Recent Posts

Expression   atlas   of Selaginella   moellendorffii   provides   insights   into   the evolution of vasculature, secondary metabolism, and roots (Plant Cell)

Lycophytes, including the model species Selaginella moellendorffii, are extant (still alive today) seedless vascular plants that were particularly abundant around 400-300 million years ago (and major contributors to the formation of coal). To further understand the biology of some of these oldest extant…

Putative cis-regulatory elements predict iron deficiency responses in Arabidopsis roots (Plant Physiol.)

Iron (Fe) is an important micronutrient needed by plants for survival. Plants have evolved a range of morphological, physiological and molecular responses to Fe availability, including the transcriptional regulation of over one thousand genes in response to Fe deficiency (-Fe) in Arabidopsis. However,…

R-Loop Mediated trans Action of the APOLO Long Noncoding RNA

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…

Combinatorial interactions of the LEC1 transcription factor specify diverse developmental programs during soybean seed development (PNAS) ($)

LEC1 (LEAFY COTYLEDON 1) transcriptional factor regulates multiple developmental processes during different stages of seed development including macromolecule accumulation, inhibition of germination and morphogenesis. In this paper Jo et al., have uncovered the mechanism of LEC1 functioning with other…

Promotion of BR biosynthesis by miR444 is required for ammonium-triggered inhibition of root growth (Plant Physiol.) ($)

Nitrogen, as one of the most important plant nutrients, profoundly affects root growth. Nitrogen is usually taken up in one of two forms, nitrate (NO3-) or ammonium (NH4+), and the two forms affect root growth differently. Here, Jiao et al. demonstrate a connection between ammonium, a small RNA, and…

Reprogramming of root cells during nitrogen-fixing symbiosis involves dynamic polysome association of coding and non-coding RNAs (Plant Cell)

Knowing RNA abundance is nice, but in most cases protein abundance is more biologically interesting. Traubenik et al. used TRAP  (Translating  Ribosome  Affinity  Purification) to examine efficiency of translation and contributions of non-coding and alternatively spliced RNAs during the establishment…

Arabidopsis transcriptional response to fractional gravity during spaceflight under blue-light (Frontiers Plant Sci)

A plant’s response to a microgravity environment allows for dissection of molecular pathways governing gravity sensing and other integrated pathways, such as phototropism. Renewed interest in long-term space travel also requires that plant behavior and growth under microgravity is well-understood and…

Widespread long-range cis-regulatory elements in the maize genome ($) (Nature Plants)

The chromatin landscape is key in the regulation of gene expression. Many studies have been made in Arabidopsis, but its genomic architecture is different to other plants. Here Ricci et al. present a very comprehensive study of chromatin analysis in maize. This work includes a huge amount of sequencing…

The prevalence, evolution and chromatin signatures of plant regulatory elements ($) (Nature Plants)

With a wide range of genome sizes and varying architectures, understanding the evolution and function of non-coding regions is not straightforward in plants. Nevertheless, many advances are coming out that will shed light on this complex scientific problem. Lu et al. performed ATAC-seq to study chromatin…