Gene networks underlying cannabinoid and terpenoid accumulation in cannabis (Plant Physiol)
Plant Science Research WeeklyRecent changes in the legal status of cannabis and cannabis-products have allowed renewed scientific interest in the genetic and metabolic basis of cannabis’ effects as well as the regulatory issues related to quality control of the products. Many varieties of Cannabis spp. have poorly documented pedigrees,…
Review: Integration of sulfate assimilation with C and N metabolism in transition from C3 to C4 photosynthesis (J Exp Bot)
Plant Science Research Weekly“Cysteine (HO2CCH(NH2)CH2SH) synthesis is the converging point of the three major pathways of primary metabolism: carbon, nitrate, and sulfate assimilation.” It’s hard enough to coordinate two pathways, let alone three; but these metabolic connections are revealed in that a deficiency in one nutrient…
Default activation and nuclear translocation of the plant cellular energy sensor SnRK1 ($) (Plant Cell)
Plant Science Research WeeklyWhen I’m using my laptop without it being plugged in, at some point it enters battery saving mode as it senses that the battery charge is getting low. Organisms also sense their low energy reserves and activate alternate metabolic processes to ensure survival. The core energy sensor is a hetero-trimeric…
Autophagy regulates lipid biosynthesis and turnover
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellFan et al. explore the roles of autophagy in Arabidopsis lipid metabolism. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00170
By Jilian Fan, Linhui Yu and Changcheng Xu
Biology Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Background: Autophagy is a self-eating process during which cytoplasmic materials…
Moonlighting activities and control of meristem maintenance in maize ($) (Nature Plants)
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe phosphorylated disaccharide trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) is a regulator of meristem fate. Mutations in enzymes related to T6P metabolism (such as TPS, the synthase, or the phosphatase trehalose 6-phosphate phosphatase TPP, i.e., RAMOSA3 that dephosphorylates T6P to trehalose), are linked to defects…
The phosphorylation and protein interaction landscape of the plant TOR kinase (Nature Plants) ($)
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe TOR (target of rapamycin) is a conserved regulator of cellular homeostasis and energy status in several clades of life. TOR signaling is well studied in animals while precise regulation and downstream targets of TOR kinase are not very well explored in plants. Some well-studied TOR kinase targets…
Metabolism gene prediction using diversiform molecular features (PNAS)
Plant Science Research WeeklyAdvances in sequencing technologies enable scientists to obtain molecular features of genes in high-dimensionality. Features of individual gene like expression, methylation, histone modification, evolutionary signals and sequence itself provide high resolution for distinguishing annotated genes. In plant…
Natural Herbicide: Cyanobacterial antimetabolite inhibits the growth of prototrophic organisms (Nature Comms)
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe shikimate pathway synthesizes aromatic amino acids in microorganisms and plants, and its absence in animals makes the shikimate pathway a common target for the development of herbicides. Brilisauer et al. 2019 isolated a novel compound from the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus—7-deoxy-sedoheptulose…
Review: Computational approaches to design and test plant synthetic metabolic pathways (Plant Physiol)
Plant Science Research WeeklyAs photosynthetic organisms, plants are desirable and potentially cost-effective chassis for the production of novel compounds, but they are also inherently metabolically complex. Synthetic metabolic pathways can also improve upon nature by making plants more metabolically efficient. Küken and Nikoloski…