Identification of cold tolerance genes and a functional allele that confers cold tolerance ($) (Plant Physiol.)
Plant Science Research WeeklyXiao et al. used 1,033 rice accessions for GWAS to identify QTLs associated with cold tolerance. In general, japonica-type varieties showed greater cold tolerance than indica types. The authors identified many QTLs for cold tolerance at the seedling and booting (initiation of panicles) stages. They…
Small Peptide PSK Induces Plant Immunity Against Botrytis cinerea
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellZhang et al. show how PSK initiates Ca2+- and auxin-dependent immunity https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00537.
By Huan Zhang, Zhangjian Hu and Kai Shi
Background: During plant-microbe interactions, some small secreted peptides are secreted into the apoplast between plant cells as damage-associated…
PLANT PROTEIN MEETS HOMER´S TROJAN HORSE
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellBy Karina van der Linde and Virginia Walbot
Background: In contrast to animals in which meiotically competent cells develop in embryos, plants switch from vegetative to reproductive growth only during flowering. In maize, the most productive cereal crop, the tassel contains male flowers in which…
A plant phytosulfokine peptide initiates auxin-dependent immunity through cytosolic Ca2+ signaling (Plant Cell)
Plant Science Research WeeklyPlants are exposed to a wide variety of biotic stressors such as herbivores and microbial pathogens. Thus, they have developed a sophisticated response system which involves different signal molecules and accurate signaling pathway responses. Among them, phytosulfokine (PSK), a disulfated pentapeptide,…
Bacteria exploit autophagy for proteasome degradation and enhanced virulence in plants (Plant Cell)
Blog, Plant Science Research WeeklyAutophagy has been defined as non-specific self-eating to obtain material that will be used for key processes within the cell. Even through authophagy has been demonstrated to be very important, its role during plant-bacteria interactions is not well known. Üstün et al. examined interactions between…
Review: Same tune, different song — cytokinins as virulence factors in plant–pathogen interactions? (COPB)
Plant Science Research WeeklyMany pathogens produce virulence factors that improve their pathogenicity, including in some cases compounds produced by the host, such as the hormone cytokinin. Spallek et al. review the various plant pathogens — spanning from bacteria to parasitic plants — that use cytokinins as virulence factors;…
Differential roles of NPR proteins in regulating SA signalling (Cell) ($)
Plant Science Research WeeklySalicylic acid is a small phenolic hormone that plays a prominent role in the regulation of plant immune responses. Exactly how SA is perceived in planta has been an intensive area of research, with differential paradigms proposed for the perception of SA through negative regulators NPR3/NPR4 or through…
The fungal MAP kinase Pmk1 controls intracellular spread of rice blast fungus in rice cells (Science)
Plant Science Research WeeklyMagnaporthe oryzae is a devastating fungal pathogen that routinely threatens rice crop yields. Rice blast infection occurs when fungal hyphae penetrate into and proliferate within living plant cells, moving intracellulary from cell-to-cell through plasmodesmatal junctions. In a recent article published…
Insight: Phyllosphere microbiology: at the interface between microbial individuals and the plant host (New Phytol)
Plant Science Research WeeklyA bean leaf might not look big to us, but to a bacterium it is huge: authors Remus-Emsermann and Schlechter point out that in terms of scale, a microbe is to a leaf as a human is to the island of Trinidad. Like an island, a leaf has diverse inhabitants and provides diverse microhabitats. Much of what…