Review: Nitrogen sensing in plants ($)
Plant Science Research Weekly, Research0 Comments
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Like other organisms, plants have developed mechanisms to sense and respond to changes in the availability of nutrients. Nitrogen (N), being very essential for the growth and development of plants, must also be strongly monitored by plants. N sensing and signaling in plants are highly researched topics,…
Meeting Review: Auxin 2016 ($)
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchVernoux and Robert discuss research presented at the Auxin 2016 meeting, held in October 2016 on the island of Hainan, China. The result is a nice review of very current research, spanning auxin metabolism and signaling, the role of auxin in development, interactions between auxin and other signals,…
A Histone Chaperone and a Specific Transcription Factor Modulate GLABRA2 Expression in Root Hair Development
Research, The Plant Cell: In BriefIN BRIEF by Jennifer Mach [email protected]
To navigate its essential function of producing mRNAs, RNA polymerase II (Pol II) must navigate the thread of DNA, which winds around thousands of nucleosomes. If you’ve ever tried to use a sewing machine but got your bobbin thread tangled, then the task faced…
Dissecting transposon silencing through introduction of exogenous TEs
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchFultz and Slotkin explore the question of how transposable element (TE) silencing is initiated. As they describe, there are two recognized mechanisms, one based on TE identity (meaning that it can be silenced through siRNAs initiated from a related TE, and in which de novo silencing can occur in the…
Changes in anthocyanin production during domestication of Citrus
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchFamiliar citrus fruits such as sweet orange, lemon, lime and grapefruit are hybrids of three species: Citrus reticulate (mandarin), C. medica (citron), and C. maxima (pummelo). Cultivated varieties are generally vegetatively propagated, with diversity arising from spontaneous or induced somatic mutations.…
Two clustered NLR genes with opposing functions in rice blast resistance and yield ($)
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchThe indigenous Chinese rice variety Gumei 4 (GM4) shows durable and specific resistance to the rice blast fungal pathogen Manaporthe oryzae. Deng et al. mapped and sequenced the resistance locus Pigm, and found that it contains a cluster of 13 NLR (nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat) genes, three…
Electrical and hormonal signals of prey capture in sundew ($)
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchWithout eyes, mouths or noses, how do carnivorous plants know that they’ve captured prey? Previous studies in various carnivorous species have shown that electrical signals as well as the jasmonate defense hormones contribute to prey detection. Krausko et al. examined these signals in leaves of the…
Protein degradation rate in Arabidopsis thaliana leaf growth and development
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchProtein synthesis is an energetically-demanding process, made even more so by the fact that many proteins have a short half-life and must be repeatedly synthesized and degraded. Using a 15N-labeling approach, Li et al. determined the in vivo half-life for more than 1200 Arabidopsis leaf proteins; these…
A pectase lyase that is an indirect target of a Xanthomonas TAL effector promotes susceptibility
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchOne of the many ways that Xanthomonas bacteria manipulate their host plants is by the production of transcription activator-like (TAL) effectors, which the bacterium introduces into the host cell where they alter gene expression in the host nucleus. Schwartz et al. investigated the targets of the TAL…