Heat tolerance regulated by an ancient jasmonate signaling pathway (Curr. Biol)
Plant Science Research WeeklyJasmonate responses are regulated not only by the well-studied pair of the bioactive hormone jasmonoyl-isoleucine (JA-Ile) and the receptor COI1, but also the cyclopentenone OPDA and the JA-Ile precursor dn-OPDA can activate jasmonate signaling. However, the OPDA/dn-OPDA signaling and their physiological…
An ancestral signalling pathway is conserved in intracellular symbioses-forming plant lineages ($) (Nature Plants)
Plant Science Research WeeklyIt’s widely thought that plants acquired the ability to live on land thanks to a little help from their friends, specifically arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Even now, most land plants form mutually beneficial associations with fungi or bacteria, and these often involve the plant cells acting as hosts…
Review: Evolution of plant hormone response pathways ($) (Annu. Rev. Plant Biol.)
Plant Science Research WeeklySpatio-temporal action of hormones is essential for proper growth and development of plants. In this review, Blázquez et al. discuss the evolution of the shared features of signaling pathways of different plant hormones. Auxin, jasmonic acid, gibberellic acid, and strigolactone signaling pathways…
Gene duplication accelerates the pace of protein gain and loss from plant organelles (Mol. Biol. Evol.)
Plant Science Research WeeklyOrganelles, such as the chloroplast and nucleus, are structures with specific functions within a plant cell. It has been reported that many related, or homologous, proteins function in different organelles. However, how and why organellar proteins have diverged over evolutionary time remains unclear.…
Mitochondrial fostering: the mitochondrial genome may play a role in plant orphan gene evolution (bioRxiv)
Plant Science Research WeeklyOrphan genes are those that are found in only a single species. In trying to understand the origin of orphan genes, O’Conner and Li have found that many of these orphan genes are likely to have originated as mitochondrial genes, as many are nuclear genes whose encoded proteins are targeted to the mitochondria…
The origin of land plants is rooted in two bursts of genomic novelty (Curr. Biol)
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe transition of plants from water to land is one of the most momentous shifts in the history of life on Earth. 500 million years ago, the first land plants dramatically changed the environments on the planet, creating soils, rivers and the oxygen-rich atmosphere. However, the factors that enabled early…
Isolation of an archaeon at the prokaryote–eukaryote interface (Nature)
Plant Science Research WeeklySometime around 1.8 to 2 billion years ago, complex eukaryotic cells appeared for the first time, providing the ancestor for plants, animals and fungi. Many lines of evidence have indicated that this event probably involved an ancient archaeon taking up an ancient bacterium, the progenitor of all mitochondria.…
Review: The many roads to (and from) multicellularity (J. Exp. Bot)
Plant Science Research WeeklyMulticellularity is without doubt a fantastic fluke. We know that it arose independently in plants and animals, but how many times? And is there a common “predisposition” to multicellularity in the universal common ancestor? These are the questions addressed in this review by Niklas and Newman. Looking…
Primer: Rhynie chert ($) (Curr. Biol.)
Plant Science Research WeeklyThis short Primer by Strullu-Derrien et al. introduces the amazing early vascular plant fossils from the Rhynie chert. The fossils' high level of detail is a consequence of their being embedded in a glass-like silica matrix, possibly derived from hydrothermal springs. The fossils are approximately 407…