The Lipase Link: Abscisic Acid Induces PLASTID LIPASES, Which Produce Jasmonic Acid Precursors
Blog, Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In BriefCrosstalk, crosstalk— it’s a word that keeps coming up. Indeed, and perhaps not surprisingly, plant hormone signaling pathways all seem to affect each other to some extent. For example, the MYC2 transcription factor plays roles in abscisic acid (ABA) and jasmonic acid (JA) signaling in the response…
Divide and Conquer: High-Throughput Screening of Chlamydomonas Cell Cycle Mutants
Blog, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In BriefCell division is essential for growth and reproduction. The cell cycle machinery is well conserved between yeast and animals, but whether this conservation extends to the plant lineage is not clear, having diverged over two billion years ago: ample time and opportunity for divergence in sequence and…
RecQ Proteins: Masters of Genome Surveillance
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellWiedemann et al. show that RecQ6 in Physcomitrella enhances homologous recombination and gene targeting https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00632.
Background: All living cells have mechanisms to protect their DNA against breaks during duplication and against damage by UV-light or chemicals. RecQ helicases…
Small Peptide PSK Induces Plant Immunity Against Botrytis cinerea
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellZhang et al. show how PSK initiates Ca2+- and auxin-dependent immunity https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00537.
By Huan Zhang, Zhangjian Hu and Kai Shi
Background: During plant-microbe interactions, some small secreted peptides are secreted into the apoplast between plant cells as damage-associated…
Lipid Anchor: Postal Code for Proteins on the Road to Membranes
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellMajeran et al. investigate how plant cells target proteins to membrane compartments https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00523
By Wojciech Majeran, Thierry Meinnel & Carmela Giglione
Background: Living cells are encased in an oily barrier, the plasma membrane, made up of a double layer of lipids…
PLANT PROTEIN MEETS HOMER´S TROJAN HORSE
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellBy Karina van der Linde and Virginia Walbot
Background: In contrast to animals in which meiotically competent cells develop in embryos, plants switch from vegetative to reproductive growth only during flowering. In maize, the most productive cereal crop, the tassel contains male flowers in which…
A New Polysaccharide with a Long Evolutionary History
Blog, Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In BriefBy Peter Ulvskov and Jesper Harholt
For the first time in a very long time, a new polysaccharide is reported in plants. Roberts et al. (2018) discovered an arabinoglucan in the moss Physcomitrella patens. This discovery came about not as a result of biochemical characterization of the moss cell…
Open Access Shy Girl Gives Kiwifruit Male Flowers
Blog, Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In BriefFrom the human perspective, separate sexes are the norm while hermaphroditism is an exotic concept. For plants, hermaphroditism is the norm. Dioecy, separate male and female individuals, is rare and dispersed in the angiosperm phylogeny (Käfer et al 2017, Renner 2014). In fact, dioecy is rare enough…
Press Release: Could eating moss be good for your gut?
Blog, Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: NewsNew work published in The Plant Cell is featured in this press release from the University of Adelaide.
An international team of scientists including the University of Adelaide has discovered a new complex carbohydrate in moss that could possibly be exploited for health or other uses.
The scientists,…