Category: The Plant Cell: In Brief

The discovery of Mediator began with the observation that two transcriptional activators could interfere with each other’s function in vitro, even though they did not bind to the same promoter (Kelleher, Flanagan and Kornberg, 1990). The hypothesis, since then well-validated, was that each transcription…

Adaptive developmental plasticity, in which changing environmental conditions modulate morphogenesis, can help organisms survive harsh conditions. Common examples include the protection of shoot apical meristems by transient arrest and sequestration into bud-like structures in wintering evergreens (e.g.…

Plants have evolved highly sophisticated signalling systems that enable them to coordinate growth and development and respond rapidly to environmental fluctuations. These long-range signals can take the form of mobile small molecules such as phytohormones and RNAs, but can also be electrical signals…

Plants blindly probe the soil for ever-changing pockets of water and nutrients and continuously adjust their root system architecture (RSA) accordingly. Whether they invest more energy in growing existing roots or sending out new lateral roots depends on both genetic programs and environmental factors.…

Genome sequencing has become (relatively) cheap and easy, but assigning functions to the genes identified remains challenging—even in exhaustively studied species such as Arabidopsis thaliana, where functions of ~30% of genes remain unknown. Many of these genes likely have functions that are essential,…

The allotetraploid species white clover (Trifolium repens) resulted from hybridization of two diploid European species whose extant relatives are found only in limited regions–– T. occidentale is a creeping clover found only in saline areas near the shores of Western Europe and T. pallescens is found…

The development of the seed is a complex dance of cell division and differentiation, including transcriptional and genomic repatterning. Measuring gene expression by high-throughput RNA-Seq is routine in laboratories, and numerous seed transcriptomes and microarrays have long been published for maize…

In flowering plants, seed viability is dependent upon the endosperm, a triploid tissue produced by fertilization of a diploid central cell by a haploid sperm. Most endosperm genes are expressed in a 2:1 maternal to paternal ratio reflecting the genomic DNA content. Consequently, balance between maternal…