is also working on an educational video game! Renee selected these…

By Stephan Wagner, Olivier Van Aken, Marlene Elsässer, Markus Schwarzländer Abstract Cells of complex organisms typically rely on mitochondria for energy provision. The amount of energy required to sustain cellular activity can vary strongly depending on external conditions. Vice versa, constraints…

By Bernhard Wurzinger, Ella Nukarinen, Thomas Nägele, Wolfram Weckwerth, Markus Teige Abstract The evolutionary conserved SnRK1 kinase complex is a key regulator in adjusting cellular metabolism during starvation, stress conditions and growth promoting conditions. Over the last two decades extensive…

Olivier Godfroy is featured first author of DISTAG/TBCCd1 Is Required for Basal Cell Fate Determination in Ectocarpus Current Position: Research assistant in the Translational Gene Therapy group, Nantes Hospital Education: PhD in Plant Biotechnologies at the National Institue of Agriculture Research…

Fungal disease in wheat crops has been a serious but controllable problem, but a newer strain of what’s called “stem rust” has scientists worried. January 8, 2018 by Kerstin Hoppenhaus & Sibylle Grunze The video below is the first part in a six-part series examining the scourge of Ug99,…

Plant Physiology has released a focus issue on the topic of Cellular Dynamics, which includes Updates on topics ranging from Actin Dynamics to Wall Growth. The Editorial by Szymanski, Bassham, Munnik, and Sakamoto provides an excellent overview of the current state our understanding of plant cell dynamics.…

Science. Oxygen levels have been declining in oceans since the middle of the 20th century, largely because of global warming phenomena and human-driven nutrient enrichment of coastal regions. These effects have enhanced microbial oxygen intake, altering the cycles of nutrients and carbon, and lowering…

PLOS Comp. Biol. Plant biologists need basic programming skills (see Friesner et al. for a discussion of why this is true and how to achieve it).  As part of the “Ten Simple Rules” series in PLOS Computational Biology, Carey and Papin describe Ten simple rules for biologists learning to program.…

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. Flowering is a major determinant of crop adaptation to new environments. Starting from its tropical origins and requirement for short-day conditions to flower, natural selection and breeding have allowed maize to adapt to long-day environments and thus be grown over a wider…

Plant Cell. The yield potential of crops is strongly influenced by floral architecture, a trait determined by the fate of stem cells in meristematic tissue.  Meristems themselves are influenced by several factors, including phytohormones such as brassinosteroids (BRs) and gibberellic acid (GA).  BRs…

Plant Physiol. Herbicide resistance is a serious problem in contemporary agriculture. One of the most widely used herbicides, glyphosate, interferes with the activity of EPSPS (5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase). Koo et al. previously showed that glyphosate-resistant waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus,…

Plant Direct. DNA repair occurs by several independent mechanisms, one of which is the mismatch repair (MMR) pathway. In prokayotes, MutS is a component of the mismatch repair pathway; homologous proteins in eukaryotes are known as MSH (MutS homologs). Sarma et al. set out to develop a hypermutable tomato…

Metabolites. Terpenes are derived from isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP) and dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP), which are produced in two separate pathways: in the cytosol (via mevalonate, MVA) and the plastid (via methyl-D-erythritol-4-phosphate, MEP). The products of terpene metabolism include numerous…

Nat. Plants. Soybean is the world’s sixth most produced crop and is economically important as a source of protein and oil in animal and human food, as well as having industrial applications.  Domestication of soybean has resulted in the absence of seed coat bloom, a powdery coating containing hazardous…

Nat. Plants. The current rate of crop plant breeding, limited by the long generation time of crop plants, is insufficient to address the needs caused by the enormous increase in the human population accompanied by climate change. Watson et al. have recently presented a method called ‘Speed breeding’…

PLOS One. Katharine Hubbard (@KEHplantsci) and Sonja Dunbar (@PlantSciSonja) are enthusiastic proponents of student-centered teaching, including guiding undergraduate students through the reading of scientific papers. In this new work they’ve evaluated how  undergraduate students compare to graduate…

PLOS Comp. Biol. No doubt, science communication is a struggle for many scientists and science institutions. There is an increasing need to improve public science understanding and/or engagement. Good science communication is crucial to help recruit next generation scientist, highlight science’s role…

Focus Issue: Cellular Dynamics Plant Physiology has released a focus issue on the topic of Cellular Dynamics, which includes Updates on topics ranging from Actin Dynamics to Wall Growth. The Editorial by Szymanski, Bassham, Munnik, and Sakamoto provides an excellent overview of the current state of…

During the final week of 2017 we reminded you of some of the big stories and successes that came from our community. These stories were highly accessed through the ASPB and Plantae.org blogs, our many social media sites, and our journal websites. Originally publised as a set of six posts, we've assembled…

Leucine-rich repeat extensins (LRXs) are proteins involved in cell wall growth and are therefore required for plant growth processes. Fabrice et al. use pollen tube development in Arabidopsis thaliana as a vegetative plant growth model to elucidate the role of LRXs in these cellular processes. All 4…

Bisphenol A (BPA) is known for its negative impact on mammalian cell lines and, recently, as an emerging environmental pollutant. BPA, readily taken up and metabolized by plants, results in many growth and developmental defects, from disrupted mitotic microtubule (MT) arrays to altered calcium fluctuations…

Over the last two decades, Ash dieback (ADB) has been sweeping through Europe killing or damaging a large proportion of European common ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior).  ADB results from infection by wind borne spores of the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus.  As ADB spread and the scientific research…

The plant cytoskeleton determines cell shape and integrity by delivering cellulose microfibrils and other cell wall components to the plasma membrane and cell wall. Auxin is involved in establishing the polarity of cell expansion and auxin distribution is partly regulated by actin. Sahi et al. examine…

One of the hardest parts of any sequencing project is putting the pieces together. Physical sequence alignments can be cross checked against genetic linkage maps when they are available, but what about for species without genetic linkage data? Udall and Dawe describe the use of optical mapping, using…

Transposable elements (TEs) are a major component of eukaryotic genomes. Their activity is silenced by epigenetic mechanisms such as chromatin modifications and DNA methylation in order to avoid deleterious effects on host genome stability. Nevertheless, how TEs overcome silencing by the host and propagate…

Guest Editor:  Alecia Biel Alecia is a graduate student at The Ohio State University in the US and has been a Plantae Fellow since September 2017.  Her research focuses on elucidating hormone signaling pathways and the role of the nucleus during this process, particularly throughout plant abiotic…

Pollen is an essential component in angiosperm reproduction. Pollen grains are surrounded by a highly resistant wall called exine which enables survival of the male gametes in adverse environmental conditions. Suzuki et al. examined the contribution of an Arabinogalactan β-(1,3)-Galactosyltransferase…

Phytopthora sojae poses a serious threat to soybean production world-wide. This oomycete pathogen has a wide arsenal of effector proteins, some of which have been functionally characterized for their virulence role. Huang et al. characterized and demonstrated the functional role of an avirulence effector…

All phytopathogens encode for a toolbox of secreted proteins called ‘effectors’ that promote disease formation in the best possible way. Effectors are either acting in the apoplastic space or are translocated to the host cell to target diverse processes and modulate the host using enzymatic activities.…

Successful fertilization in plants requires sperm cells (SCs) to be carried along the growing pollen tube (PT) until reaching the female gametophyte where the PT then bursts to release the SCs. One challenge PTs must overcome in order to achieve fertilization is deciding to rupture or not to rupture.…

Yan et al. searched for proteins that regulate the delivery of the micronutrient copper to flowers to ensure successful reproduction https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00363 By Jiapei Yan, Ju-Chen Chia, and Olena Vatamaniuk Background: Global food security and the demand for high-yielding grain crops…

Fukudome et al. explore the significance of Pol II C-terminal phosphorylation https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00331 By Akihito Fukudome and Hisashi Koiwa Background: In animals and plants, gene expression begins with an enzyme called RNA polymerase II (Pol II), which produces ribonucleic acid (RNA)…

Dolan et al. examine how a complex that regulates gene expression alters the production of phenylpropanoids  https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00282 By Whitney Dolan and Clint Chapple Background: Plants produce a vast array of compounds known as phenylpropanoids from the amino acid phenylalanine.…

Schmitz et al. investigate the physiological significance of the glyoxylase system  in Arabidopsis https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00258 By Jessica Schmitz and Veronica G. Maurino BACKGROUND: In every living cell, side reactions of enzymes and spontaneous reactions of metabolites inevitably…

The last week of the year is the time to look back and reflect. We like to take this opportunity to recognize the good work done by the plant science community. During this final week of 2017 we've been reminding you of some of the big stories and successes that came from our community. These stories…

Polarization may be bad for civil discourse, but sometimes polarization can be good—for example, if you’re a multicellular organism setting its body axes. In many organisms, polarity within the zygote sets the stage for an asymmetric cell division that defines the apical-basal polarity of the developing…

The last week of the year is the time to look back and reflect. We like to take this opportunity to recognize the good work done by the plant science community. During this week we've been reminding you of some of the big stories and successes that came from our community. These stories were highly accessed…

The last week of the year is the time to look back and reflect. We like to take this opportunity to recognize the good work done by the plant science community. Over the next few days we'll remind you of some of the big stories and successes that came from our community. These stories were highly accessed…

Biology is a noisy act, as the expression of the same gene in the cells of the same tissue differs. This noise can be divided into intrinsic noise, due to inherent stochasticity of molecular processes, and extrinsic noise, indicating differences between the neighboring cells. Schultheiß Araújo and…

Ca2+-dependent protein kinases (CPKs) can transfer calcium signals via phosphorylation events, a signaling process important for plant development and response to environmental stresses. With the multitude of CPKs thus far identified and their overlapping roles in both abiotic and biotic stress response,…

The apoplast represents a highly interactive site for intercellular communication and transport in plant-microbe interaction, that determines whether a pathogen can successfully overcome the early stages of plant defense. This site is also a battleground for an important class of apoplastic effectors…

Bees and other pollinators experience the world in a different way to humans. They use different strategies in order to identify their surroundings, including their preferred flower species. Among these strategies, floral temperature.  These differential “floral warming” happens due to floral thermogenesis…

Experiments using large germplasm collections are prone to contamination. With dropping sequencing costs, it becomes easier to validate the genotype using minimal sequencing coverage. Pisupati and colleagues developed an open-source python pipeline, called SNPmatch, allowing identification of 930 Arabidopsis…

Development is driven by the activities of hormones which control expression of various traits. Modeling hormone pathways is complicated by extensive cross-talk, redundancy, and feedback loops. Khakhar et al. investigate the use of a technique known as Hormone Activated Cas9-based Repressors (HACRs)…

Phytochromes are plant photoreceptors that can sense red and far-red light, as-well-as the ratio of these light qualities.  This review examines the relationship between phytochrome signalling and carbon metabolism.  Krahmer et al. assess the influence of phytochrome signalling on the synthesis of…

The last week of the year is the time to look back and reflect. We like to take this opportunity to recognize the good work done by the plant science community. Over the next few days we'll remind you of some of the big stories and successes that came from our community. These stories were highly accessed…

The last week of the year is the time to look back and reflect. We like to take this opportunity to recognize the good work done by the plant science community. Over the next few days we'll remind you of some of the big stories and successes that came from our community. These stories were highly accessed…

The last week of the year is the time to look back and reflect. We like to take this opportunity to recognize the good work done by the plant science community. Over the next six days we'll remind you of some of the big stories and successes that came from our community. These stories were highly accessed…

Regulation of transcription occurs at the cell-type specific level, but transcribed messenger RNA is mobile and can move between tissues through plant vasculature, serving as a long distance messenger. Many mRNA molecules have been identified in the phloem sap, suggesting that mRNA transport goes through…

The Vikings were notorious raiders for centuries, pillaging and looting the shores throughout the northern hemisphere. Through their successful raids, the Vikings established colonies that grew into states and countries, among these Normandy, England, Sicily, and Russia. The success of the Vikings is…

Transposable elements are a major part of plant genomes. Long-terminal repeat retrotransposons (LTR (LTR-RTs) alone make up 78% of the maize genome (retrotransposons use a “copy and paste” transposition method meaning that a single source element can generate numerous clones of itself, leading to…

DNA methylation is instrumental in promoting transcriptional silencing at repetitive elements, inhibiting illegitimate recombination and establishing genomic imprinting. In plants, DNA methylation profiles are stably inherited over generations through the activities of cytosine DNA methyltransferases…

