Tag: Molecular Biology

Feng et al. show that the transcription factor O11 is a master regulatory protein in endosperm development. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00616. By Fan Feng and Rentao Song Background: Maize is one of the most important crops both for food and industry. The main nutrients of maize…

Legumes form root endosymbioses with Rhizobium bacteria in a special structure called nodule. In this symbiotic relationship, on one hand the plant provides the microbe with sugars and in exchange it receives fixed atmospheric nitrogen, the main limiting element for plant growth. Nevertheless, when nitrogen…

C4 photosynthesis describes a biochemical CO2-concentrating mechanism that relies on the spatial separation of biochemistry between two cell types, mesophyll cells (MCs) and bundle sheath cells (BSCs). However, there is currently little evidence on how some genes are preferentially expressed in BSCs…

Often, a wide gap exists between evolutionary research, that is focused on theoretical approaches and organism evolution across multiple timescales, and molecular research aspiring to solve mechanistic puzzles of how particular systems work. Plant Biology is no exception to this, and much can be learnt…

Li et al. investigate a transcription factor network that transmits environmental signals to regulate secondary metabolism in plants. The Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00805. By Baohua Li and Daniel Kliebenstein Background: Plants produce specialized secondary metabolites to survive…

Zhang et al. investigate histone deacetylase in the ethylene response. Plant Cell (2017). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00671 By Fan Zhang Background: Ethylene is the only gaseous hormone in plants, and is a key hormone controlling plant growth and resistance to stress. Epigenetic mechanisms are…

Yang et al. reveal a conserved H3K4me3 recognition mechanism shared by both plant and animal KDM5 histone demethylases. The Plant Cell (2017). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00666 By Z. Yang, Q. Qiu, X. Cao and J. Du Background: Histone methylation is a conserved gene regulation mechanism in plants…

Chen et al. link chromatin modifying machinery with ribosome biogenesis. The Plant Cell (2018). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00626 by Xiangsong Chen and Xuehua Zhong Background: All cells need to make proteins to function properly. Ribosomes are the protein production factories consisting of…