Recent Posts

How do root hairs keep their tubular shape?

Hirano et al. uncover the secretion route for root hair shank hardening in Arabidopsis. The Plant Cell (2023). https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad240 By T. Hirano, K. Ebine, T. Ueda, T. Higaki, T. W.-Nakayama, H. Konno, H. T.-Imamura, and M. H. Sato Background: Root hairs are rapidly growing…

Microtubule-associated proteins regulate tomato fruit shape

Bao et al. reveal how microtubule-associated proteins regulate tomato fruit shape formation from a cell biology perspective.  Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad231  Zhiru Bao and Pengwei Wang National Key Laboratory for Germplasm Innovation & Utilization of Horticultural Crops,…

Stepwise cell fate establishment in the rice stem

Tsuda et al. investigate the temporal order of cell fate establishment during stem development in rice. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad241 By Katsutoshi Tsuda Background: The stem, which consists of nodes and internodes, is an axis of the shoot that physically supports lateral organs such…

Key factors that interactively regulate maize endosperm development

Wu et al. explore how three key transcription factors co-regulate gene networks and the regulatory landscape associated with endosperm development and seed phenotype in maize.  https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad247 Hao Wu1,2 and Philip W. Becraft1,3 Iowa State University, Genetics, Development…

Variegated grape berries enlighten us about plant radiation responses

Zhang et al. identify a regulatory hub in grapevine controlling divergent specialized metabolic pathways as part of the light/UV radiation response. Plant Cell.  https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad228 By José Tomás Matus and Chen Zhang Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio),…

Arabidopsis long non-coding RNAs: an orchestrated hubbub

Kornienko  et al. discover that Arabidopsis genome is full of long-non-coding RNAs that show their expression only in specific tissues and plants from different geographic origins because of differences in epigenetic silencing of these genes. Plant Cell - https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad233 By Aleksandra…

Phenotypic and genomic changes during modern wheat breeding in China and the United States

Jianqing Niu et al. explore how modern breeding reshaped wheat phenotype and genome in China and the United States, which will facilitate breeding higher performance wheat in the future. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad229 By Jianqing Niu and Hong-Qing Ling from Hainan Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory…

A MATE transporter regulates grain size in rice

Zhou et al. discover a molecular mechanism of rice grain size regulation. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad239 By Chunlei Zhou from Nanjing Agricultural University Background: Grain size is a key factor for determining grain yield. Many genes or quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that regulate…

A calcium-dependent protein kinase and an E3 ubiquitin ligase fine-tune rice immunity

A calcium-dependent protein kinase and an E3 ubiquitin ligase fine-tune rice immunity Mou et al. explore the growth­–defense trade-off in rice. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad265 Baohui Mou, Jiyang Wang, and Wenxian Sun China Agricultural University Background: Plants need to keep…