Plants have several mechanisms to protect themselves from damage from excess light, including a set of reactions collectively described as non-photochemical quenching or NPQ. One of these is a sustained and slowly reversible form of NPQ, which the authors have named qH. How this sustained NPQ functions…

Increasing photosynthetic conversion efficiency is an attractive target for improving crop yields.  One way of affecting this is to alter the way CO2 is delivered to Rubisco, the carbon-fixing enzyme of photosynthesis.  Lehmeier et al. aimed to change the pattern of air spaces within Arabidopsis leaves…

Phytochromes are photoreceptors found in many organisms including bacteria, fungi and plants. Plant phytochromes regulate many aspects of plant growth and development, including germination, shade avoidance, defense against pests, and senescence. Phytochromes most likely transduce signals through the…

Much of our understanding of strigolactones (SLs) as developmental hormones and rhizosphere signals comes from studies of angiosperms. Understanding the ancestral role for strigolactones is complicated by the fact that some of the SL-related genes are closely related to those responsive to karrikins…

Stomatal dynamics have been investigated in terms of ion exchange involvements, turgor pressure fluctuations, and transcriptional changes, particularly in response to environmental stresses. However, the involvement of the cytoskeleton during this process, particularly concerning the role of microtubules…

Wax covering the outer surface of the shoot (epicuticular wax) is crucial in the ability of the plant to conserve water. Wang et al. identified a drought hypersensitive plant that overexpresses an E3 ubiquitin ligase which they named DROUGHT HYPERSENSITIVE. In these overexpression plants, there was a…

Filamentous plant pathogens have developed an extra-ordinary level of dynamic genome architecture that adapts to changing host environment in the best possible way to promote infection. There are very limited studies describing the impact of this genome plasticity on phenotypic variation. Haueisen et…

Rodococcus bacteria are often identified as causal agents in disease outbreaks. Savory et al. analyzed 60 isolates from diseased plants. By comparing these new isolates and previous isolates, they found that 64 of 66 pathogenic isolates carry a linear virulence plasmid, and that all but four carried…

Review: On the selectivity, specificity and signaling potential of long-distance movement of messenger RNA Regulation of transcription occurs at the cell-type specific level, but transcribed messenger RNA is mobile and can move between tissues through plant vasculature, serving as a long distance…

Wang et al. discover unexpected connections between humidity and ion transport using a model that bridges guard cell-to-leaf scales https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00694 By Maria Papanatsiou Background: Plants rely on stomata on the leaf epidermis for their survival. Stomata are small pores formed…

Brambilla et al. describe antagonistic signals in rice leaves that control flowering https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00645 By Vittoria Brambilla Background: A plant’s lifecycle is marked by a major switch occurring when the plant stops producing leaves and starts to make flowers. This switch is…

Gil et al. explore ZTL-mediated protein quality control https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00612 By Kyung-Eun Gil Background: As sessile organisms, plants have evolved various mechanisms to adapt to environmental changes. Under stressful conditions such as high temperatures, proteins are misfolded…

Broad-Spectrum Disease Resistance in Tomato Zhu et al. examine how a plant receptor protein confers broad-spectrum resistance to various tospovirus pathogens https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00180 By Min Zhu, Savithramma P. Dinesh-Kumar, and Xiaorong Tao Background: Highly evolved microbes cause…

“Horizon scanning” describes the process of trying to rationally predict the future.  Wintle et al. describe the results from a horizon-scanning exercise to identify emerging issues in biological engineering. The authors used an iterative approach to identify key issues in the near and longer-term…

In plants, Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCo), the enzyme responsible for fixing carbon, is a made up of 8 each of the large and small subunits, making the L8S8 form. Efforts to study this enzyme have been thwarted by the inability to assemble an active L8S8 form in a heterologous…

Water, a principal component on earth has also a fundamental role in maintenance of plants, microbes and the disease that is shaped by such interaction. Pathogenic disease outbreaks occur only in favorable environmental conditions, and atmospheric humidity is essential for pathogenesis. This review by…

Cis-regulatory elements direct transcriptional output during cell differentiation and coordinate adaptive responses to environmental stress. DNA becomes open and accessible when nucleosomes are displaced by DNA-binding proteins, indicating a correlation between open chromatin regions and transcriptional…

The Mediator complex is a transcriptional co-regulator that is conserved across kingdoms. Several subunits have been identified through genetic approaches in Arabidopsis. Recessive loss-of-function mutants of MED5 subunits cause phenylpropanoid overaccumulation, but ef4-3, a semi-dominant mutation of…

During photosynthesis Rubisco fixes CO2 by carboxylating its substrate RuBP, leading to the de novo production of carbohydrates.  Photorespiration has long been considered a wasteful process, initiated by Rubisco-mediated oxygenation of RuBP and resulting in the loss of carbon, nitrogen and energy. …

The formation of the lobes at the Arabidopsis leaf margin are due to differences in local auxin accumulation, coordinated by auxin efflux carrier (PIN1) and transcriptional regulator (CUC2), but the molecular mechanisms acting upstream are not yet understood. Among viable leaf shape mutants, Wilson-Sanchez…

Plants can reach impressive heights, thanks to the mechanical stability provided by the cell walls. The required strength is ensured by coordination of cell wall deposition and cell expansion. Plant-specific calpain (DEK1) regulates axial stem growth, as lines overexpressing the calpain domain develop…

As a tree grows in height, increasing the length of the transport pathway, the hydraulic resistance of the vascular tissues should increase. It is not clear if trees only rely on passive transport mechanisms (no active loading of sugars) to move carbohydrates from shoots to roots. To answer this question,…

Plants lack a developmentally defined germline and gametes originate only late during plant development. This allows mutations acquired during the vegetative growth (somatic mutations) to be transmitted to the reproductive organs. The accumulation of mutations is relatively low in annual plants such…

Plants are highly plastic and can modulate their growth and development to better respond to abiotic and biotic surroundings. Among the molecules involved in the adaptation to the environment, a crucial role is played by small secreted peptides (SSPs). In their paper, integrating 144 transcriptomic experiments,…

NLR (Nucleotide-binding site leucine-rich repeat resistance) genes help plants recognize pathogens. Munch et al. looked at expression pattern data of 1,235 NLRs from nine plant species. The distribution of NLR gene expression between shoot and root is relatively constant within a species, and for most…

Rust fungi represent an important group of plant pathogens, many of which have heteroecious lifestyles (meaning that they require two alternate hosts). However, the molecular mechanisms used by these pathogens for suppression and colonization of multiple hosts are poorly understood.  Lorrain et al.…

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are membrane-released structures that play a role in cell-to-cell communication. These vesicles in plants have been poorly studied although they are predicted to have a role in defense upon pathogen infection. Regente et al. have characterized EVs from sunflower by transmission…

Point of View: A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering studies “Horizon scanning” describes the process of trying to rationally predict the future.  Wintle et al. describe the results from a horizon-scanning exercise to identify emerging issues in biological…

By Charlotte M.M. Gommers and Elena Monte Abstract By being exquisitely sensitive to their light surroundings, plants are able to continuously adjust their growth to optimize fitness. Darkness is an important cue for plants and a time when they actively grow and develop through regulation of the…

By Amir Bidhendi and Anja Geitmann Abstract Plant cells come in a striking variety of different shapes. Shape formation in plant cells is controlled through modulation of the cell wall polymers and propelled by the turgor pressure. Understanding the shaping aspects of plant cells requires knowledge…

Ethylene is a gaseous plant hormone that affects the growth and development of plants and mediates plant stress responses. Ethylene is perceived by a family of five receptors in Arabidopsis thaliana including ETHYLENE RESPONSE1 (ETR1) and ETR2. Surprisingly, there are cases where the different ethylene…

The coordinated differentiation of cell types during the metamorphosis of an organ is crucial for ensuring that the final form of the organ is appropriate for itsfunction.  A case in point is the photosynthetic function of plant leaves that requires chloroplast-containing cells in the middle leaf layers…

Understanding the metabolic pathways underlying oil production and the precise intracellular localization of lipid droplets is crucial for successfully engineering microalgae for biofuel production. The microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii accumulates considerable amounts of starch and triacylglycerol…

Remodeling of the actin network in plant cells involves the severing, depolymerization and polymerization of F-actin.  A variety of actin-binding proteins are involved in remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton, including the actin-depolymerizing factor (ADF) family of proteins. As a result of their ability…

When the vapor pressure difference (VPD) between a leaf and the atmosphere increases (i.e., when air humidity decreases), guard cells lose turgor, thereby leading to stomatal closure. The evolution of this mechanism was an important step in the colonization of land by plants, since it enabled plants…

Damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) are endogenous chemicals that are released from damaged cells and which play a role as “danger signals.” 
Adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP) becomes a DAMP signal after release into the extracellular milieu following cellular damage. Extracellular ATP…

It might sound odd, but so far it was hard to find a nice pathogen infecting model legume plants. Fuechtbauer and colleagues showed the capacity of an oomycete (Phytophtora palmivora) to infect Lotus japonicus and describe how a LysM receptor, LYS12, is partly mediating this plant-microbe interaction.…

Plants are attacked by diverse herbivores but have also evolved strategies to resist them. However, highly adapted herbivores exist, including those that have evolved the ability to stabilize, sequester and reactivate plant toxins. This evolved trait has contributed to herbivore defense against higher…

Huot et al. describe how elevated temperature (30 °C) enhances Arabidopsis thaliana disease susceptibility to the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000 (Pst DC3000): this includes an increase of bacterial type III secretion suggesting that increased Pst DC3000 virulence at 30°C is linked…

When grown at high density (HD), plants compete for nutrients, water and light. Guo and collaborators characterized Arabidopsis gene expression under two different growth densities: seeds sown at low density (LD), 10 cm apart and high density (HD), 2 cm apart. RNA sequencing analysis showed that only…

Root angle determines the rooting depth and was recently associated with the VERNALIZATION1 locus. Using hexaploid wheat, Voss-Fels et al. mapped the root angle to the locus encoding the MADS-box transcription factor, which was previously associated with flowering time. The group found that the lines…

Three-dimensional organization of the genome is critical for proper gene expression. Comparison of the extremely compact genome of Arabidopsis with mammalian genomes revealed reduced local intra-chromosomal contacts (also know as Topologically Associated Domains, TADs) and fewer chromatin loops in the…

Many plants are polyploid, meaning that instead of the normal, diploid “2n” complement of chromosomes (one from each parent), they have more than 2n. Following whole-genome duplication, redundancy can allow the duplicated regions to diverge or become silenced. In some cases, silencing occurs preferentially…

Increased leaf vein density is considered to be a key early step in the evolution of C4 photosynthesis.  Feldman et al. analyzed five mutants with high vein densities in the C3 crop rice to determine if photosynthetic assimilation was improved.  The mutants all had higher photosynthetic rates under…

Manganese is a micronutrient essential for the function of several proteins including manganese superoxide dismutase (localized in the peroxisome and mitochondria) and the photosystem II reaction center (localized in the chloroplast). Mn is transported via NRAMP (Natural Resistance-Associated Macrophage…

Plastids, the cellular sites for light reaction of photosynthesis, have a reduced genome which is circular and double stranded, ranging in the size from about 100 to 200 Kb. Some exceptions to this circular nature of plastid genomes are found in some groups of phytoplanktons, namely dinoflagellates,…

Humans have been domesticating plants for 10,000 years, having an impact on the gene pools of multiple species chiefly through selective breeding approaches. Although plant domestication ensured food availability to early civilizations, plants were, and still are, mainly selected based on their morphology…

The plant cytoskeleton forms a dynamic and complex architecture in all plant cells and comes with a myriad number of functions, from allowing intracellular transport to regulating gene expression. In this review, Yoshihisa Oda focuses on the purposes of cortical microtubule (cMT) arrays, which are anchored…

Plant growth is determined not only by cell division, but also by loosening of the cell wall. Arsuffi and Braybrook review our understanding of the mechanisms of cell wall loosening. Already in the 1970s scientists started to observe that low pH leads to increased growth, using destructive experiments.…

Plants that can accumulate metals or metalloids in their living tissues to extremely high levels (hyperaccumulators) can be used to model metal uptake and biotic interactions and used for phytoremediation, among other uses. While the uses for hyperaccumulators are vast, until now a database with global…

