Recent Posts

Review. Plant cell wall-mediated immunity: cell wall changes trigger disease resistance responses

Plant cell walls have recently been revealed as an essential factor of plant environment monitoring system, much more than just a passive defensive barrier as previously thought. In a recent work, Bacete et al. have reviewed how changes to plant cell wall integrity affect disease resistance. More specifically,…

Jasmonic acid and salicylic acid signaling in fern Azolla filiculoides and its cyanobiont

The phytohormones jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA) play key roles in how plants respond to microbes. However, this interplay between JA, SA and microbes is less understood in non-angiosperm linages. de Vries and colleagues examine JA/SA signalling between the water fern Azolla filiculoides…

Ethylene signaling modulates cortical microtubule reassembly in response to salt stress

Ethylene is an important mediator during plant adaptation to salt stress. During salt stress, ethylene has been shown to promote microtubule (MT) stability and organization. Dou et al. further examine this pathway using Ag+ to block ethylene signaling in addition to using various mutants. In wildtype…

Roots Respond to Aboveground Far-Red Light

van Gelderen and Kang et al. investigate the root response to Far-Red light detection in the shoot. The Plant Cell (2017). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00771 By Kasper van Gelderen and Ronald Pierik Background: Sunlight is the energy source for plants, however, when plants grow closely together…

Protection from the Sun: Sunscreen for Plants

Malnoë et al. demonstrate that a protein from the lipocalin family plays a role in promoting energy dissipation that prevents damage from long-term light stress. The Plant Cell (2017).  https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00536  By Alizée Malnoë Background: Light is necessary for plant growth…

Update: SnRK1 kinase as a central mediator of energy signaling between different organelles (Plant Physiology)

The heterotrimeric SNF1-related protein kinase 1 (SnRK1) in plants is an orthologue of yeast SNF1 (sucrose non-fermenting 1) kinase and the mammalian AMPK (AMP-58 activated protein kinase). A significant array of genetic evidence during the past years has identified SnRK1 as a key regulator of cellular…

 A barley powdery mildew fungus non-autonomous retrotransposon encodes a peptide that supports penetration success on barley

BioRxiv. Barley powdery mildew is an important asmocycete disease caused by the fungus Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei.  Previous literature in this field has investigated susceptibility genes as important targets to develop resistance. A well-known example of this, is the MLO gene, a negative regulator…

How to make a tumour: cell type specific dissection of Ustilago maydis-induced tumour development in maize leaves

New. Phytol. Ustilago maydis causes corn smut disease on maize which is characterized by plant cancerous symptoms forming tumours on all aerial parts of host. The fungus deploys organ-specific effector proteins to re-program organ primordia to enormous tumours, however the cellular dissection of these…

Extracellular ATP acts on jasmonate signaling to reinforce plant defense

Plant Physiol. Extracellular ATP induces plant defense responses but the mechanisms involved are largely unknown. The paper by Tripathi et al. shows how extracellular ATP serves as a danger signal in plant defense and its interaction with the signalling pathways of other stress hormones, e.g. jasmonate…