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RNA-labelling technologies for quantitative imaging of RNA polymerase II activity are used to capture real-time transcription in single cells of living tobacco and Arabidopsis plants and to investigate the single-cell basis of tissue-wide transcriptional dynamics in response to heat shock.
A method to label and visualize nascent RNA allows real-time study of transcriptional dynamics at single-cell resolution in vivo. The approach is used to study transcriptional repression of the SPX1 gene by phosphate in Arabidopsis roots.
p-Hydroxybenzoylation is a common type of lignin modification but its catalytic mechanism and physiological relevance are unclear. An enzyme that catalyses lignin p-hydroxybenzoylation in poplar sheds light on the role of this specialized modification.
Could plant stem cells be maintained by a constitutive endogenous stress? It is shown here that components of the ethylene signalling pathway are involved in Arabidopsis shoot stem cell maintenance, through the transcription factor AGL22.
The Arabidopsis leucine-rich repeat receptor-like protein RLP42 perceives a 9-amino-acid peptide contained in a fungal endopolygalacturonase. Other Brassica species perceive different epitopes, highlighting rapid and convergent evolution to ensure immunity against pathogenic microbes.
An expanded OnGuard platform incorporates feedback between CO2 concentration, photosynthesis and stomatal dynamics to connect molecular mechanisms with gas exchange in the leaf. Modelling and experimental data highlight the importance of intracellular calcium stores and calcium pumps in a response latency with environmental fluctuations.
Do simple leaves have the potential to become compound leaves? In Arabidopsis, the combined action of CINCINNATA-like TEOSINTE BRANCHED1, CYCLOIDEA, PROLIFERATING CELL FACTORS (CIN-TCP) transcription factors and class II KNOTTED1-LIKE (KNOX-II) transcription factors suppresses leaflet initiation in simple leaves. Downregulation of these genes leads to super-compound leaves.
Microbial symbioses can help plants mitigate environmental stresses and plant microbiome compositions are influenced, for example, by drought stress. The investigated temporal shifts of the rice root microbiome under various durations of drought show the progression of microbiome composition in response to stress and a long-lasting effect of severe conditions.
By examining the relationship of various facets of genomic changes with phenotypic evolution, this study found that pulses of phenotypic innovation in gymnosperms are strongly associated with gene duplications and genomic conflict.
High-resolution structures of the PSI–LHCI–LHCII supercomplex from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii reveal the mechanism of assembly between the PSI–LHCI complex and two phosphorylated LHCII trimers.
A synthetic root microbial community rescues weak growth under low light and enhances immunity in Arabidopsis. Transcription factor MYC2 regulates both this coordination between rhizosphere and shoots and the growth/defence trade-off under low light conditions.
Brassinosteroids (BR) and abscisic acid (ABA) signalling pathways are mostly known to antagonize each other. Here, it is shown that BR and ABA can also interact synergistically, which plays a role in development and salt stress tolerance of rice plants.
Cryo-electron microscopy structures of two PSII intermediates from psbV-deletion and wild-type strains of cyanobacteria show substantial structural changes. These provide a structural basis for understanding the assembly process of native PSII.
Pollen apertures, the special areas on the surfaces of pollen grains that allow pollen tube emergence, show enormous diversity of patterns across plant species. Now a species-specific module formed by two DOG1-domain proteins is identified to control the formation of pollen apertures in flowering plants.
In barley, a MADS transcription factor regulates inflorescence morphogenesis in response to warm temperature. MADS1 maintains unbranched spike morphology through repression of cell division in the spike meristem. A loss-of-function mutant forms branch-like spikes.
A substantially improved robust CRISPR activation system, CRISPR–Act3.0, enables efficient and multiplexed gene activation in rice, Arabidopsis and tomato, and can be compatible with Cas12b and the near-PAM-less SpRY to expand the targeting scope.
A new method for transgene expression in chloroplasts is developed, which amplified transgenes efficiently as a minichromosome. Such amplified transgenes can express foreign proteins and are maintained stably during plant development and inheritance.
An improved reference genome of sweet orange and newly sequenced genomes of its somatic mutants uncover the global pattern of somatic variations, the diversification and dispersal history of sweet orange and candidate genes controlling fruit taste and flavour.