Friesner and 38 other authors have written a Commentary outlining the need to radically redesign training for plant scientists to work with the massive production of biological data. They recommend a comprehensive revision of how we train undergraduate through post-docs, as well as opportunities for…

Commentary: The next generation of training for Arabidopsis researchers: Bioinformatics and quantitative biology Friesner and 38 other authors have written a Commentary outlining the need to radically redesign training for plant scientists to prepare for the massive production of biological data.…

Light intensity varies seasonally, with time of day, with cloudiness, and as overlying leaves move in the wind.  A sudden change in light intensity alters photosynthetic responses, but not all responses change at the same rate. For example, upon an increase in light intensity, photosynthetic electron…

By Daniel B. Szymanski and Christopher J. Staiger A dynamic network of filamentous elements, the cytoskeleton, holds the key to patterning of the cell wall during growth. This review focuses on the actin cytoskeleton during cell morphogenesis. The field is progressing rapidly, enabled by forward-…

By Michel Ruiz Rosquete, Destiny Jade Davis, and Georgia Drakakaki Abstract Transport networks may be defined as sets of connected nodes or hubs where cargo from different origins are sorted to their final destinations. The trans-Golgi Network (TGN) is the most discussed and arguably busiest hub…

Hong-Chao Duan is featured first author of ALKBH10B is An RNA N6-Methyladenosine Demethylase Affecting Arabidopsis Floral Transition. Current Position: Research Assistant, Peking University, China Education: PhD (2017) Chemical Biology, Peking University, China. BS (2011) Chemistry, Nankai University,…

In a new Commentary in Plant Physiology, Friesner et al. write a compelling vision for next-generation training for plant scientists. We asked three of the 39 authors, Joanna Friesner, Molly Megrew and Siobhan Brady, to tell us about their motivations and goals for writing this commentary. You…

Ido Nir is featured first author of The Tomato DELLA Protein PROCERA Acts in Guard Cells to Promote Stomatal Closure Current Position: PhD candidate in Plant Sciences at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel Education: B.Sc. and M.Sc. (direct track to PhD) in Plant Sciences in The Hebrew…

Tengfang Ling is featured author of Host-mediated S-nitrosylation disarms the bacterial effector HopAI1 to re-establish immunity Current Position:  Postdoctoral fellow, Plant Systems Engineering Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology, Daejeon, South Korea. Education: PhD,…

Diana Bellin is featured author of Host-mediated S-nitrosylation disarms the bacterial effector HopAI1 to re-establish immunity Current Position:  Postdoctoral fellow, Plant Systems Engineering Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology, Daejeon, South Korea. Education: PhD,…

By Rebecca A Slattery, Berkley J Walker, Andreas P.M. Weber, Donald R. Ort Abstract Rapidly changing light conditions can reduce carbon gain and productivity in field crops because photosynthetic responses to light fluctuations are not instantaneous. Plant responses to fluctuating light occur across…

After reading about “Top Ten Human Genes” in  Nature, we, and the twitterverse wondered, what are the most popular or well-studied genes of all time in plants? What would a similar list would look like for Arabidopsis? Fortunately, at TAIR (The Arabidopsis Information Resource:  https://www.arabidopsis.org/) …

Since the days of Robert Hooke, microscopy has been one of the biologist’s most important tools, and continues to become ever more powerful. Komis et al. review recent advances in superresolution microscopy, particularly as they pertain to the dynamics of plant cells. Dynamic systems demand fast imaging,…

“If the current trend continues, there could be more plastic than fish by weight in the oceans by 2050” writes MacArthur in her Editorial, “Beyond plastic waste” (10.1126/science.aao6749). In three Perspective articles, challenges and opportunities to reduce plastic waste and improve its production…

Plasmodesmata are plasma membrane-enclosed pores between cells that were initially described by Tangl in 1879 as ‘open communications’ between protoplasts of endosperm cells. These structures are regulated by callose deposition from the apoplast and play an important regulatory role in stress and…

Pollen tubes exhibit unidirectional, polar growth because vesicles carrying compounds required for growth  are selectively transported to the growing apex. The phosphoinositide PtdIns(4,5)P2 accumulates at the apex and  is thought to help with vesicle targeting. Helpel et al. showed that the lipid…

Previously, the authors identified an Arabidopsis mutant that shows resistance to a widespread oomycete pathogen. In this new work, Wang et al. identified the Phytophthora sojae susceptible gene locus, PSS1, which encodes a plasma-membrane localized glycine-rich protein. When introduced into soybean…

The plant immune system is often described as having two parts, one which recognizes extracellular conserved microbial signals (pattern-triggered immunity: PTI) and one which is stimulated by the presence of specific microbial effectors (effector-triggered immunity: ETI).  Through a forward-genetic…

Pathogenic microbes translocate effector molecules into plant cells that subvert host immune responses and promote disease. In a recent article published in Cell Host & Microbe, Chen et al. (2017) describe an exciting new interaction between the Pseudomonas syringae effector AvrPtoB and its cognate…

Plant-to-plant communication allows plant neighbors to be warned by plant peers of stresses such as herbivory activity, sometimes by triggering priming processes. Systemin is an 18-amino acid hormone, firstly identified in tomato as a inducer of the wound response. Coppola et al. report the role of systemin…

Within the same species, plant responses to pathogens vary depending on the plant genotype. The correlation between phenotypic and genetic variation is a great resource for finding genes involved in plant-pathogen interactions.  By using a set of natural accessions of Medicago truncatula (HapMap population)…

The ability to generate transgenic plants has revolutionised plant science research.  However, many species and genotypes remain challenging and time-consuming to transform.  Zhao et al. provide a novel and potentially ground-breaking method of transgene delivery.  In the presence of a magnetic field,…

Assessing the function of genes active in zygotes and egg cells is difficult due to the inaccessibility of the target tissues.  Koiso et al. isolated rice egg cells and maize zygotes using a method similar to that for extracting leaf protoplasts.  They then optimized a PEG-Ca2+ transfection protocol…

KATANIN is a AAA ATPase protein which, according to the most recent models, is able to track along microtubules (MTs) and sever emergent γ-TUBULIN and AUGMIN-nucleated MTs. This severing event occurs at MT cross-over areas, particularly where there are MT lattice defects, promoting disassembly of unfavorable…

Gene conversion, a mechanism involving the unidirectional exchange of DNA from a donor to an acceptor sequence through homologous recombination, is a major driver of genome evolution. It has been speculated that gene conversion may be biased towards GC alleles, and thus favours accumulation of GC in…

Reading books by the light of nanobionic plants sounds like something out of a scifi book. However, scientists have been working for many years on engineering light-emitting plants based on the luciferase enzyme. This work has been limited largely by the need to overcome the toxicity of adding to much…

CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing has rapidly become a powerful tool in modern plant science research.  However, issues of low editing efficiencies and off-target mutations remain.  LeBlanc et al. hypothesised that subjecting plants to high temperature stress, mimicking the optimal operating temperature of…

In future years, climate change may cause significant economic losses to countries worldwide. Consequently, genetic improvement of crops fit for drought-stressed and semi-arid regions is becoming a must. In this review, Crossa et al. assess the advances in genetic selection (GS) and genomic-enabled prediction…

Review.  Genomic selection in plant breeding: Methods, models, and perspectives In future years, climate change may cause significant economic losses to countries worldwide. Consequently, genetic improvement of crops fit for drought-stressed and semi-arid regions is becoming a must. In this review,…

By Jozef Samaj, George Komis, Dominik Novak, Miroslav Ovecka, Olga Samajova Abstract After the establishment of advanced fluorescence microscopy methods and the development of numerous fluorescent proteins it is possible to follow the organization and dynamics of most organelles and subcellular…

All gases in the N cycle, including nitric oxide (NO), are present in oceans, either because of gas exchanges at the air-water interface or because they are produced within oceans themselves. NO, a physiologically important gaseous transmitter, is generated in seawater by nonbiological photochemical…

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of abundant small noncoding RNAs, have been identified as important regulators of gene expression in plants, affecting many aspects of plant development. Recently, several miRNAs have been reported to regulate rice grain yield. A previous study revealed that miR397 regulates…

Xylem embolisms are induced by drought stress and/or freezing stress by means of “air-seeding,” that is the aspiration of gaseous bubbles into xylem conduits from adjacent gas-filled compartments via the pits. At water potentials less negative than the threshold for air seeding, the air-water interface…

Of the many classes of natural products produced by plants, terpenoids are the most structurally diverse, with well over 25,000 established compounds. In maize (Zea mays), terpene olefins are nearly ubiquitous components of induced volatile emissions following biotic stress. In contrast to our understanding…

Plants repair wound sites through the formation of unorganized cell masses called calli, which can also serve as progenitors of new organs. Callus formation and organ regeneration often entail cell cycle re-entry of quiescent cells, which is achieved through the re-activation of core cell cycle regulators…

Lignified cell walls constitute an important renewable and sustainable feedstock for the production of fermentable sugars, biochemicals, and biomaterials.  In biorefineries, plant cell wall polysaccharides are depolymerized into simple monomeric sugars, a process called saccharification. These sugars…

Plant glandular trichomes can store and secrete great amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are important for a variety of processes, from development to interacting with herbivores. VOCs accumulate in specific extracellular spaces which can be subcuticular or intercellular. The active transport…

In order for a cell to expand, its volume needs to increase and the cell wall needs to loosen up. There are multiple processes resulting in cell wall loosening, but not all of them result in extension. Cosgrove differentiates different structural, mechanical and physiocochemical processes that lead to…

The establishment and enormous developments in -omics and systems biology over the last years have increased our understanding and ability to analyze complex biological processes at entire plant, organ or tissue levels. However, these arrays of datasets have the limitation of cellular complexity in terms…

Flower color pattern is a major trait influencing pollinator attraction, but underlying regulatory mechanisms are still poorly understood. Using co-existing Snapdragon subspecies displaying different flower pigmentation motifs, Bradley et al. investigated the molecular basis of flower color patterning.…

How does a flat leaf form? Previous studies have indicated that the formation of a flattened blade depends upon a boundary layer between the upper and lower cell layers, and that mobile small RNAs contribute to this boundary, but how this occurs is not fully resolved. For example, although the small…

Nuclear accumulation of DELLA proteins induces transcriptional reprogramming and is well known to suppress the gibberellin (GA) pathway. While DELLAs can negatively regulate GA, increased GA levels can also signal DELLA degradation. GA is a growth-regulating hormone that is also involved in inhibiting…

All cells need iron (Fe), which is frequently limiting for life. Plants (like other organisms) have complex strategies for uptake of Fe from their environment. Studies in the green alga Chlamodomonas have demonstrated that these organisms are able to prioritize certain pathways when Fe is limiting, a…

Pollen cells have a fascinating ability to transform from a small spherical cell to a very elongated shape known as the pollen tube (PT) during fertilization. Pollen cells must navigate through the female tissue, find an ovary, and burst to release the two sperm cell nuclei as well as the vegetative…

Wild relatives of domesticated plants, such as tomato, are valuable resource for breeding, but their genomes are often not very well sequenced. Razali et al. provide the first high-quality genome of wild tomato S.pimpinellifolium LA0480, and use Dragon Eukaryotic Analysis Platform to functionally annotate…

Persistent drought monitoring using a microfluidic-printed electro-mechanical sensor of stomata in planta The study of stomatal dynamics is crucial for understanding photosynthetic gas exchange and plant hydraulics, but there are currently no methods for measuring the conductance of individual stomata…

Both plants and animals have a sophisticated immune system comprising receptors to detect pathogen-encoded epitopes or virulence molecules. These receptors are programmed to recognize pathogen ligands which are rapidly evolving over an evolutionary time. However, the structural basis of ligand perception…

Using solar irradiation effectively for steam generation is a promising renewable energy source for a wide variety of applications, including large-scale power generation, desalination, water purification and sterilization, which is particularly important in remote areas where solar power is often the…

Banana, the common breakfast component, is also a staple food in some regions of the world. More than 99% of the bananas exported world-wide are the clonally-propagated Cavendish variety, which have very little genetic variation and so are prone to disease outbreaks. Recent years have witnessed the emergence…

A special "thank you" too the many people who have contributed to What We're Reading over the past year! And don't forget you can sign up to receive email alerts - click here then "Notify me of new content". Review: Plant systems biology at the single-cell level The establishment and enormous…

