Interspecies hormonal control of host root morphology by parasitic plants ($)
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Parasitic plants draw nutrients from their hosts. Spallek et al. explored the molecular interaction between the parasitic plant Phtheirospermum japonicum (in the Orobranchaceae family) and the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. They demonstrated movement of tracers from the host to the parasite through…
Review: Can modern agriculture be sustainable? Perennial polyculture holds promise
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchMost of our major food crops are annuals, started from seed each year and fully harvested to collect the seeds at the end of their short growing season. By contrast, perennial crops are longer lived, and only partially harvested, so their biomass can increase from year to year. The larger root system…
Review: How multifaceted salicylic acid combats disease in plants and humans
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchThe journal BMC Biology publishes occasional Question and Answer articles, including a series on plant signals. In the latest installment of this series, Dempsey and Klessig write about the hormone salicylic acid (SA) and how it combats disease in plants and humans. The article focuses on SA in plants…
Arabidopsis leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase NILR1 is required for induction of innate immunity to parasitic nematodes
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchPlant parasitic nematodes, including root-knot nematodes and cyst nematodes, cause extensive damage and loss to many crops. Nematodes elicit a pathogen-triggered immunity (PTI) defense response, but the molecular basis for this response has not been previously characterized. Mendy et al. identified a…
Regulation of strigolactone biosynthesis by gibberellin signaling
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchIn a screen for chemicals that regulate strigolactone (SL) levels in rice, Ito et al. found that gibberellins suppress SL biosynthesis. This effect depends on the gibberellin signaling module, and involve a decrease in expression level of SL-biosynthetic genes. Furthermore, GA treated rice exuded less…
Mutation in sorghum LOW GERMINATION STIMULANT 1 alters strigolactones and causes Striga resistance
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchStrigolactones are both hormones that control shoot architecture and signals that promote interactions with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and promote germination of detrimental parasitic weeds such as Striga asiatica and Striga hermonthica. Gobena et al. mapped and cloned a sorghum gene, LOW GERMINATION…
LOCALIZER: Subcellular localization prediction of both plant and effector proteins in the plant cell
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchProteins carry sequence tags that are read by cellular machineries that deliver the proteins to their proper destinations, which include the nucleus, mitochondria and plastid. Many pathogen effector proteins have acquired such targeting tags too, but for these can sometimes be cryptic to bioinformatics…
Review: Tale of Huanglongbing disease pyramid in the context of the citrus microbiome ($)
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchHuanglongbing (HLB or Citrus Greening Disease) has caused enormous economic losses in major citrus production areas, including Florida. The Huanglongbing disease pyramid consists of the bacteria Liberibacters, citrus psyllid vectors (insects), citrus hosts, and the environment in which they all exist. …
Review: Bound by fate: Reactive oxygen species in receptor-like kinase signaling
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchBoth receptor-like protein kinase (RLK) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling have been shown to affect a plethora of plant processes, including growth, metabolism, development, and environmental responses. To date, previous reviews have focused on mechanisms that govern either ROS or RLK signaling;…