Growing up
Ge & Chen

Brief Communication |

Growing up

Featured Content

  • Letter |

    C4 photosynthesis has evolved independently in over 60 plant lineages. This study shows expression of key C4 enzymes being controlled by light and the chloroplast in C3 leaves, potentially facilitating repeated evolution of C4 traits.

    • Steven J. Burgess
    • , Ignasi Granero-Moya
    • , Mathieu J. Grangé-Guermente
    • , Chris Boursnell
    • , Matthew J. Terry
    •  & Julian M. Hibberd

  • Editorial |

    Whether by accident or design, plants have accompanied people on many historical migrations. It is of little wonder then, that the history of humanity is recorded in the plants whose polysaccharides, proteins and oils keep us alive.

  • Letter | | open

    By assembling the genome of Cardamine hirsuta and conducting comparative genomic and transcriptomic analyses, a study reveals the prevalent role of transcription factors and gene duplication in morphological evolution.

    • Xiangchao Gan
    • , Angela Hay
    • , Michiel Kwantes
    • , Georg Haberer
    • , Asis Hallab
    • , Raffaele Dello Ioio
    • , Hugo Hofhuis
    • , Bjorn Pieper
    • , Maria Cartolano
    • , Ulla Neumann
    • , Lachezar A. Nikolov
    • , Baoxing Song
    • , Mohsen Hajheidari
    • , Roman Briskine
    • , Evangelia Kougioumoutzi
    • , Daniela Vlad
    • , Suvi Broholm
    • , Jotun Hein
    • , Khalid Meksem
    • , David Lightfoot
    • , Kentaro K. Shimizu
    • , Rie Shimizu-Inatsugi
    • , Martha Imprialou
    • , David Kudrna
    • , Rod Wing
    • , Shusei Sato
    • , Peter Huijser
    • , Dmitry Filatov
    • , Klaus F. X. Mayer
    • , Richard Mott
    •  & Miltos Tsiantis

Latest Research

  • Letter |

    Proanthocyanidins are important phenolic compounds that affect the taste of plant-based food. A combination of genetics and biochemistry solves the role of leucoanthocyanidin reductase in the polymerization of (epi)catechin units in Medicago.

    • Chenggang Liu
    • , Xiaoqiang Wang
    • , Vladimir Shulaev
    •  & Richard A. Dixon

  • Article |

    Crassulacean plants have high water-use efficiency and are resilient to drought. A system-wide comparative analysis of protein, transcript and metabolite variations in Agave is presented and may help to transfer this efficiency to other crops.

    • Paul E. Abraham
    • , Hengfu Yin
    • , Anne M. Borland
    • , Deborah Weighill
    • , Sung Don Lim
    • , Henrique Cestari De Paoli
    • , Nancy Engle
    • , Piet C. Jones
    • , Ryan Agh
    • , David J. Weston
    • , Stan D. Wullschleger
    • , Timothy Tschaplinski
    • , Daniel Jacobson
    • , John C. Cushman
    • , Robert L. Hettich
    • , Gerald A. Tuskan
    •  & Xiaohan Yang

  • Brief Communication |

    Mutualisms are common in nature. In Fiji, a species of ant selects, disperses and fertilizes an epiphytic plant in an exclusive symbiosis. This represents a novel example of plant farming by ants.

    • Guillaume Chomicki
    •  & Susanne S. Renner

  • Erratum |

    • Xiangchao Gan
    • , Angela Hay
    • , Michiel Kwantes
    • , Georg Haberer
    • , Asis Hallab
    • , Raffaele Dello Ioio
    • , Hugo Hofhuis
    • , Bjorn Pieper
    • , Maria Cartolano
    • , Ulla Neumann
    • , Lachezar A. Nikolov
    • , Baoxing Song
    • , Mohsen Hajheidari
    • , Roman Briskine
    • , Evangelia Kougioumoutzi
    • , Daniela Vlad
    • , Suvi Broholm
    • , Jotun Hein
    • , Khalid Meksem
    • , David Lightfoot
    • , Kentaro K. Shimizu
    • , Rie Shimizu-Inatsugi
    • , Martha Imprialou
    • , David Kudrna
    • , Rod Wing
    • , Shusei Sato
    • , Peter Huijser
    • , Dmitry Filatov
    • , Klaus F. X. Mayer
    • , Richard Mott
    •  & Miltos Tsiantis

  • Review Article |

    A Review discusses the currently known non-canonical RNA-directed DNA methylation mechanisms, their diversity and interconnections, and puts forward the key unanswered questions in this field.

    • Diego Cuerda-Gil
    •  & R. Keith Slotkin
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News & Comment

  • News and Views |

    The specialized photosynthesis adopted by drought-resilient crassulacean acid metabolism plants has inverted the diel stomatal opening behaviour of their ancestral C3 plants. This was achieved via large-scale reprogramming of expression of the signal transduction machinery and a coordinate shift in the cellular redox poise.

    • Alisdair R. Fernie

  • News and Views |

    A new study uncovers thousands of RNA-directed DNA methylation target sites masked by the active removal of methylated cytosines by a demethylating enzyme.

    • Tzung-Fu Hsieh

  • News and Views |

    A recent survey of transcript abundance in wheat grains found accumulation of mRNAs encoding key enzymes of C4 photosynthesis. However, this is not the same as showing that the C4 pathway operates in these tissues.

    • Julian M. Hibberd
    •  & Robert T. Furbank
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Current Issue

Volume 2 Issue 11

Image: M. Jacobs Cover Design: S. Whitham

Volume 2 Issue 11

Quantum collector

Begonia species adapted to deep-shade conditions display blue leaf iridescence, a form of structural colour originating from specialized chloroplasts in the epidermis. These ‘iridoplasts’ contain highly-ordered grana whose arrangement enhances absorption, tuning their photosynthesis to the depleted understory light-spectrum. 

See Nature Plants 2, 16162 (2016).

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