Concentration-dependent transcriptional switching through a collective action of cis-elements (Sci. Adv.)
Plant Science Research WeeklyOne of the well-known molecular pathways that regulate plant development is the one formed by the homeobox transcription factor WUSCHEL (WUS) and the secreted peptide CLAVATA 3 (CLV3). In the shoot apical meristem (SAM), WUS expression is constrained to the organizing center where it maintains the stem…
New Teaching Tool, “The Floral Transition and Adaptation to a Changing Environment: from Model Species to Cereal Crops"
Blog, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: NewsMeet the newest member of the Teaching Tools in Plant Biology family, The Floral Transition and Adaptation to a Changing Environment: from Model Species to Cereal Crops, by Michela Osnato. Freely available in the November 2022 issue of The Plant Cell. You can download the resources here, from the supplemental…
Protein-protein interaction landscape of transcription factors during gynoecium development in Arabidopsis (Mol. Plant)
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe gynoecium is the female reproductive structure of flowering plants. This complex organ, composed of different tissues, is an excellent model for studying plant organ development. Although the gynoecium has been extensively studied from a genetic point of view and a few studies have been carried out…
Synthetic genetic circuits as a means of reprogramming plant roots (Science)
Plant Science Research WeeklySynthetic genetic circuits offer a promising method to achieve beneficial changes in plant phenotypic traits. By combining different activator or repressor transcription factors (TFs) , the expression of target genes may be fine-tuned according to Boolean operations. Here, Brophy et al. describe a method…
Improving bread wheat yield through modulating an unselected AP2/ERF gene (Nature Plants)
Plant Science Research WeeklyClimate emergency and the increase of human population are challenges for human food security. Plant breeders use natural genetic variation to improve crops, but bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has particularly low genetic diversity with unique evolutionary constraints. Genetic modification of spike…
CHIQUITA1 maintains the temporal transition between proliferation and differentiation in Arabidopsis (Development)
Plant Science Research WeeklyOrgan size is imperative to biological function. In plants, newly-developing organs start out as a pool of meristematic cells, which set the number of cells in the organ through regulated iterations of cellular division; eventually, these cells transition out of the cell cycle and differentiate, during…
Marschal Bellinger (he/him)
BlogMarschal Bellinger (he/him) earned his doctorate in Plant Sciences from the University of California, Riverside where his research in was focused on cell shape determination in maize through live-cell imaging of microtubule organization at the cell cortex during mitosis and interphase. He grew up in…
Cytokinin–CLAVATA cross-talk is an ancient mechanism regulating shoot meristem homeostasis in land plants (PNAS)
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe shoot apical meristem (SAM) maintains a small pool of pluripotent stem cells, which are the source of all above-ground plant tissues. In Arabidopsis thaliana, CLAVATA3 (CLV3), CLAVATA1(CLV1) and RECEPTOR-LIKE PROTEIN KINASE2 (RPK2) repress WUSCHEL (WUS) expression. WUS induces CLV3, forming a local…
A conserved superlocus regulates above- and belowground root initiation (Science)
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe vascular plant body composed of root and shoot is specified during embryogenesis, but most flowering plants can also develop additional root systems post-embryonically: lateral roots, as a response to wounding, or shoot-borne roots (“adventitious” roots, literally meaning “in the wrong place”).…