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A dirigent protein complex directs lignin polymerization and assembly of the root diffusion barrier

In Latin, dirigere means “to align or guide”, so in 1997 when a protein was identified that guides the stereoselectivity of another enzyme it was named as a dirigent protein. Subsequent studies found that the Arabidopsis genome encodes 25 dirigent proteins (DPs). In this new work, Gao et al. characterized…

Casparian Strip formation at the root endodermis in rice

Wang et al. identify three OsMYB36s that redundantly regulate Casparian strip formation. Jixing Xia; College of Life Science and Technology, Guangxi University, China Background: The Casparian strip (CS) is a ring-like lignin-rich structure in the anticlinal cell wall between endodermal cells…