Recent Posts

Short-term memory of warm daytime in Arabidopsis

Murcia et al. discover how plants store information about daytime temperatures to control stem growth during the night. By Germán Murcia, Cristina Nieto, Romina Sellaro, Salomé Prat, and Jorge J. Casal Background: Plants increase their stature in response to warm temperatures by enhancing stem…

An N-terminally truncated NLR is functional

Wu et al. uncover the unexpected role of the truncated NLR NRG1C in negatively regulating plant immunity by antagonizing its full-length NRG1 neighbors. Background: Plants utilize sophisticated innate immune systems to fight against pathogens. Their genomes encode abundant immune receptors to detect…

A ubiquitinated SNARE protein functions in nutrient stress responses

Hasegawa, Reyes et al. discover a link between the ubiquitination of a key membrane trafficking regulator and carbon/nitrogen nutrient stress.  Background: Ubiquitination is a post-translational modification that functions in numerous cellular processes by serving as a molecular signal, such as protein…

A module controlling endoreduplication and cell growth in Arabidopsis

Jiang et al. discover a module controlling endoreduplication, a process in which DNA replication occurs in the absence of mitosis. Background: Organ size is coordinately regulated by both cell number and cell size. Endoreduplication is often associated with cell size in plants and animals, but the…

Bypassing reproductive barriers in hybrid seeds

Huc et al. discover a method for bypassing the triploid block via chemically induced epimutagenesis using 5-Azacytidine. Background: Hybridization of plants with different chromosome numbers is often hindered by reproductive barriers established after fertilization. This is because the correct balance…

An RNA splicing factor regulates temperature-responsive flowering

Chang et al. discover the role of an evolutionarily conserved splicing factor in regulating temperature-responsive flowering in Arabidopsis. Background: Eukaryotic genes contain non-coding sequences termed introns that intervene between coding sequences. After being transcribed into pre-mRNA, these…

The coordination between stomata and cuticles

Yang et al. reveal the coordination between stomatal development and cuticle formation. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab260 By Shao-Li Yang and Chin-Min Kimmy Ho Background: The plant epidermis is composed of functionally specialized cells, such as the valves on the leaf surface known…

The queen’s crown: Team-building the stigma at the top of the pistil

Ballester et al. reveal how stigma development in Arabidopsis requires the formation of different higher-order transcription factor complexes of increasing complexity. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab236  By Cristina Ferrándiz Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas, CSIC-UPV Background:…

Winter is coming: It’s time to “CRY”

Li et al. reveal how the cryptochrome CRY2 regulates freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab215  By Youping Li Background: Cold acclimation via exposure to non-lethal low temperatures enhances frost resistance in plants. This process requires light; however, we know…