Tag: Epigenetics

In Arabidopsis, multiple genetic pathways control the floral transition in response to external and internal stimuli. Among these, components of the autonomous pathway promote flowering by negatively regulating the central floral repressor FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC). Despite the wealth of information on…

The time at which flowers appear is critical for plant reproductive success. As such, the vegetative to reproductive growth transition is governed by several cues: environmental (photoperiod, temperature) and endogenous (gibberellins, age). Here, Sang et al. used an elegant forward-genetics approach…

Plants activate autophagy, a cellular recycling process, to recycle useful nutrients or remove harmful items, helping them to withstand harsh conditions. Recently, Yang et al. found that HY5 is a hub connecting the light signaling and autophagy pathways. Under replete conditions (e.g., light and nitrogen-sufficient),…

The well-known success of the green-revolution was accomplished through the development of semi-dwarf grasses (rice and wheat), which led to decreased losses to lodging and higher yields; however, the benefits of these improved varieties depends on the application of nitrogen-rich fertilizer. As N-rich…

It was shown that the Arabidopsis intergenic long noncoding RNA (LncRNA) APOLO (AUXIN-REGULATED PROMOTER LOOP) modulates in cis its neighbor gene PID forming a chromatin loop. However, it remained unknown whether it can act also in trans modulating the expression of other genes. Now, Ariel et…

Lee and Bailey-Serres uncover multiple aspects of nuclear and whole-cell epigenetic and post-transcriptional gene regulation in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00463 By T. A. Lee and J. Bailey-Serres Background: Plant cells require oxygen to generate ATP, similar to our own…

The endosperm, a tissue that transfers nutrients from maternal tissue to the embryo, is normally triploid, with two copies of the maternal genome and one of the paternal genome. Excess paternal genomes usually leads to endosperm abnormalities and seed abortion. Previous studies have shown that the RNA…

Satyaki and Mary Gehring uncover the mechanism underlying interploidy seed abortion, challenging previous models of dosage sensitivity in endosperm. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00047 By PRV Satyaki (Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research) and Mary Gehring (Whitehead Institute for…