Plant stress responses articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article
  06 October 2014 | Open Access

  Middle-Eastern plant communities tolerate 9 years of drought in a multi-site climate manipulation experiment

  Semi-arid and Mediterranean ecosystems are predicted to be vulnerable to climate change. Here, Tielbörger et al. show that plants along a steep climatic gradient in a biodiversity hotspot are resistant to both irrigation and drought in multiple years of experimental rainfall manipulation.

  • Katja Tielbörger
  • , Mark C. Bilton
  •  & Marcelo Sternberg

• Article | 07 August 2014

  Natural variation in arsenate tolerance identifies an arsenate reductase in Arabidopsis thaliana

  Arsenic tolerance in plants is critical for their adaptation to some soils and has therefore played an important role in plant distribution. Here, the authors identify a quantitative trait locus encoding an arsenate reductase enzyme that confers arsenic tolerance in plants.

  • Eduardo Sánchez-Bermejo
  • , Gabriel Castrillo
  •  & Antonio Leyva

• Article | 05 August 2014

  A single locus confers tolerance to continuous light and allows substantial yield increase in tomato

  Domesticated tomato plants are damaged by continuous light exposure, limiting the usefulness of artificial light to boost yields. Velez-Ramirez et al. identify a locus conferring continuous light tolerance in wild tomatoes, and show that its introgression into modern tomato lines enhances yield by 20%.

  • Aaron I. Velez-Ramirez
  • , Wim van Ieperen
  •  & Frank F. Millenaar

• Article
  09 July 2014 | Open Access

  Identification of a novel salt tolerance gene in wild soybean by whole-genome sequencing

  The identification of genes that control economically important traits is an essential step towards crop improvement. Here the authors sequence the genome of the wild soybean and, through a combined genetic and functional approach, identify a new gene affecting salt tolerance in soybean.

  • Xinpeng Qi
  • , Man-Wah Li
  •  & Hon-Ming Lam

• Article | 21 November 2013

  Genomic insights into salt adaptation in a desert poplar

  Little is known about the genes that confer salt tolerance in trees. Here, Ma et al. report the genome sequence of the desert poplar, Populus euphratica, and provide insight into the genetic architecture and adaptation of this salt tolerant desert poplar.

  • Tao Ma
  • , Junyi Wang
  •  & Jianquan Liu

• Article
  31 July 2013 | Open Access

  Group A PP2Cs evolved in land plants as key regulators of intrinsic desiccation tolerance

  Abscisic acid plays an essential role in the induction of vegetative desiccation tolerance in bryophytes. Here the authors show that elimination of protein phosphatases 2C is sufficient for the mossPhyscomitrella patensto survive desiccation without the assistance of abscisic acid.

  • Kenji Komatsu
  • , Norihiro Suzuki
  •  & Yoichi Sakata

• Article
  26 February 2013 | Open Access

  A new class of plant lipid is essential for protection against phosphorus depletion

  Phosphorus supply is one of the major factors responsible for reduced crop yields. Here Okazaki et al.use untargeted lipidomics to elucidate the biosynthetic pathway of a novel plant lipid, glucuronosyldiacylglycerol, which is essential for the protection of plants against phosphorus depletion.

  • Yozo Okazaki
  • , Hitomi Otsuki
  •  & Kazuki Saito

• Article | 12 February 2013

  Arabidopsis ubiquitin ligase MIEL1 mediates degradation of the transcription factor MYB30 weakening plant defence

  In plants, the regulatory mechanisms that control disease resistance responses remain poorly understood. Marino et al. show that the Arabidopsis E3 ubiquitin ligase MIEL1 interacts with and ubiquitinates the MYB transcription factor (TF), MYB30, leading to proteasomal degradation of MYB30 and attenuation of plant defence.

  • Daniel Marino
  • , Solène Froidure
  •  & Susana Rivas

• Article
  12 February 2013 | Open Access

  Allelic variation at a single gene increases food value in a drought-tolerant staple cereal

  Sorghum is a drought-adapted cereal, but the grains have lower digestibility than other cereal crops. This work shows that a low-frequency allele type in the starch metabolic gene pullulanase is associated with increased digestibility, which may help improve sorghum yield and therefore food security.

  • Edward K. Gilding
  • , Celine H. Frère
  •  & Ian D. Godwin

• Article | 15 January 2013

  Release of SOS2 kinase from sequestration with GIGANTEA determines salt tolerance in Arabidopsis

  The flowering time and clock-related protein GIGANTEA has been broadly implicated in the development and physiology of plants. Kim and colleagues studyArabidopsisand find that GIGANTEA modulates salt stress via the release of the protein kinase SOS2, which is required for salt tolerance.

  • Woe-Yeon Kim
  • , Zahir Ali
  •  & Dae-Jin Yun

• Article | 13 March 2012

  Multiple exposures to drought 'train' transcriptional responses in Arabidopsis

  Whether plants can remember their transcriptional response to stress is unknown. By repeatedly exposingArabidopsisto drought, we show that the plants remember their transcriptional response to stress and that the altered genes retain the epigenetic mark H3K4me3 and stalled phosphorylated polymerase II.

  • Yong Ding
  • , Michael Fromm
  •  & Zoya Avramova

• Article
  12 April 2011 | Open Access

  RSS1 regulates the cell cycle and maintains meristematic activity under stress conditions in rice

  Cell proliferation in plant meristems is often altered during conditions of stress. In this study, the authors identify a plant protein, RSS1, that is regulated in a cell-cycle dependent manner and is required to maintain shoot and root meristems in the presence of abiotic stress.

  • Daisuke Ogawa
  • , Kiyomi Abe
  •  & Shin Takeda