Category: The Plant Cell: In a Nutshell

Amundson et al. investigate the fate of parental DNA in crosses that produce uniparental dihaploids  By Kirk Amundson and Luca Comai  Background: Plants carrying only the chromosomes of one parent, i.e. haploids, are very useful for research and breeding. Certain crosses are known to yield haploid…

Klusch et al. discover an unusual bridge domain that might participate in regulating the activity of mitochondrial complex I in plants and algae.  By Niklas Klusch1, Jennifer Senkler2, Özkan Yildiz1, Werner Kühlbrandt1 and Hans-Peter Braun2 1 Department of Structural Biology, Max-Planck-Institute…

Liu et al. demonstrate how manipulating ZmEXPA4 gene expression in developing maize ears alleviates the prolonged anthesis and silking interval in response to drought. The Plant Cell (2021) https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab083  By Boxin Liu and Feng Qin Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of…

Wang et al. report how chromatin architecture reorganization shapes transcriptome patterns during polyploidization and domestication of soybean. The Plant Cell (2021). https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab081 By Longfei Wang and Qingxin Song Background: Soybean and common bean are important sources…

Deng and colleagues show how the microtubule-associated protein WDL4 contributes to apical hook opening to protect seedligns from damage by soil particles  By Jia Deng, Xiangfeng Wang, Ziqiang Liu, and Tonglin Mao, China Agricultural University Background: When seedlings emerge through the soil…

Li et al. investigate how Arabidopsis seed size is controlled by maternal tissues. By Ying Ju Li, Yang Yu and Ying Hua Su, State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Shandong, China  Background: Seed size is determined by the coordinated development…

He et al. demonstrate that Mediator complex subunits have functions beyond their known roles in transcription. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab079 By Huaming He, Patrick Willems, Frank Van Breusegem, and Amna Mhamdi Background: Plants often face challenging environments to which they…

Xing et al. find that Arabidopsis plants ward off pathogen infection by limiting iron availability. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab075 By Yingying Xing, Deepak D. Bhandari, and Jun Liu Background: Iron is an essential nutrient for most lifeforms. Organisms get their iron from their…