Plants have two major ways of dealing with drought stress. First, when water levels are low, the phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) induces stomatal closure. Soon after, growth, flowering, and fruit development take a back seat to plant survival. This suppressed growth is mediated by decreased activity…

The C-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) extends from the catalytic core and consists of repeats of a seven-amino acid motif. The CTD functions in the regulation of Pol II function and is subject to just about every protein modification you can think of, including methylation, acetylation,…

By Romy Schmidt, Daan A Weits, Claudio FJ Feulner, Joost T. van Dongen Plants grow in a dynamic environment and continuously face numerous stress conditions in parallel. This fluctuating environment pushed the evolution of extensive metabolic flexibility (Sweetlove et al., 2010; van Dongen et al.,…

By Thanin Chantarachot and Julia Bailey-Serres The export of an mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm begins an odyssey of dynamic regulation that determines the location, longevity and use of the transcript in the production of polypeptides by ribosomes in plant cells. Recent leveraging of mutants,…

By Jennifer M Ryan and Andreas Nebenfuehr The cytoskeleton is the main organizing principle that defines not only the distribution of cellular components within cells but also the overall shape and growth pattern of cells and entire multicellular organisms. This function is particularly evident in…

Although reactive oxygen species (ROS) have historically been considered damaging agents within cells, recent studies have demonstrated that these molecules also serve as second messengers in signaling pathways. The reactive nature of ROS allows these compounds to function as signaling molecules by reversibly…

It has been speculated that DNA methylation could complement genetic variation, as a mode for transferring heritable information, to contribute to phenotypic variation. Indeed, DNA methylation states can be maintained faithfully over both mitotic and meiotic cell division. According to this view, any…

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) yields can be severely reduced by the obligate biotrophic pathogen Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst).  Currently, approaches to manage this disease rely on cultivar resistance coupled with fungicide application. However, driven by a greater need for wheat production,…

When the vapor pressure difference (VPD) between a leaf and the atmosphere increases (i.e., when air humidity decreases), guard cells lose turgor, thereby leading to stomatal closure. The evolution of this mechanism was an important step in the colonization of land by plants, since it enabled plants…

Gibberellins (GAs) regulate many aspects of plant development, including seed germination, stem elongation, flower induction, and anther development. DELLA proteins, of which there are 5 in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), play a central role in GA signaling. GA triggers DELLA degradation via the…

Small secreted peptides (SSPs) are peptides of 5 to 50 amino acid residues that are secreted into the apoplast. SSPs are critical regulators of a diverse array of growth and developmental processes in plants, including root growth, nutrient homeostasis, meristem maintenance, stress acclimation, pathogen…

The assassin who injects a bead of poison by stabbing his victim with the tip of his umbrella has got nothing on plant pathogenic bacteria such as Pseudomonas syringae, which injects dozens of effector proteins into plant cells. These effectors act as tiny assassins to take out host defenses by diverse…

What do photosynthesis, neonatal jaundice, and a next-generation solar cell have in common? All involve tetrapyrroles, complex molecules with four linked pyrrole rings, each ring containing one nitrogen and four carbon atoms. Tetrapyrroles exist in either cyclic or linear form and have a wide variety…

By Agata Daszkowska-Golec The nuclear cap-binding 16 complex (nCBC) in higher eukaryotes specifically binds to the monomethylated (7-methylguanosine (m717 GpppN)) cap structure at the 5¢ end of freshly transcribed mRNA. In addition to protecting mRNAs from degradation by exonucleases, the nCBC functions…

By Daniel J. Cosgrove Introduction The primary wall of a growing cell is a versatile, subtle and dynamic structure, with unique properties and functions in the life of the plant (Burton et al., 2010). When a cell grows, its wall stretches irreversibly as the cell enlarges in volume. Cells can start…

By Gil Feiguelman, Ying Fu, and Shaul Yalovsky Introduction Rho of Plants (ROP) proteins also known as RACs are the plant specific subfamily of Rho small GTP binding proteins, referred to here as small G proteins (Zheng and Yang, 2000; Brembu et al., 2006; Elias and Klimes, 2012). Like other members…

Roots are essential plant organs that need to respond and adapt to dynamic environments. It is still unknown if these adaptations are based on systemic or cell-based responses.  Stanley and colleagues created the dual-flow-RootChip, a platform for the heterogeneous perfusion of Arabidopsis roots to…

The cuticle is a cell-wall polymer that protects against desiccation, pathogens and UV light.  Domínguez et al. provide an open-access editorial that describes this fine collection of articles covering all aspects of the plant cuticle, from its evolutionary origins to its ecological significance. Within…

During embryogenesis, plastids arrest their differentiation as etioplasts (characterized by the distinctive prolamellar bodies, PLBs), and remain poised  to complete their differentiation into functioning chloroplasts upon exposure to light. Liu et al. explored the factors that interact to effect this…

What gives stem cells their plasticity and why are differentiated cells so specialized? Sijacic et al. approach this question by analyzing transcription factor (TF) accessibility to chromatin. Nuclei were isolated from shoot apical meristem (SAM) pluripotent stem cells and fully-differentiated mesophyll…

SHORT-ROOT (SRT) is a transcription factor that has previously been shown to move between cells and so contribute to developmental patterning. Spiegelman et al. investigated the cellular machinery that contributes to SRT’s movement. Previous work showed that the movement of SRT depends on the endosome…

SHORTROOT (SRT) is a transcription factor that contributes to developmental patterning non-cell autonomously, by moving between cells. In leaves, SRT has been shown to contribute to sub-epidermal patterning specified by distance from the vein. Schuler et al. explored whether it also contributes to epidermal…

While everyone knows that salt stress reduces root growth, Julkowska and colleagues examined salt-stress induced changes in Root System Architecture (RSA) by studying 347 Arabidopsis accessions. The authors collected 17 RSA traits and developed an app allowing interactive exploration of collected…

If we know anything about how ABA regulates plant response to environmental stresses it is that the pathway if very complicated and anything but straightforward. The ‘core’ ABA pathway is activated by first inhibiting a specific class of protein phosphatases, PP2Cs. This inhibition of PP2Cs allows…

Mutualistic associations between plants and fungi are incredibly widespread, occurring in 90% of extant land plants, and likely are the most ecologically important symbiotic relationships on Earth. Fungi played an integral part in land plant evolution; roots only evolved after early land plants colonised…

Today’s biology students need to be trained to work with large datasets, meaning that mathematics, statistics and computer science should regularly be integrated into their biology courses. Williams et al. carried out a survey to determine the extent to which this occurs. Although 95% of respondents…

Mycorrhizal symbiosis involves extensive signaling between plants and their fungal partners. Mycorrhiza-induced small secreted proteins (MiSSPs) have been hypothesized to be involved in diverse processes to suppress plant defense and promote fungal life-cycles. Clement et al. functionally characterized…

J. Exp. Bot. Special Issue. The plant cuticle: old challenges, new perspectives ($) The cuticle is a cell-wall polymer that protects against desiccation, pathogens and UV light.  Domínguez et al. provide an open-access editorial that describes this fine collection of articles covering all aspects…

Polar localized PIN FORMED (PIN) efflux carriers proteins organize directional auxin flow and accumulation. Most flowering plants have  another family of PIN proteins called Sister of PIN1 (SoPIN1), which Arabidopsis and members of the Brassicacea family do not have. The grass Brachypodium dystachion…

Previous studies have shown that some genes use multiple promoters, but the extent to which this occurs has not been fully resolved. Ushijima et al. showed widespread phytochrome-mediated differential promoter use in response to light. They identified more than 2000 genes with light-dependent alternative…

Plants adapt their form, function and metabolism to the surrounding environment. According to Tardieu et al., understanding the plant phenome requires that plant phenotypes to be studied on different spatial and temporal scales. High precision platforms are instrumental for discovery of new physiological…

A wide variety of beneficial and pathogenic microbes surrounds plants both below and above ground. This microbial diversity is shaped by different biotic and abiotic factors and plays a role in maintaining plant health in natural settings. Hence, it is vital to understand the influence of different factors…

How does the cost of nitrogen acquisition affect how an ecosystem responds to elevated CO2? Terrer et al. have addressed this question in a comprehensive review of findings from elevated CO2 experiments, using a plant economics framework. The authors describe ecosystem responses, particularly those of…

Time-lapse imaging reveals the slow movements of plants, such as phototropism and gravitropism. Harmer and Brooks review the molecular bases for these growth-mediated movements. While auxin has long been known to be involved in photo- and gravitropisms, new results show that ABA is involved in the movement…

Autophagy is a major pathway involved in degradation and recycling of the cytoplasmic components in a cell. This pathway is functionally well conserved in maintaining cellular homeostasis and modulation of stress responses among yeast, plants and animals. Recent evidence suggests that autophagy targets…

The lack of acceptance of GM-breeding calls for alternative strategies to develop new crop varieties to feed the world's growing population. Moreover, the regulation of novel approaches for genome editing (CRISPR, TALEN) is still unclear and will potentially remain so for the near future (or will likely…

Plant genomes are largely remnants of transposons of varying ages, some of which are presumed to be no longer capable of transposition. Sanchez et al. examined the family of Onsen retrotransposons to determine which members retain activity. They prompted transposition through heat treatment in a mutant…

Peppers are an economically and ecologically important crop plants, but genomic resources are rather scarce. The authors provide here new reference genome sequences for three species of hot pepper (Capsicum baccatum, C. chinense and C. annuum), identifying evolutionary forces that have shaped pepper…

Sex determination in the animal kingdom has been relatively well studied, with two main systems responsible for the sexes in mammals, insects, birds, reptiles and fish; XY and ZW sex-determination. Although much is still unknown about these systems, with many exceptions being discovered to previously…

Potatoes originated in the Andes of southern Peru, and are now the third most important crop for direct human consumption. Hardigan et al. sequenced 67 potato relatives, including South American landraces, North American cultivars and wild-diploid species to learn about the genetics of modern potato’s…

Plants are noted for their phenotypic plasticity, but there are also examples of phenotypic canalization, which Alseekh et al. define as “the property of those phenotypic traits showing no environmental effect when individuals of a specific genotype are exposed to a set of different environments.”…

The jigsaw-puzzle shape of the epidermis layer has been puzzling the scientists for some time now. Majda et al. examine the shape of the epidermis cells from the cell wall perspective. Mutations leading to even minor changes in cell wall composition significantly affected pavement cell geometry.…

Genetic screens have revealed many key components of light signaling. In this new work, Sinclair et al. provide new insights into the repression of photomorphogenesis by cell-wall derived signals. They started with a mutant, de-etiolated by zinc (dez) that shows open cotyledons and a short hypocotyl…

The trade-off between grain size and number has been traditionally hard to break.  Bai et al established that differences in panicle architecture between two rice cultivars resulted from duplication of a long-distance silencer of the FRIZZY PANICLE (FZP) gene in one cultivar (Chuan 7).  Increased silencing…

Plant roots constantly engage in nutrient and water uptake for crop productivity. Increasing the nutrient uptake efficiency of roots will promote sustainable agriculture by decreasing the need for fertilizer applications. To achieve this task, we need to understand the physiology of intact roots in their…

While much is known about the processes involved in stomatal movement and the processes involved in the transpiration of leaves, there has been no framework to bridge this micro-macro divide. Wang and colleagues bridge this divide through OnGuard2, a quantitative systems platform that uses the molecular…

How do plants ‘decide’ how to respond to so many conflicting stimuli? What has the final say in stomatal aperture control? Hassidium et al. investigate the role of the oscillator gene CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOICATED 1 (CCA1) during stomatal opening and determined if CCA1 is responsive to other stimuli.…

If you ever tried to compare the results from two different experiments, you probably realized that small variations in the environment have big impact on how the plants grow. There is a lot to be learned from how the variation in the environment affects plant phenotypes, but currently the description…

Review: Growth-mediated plant movements: hidden in plain sight ($) Time-lapse imaging reveals the slow movements of plants, such as phototropism and gravitropism. Harmer and Brooks review the molecular bases for these growth-mediated movements. While auxin has long been known to be involved in photo-…

By Takaki Yamauchi, Timothy D Colmer, Ole Pedersen, Mikio Nakazono Introduction Root acquisition of water and nutrients is essential for plant growth and crop productivity (Lynch, 2015). An improved understanding of root system development and functioning, to identify root traits contributing to…

