Membrane tethering proteins cooperate in lipid droplet formation
Greer et al. explore the role of SEIPIN in packaging oils into lipid droplets.
Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00771
By Yingqi Cai, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Department of Biology, Upton, NY 11973
Kent D. Chapman, University of North Texas, BioDiscovery Institute, Denton, TX…
Karrikins and Strigolactone Signaling in Monocots
Zheng et al. demonstrate how monocot plants sense karrikin, a smoke-derived chemical. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00123
By J Zheng, K Hong, L Zeng, S Kang and G Xiong
Background: Seedling emergence in rice depends mainly on mesocotyl elongation, which is precisely regulated by the…
Back to the Future for Plant Rubisco Bioengineering
Martin-Avila et al. use synthetic biology to improve photosynthesis in tobacco by swapping out the endogenous small subunits of Rubisco for one coming from potato, among other things. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00288
By Spencer Whitney, Elena Martin-Avila, Sally Buck, Timothy Rhodes,…
Inflorescence Morphogenesis: From Perception to Metabolism
Guo et al. demonstrate how perceived developmental signals modulate cytokinin homeostasis to shape the rice inflorescence. The Plant Cell (2020) https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00351.
By Tao Guo, Zi-Qi Lu, Jun-Xiang Shan, Wang-Wei Ye, Nai-Qian Dong, Hong-Xuan Lin
Background: Rice is one of…
A Balancing act between virus replication and transcription
Gao et al. demonstrate that CK1 regulates plant cytorhabdovirus infections in both plants and insects. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00369
By Qiang Gao and Xian-Bing Wang, China Agricultural University
Background: Phosphorylation is a widespread post-translational modification…
The Multifaceted Roles of Autophagy in Fixed-carbon Starvation
McLoughlin et al. uncover the critical roles of autophagy in recycling amino acids and nitrogen-rich nucleotides, adjusting respiratory substrates, and the retention of assimilated nitrogen in maize during fixed-carbon starvation. The Plant Cell (2020) https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00226
Background:…
Correcting organellar spelling with RNA editors
Oldenkott et al. use evolution to their advantage by testing whether independently evolved RNA editors can reciprocally correct the errors of organellar transcripts. The Plant Cell (2020) https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00311.
By Bastian Oldenkott and Mareike Schallenberg-Rüdinger, IZMB, University…
Too Active in ER Fusion? Here Comes LUNAPARK to the Rescue
Sun et al. found that Arabidopsis LUNAPARK, a protein evolutionarily conserved in eukaryotes, is an E3 ligase that promotes the degradation of ROOT HAIR DEFECTIVE3, an ER fusogen. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc. 18.00937
By Jiaqi Sun, Hugo Zheng, Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205…
Identifying and annotating mRNA transcripts from non-genic regions of the genome
Panda et al. use third-generation sequencing to examine the transcriptome of genomic regions that do not encode genes. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00115
By Kaushik Panda – Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and R Keith Slotkin – Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and University…