A New Component Regulating ABA Signaling
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellWang et al. find that EAR1 is a general negative regulator of ABA signaling. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00875
By Kai Wang, Jigang Li and Zhizhong Gong
Background: Abscisic acid (ABA) signaling in plants controls many biological processes, such as seed germination, seedling root growth, and…
miRNA-Mediated Regulation of Germination
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellGuo et al. show that miR9678 affects seed germination in wheat by generating phased siRNAs and modulating abscisic acid/gibberellin signaling. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00842
By Guanghui Guo and Yingyin Yao
Background: Seed germination is important for grain yield and quality…
Gender Identity in Kiwifruit
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellAkagi et al. identify a gender determining gene in kiwifruit. The Plant Cell (2018). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00787
By T. Akagi, I. M. Henry, H. Ohtani, T. Morimoto, K. Beppu, I. Kataoka, and R. Tao
Background: In flowering plants, hermaphroditism, or the presence of both male and female…
A Malate Transporter in Rice Panicles
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellHeng et al. demonstrate a role of OsALMT7-mediated malate transport in panicle development and grain production of rice. The Plant Cell (2018). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00998
By Yueqin Heng, Chuanyin Wu and Jianmin Wan
Background: Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world’s…
Rice Leaf Erectness Tied to Phosphorus Efficiency
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellRuan et al. discover a protein module that regulates rice leaf inclination in response to soil Pi availability. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00738
Background: As an essential element for plant growth, phosphorus (P) is taken up by plant roots as inorganic Pi (Pi) from the soil solution.…
How Plants Generate Circadian Rhythms in Transcription
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellMa et al. investigate a protein complex that controls steady-state mRNA circadian oscillations https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.18.00052
By Yuan Ma, Sergio Gil, Klaus D. Grasser and Paloma Mas
Background: Circadian clocks are internal time-keeping mechanisms that help organisms to adapt to the…
B-GATAs Fine Tune Greening
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellBastakis 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…
TEOSINTE BRANCHED1 and Wheat Inflorescence Architecture
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellDixon 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…
Of puzzles and pavements: a quantitative exploration of leaf epidermal cell shape (bioRxiv)
Plant Science Research WeeklyArabidopsis 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…