The next generation of next-generation sequencing is upon us. Third-generation sequencing aims to provide long stretches of sequence – ultimately to the chromosome level – at bargain basement prices. Progress is being made toward those goals with the emergence of long-read sequencing techniques and…

By Gregory D. Reynolds, Chao Wang, Jianwei Pan, Sebastian Bednarek Introduction The plasma membrane (PM) serves as the interface between the cell and its environment. Accordingly, cells have the capacity to modulate their complement of PM-associated receptors, transporters, channels, lipids, and…

By Maureen R Hanson, Kevin M Hines ABSTRACT Stromules are narrow tubular structures, comprised of stroma surrounded by the envelope membrane, which emanate from all types of plastids found in vascular plants. The mechanism for formation of stromules is not understood, but investigating how they arise…

By Rashmi Sasidharan, Sjon Hartman, Zeguang Liu, Shanice Martopawiro, Nikita Sajeev, Hans van Veen, Elaine Yeung, Laurentius A.C.J. Voesenek Abstract Flooding is detrimental for nearly all higher plants including crops. The compound stress elicited by slow gas exchange and low light levels under…

Washington, D.C. – A group of prestigious not-for-profit scientific membership societies today announced the launch of the Scientific Society Publisher Alliance (SSPA) (byscientistsforscience.org), an initiative focused on building awareness of and support for publication of scientific research by…

Many journal articles in the plant sciences – including some of mine – finish with statements like “these findings can potentially contribute to solving the challenge of feeding the world’s growing population whilst saving the planet’s limited resources”. That is a noble ambition. Sadly,…

Desiccating leaves show increased ABA levels triggered by low turgor – right? Apparently not! The pressure chamber experiments showing increased ABA levels in desiccating leaves are inconsistent when the entire leaves are enclosed in the chamber. Sack et al. proposes that the turgor pressure is increased…

“Over 200 million humans are at risk of arsenic poisoning,” due to arsenic in groundwater and its uptake into crops. Our understanding of the transporters through which arsenic enters the plant, moves through the plant, and enters the seed has increased substantially in recent years, opening the…

Changing climates mean changing rainfall patterns, which can have serious consequences for long-lived plants such as conifers. Moran et al. provide a thoughtful and readable overview of the strategies that enable some conifer species to survive drought. They start by discussing the different definitions…

Hormones are signaling molecules, and in most (but not all) cases part of their function is to convey information from one cell or tissue to another, sometimes from cell-to-cell and sometimes through vascular tissues. Park et al.  review our current state of understanding of transporters for diverse…

Pioneer transcription factors are a special type of transcription factor that are able to access their target sequences in condensed chromatin. They are often associated with changes in cell fate and developmental switching. Tao et al. showed that the seed-specific transcription factor LEAFY COTYLEDON1…

The effect of reducing leaf chlorophyll content on canopy CO2 assimilation (Acan) is somewhat contentious.  Walker et al. obtained data from 67 soybean accessions to parameterise a canopy-root-soil model (MLCan) in order to simulate the effect of altering chlorophyll levels on Acan.  There was no increase…

Much of our knowledge concerning ABA-induced stomatal closure comes from genetic models such as Arabidopsis and Vicia faba. Watkins et al. explore the mechanism of ROS production in this abiotic stress pathway in an important agricultural crop: tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum). Specifically, they are…

Dissecting the genetic controls of ABA is challenging, granted the complex modulation of ABA turnover and redundancy of the hormone perception machinery. In the recent study, Kalladan and colleagues explored natural variation of low-water-potential induced ABA accumulation. Using heuristic GWAS,…

Despite the significant developments in computational biology and modern plant breeding, crop phenotyping poses challenges for automation. Previous machine learning approaches of plant phenotyping have mainly focused on leaf counting in rosette forms or leaf segmentation, and rely on large datasets not…

Long ago, the dinosaurs roamed amongst majestic forests of ancient tree ferns, cycads and conifers. But longer ago still, prior to the birth of both the kings of the animal and plant kingdoms, majestic forests of gigantic trees were unimaginable, with the landscape covered in small plants lacking leaves,…

In vascular plants, structure and composition of microbial endosphere associations has not been studied much in the specific context of vascular diseases. This is the case of Pierce's disease which is caused by Xylella fastidiosa and affects multiple crops and ornamental plants. This bacterium is currently…

The capacity of plants to regenerate new shoots from differentiated tissue – a process called de novo shoot regeneration – confers plasticity to plant development and has also important agricultural applications. Previous studies revealed that DNA METHYLTRANSFERASE1 (MET1) inhibits shoot regeneration…

AraGWAS (aragwas.1001genomes.org) is a new useful tool developed within the 1001 Genome project that fully integrates and complements GWAP, EasyGWAS, AraPheno and AraGeno. With the availability of the 1001 genomes of Arabidopsis, the number of association studies is dramatically increasing but a way…

During pathogen invasion, plant resources are diverted from further growth to activation of plant immune response. This review focuses on the recent advances in understanding the complex relationship between immunity regulation and yield production in the model monocot crop rice (Oryza sativa). Many…

The ability to engineer precise changes in nucleic acid sequences has advanced rapidly over the last few years.  Since the development of genome editing technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9, a modified version known as base editing has sought to reliably convert individual nucleotides.  All known base…

Kaundal et al. examine how a protein keeps plants safe from invading pathogens and dehydration http://www.plantcell.org/content/29/9/2233 By Amita Kaundal, Vemanna S. Ramu, Kirankumar S. Mysore Background: To cause disease in plants, bacteria must enter plant tissue and multiply. Bacteria and…

Despite vast differences across all living organisms, most eukaryotes display some form of cellular polarity which enables them to carry out specialized functions. The coordination of cell polarity within a single tissue layer is known as planar polarity. Nakamura and Grebe highlight the unique execution…

The arrangement of a plant’s root system in the soil (root system architecture, RSA) changes in response to nutrients through different signaling pathways. It is assumed that RSA adapts to optimize the uptake of nutrients from the environment, but strong evidence is still lacking. This review by Shahzad…

Lateral root development in plants is a complex process that involves co-ordination of several molecular components to initiate the formation of meristematic cells. Uncovering the details of these processes is confounded by functional redundancy and tight cyclic regulation of different components in…

Chlorophyll fluorescence is a common tool to investigate the behavior of the photosynthetic appratus, therefore photosynthetic capacity, at any physiological state. However, the different optical density of the samples can lead to light-dependent over- or underestimation of effective PSII quantum yields.…

The C4 Rice project aims to transition rice from a C3 crop to one that performs C4 photosynthesis, in order to realize a predicted 50% increase in yield.  Here, Wang et al. expressed a positive regulator of chloroplast development, the maize GOLDEN2-LIKE transcription factor, in rice.  The resulting…

New genome editing technology, such as zinc-finger nucleases and CRISPR/Cas9, are revolutionizing reverse genetics studies because they allow fast and precise genetic modifications in many species. However, they require efficient transformation and selection methods. This is notably a problem for algae…

Polished white rice is a major food source for much of the world but is not a good source of the essential micronutrients iron and zinc. Like microbes, plants enhance their uptake of iron from the environment by synthesizing small “iron carrying” molecules called respectively siderophores or phytosiderophores…

Many nutrients move through the plant body via the phloem. The developing embryo, which depends on the maternal plant for its nutrients, is not directly (symplastically) connected to maternal tissues, so nutrients must be exported across membranes to reach the embryo. PHO1 was identified previously as…

In plants the location of microbes to specific cell types, including endophytes, is still scarcely described in contrast with the situation in the animal kingdom. Shehata et al. describe a bacterial endophyte (Strain 3F11, possibly Enterobacter asburiae) from Zea nicaraguensis, a wild corn growing at…

Botanical gardens are sanctuaries where plant diversity is celebrated, conserved, studied, and shared. As more species are put under pressure from anthropogenic activities, the importance of botanical gardens in preserving and protecting threatened species is increasing. A recent study on the role of…

Review: Outer, inner and planar polarity in the Arabidopsis root Despite vast differences across all living organisms, most eukaryotes display some form of cellular polarity which enables them to carry out specialized functions. The coordination of cell polarity within a single tissue layer is known…

Plant cell wall architecture is a very complex specific design and the interaction between xylan and cellulose is believed to be that way too. Grantham et al. reveal the details of the association between xylan and cellulose using mass spectrometry and NMR in Arabidopsis. ESKIMO1 (ESK1) is a xylan-specific…

A plant's rhizosphere consists of a huge array of pathogenic microbes many of which can trigger defense responses, leading to decreased growth. On the other hand, beneficial microbes such as rhizobacteria promote growth and can induce systemic resistance while suppressing local immune responses. A recent…

Roots must protect themselves from a diverse range of microbial and animal pests. To accomplish this, plants have evolved sophisticated signalling machinery to detect the presence of these pests or to quickly react to the damage that they cause. In a recent study, Shah et al. identified host receptor…

Schmidt et al. demonstrate that nanopore technology can be applied to plant genomes https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00521 By Schmidt, M. H.-W., Vogel, A., Denton, A. K., Bolger, A. M., Bolger, M. E., and Usadel, B. Background: An organism’s genome contains all the necessary information for its…

By Junmarie Soto-Burgos, Xiao-Hong Zhuang, Liwen Jiang, and Diane C. Bassham Autophagy, literally defined as “self-eating”, functions as a degradation process by recycling cytoplasmic contents under stress conditions or during development. Upon activation of autophagy, a membrane structure known…

Eisenach et al. discover A new ion channel of the plant vacuole helps plants react to drought https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00452 By Cornelia Eisenach Background: Stomata are small pores on plant surfaces that facilitate diffusion of CO2, O2 and water vapor between plant and atmosphere.  During…

Boxall et al. investigate CAM photosynthesis in Kalanchoë fedtschenkoi The Plant Cell (2017). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00301 Background: During photosynthesis, most plants use the enzyme Rubisco to capture CO2 during the day. Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) plants such as prickly pears,…

Schneider et al. explore how secondary cell walls are made. The Plant Cell 2017.  https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00309 Background: Plant cells are surrounded by robust cell walls that function as dynamic extracellular skeletons and protect plants against their environment. The cell walls make up…

Fusari et al. perform GWAS to explore primary plant metabolism https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00232 By Corina M. Fusari and Rik Kooke Background: Primary metabolites such as sugars, organic acids, and amino acids are essential chemical compounds that drive plant growth and development by providing…

Zhang et al. explore the behavior of chromosomes during meiosis. The Plant Cell (2017). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00287 By Fanfan Zhang Background: In meiosis, plants, animals, and fungi reduce their chromosome numbers by half to form gametes (sperm and eggs) that can fuse to form a cell…

Walker et al. explore how the environment shapes root architecture. The Plant Cell 2017.  https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.16.00961 By Liam Walker Background: To acquire nutrients and anchor themselves, plant roots spread both vertically and horizontally in soil. Plants typically have a primary root…

By Elias Kaiser, Alejandro Morales, Jeremy Harbinson The environment of the natural world in which plants live, have evolved, and within which photosynthesis operates, is one characterised by change. The time scales over which change occurs can range from seconds (or less) all the way to the geological…

Kloth et al. probe aphid feeding behavior. The Plant Cell 2017  doi: 10.1105/tpc.16.00424 By Karen Kloth Background: Aphids are phloem-feeding insects. They penetrate plants with a piercing-sucking mouth. Once they reach a tube where the plant transports its sugar-rich phloem sap, they can take…

Shendure et al. provide a superb review of how DNA sequencing technology has changed over the years and how these changes open up new applications. They start with the Maxam and Gilbert chemical cleavage and the Sanger “chain-termination” methods developed in the 1970s, and describe the scale-ups…

Chromosomes are long, and DNA sequencing reads have typically been short, meaning that it is necessary to assemble lots and lots of short reads by looking for overlapping sequences. This strategy is made more difficult in repeat-rich and transposon-rich regions of genomes, which characterize many plant…

The current version of the Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0 reference genome, TAIR10, still has some gaps and mis-assemblies due to centromeres and repeat-rich regions. In another demonstration of the promise of single-molecule sequencing, Michael, Jupe et al. used a single nanopore flow cell to sequence the…

Olive oil is a staple of the healthy “Mediterranean diet” and contains high levels of the monounsaturated fat oleic acid. Unver, Wu et al. present the genome of the wild olive tree (Olea europaea var. sylvestris) (draft sequences of domesticated olive trees without extensive functional annotation…

