Tag: Development

Bastakis et al. investigate control of the greening process in Arabidopsis https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00947. By Emmanouil Bastakis Background: The greening of the plants is based on the synthesis and accumulation of the chlorophylls, which takes place in chloroplasts. Chlorophylls capture…

Dixon et al. (2018) investigate the regulation of wheat inflorescence architecture by TEOSINTE BRANCHED1. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00961 Background: Grass inflorescences are composed of many seed-producing flowers (or florets) that are arranged on branches called spikelets. The number…

Arabidopsis plants have epidermal pavement cells (the cells that make up the bulk of the epidermis, other than guard cells or trichomes) that are often described as “jigsaw puzzle” shaped, and, because Arabidopsis is such a useful model organism, we have nice models for how these distinctive shapes…

Plants need to navigate and adjust their growth according to the environmental clues, such as light or gravity. Asymmetric distribution of auxin is necessary for organ bending. Abbas and colleagues show that conversion of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) into methyl-IAA (Me-IAA) is important for asymmetric…

In plant development, auxin serves as a concentration-dependent signal that regulates cell differentiation, elongation and proliferation. The distribution of auxin is carried out by auxin efflux carriers such as PIN-FORMED (PIN) proteins and the specific accumulation of auxin directs organ differentiation…

Plants frequently, seasonally, discard unwanted organs (termed abscission), which include dead leaves, flowers and ripe fruit. Abscission requires tight control to avoid exposure to biotic and abiotic factors, which can lead to tissue damage or infection. Due to the presence of the cell wall, plant cells…

The flower is one of the most important organs of a plant as it provides fruits and seeds. Due to its economic value, flowers are studied extensively to understand its developmental process. Based on the popular ABC model of flower development, floral organ development is mostly regulated through the…

Small secreted peptides including CLEs have been identified as contributing to plant development. CLE26 and CLE45 have been shown to regulate protophloem differentiation in the root tip. Anne et al. used a combination of genetic screening and transcriptomics to identify factors downstream of these peptides.…