In Brief: Loss of a Silencing Cascade Contributed to Indica Rice Domestication
Blog, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In BriefThousands of years of artificial selection have produced rice plants (Oryza sativa) that are vastly different from their wild progenitor species in terms of architecture, yield, and resilience. Most of the genetic changes linked to rice domestication involved genes encoding transcription factors. However,…
ZmbZIP22 regulates 27-kD γ-zein transcription during maize endosperm development (Plant Cell)
Plant Science Research WeeklyZeins are maize seed storage proteins, but are notoriously low in the amino acids lycine and tryptophan. Therefore, to improve maize's nutritional properties, efforts have been made to decrease zein levels. However, such efforts often lead to abnormal (opague) kernels. Previous work has demonstrated…
Special issue: Orchestrating the proteome with post-translational modifications (J. Exp. Bot.)
Plant Science Research WeeklyI guess we're well past the stage of thinking "one gene - one protein", but even a single polypeptide isn't really one protein, due to the huge number of different types of post-translational modification (PTM) it can be subjected to. These are summarized in the illustration that accompanies the editorial…
Review: New insights into the plant epitranscriptome ($) (J. Exp. Bot.)
Plant Science Research WeeklyJust like the epigenome is the collection of epigenetic marks on DNA, the epitranscriptome is the collection of epigenetic marks on mRNA. Vandivier and Gregory review our current understanding of the epitranscriptome, with a focus on N6-methyladenosine (m6A) and 5-methylcytosine (m5C), and their various…
A single transcription factor promotes both yield and immunity in rice ($) (Science)
Plant Science Research WeeklyPlants regularly prioritize either growth or defense, leading to reduced growth rate when the plant is under attack. Wang et al. have identified a simple switch in rice that demonstrates this principle beautifully. The Ideal Plant Architecture 1 (IPA1) transcription factor is involved in controlling…
Chloroplast Biogenesis in Germinating Seeds: A Multi-Dimensional Approach
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellZizhen et al. perform electron tomography and correlative gene expression analyses of thylakoid assembly in greening Arabidopsis cotyledons Plant Cell (2018) https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00972
By Byung-Ho Kang
Background: The chloroplast produces carbohydrates and molecular oxygen from water,…
Metabolic Fate of Modified Nucleotides after RNA Turnover, an Overlooked Issue in RNA Modification
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellChen et al. reveal a multilayer molecular protection system functioning in Arabidopsis and human cells https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.18.00236
By Mingjia Chen and Claus-Peter Witte
Background: RNA possesses over 100 distinct posttranscriptional modifications in eukaryotic species. N6-methyladenosine…
Evolution of Gene Regulation During Domestication
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellLiu, et al. examine how wound response and its control mechanism differs between domesticated and wild tomato. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.18.00194.
By Ming-Jung Liu and Shin-Han Shiu
Background: Two related species accumulate differences between each other over time. If one of the…
Dynamic Alternative Splicing Response to Cold
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellCalixto et al. demonstrate a rapid wave of alternative splicing as temperatures drop. The Plant Cell (2018) https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.18.00177.
By Cristiane Calixto and John Brown
Background: Alternative splicing (AS) allows a single gene to produce more than one transcript, which can affect…