Recent Posts

Red Light and the Plasma Membrane H+-ATPase in Guard Cells

Stomatal opening is stimulated by light, including blue and red light. Blue light-induced stomatal opening is fairly well understood: it is mediated by blue-light photoreceptor phototropins (phot1 and phot2). Blue light activates the plasma membrane (PM) H+-ATPase via phosphorylation of its penultimate…

Esculin, a Sucrose Proxy for Phloem Transport

The study of phloem transport and its vital roles in long distance communication and carbon allocation have been hampered by a lack of suitable tools that allow high-throughput, real-time studies. Since the 1970s, several studies have used 11C or 14C isotopes to measure rates of phloem transport in large…

Annexins Facilitate Post-Phloem Sugar Transport

Because local sugar concentrations play a critical role in regulating root growth, it is important to learn more about the mechanisms that control sugar transport into the growing zones of the 
root. It has previously been proposed that once translocated sugar reaches the interface between conducting…

Co-expression networks for strawberry flower and fruit development

The diploid strawberry (Fragaria vesca) is a useful model system for understanding non-climacteric ripening and seed-to-fruit cross-tissues communication. Previously, spatial and temporal transcriptome data from the strawberry fruit and flowers was generated. Shahan and colleagues combine the transcriptome…

How to identify the substrates of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters (Plant Physiol)

Plant genomes encode many ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters, which mediate the transport of many different substrates involved in development, nutrition and stress responses. Mutants and transgenic plants have been used to understand the in planta roles, yet the identity of substrates transported…

Adjusting Boron Transport by Two-Step Tuning of Levels of the Efflux Transporter BOR1

Boron is an essential plant micronutrient with the narrowest optimal range in the soil of any micronutrient. At neutral pH, boron is present as uncharged boric acid, B(OH)3, which can freely penetrate membranes. Boron plays an important role in cross-linking cell wall components, but boron starvation…

Developing High-Yield Early-Maturation Crops by Manipulating Nitrogen Utilization

Wang et al. investigate the function of OsNRT1.1A in rice. Plant Cell (2018). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00809. By Wei Wang, Bin Hu and Chengcai Chu Background: To cope with an increasing global population and decreasing availability of arable land, improving crop yield is a major agricultural…

Update: Cation/H+ transporters affect membrane trafficking

By Heven Sze and Salil Chanroj. Plants remodel their cells through the dynamic endomembrane system. Intracellular pH is important for membrane trafficking, but the determinants of pH homeostasis are poorly defined in plants. Electrogenic proton (H+) pumps depend on counter-ion fluxes to establish…

Lipid Anchor: Postal Code for Proteins on the Road to Membranes

Majeran et al. investigate how plant cells target proteins to membrane compartments https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00523 By Wojciech Majeran, Thierry Meinnel & Carmela Giglione Background: Living cells are encased in an oily barrier, the plasma membrane, made up of a double layer of lipids…