Tag: Leaf Development

The establishment of adaxial-abaxial polarity during the growth of the leaf primordium is a prerequisite for the formation of the flat, thin leaves observed in most (but not all) plants. The micro-RNAs tasiARF and miR165/6, which form concentration gradients within leaf primordia, are major contributors…

Wang et al. reveal the wide occurrence and biological function of N4-acetylcytidine in plant mRNA. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad189 Huijie Liu and Mingjia Chen College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, P.R. China Background: Eukaryotic mRNA harbors more…

The Arabidopsis thaliana leaf exhibits dramatic phenotypic changes across the juvenile-to-adult phase transition during vegetative development. For example, juvenile leaves are small, round, and lack trichomes (leaf hairs). By contrast, adult leaves contain trichomes on the abaxial (or lower) leaf surface,…

Leaves are the specialized organs of the plant that have evolved to maximize the use of light and CO2 for efficient photosynthesis. Although knowledge of photosynthesis has exploded recently, the molecular intricacies underlying leaf anatomy, especially mesophyll, remains unravelled. The palisade mesophyll…

Koga et al. identified a mechanism that produces heterophylly in aquatic plants grown either submerged in water or in air.  Plant Cell.  https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab192 By Hiroyuki Koga, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan. Background: Amphibious plants,…

The final shape of a leaf is a consequence of differential growth at its margins. Simple (or lightly serrated) leaves result from limited growth in the margins, while compound leaves result from a constant initiation of leaflets. A recent work by Challa, Rath, and colleagues dissected the regulatory…

Kim et al. provide insight into leaf vascular cell types and new resources to build hypotheses and strategies regarding transport of ions, metabolites, and signals. Plant Cell http://bit.ly/2MKOR8M Ji-yun Kim and Wolf Frommer Background: Transport processes are critical for all multicellular…

The contribution of microtubule orientation to the direction of cell expansion is familiar to most; when microtubules wrap around the middle of a cell like a belt, the cell expands in the perpendicular direction to become longer. Recent studies have extended this idea and proposed that the mechanical…