Recent Posts

Natural Allelic Variation Improves Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Rice

Zhang, Zhu, Shen, Ji et al. discover a way to enhance nitrogen use efficiency and grain yield in rice. The Plant Cell (2020) https://bit.ly/3s3bLb3  Background: Nitrogen (N), an essential element for crop growth, is provided to plants by external fertilizer application. However, the excessive use…

Repressor of Endosperm Formation in Rice

Tonosaki et al. explore how the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 component EMBRYONIC FLOWER2a represses rice endosperm development both before and after fertilization. The Plant Cell (2020) https://bit.ly/33DQdqW By Kaoru Tonosaki and Tetsu Kinoshita Iwate University and Yokohama City University   Background:…

How Rice Fights Salinity

Wang et al. demonstrate how rice alters the expression of a sodium transporter gene under salinity stress. The Plant Cell (2020). Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00301 By Jie Wang, Nan Nan, Ning Li, Yutong Liu, Tian-Jing Wang, Inhwan Hwang, Bao Liu and Zheng-Yi Xu Background: Excessive…

Oryza sativa RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 6 modulates rice meiosis

Liu et al. connect small RNA biogenesis and meiotic recombination by examining RNA-dependent RNA polymerase 6. The Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00213   By Changzhen Liu, Yi Shen and Zhukuan Cheng  Background: Meiosis is a specialized cell division that takes place in sexually…

Inflorescence Morphogenesis: From Perception to Metabolism

Guo et al. demonstrate how perceived developmental signals modulate cytokinin homeostasis to shape the rice inflorescence. The Plant Cell (2020) https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00351.  By Tao Guo, Zi-Qi Lu, Jun-Xiang Shan, Wang-Wei Ye, Nai-Qian Dong, Hong-Xuan Lin  Background: Rice is one of…

Multilayered Regulation in Senescence

Sakuraba et al. show the existence of multilayered regulation systems for the rice ONAC054 transcription factor, which is involved in abscisic acid-induced leaf senescence in rice. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00569 By Nam-Chon Paek, Department of Plant Science, Seoul National University,…

The spikelet, a different “flower” in rice

Descriptive paragraph. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.18.00682 By Hui Zhuang and Yunfeng Li Background: The spikelet, often mistaken for a “flower”, is actually an inflorescence unit and can produce one or more florets in some species of grass. This implies that it could be possible…

Fine control of aerenchyma and lateral root development through Aux/IAA- and ARF-dependent auxin signaling ($) (PNAS)

Auxin plays a major role in plant development and can alter the developmental program following the stress response. In this paper, Yamauchi et al., have identified the auxin signaling cascade involved in the development of aerenchyma and regulators of this auxin signaling might also be involved in lateral…

Casparian Strip Formation in Rice

Wang et al. identify a protein that mediates Casparian strip formation at the endodermis in rice roots. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.000296 By Jian Feng Maa and Jixing Xiab aInstitute of Plant Science and Resource, Okayama University, Japan bCollege of Life Science and Technology,…