The N-end rule pathway is a conserved pathway for the control of protein turnover, through which the clipping or modification of amino acids from the amino-terminus of a protein leads to an interaction with PROTEOLYSIS 6 (PRT6; an N-recognin E3 ligase) and 26S proteasome-mediated proteolysis. Previously,…

Rice is one of our most important crops, and previous work has indicated that it was domesticated independently in Asia (Oryza sativa) and Africa (Oryza glaberrima). Using archeological approaches, Hilbert et al. for the first time show evidence for domestication of a rice species (Oryza sp.) in the…

Ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation is important in many plant processes (growth, development, responses to stress) but little is known about F-box proteins, a key component of the SCF (SKP1-CUL1-F-box protein) E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, due to their unstable protein structures. Li et al. investigated…

It is becoming increasingly evident that small, secreted peptides (SSPs) are important regulators of plant development and responses to stress. Traditional gene prediction algorithms are biased toward larger coding sequences and have therefore been inadequate in the hunt for plant SSPs. To address this…

Introducing new desirable traits in domesticated crops takes time and is limited by the need for existing trait variation in members of the same species or closely related species. Rodríguez-Leal et al. propose a system by which variation in a quantitative trait can be generated by editing the promoter…

Quenopodiium quinoa is a highly nutritive and facultative halophyte pseudocereal whose cultivation has increased 10 fold in the last decades. However, the adaption to non-native areas is not easy to achieve and the limited genetic resources do not allow a breeding program. Zou and collaborators have…

Transposable elements are known to affect their neighboring genes, but they were so far unknown to affect the function of distant genes. Cho and Paszkowski observed a high level of transposon transcription expressed in rice. A transposon with root specific expression, MIKKI, was found to contain an imperfect…

Visual and other cues attract pollinators. Bees vision is skewed towards blue colors, but they also visit non-blue flowers. Moyroud et al. looked at how petal surface textures affect bee responses. The authors observed that similar parallel cuticular striations in diverse angiosperm lineages show convergent…

One of the great questions of biology is how and why C4 photosynthesis pathway evolved independently more than 60 times. The advantages are obvious (increased productivity), but the underlying molecular predisposition to this transition remains poorly defined. Using a comparative transcriptomics approach…

Review: DNA sequencing at 40: past, present and future ($) Shendure et al. provide a superb review of how DNA sequencing technology has changed over the years and how these changes open up new applications. They start with the Maxam and Gilbert chemical cleavage and the Sanger “chain-termination”…

Peroxisomes are endoplasmic reticulum-derived membrane-enclosed organelles in which many oxidative enzymatic reactions are compartmentalized. These reactions and their products contribute to energy production, detoxification, and signaling. Kao et al. review our understanding of the plant peroxisome,…

Because of their important roles in attracting pollinators, the secondary or specialized metabolites of flowers (color, fragrance) get a lot of attention. Borghi and Fernie argue that flower function is equally dependent on primary (central) metabolites, which not only provide the precursors for secondary…

The liverwort Marchantia polymorpha is a fascinating plant for many reasons, including the fact that it is one of the earliest terrestrial species that split off from the rest of the land plants. Therefore, comparisons between Marchantia and green algae or Marchantia and the rest of the land plants tell…

Plasmodesmata (PD) are complex, regulated channels between plant cells that facilitate the movement of signals, metabolites and pathogens, but their small size makes them difficult to study. Previously, Kraner et al. identified an Arabidopsis mutant that produced fewer, simpler plasmodesmata. In their…

Pectin is a polymer that holds cell walls together and stiffens the walls, but what happens when those cell walls need to move, for example when cells (including guard cells) expand? Rui et al. started with a guard-cell specific transcriptome to identify genes encoding cell-wall modifying enzymes. They…

Through insertional mutagenesis of rice, Cheng et al. identified a BTBN (Brac/Tramtrack/Broad complex and NPH3 domain)-encoding gene which they named WINDING 1 (WIN1), because the mutant phenotype (caused by ectopic expression in the shoot) causes the shoot to grow in a spiral. Ectopic expression of…

Biosensors can reveal cellular or even sub-cellular distributions of hormones, greatly enhancing our understanding of hormone action. Rizza et al. have developed an in vivo, FRET-based gibberellin biosensor, GIBBERELLIN PERCEPTION SENSOR 1 (GPS1), that incorporates portions of two GA-binding proteins,…

If you whithold water from a plant it eventually will wilt, but before this visible change there are other measurable effects and responses. However, many plant processes change cyclically over a 24-hour period independently of early drought responses, so it can be difficult to separate drought-responsive…

Associations with mycorrhizal fungi greatly enhance phosphorus (P) uptake for most plants, but the Brassicaceae are nonmycorrhizal due to the loss of essential symbiosis genes. Almario et al. investigated the fungal microbiota of Arabis alpina, a Brassicaceae species that grows in very-low P soils. The…

Celiac disease is a debilitating autoimmune disease in which antigens in plant gliadins (one type of gluten protein) stimulate production of antibodies that inflame the lining of the small intestine. In wheat, α-gliadin (the main cause of the sensitivity) is encoded by more than 100 genes, thwarting…

Aflatoxins are small molecules that are extremely damaging to human health that are produced by the fungal species Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus.  Peanut pods form underground and so are particularly vulnerable to infection by the fungus. Sharma et al. used a two-pronged approach to…

Seeds integrate environmental information and trigger molecular pathways that help with the decision making process of whether to germinate or not. Several studies in numerous species have shown details of global transcriptomic changes during germination. However, Narsai et al. dig a little deeper. By…

Meet the newest member of the Teaching Tools in Plant Biology family, Phenomics of root system architecture: Measuring and analyzing root phenes -By Larry York and Guillaume Lobet. This teaching tool discusses the relatively young field of root system architecture quantification. It introduces the concepts…

We're delighted to welcome our newest class of Plantae Fellows, selected from an outstanding pool of applicants. This year's Plantae Fellows span from Graduate Student to Professor, and come from many countries and states, from Western Australia and Vietman in the east to California in the west. They…

A beam of sunlight sends Chlamydomonas reinhardtii scrambling. This tiny, biflagellate alga senses light with its eyespot and adjusts its movements accordingly, depending on photosynthetic needs. In the eyespot, a membranous structure of reddish, carotenoid-filled granules that reflect light and two…

Fans of the television show The Magic Schoolbus might remember that the teacher/heroine, Ms. Frizzle used to tell her students “Your job, as scientists, is to look for connections!” Ms. Frizzle would love the Mos4-associated Complex (MAC), because MAC has connections all over the place. Indeed, research…

Vera Gorelova is the featured first author of Dihydrofolate Reductase/Thymidylate Synthase Fine-tunes the Folate Status and Controls Redox Homeostasis. Current Position: PhD candidate at Ghent University looking for a new challenge Education: MSc. In Biology, Novosibirsk State University, Russia Non-scientific…

Rene Schneider, featured first author of Two Complementary Mechanisms Underpin Cell Wall Patterning during Xylem Vessel Development Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Education: PhD (2013) Bio-Physics, Dresden University of Technology,…

Plant growth and development are extremely adaptable to changes in the external environment, including nutrient status, light quality and intensity, and temperature. Thanks to their developmental plasticity, plants can also initiate new organs from differentiated tissue following wounding, to the benefit…

The energetically costly tendency of the carbon fixing enzyme RuBisCO to, every now and then, fix oxygen instead of carbon dioxide has led to the evolution of various carbon concentrating mechanisms in plants and algae. One such mechanism, Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), involves primary CO2 fixation…

Aphids are highly destructive insect pests—in addition to robbing plants of sugar-rich phloem sap, they carry viruses that can be deadly to the plant. To reach the phloem sap, aphids must penetrate the plasma membrane of sieve elements. Mature sieve elements, which are virtually empty, translocate…

A hallmark of xylem development is the deposition of secondary cell wall material in specific patterns (reviewed in Patrick et al, 2007). These cell wall deposits structurally reinforce the xylem to withstand negative pressure during water transport and differ in different xylem cell types. While it…

We all know that DNA is the stable nucleic acid, in comparison to its flighty, unstable cousin RNA, right? Well, unusual things happen when metabolic processes require DNA to unwind from its stable, redundant double-helical form. For example, during transcription, the RNA that exits RNA polymerase can…

Folates are soluble B9 vitamins with essential functions in all kingdoms of life—both in organisms that produce these vitamins de novo (fungi, plants, and most microorganisms) and in those that do not (animals). As essential cofactors in one-carbon transfers, different folate species mediate the biosynthesis…

Convincing molecular and biochemical evidence exists that members of the TRANSPORT INHIBITOR RESPONSE1/AUXIN SIGNALING F-BOX PROTEIN (TIR1/AFB) receptor family are auxin receptors that trigger auxin-induced gene expression and hypocotyl growth through enhanced expression of SMALL AUXIN UP RNA genes.…

Plant architecture is shaped by innate developmental programs as well as by adaptive responses to environmental cues. For example, the primary growth axis of shoots and roots is vertical, with lateral branches adopting some characteristic angle with respect to the main axis. If the main axis is tipped…

Due to its ease of use and noninvasive nature, variable chlorophyll fluorescence techniques have become increasingly popular for estimating photosynthetic parameters. Most measurements of variable chlorophyll fluorescence in complex plant tissues and surface-associated cell assemblages (e.g. biofilms)…

Plant shoot branching is determined by apical dominance, a process in which the apical bud (shoot tip) inhibits the outgrowth of axillary buds further down the stem to control the number of growing branches. In response to this inhibition, plants have evolved rapid long-distance signaling mechanisms…

Vesicle traffic to and from the plasma membrane plays an integral role in regulating protein localization and activity, membrane composition, and cell surface area. Clathrin is a structural protein that forms a lattice-like complex composed of two H chain subunits (CHC1 and CHC2) and two light chain…

Pattern formation in multicellular organisms is the result of coordinated cell division and cell fate determination. In animals, cell fate is determined mainly by a cell lineage-dependent mechanism, whereas positional information is thought to be the primary determinant of cell fate in plants. Currently,…

Geraint Perry from GARNet (@GARNetweets) interviewed Emily Larson (@erlarson_phd), author of "Clathrin Heavy Chain subunits coordinate endo- and exocytic traffic and affect stomatal movement" published recently in Plant Physiology. Emily Larson from the University of Glasgow talks clathrin, balloons…

July 2017 marked the debut of a new podcast that digs beneath the surface to understand how plant science publications are created. The Taproot Podcast was developed and is hosted by Elizabeth (Liz) Haswell (Professor at Washington University in St. Louis) and Ivan Baxter (Research Computational…

Secondary growth from the vascular cambium, a lateral meristem, increases the plant’s girth. It also produces wood (secondary xylem) and important fibers like flax, jute and hemp (secondary phloem). Ragni and Greb review secondary growth in plants. They start with a review of the evolutionary history…

Some plants are able to suppress inbreeding through a system called self-incompatibility, in which “self”-pollen is unable to reach “self” eggs. Self-incompatibility has evolved multiple times and takes several forms. Goring reviews the cellular processes of self-incompatibility that occur in…

Plasmodesmata are tiny channels between cells that allow intercellular movement of messages and metabolites as well as pathogens. They are structurally complex and usually have a central strand of endoplasmic-reticulum (the desmotubule) that passes between adjacent cells, connected by spoke-like elements…

Small molecules are crucial for the recognition of friends and foes. For example, Nod factors are N-acetylglucosamine-derived “friend” signals produced by bacterial microsymbionts. Chitin is an N-acetylglucosamine-derived fungal wall polymer that plants perceive as indicating the presence of an enemy. …

Cell division in plants is a structurally beautiful process that involves striking and dynamic changes in the cytoskeleton, endomembranes, and nucleus. However, as authors Smertenko et al. observe, “Current plant cytokinesis terminology was developed using data generated by fluorescence microscopy…

Photosynthesis in aquatic organisms is made difficult due to the low solubility of CO2 in water. Algae such as Chlamydomonas rheinhardtii overcome this limitation through a carbon-concentrating organelle called a pyrenoid. Two papers in Cell redefine our understanding of the pyrenoid structure. Mackinder…

Plants are known for their ability to regenerate tissues following wounding. Wound repair requires the induction of cell proliferation, leading to the formation of undifferentiated callus at the wound site, followed by cell differentiation. Ikeuchi et al. explored transcriptional changes following wounding…

Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol and related tocochromanol compounds) is a lipid-soluble antioxidant that contributes to numerous cellular activities and confers protection against many diseases, from cancer to cardiovascular disease. The main sources of vitamin E for humans are plant oils, but most crop…

Liu et al. used models to predict the effects of climate change on tree mortality in 13 temperate and tropical forest biomes across the globe. When only increased temperature and changes in precipitation are considered, mortality increases in most biomes, with higher emissions models leading to increased…

Carbon exist in two stable isotopic forms; 99% as 12C and 1% as 13C. The carbon-fixing enzyme Rubisco preferentially fixes 12C, so fossil fuels are enriched for 12C, and since the industrial revolution the atmospheric 13C / 12C ratio has been increasing as the 12C-enriched fossil fuels are reconverted…

With changing climate, crops may need to be relocated to new regions for optimal growth temperatures or precipitation, but temperature and rainfall are not the sole influencers of productivity. Many crops, including coffee, depend on pollinators, which may or may not be available in other regions. Imbach…

Reynoso et al. describe the Isolation of Nuclei from TAgged specific Cell Types (INTACT) in rice. In this method, modified from one described previously in Arabidopsis and tomato, nuclei are labeled with a biotinylated nuclear-envelope anchored protein. Best results were obtained when a rice WIP (WPP-Interacting…

This issue is rooted in the 37th New Phytologist Symposium on ‘Plant developmental evolution’, 2016, that gathered researchers working on the developing field of plant evo-devo. The issue is a wonderful compendium of work presented during the symposium and the contribution of other researchers working…

Special Issue: Plant evolutionary developmental biology (Plant Evo-Devo) ($) This issue is rooted in the 37th New Phytologist Symposium on ‘Plant developmental evolution’, 2016, that gathered researchers working on the developing field of plant evo-devo. The issue is a wonderful compendium of…

Aphids are major pests that damage plants by sucking out phloem sap and as by acting as vectors in transmission of more than 300 different viruses. Kloth et al. used a high-throughput method involving video-tracking of aphid behavior on leaf discs to score 350 Arabidopsis accessions for aphid resistance.…

The September Plantae competition asked plant scientists to write and submit haiku about plant science. With nearly 100 submissions, our judges struggled to make their decision. Most of the submissions embodied the spirit of the haiku form, many were lovely, nearly all expressed the author's fascination…

Sabeeha Merchant, Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Cell, recently spent a week in China meeting with Chinese scientists at SIPPE  (Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology) and FAFU (Fujian Agriculturlal and Forstry University) to learn about their research. She emphasized the power of technology…

Plants need light not only for photosynthesis but also for light dependent development (called photomorphogensis). PHYTOCHROME INTERACTING FACTOR (PIF) proteins accumulate in dark to negatively regulate photomorphogensis. PIFs get degraded via 26S proteasome pathway in response to light e.g., PIF4 is…

PIF1 is a well-studied negative regulator of phytochrome-mediated photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis. Zhou et al. cloned the PIF1 cDNA from apple (Malus domestica) and characterized the gene itself. Interestingly, the bHLH and active Phytochrome B binding (APB) motif is conserved in MdPIF1 and a complementation…

This week’s edition of What We’re Reading is guest edited by Nidhi Sharma. Nidhi is a researcher in Dominique Bergmann's lab at Stanford University. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin and did post-doctoral work with Dr. Kathy Barton at Carnegie Institution of Science. Other than…

Auxin biosynthesis is a two-step process:  First, tryptophan is converted to indole-3-pyruvic acid (IPyA) through the activity of the TAA1 (TRYPTOPHAN AMINOTRANSFERASE OF ARABIDOPSIS1) family of aminotransferase enzymes. IPyA is finally converted to IAA (Indole Acetic Acid) by YUCCA family of flavin…

Many of the plastic consumables we have at home contain synthetic chemical BPA (Bisphenol A). In 1930, a UK scientist discovered that BPA weakly mimics the human hormone estrogen. It has also been found that tiny amount of BPA can leach out of plastic (Stanford University). Thus, there has been a heightened…

The mystery of asymmetry is a fundamental question in biology. Plants produce asymmetric shapes in many organs e.g., primordial cells on the leaf epidermis which undergo asymmetric divisions to define stomatal stem cells that ultimately form mature stomata. This asymmetric polarity of cells is governed…

The phytohormones auxin and cytokinin (CK) work either antagonistically or synergistically to regulate several critical development pathways such as meristem formation and maintenance. Müller et al. show similar crosstalk between auxin and CK in controlling early gynoecium patterning. Using TCSn::GFP…

Auxin was the first phytohormone to be discovered and it has been found to have a role in nearly every aspect of plant growth and development. Auxin biology is multi-layered, as you will see in the following summaries. Auxin is regulated at the level of biosynthesis, different receptors, and domain segregation.…

Jamie Waese, featured first author of ePlant: Visualizing and Exploring Multiple Levels of Data for Hypothesis Generation in Plant Biology Current Position: Senior Manager, Data Visualization Lab, Department of Enterprise Advanced Analytics, TD Bank, Toronto, Canada. Education: PhD (2017) in Data…

James K. McCarthy, featured first author of Nitrate Reductase Knockout Uncouples Nitrate Transport from Nitrate Assimilation and Drives Repartitioning of Carbon Flux in a Model Pennate Diatom Current Position: Research Fellow, J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, CA. Education: Ph. D. Microbiology…

Light response research in plants has traditionally focused on the shoot, but recent studies have revealed that roots are also light responsive. Lee et al. address the why and how of root photomorphogenesis. They review three ways that light is perceived in roots: via mobile signals from the shoot, direct…

About 3000 genes are required for a plant to carry out photosynthesis. Wang et al. review the transcriptional control of these photosynthetic genes, drawing on transcriptomic and evolutionary studies to make comparisons between Arabidopsis and grasses. Photosynthesis of course starts with light, and…

Teale and Palme give an overview of what the last 60 years of using synthetic chemicals inhibitors of polar auxin transport has really taught us. Key among inhibitors is Naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA) that interferes with polar auxin transport and can mimic PIN gene mutant phenotypes. These inhibitors…

Variation is the engine of evolution, and plant breeders and geneticists have long relied on induced variation to create a population from which to select. Rodríguez-Leal et al. used CRISPR/Cas9 mutagenesis to selectively introduce variability into the promoter regions of three genes involved in tomato…

The first step in defending yourself is recognizing that you need to defend yourself. Gust et al. review the mechanisms through which plants sense danger, drawing parallels to similar mechanisms in animals. They define three categories of danger signals. Exogenous signals are “non-self” signals,…

Transposable elements (TEs) compose a considerable portion of most plant genomes, and mounting evidence shows various roles of TEs in the regulation of gene expression. Some TE transcripts have been hypothesized to work as “sponges” to help fine-tune the levels of miRNAs through complementary binding.…

The G-box (CACGTG) is a DNA element widespread in plant genomes and recognized by two large families of transcription factors (TFs), the basic leucine zipper family (bZIP) and the basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH) family. Members of these TF families contribute to growth, temperature and light signaling,…

A hot topic in plant evolutionary biology is whole genome duplications (WGDs), in which an organism copies its entire genetic dataset. Having double the required DNA is often viewed as detrimental but can be useful in times of rapid environmental change. Recently, the role of WGDs during plant evolution…

Climate change is certain to affect our ability to produce food crops and feed a growing global population in the twenty-first century.  Free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments have shown that elevated CO2 (eCO2) levels, a major driver of climate change, have a consistently positive effect on the…

Cells have developed different mechanisms including control of ion and pH homeostasis to adapt to their constantly changing environment. Such adaption is accomplished by different ion transporters at the membranes. AtCHX17, AtCHX18 and AtCHX20 are members of the cation-H+ exchanger (CHX) family, which…

Hirooka et al. examined the genome of an acid-loving green alga, Chlamydomonas eustigma, to learn how it tolerates its low pH environment. Key differences between the acidophilic species and the neutrophilic species Chlamydomonas reinhardtii include: an increase in expression of genes encoding plasma…

Pathogenic microbes interfere with the host cellular and physiological processes to promote infection. This interaction is monitored by pathogen molecules called effectors that either act in intercellular space or enter the host cells. Mechanisms underlying the uptake of these effectors are not fully…

Pathogenic microbes manipulate host plants by secreting effector molecules that interfere with immunity. Bacterial phytopathogens achieve this using specialized secretion apparatuses that act as molecular ‘hypodermic needles’ to inject effector proteins directly into plant cells. In comparison, effector…

Plants can hear. We know plants respond to touch, can perceive day and night, and respond to volatile compounds, water and nutrients. Moreno et al. studied root phonotropism (not phototropism). They showed that roots of Arabidopsis plants can perceive and respond to sound waves. Arabidopsis roots grew…

Dodders (Cuscuta spp) are parasitic plants, which absorb water and nutrients from their host. Their vines can embrace, and in this way connect, more than one host. Hettenhausen et al. showed that in certain situations these connections serve as communication routes. In their experiment a pair of soybean…

The evolution of flowers solved one of the largest obstacles of plant reproduction, finding a compatible mate. Since plants are sedentary, they are unable to search for a compatible mate like other organisms. Instead they use pollinators to do the searching for them. Flowers use scent and color to attract…

Changes in guard cell turgor pressure result in stomatal opening and closing, balancing CO2 uptake with transpiration. These dynamics have been studied as early as the 1800s and much knowledge has been gained regarding the components involved in this process, yet we are still far from a unified model…

Nucleosomes, composed of histones, pack chromatin and make genes less available for transcription. Methylation of some histone positions is associated with repression of transcription and epigenetic silencing of some genes. After cell division during the cell cycle, maintenance of expression patterns…

Tenreira et al. find a gene responsible for the differentiation of the stolon in strawberry. The Plant Cell 2017. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.16.00949 Asexual reproduction produces offspring that are genetically identical to the parents. This process takes many forms in flowering plants, including…

Liu et al. focus on transcriptional regulation of PHR1 expression. The Plant Cell 2017. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00268 Phosphorus (P) is an essential micronutrient for plant growth, development, and metabolism. Phosphate (Pi), the major form of P used by plants, is highly immobile in most soils,…

Su et al. look at chromatin modifications that affect flowering. The Plant Cell 2017. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00266 Plants, unlike animals, begin their lives as seeds that – in flowering plants – develop from flowers. This depends upon proper regulation of flowering time, to ensure pollination,…

Wear et al. examine replication programs in plants. The Plant Cell 2017. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00037 By William Thompson, Emily Wear, and Linda Hanley-Bowdoin DNA replication is fundamental to all life, as it is the process by which genetic material is duplicated so it can be passed from…

Ye et al. discover a gene affecting tomato flavor. The Plant Cell 2017. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00211 By Jie Ye Malate—a widely occurring organic acid in plants—is an important contributor to taste. Variation in acid content has a much greater impact on flavor than does the limited…

Zhang et al. investigate protein translation under heat stresss http://www.plantcell.org/content/29/8/1952 By Elizabeth Vierling Plants can’t move to avoid unfavorable growth conditions, such as insufficient water availability or extremes of temperature. When plants are confronted with stressful…

Natural variation in photosynthetic traits can be exploited for new targets for breeding or genetic engineering of crops. In an effort to identify traits which can lead to enhanced biomass production and therefore yield potential in rice, Qu et al. conducted a comprehensive survey of 14 photosynthetic…

The gene FLC (FLOWERING LOCUS C) is a repressor of flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana. It needs to be silenced after exposure to prolonged cold for plants to be able to flower. The memory of winter leads to changes in the methylation state of Histone 3 associated with FLC in two steps: first by recruiting…

Browsing the table of contents of the “The Making of a Plant” special issue of Current Biology feels like a birthday celebration; there are so many exciting goodies it’s hard to know which to open first. The issue consists of well-written and well-illustrated short reviews (and Quick Guides and…

Ion channels are proteins that regulate the passage of ions across membranes. Ion channels are regulated in diverse ways – some are calcium-regulated, some are pH sensitive, some are charge sensitive, and some are sensitive to mechanical stimulation i.e., membrane tension. Basu and Haswell review mechanosensitive…

Leaf size varies by over 100,000-fold across the plant kingdom. Leaf area has a direct impact on tissue temperature and thus directly affects photosynthetic efficiency. Empirical observations by 19th century plant geographers described that larger leaves are usually restricted to plants growing in wet…

