Special issue: Flowering of jasmonate research
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Jasmonates are a family of compounds including jasmonic acid and its derivatives that regulate many plant processes from germination to defense. The Journal of Experimental Botany has a special issue on jasmonate research, which commemorates the advances in this field in the ten years since the JAZ proteins…
BRC1 expression regulates bud activation potential, but is not necessary or sufficient for bud growth inhibition in Arabidopsis
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchShoot branching patterns are determined by whether lateral buds are activated or inhibited. Classic studies showed that auxin transport both in the stem and from the bud affects bud outgrowth, and more recent studies have demonstrated a role for strigolactones in regulating bud outgrowth, probably through…
Symplastic communication spatially directs local auxin biosynthesis to maintain root stem cell niche in Arabidopsis ($)
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchAlthough plant cells are surrounded by walls, cytoplasmic strands connect adjacent cells through junctions called plasmodesmata. Liu et al. investigated the contributions of plasmodesmata to signaling between root quiescent center (QC) cells and the cells that surround the QC by expression of an inducible…
Live Confocal Imaging of Developing Arabidopsis Flowers
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchMonitoring cells and their activities in real time provides exceptional insights into their mechanisms and strategies of growth. Prunet has used live confocal imaging of Arabidopsis flowers to study the placement of floral organs and the dynamics of floral stem cells. Here, he presents a detailed protocol…
Review: Root branching plasticity: collective decision-making results from local and global signalling
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchRoots are extraordinary examples of developmental plasticity, and hundreds of papers have reported on the mechanisms by which root system architecture responds to the environment and the global nutritional status of the plant. McCleery et al. propose a model that synthesizes evidence of intrinsic, local…
TOPLESS mediates brassinosteroid control of shoot boundaries and root meristem development
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchSteroids play a role as essential hormones in plants as well as in animals. In plants, steroids termed brassinosteroids (BR) regulate plant growth and development. BR has been shown to be involved in many processes such as light response, stomata and root development, and flowering in plants. BR-regulated…
Commentary: Widespread contamination of Arabidopsis embryo and endosperm transcriptome datasets
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchKnowing where a gene is expressed provides valuable information about its function, but that information is compromised if the RNA source is contaminated by other tissues. Schon and Nodine investigated the extent to which Arabidopsis embryo and endosperm transcriptome datasets are affected by tissue…
Review: The evo-devo of plant speciation
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchSpeciation events result from a combination of molecular, environmental and stochastic (random) factors. Several models developed in the last 150 years help to explain how species emerge, but more recently evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) approaches give us tools to decipher plant speciation.…
Update: Origins and evolution of stomatal development
Plant Physiology, Plant Physiology: Updates, ResearchThe fossil record suggests stomata-like pores were present on the surfaces of land plants over 400 million years ago. Whether stomata arose once or whether they arose independently across newly evolving land plant lineages has long been a matter of debate. In Arabidopsis, a genetic toolbox has been identified…