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Two rice WRKY45 alleles show enigmatically opposite effects on resistance to Xanthomonas oryzae. A study now finds that an allele-specific transposon-derived small RNA abolishes WRKY45-mediated resistance by repressing the ST1 gene through DNA methylation.
Crosstalk in plant hormone signalling is important for growth and development. The Arabidopsis transcription factor JUB1 is at the core of a gibberellin/brassinosteroid transcriptional network that controls cell elongation and stress tolerance.
Flavodiiron proteins are the main mediator of pseudocyclic electron transport in photosynthetic organisms spanning cyanobacteria to gymnosperms, but are missing in angiosperms. Experiments with Arabidopsis plants expressing moss flavodiiron proteins suggest that flavodiiron-dependent electron transport can help to protect angiosperms under fluctuating light.
In photosynthesis, excess light energy is dissipated as heat by non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). The localization of proteins and their interactions in thylakoid membranes under high and low light conditions suggests that NPQ involves monomerization of the dimeric protein PsbS and interaction of the resulting monomers with components of trimeric light-harvesting complexes of photosystem II.
Control of cell death is crucial for plant life. A comprehensive screen for suppressors of BAK1/SERK4-mediated cell death identified a component of protein glycosylation pathways and ERQC, and its cysteine-rich receptor-like kinase (CRK) targets.
Specific tissues are developed by legumes during symbiosis to host soil bacteria that will fix nitrogen from air. One single t-SNARE gene in Medicago can switch from a housekeeping to a symbiosome-specific function by alternative transcription.