During our holidays, many of us plant scientists love to go to re-energize in remote places, ideally with no technology. Have you ever imagined how our “advanced” way of living is changing our environment?  In a recent paper, Knop et al. show evidence that nocturnal pollinators are negatively affected…

The transition from vegetative growth to a flower-producing reproductive state is highly regulated by environmental cues. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana has a wide distribution throughout different habitats, so each accession has different adaptations strategies. One of the major factors that varies…

Flower development, unlike flowering timing, is a robust process not much affected by seasonal variation, such that the number of floral organs in each flower can be predicted quite precisely for different plant families. Most Brasiccaceae family species have flowers with fours petals, however, Cardamine…

Global change forecasts include projections of severe droughts that could affect many forested biomes, largely influencing future energy and element fluxes. There are two physiological mechanisms associated with tree mortality in response to drought: hydraulic failure (inhibition of water transport)…

Fujii et al. studied the role that blue-light perceiving phototropins play in sensing temperature. They studied the temperature response in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, which has only one phototropin. At 5°C, blue-light perception by phototropins induces a cold-avoidance response in which chloroplasts…

It becomes more and more clear that regulation of complex traits and processes, such as root growth and lateral root growth, involves not only gene expression quality (which genes are expressed), quantity (how much transcript is present) and space (in which cell-type transcripts are accumulating) but…

The role of crosstalk between auxin and ethylene in primary root development has been studied in the dicot model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, but is less well understood in monocots. Through a genetic screen for roots that elongate in the presence of ethylene , Qin, Zhang et al. identified a mutant rice…

Perception of the phytohormone ethylene results in the cleavage of EIN2 and translocation to the nucleus of its C-terminal end, EIN2-C. Zhang et al. showed that EIN2-C is essential for chromatin modification that allows EIN3, the main ethylene signaling transcription factor, to transcriptionally regulate…

Paramutation is a natural epigenetic process that occurs in plants and animals that is associated with methylation-mediated gene silencing. The curious thing about a paramutated allele is than it can transfer its silenced state to its homologous and active allele. This freshly paramutated allele then…

Methyl anthranilate (MA) is a volatile chemical that contributes to the aroma of strawberry (Fragaria spp.), but several modern varieties do not produce this chemical. Pillet et al. tried to identify the biosynthetic pathway of MA. They compared transcriptomes between MA-producing and non-producing varieties…

Many plants living in arid environments conserve water by taking up CO2 at night through the action of the enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PPC); this process, which is widespread in the Crassulaceae family, is known as Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). The nocturnal activity of PPC is regulated…

The MATE (multidrug and toxic compound extrusion) family is found in all three domains of life. Proteins in this family are secondary transporters, functioning as sodium or proton/organic cation antiporters. This family has diverse functions in plants, including vacuolar sequestration of alkaloids,…

By Alexandre Huchelmann, Marc Boutry, and Charles Hachez Abstract Multicellular glandular trichomes are epidermal outgrowths characterized by the presence of a head made of cells that have the ability to secrete or store large quantities of specialized metabolites. Our understanding of the transcriptional…

The ability to acclimate to high temperatures that are normally lethal is common to virtually all organisms on the planet. A short exposure to milder heat stress informs organisms that they should ready themselves in case they experience even warmer conditions. Acquired thermo-tolerance in plants is…

This is an era of rapid acceleration of our ability to both read and write genomes. Chari and Church point to a future in which making a small number of changes in a genome (editing) is supplanted by making hundreds or thousands or more of changes, essentially whole-genome editing. Basically, the authors…

The huge set of chemical pathways beyond the conserved primary metabolic network is described as specialized metabolism (formerly known as secondary metabolism). The diversity of specialized metabolites is due to recent evolutionary innovations in enzyme function, as reviewed by Leong and Last. Key processes…

When we think about making things from plant biopolymers, we often think about cellulose, the “most common natural polymer on Earth, with an estimated annual biomass production between 1011 and 1012 tons” or ligin, with a biomass production on the order of 107 tons per year. Heredia-Guerrero et al.…

Much of our understanding of the molecular processes of senescence and nutrient remobilization comes from annual plants. Yang and Udvardi explore how these processes take place in perennial grasses including important biofuel grasses switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and miscanthus (Miscanthus×giganteus).…

Many green algae have the ability to concentrate CO2 to enhance their photosynthetic performance. Mackinder reviews these algal CO2-concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) and what steps would be required to introduce them into higher plants. He also compares progress and pitfalls towards introducing algal CCMs…

The soils microbiome is of course hugely complex and immensely variable. Metagenomics tools allow us to describe the diversity of the soil microbiome, but what that diversity means is best grasped when the microbiome is considered in terms of its ecological functions, as described in this Tansley Insight…

Chanclud and Lacombe have written an intriguing Opinion article asking to what extent plant hormones affect animal gut microbiota and human disease. In support of this question, they observe that many microbes and even some animals can perceive and respond to plant hormones, or produce plant-hormone…

It’s not uncommon for viruses to manipulate the host’s membrane system to create protected structures for viral replication. These viral replication complexes (VRCs) “are thought to shield viruses from host defense systems such as RNA silencing, and … provide a microenvironment for enriching…

Although plants clearly perceive and respond to changes in temperature, it has not always been clear how they perceive temperature and its changes. Evidence for temperature sensing through membrane fluidity, protein stability and, more recently, the reversion of phytochrome to its inactive form has been…

The root apex is an excellent tissue in which to study the mechanisms that control cell division and differentiation, as the cells produced by the root apical meristem form files of increasing age as they are moved away from the tip. In Arabidopsis, many mutant and reporter lines have contributed to…

Jasmonic acid (JA) and its derivatives including methyl jasmonate (MeJA) mediate diverse responses to wounding and herbivory and also help to control the growth-defense trade off. JA’s core signaling components have mainly been identified through genetics approaches in Arabidopsis, but gaps remain…

There’s only one thing worse than having a parasite suck the life juices out of you, and that’s having a parasite suck the life juices out of you while simultaneously injecting you with miRNAs to increase your vulnerability. Shahid et al. looked at microRNAs isolated from dodder (Cuscuta campestris),…

FRET-FLIM (Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer – Fluorescent Lifetime Imaging Microscopy) is a method that allows detection of interactions between two fluorescently-tagged molecules. Camborde and Jauneau et al. describe the use of FRET-FLIM to identify interactions in leaves between GFP-tagged…

Review: Promiscuity, impersonation and accommodation: Evolution of plant specialized metabolism ($) The huge set of chemical pathways beyond the conserved primary metabolic network is described as specialized metabolism (formerly known as secondary metabolism). The diversity of specialized metabolites…

Gibberellins (GA) have a role in cell proliferation in the shoot apical meristem (SAM). GA binds to the receptor GID1, leading to DELLA protein degradation, thus promoting stem growth. In absence of GA, DELLAs inhibit growth. In this paper, Serrano-Mislata et al. explore how DELLAs, mainly GAI and RGA,…

The relationship between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi has persisted for 400 million years, but we are still learning about the biochemistry of this interaction. MacLean, Bravo and Harrison review how plants attract, recognize, and accommodate their fungal partners, from pre-contact through…

Light is one of the environmental conditions which regulates plants’ development, but knowledge of how light-induced transcript accumulation occurs via transcriptional versus post-transcriptional mechanisms is limited. Xin et al. report Splicing Factor for Phytochrome Signaling (SFPS) as an interacting…

The application of systems biology is quite phenomenal these days for prediction-based modeling and interactive data visualization. Along with the genome sequencing of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, there has been a parallel increase in systems biology tools. Unfortunately, these tools have been…

Chloroplast biogenesis and leaf development are closely linked processes that have been difficult to tease apart, until recently. Dubreuil et al. used a pluripotent inducible cell line from Arabidopsis, basically plant stem cells, which develop chloroplasts on demand when exposed to light. Using this…

In land plant genomes, transposable elements (TEs) are ubiquitously methylated in CG and non-CG sequence contexts. Apart from methylation of TEs, DNA methylation also occurs on bodies of actively transcribed genes, typically in the CG context, with very low or no non-CG methylation, and is referred to…

Temperature is one of the major factors affecting plant growth and development. Martins et al. showed that elevated temperature increases root growth through elongated cell size, but reduced both meristem size and number of meristematic cells. The elongation of root growth during elevated temperature…

The histone H3 variant H3.3 is distinguished by its expression throughout the cell cycle, while H3.1 is expressed predominantly during DNA replication. Genome-wide ChIP studies in plants have shown that H3.3 is associated with actively transcribed genes, and enriched near the transcriptional end sites.…

Zhang et al. showed that POSITIVE REGULATOR OF IRON HOMEOSTASIS 1 (OsPRI1), a bHLH transcription factor, is an interacting partner of the iron-binding sensor OsHRZ1. A loss-of-function mutation of OsPRI1 is responsible for a hypersensitive response to Fe deficiency. OsPRI1 works downstream of OsHRZ1…

Cadmium is a toxic metal in our environment. Bruno et al. explored cadmium-mediated root-growth inhibition using the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Cadmium affects root growth longitudinally by reducing root meristem cell number and radially by controlling the number and width of stele cells. The…

Fungal invasion exploits plant cell membrane trafficking components. For instance, plant immunity against fungi such as Vlumeria graminis f.sp. hordei (Bgh) is defined through two stages: pre- and post-invasive immunity. Nielsen et al. found that Vacuolar Protein Sorting 9a (VPS9a) acts as a guanine…

ARMADILLO-REPEAT KINESIN 1 (ARK1) promotes microtubule disassembly and NIMA-RELATED KINASE 6 (NEK6) organizes microtubule arrays. Previous studies showed that NEK6 interacts with ARK1 through Armadillo-repeat (ARM) cargo domain. Eng et al. looked at two constructs: one which lacks ARM (ARK1▲ARM-GFP)…

Chickpea is a highly cultivated member of the legume family, mostly in India, Australia, Pakistan, Turkey, Burma, Iran, Canada and the US. The detrimental threat for chickpea is the invasion of Ascochyta blight, which is caused by the fungal pathogen Ascochyta rabiei (formerly known as Phoma rabiei).  The…

Nuclear accidents in recent years such as the Fukushima incident during the tsunami in 2011 revealed the detrimental effects of leaked radioactive cesium (Cs) in environmental soil and water. Due to Cs's chemical similarity with potassium, an essential macronutrient for plants, cesium is taken up by…

DNA sequencing was slow before the development of high throughput sequencing. Portable DNA sequencing, which would make sequencing on-site a reality, was impossible until recently. Parker et al. report on the on-site use of MinION from Oxford Nanopore Technologies for DNA barcoding, which yields data…

This week's issue of What We're Reading is guest edited by Arif Ashraf, a PhD student at Iwate University, Japan, and Graduate Student Ambassador of ASPB. His research interest is understanding the hormonal interplay in primary root development of Arabidopsis thaliana. He blogs about plant science at…

By Sneha Kulkarni.  This post How socio-cultural factors influence publication practices in China was originally published on Editage Insights. The recent mass retraction case in which the journal Tumor Biology retracted about 107 papers authored by Chinese researchers sparked discussions about several…

Latest news on The Plant Cell significance and editorial policies "Larivière et al. (2016) advocate publishing frequency distribution plots of the citations to provide a clearer view of the underlying data. We agree that showing the underlying frequency distribution of citations “echoes the reasonable…

The ever-increasing amount of data available to researchers has come with similarly increasing cognitive loads in efforts to use these data. Even when data sets are stored in well-curated databases, it can be time-consuming to master the specific tools harbored at each site and cumbersome to move between…

Carbon and nitrogen metabolism are intricately linked in all organisms and are tightly regulated to maintain growth, homeostasis, and other cellular activities. In plants and algae, photosynthesis provides both carbon skeletons and the reductant needed for assimilation of inorganic NO3¯ by nitrate reductase…

Tardieu et al. have written a comprehensive and very readable overview of the current state and future challenges of plant phenomics, which they define as “the development and application of the suite of tools and methods used for three major goals — (1) capturing information on structure, function…

A diet consisting of a wide range of plant matter is optimal for human heath, but due to various historical and social factors (including the relatively high cost of fresh fruit and vegetables), many people don’t get the nutrients they need. Biofortification of staple foods like rice through breeding…