Recent Posts

Update: Oxygen sensing and integrative stress signaling in plants

By Romy Schmidt, Daan A Weits, Claudio FJ Feulner, Joost T. van Dongen Plants grow in a dynamic environment and continuously face numerous stress conditions in parallel. This fluctuating environment pushed the evolution of extensive metabolic flexibility (Sweetlove et al., 2010; van Dongen et al.,…

Arabidopsis DNA Methylome Stability under Stress

It has been speculated that DNA methylation could complement genetic variation, as a mode for transferring heritable information, to contribute to phenotypic variation. Indeed, DNA methylation states can be maintained faithfully over both mitotic and meiotic cell division. According to this view, any…

Update: Nuclear Cap-Binding Complex in Abiotic Stress Responses

By Agata Daszkowska-Golec The nuclear cap-binding 16 complex (nCBC) in higher eukaryotes specifically binds to the monomethylated (7-methylguanosine (m717 GpppN)) cap structure at the 5¢ end of freshly transcribed mRNA. In addition to protecting mRNAs from degradation by exonucleases, the nCBC functions…

J. Exp. Bot. Special Issue. The plant cuticle: old challenges, new perspectives ($)

The cuticle is a cell-wall polymer that protects against desiccation, pathogens and UV light.  Domínguez et al. provide an open-access editorial that describes this fine collection of articles covering all aspects of the plant cuticle, from its evolutionary origins to its ecological significance. Within…

Genetic components of root architecture remodeling in response to salt stress

While everyone knows that salt stress reduces root growth, Julkowska and colleagues examined salt-stress induced changes in Root System Architecture (RSA) by studying 347 Arabidopsis accessions. The authors collected 17 RSA traits and developed an app allowing interactive exploration of collected…

Update: Root plasticity and internal aeration

By Takaki Yamauchi, Timothy D Colmer, Ole Pedersen, Mikio Nakazono Introduction Root acquisition of water and nutrients is essential for plant growth and crop productivity (Lynch, 2015). An improved understanding of root system development and functioning, to identify root traits contributing to…

Update: Signal dynamics and interactions during flooding stress

By Rashmi Sasidharan, Sjon Hartman, Zeguang Liu, Shanice Martopawiro, Nikita Sajeev, Hans van Veen, Elaine Yeung, Laurentius A.C.J. Voesenek Abstract Flooding is detrimental for nearly all higher plants including crops. The compound stress elicited by slow gas exchange and low light levels under…

ABA accumulation in dehydrating leaves is associated with decline in cell volume not turgor pressure

Desiccating leaves show increased ABA levels triggered by low turgor – right? Apparently not! The pressure chamber experiments showing increased ABA levels in desiccating leaves are inconsistent when the entire leaves are enclosed in the chamber. Sack et al. proposes that the turgor pressure is increased…

Review: The genetics of drought tolerance in conifers

Changing climates mean changing rainfall patterns, which can have serious consequences for long-lived plants such as conifers. Moran et al. provide a thoughtful and readable overview of the strategies that enable some conifer species to survive drought. They start by discussing the different definitions…