Tag: Biochemistry

Plants, like human societies, must live with the inherent conflict between investing in defense and investing in growth and infrastructure. Burrow and Halkier provide an interesting and highly readable overview of the strategies by which Arabidopsis optimizes the production and distribution of glucosinolates,…

Methionine is a nutritionally essential sulfur-containing amino acid found at low levels in plants and in their seeds. It often limits the nutritional value of crop plants as a source of dietary protein for humans and animals.  In plants, methionine plays key roles in protein synthesis and mRNA translation,…

Systemic acquired resistance (SAR)—a plant-wide heightened state of defense following localized exposure to a pathogen—is characterized by increased salicylic acid (SA) and ROS levels and elevated expression of pathogenesis-related genes. SAR depends on ENHANCED DISEASE SUSCEPTIBILITY1 (EDS1), which…

Antosz et al. provide insight into the complex process of transcription elongation by RNA polymerase II http://www.plantcell.org/content/29/4/854.abstract The genetic blueprint for the production of proteins is stored in the DNA of a plant cell. In a first step, the enzyme RNA polymerase II generates…

The genus Nicotiana encompasses several species and hybrids, the most famous being Nicotiana tabacum, cultivated for production of tobacco. Xu et al. sequenced the genome of Nicotiana attenuata and Nicotiana obtusifolia with an interest in identifying the origins of nicotine biosynthesis. Nicotine is…

Like plants, algae and cyanobacteria produce a dizzying array of largely unexplored natural products that can be used as medicines, in biotechnology and in agriculture. Luzzatto-Knaan et al. used mass spectrometry (MS) to explore chemical diversity from marine samples collected across space and time.…

Transporters are massively important for the functions of a cell and organism, but also notoriously difficult to study. Larsen et al. review advances in the tools available for transporter research, ranging from expression in Xenopus oocytes to genetic screens using toxic analogues and fluorescent substrates,…

Lignin, a ubiquitous phenylpropanoid polymer found in the cell walls of vascular plants, is derived primarily from oxidative couplings of monolignols (p-hydroxycinnamyl alcohols). By filling up spaces between cell wall polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicelluloses), lignin confers increased mechanical…