Tag: Development

Robinson et al. develop a method to measure mechanical properties of plant tissue with cellular resolution https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00753 Background: Plant growth is controlled by the extensibility of the cell wall and the turgor pressure inside. The spatial regulation of these properties…

Plant Cell. The yield potential of crops is strongly influenced by floral architecture, a trait determined by the fate of stem cells in meristematic tissue.  Meristems themselves are influenced by several factors, including phytohormones such as brassinosteroids (BRs) and gibberellic acid (GA).  BRs…

Leucine-rich repeat extensins (LRXs) are proteins involved in cell wall growth and are therefore required for plant growth processes. Fabrice et al. use pollen tube development in Arabidopsis thaliana as a vegetative plant growth model to elucidate the role of LRXs in these cellular processes. All 4…

The plant cytoskeleton determines cell shape and integrity by delivering cellulose microfibrils and other cell wall components to the plasma membrane and cell wall. Auxin is involved in establishing the polarity of cell expansion and auxin distribution is partly regulated by actin. Sahi et al. examine…

Yan et al. searched for proteins that regulate the delivery of the micronutrient copper to flowers to ensure successful reproduction https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00363 By Jiapei Yan, Ju-Chen Chia, and Olena Vatamaniuk Background: Global food security and the demand for high-yielding grain crops…

Fukudome et al. explore the significance of Pol II C-terminal phosphorylation https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00331 By Akihito Fukudome and Hisashi Koiwa Background: In animals and plants, gene expression begins with an enzyme called RNA polymerase II (Pol II), which produces ribonucleic acid (RNA)…

Dolan et al. examine how a complex that regulates gene expression alters the production of phenylpropanoids  https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00282 By Whitney Dolan and Clint Chapple Background: Plants produce a vast array of compounds known as phenylpropanoids from the amino acid phenylalanine.…

Polarization may be bad for civil discourse, but sometimes polarization can be good—for example, if you’re a multicellular organism setting its body axes. In many organisms, polarity within the zygote sets the stage for an asymmetric cell division that defines the apical-basal polarity of the developing…