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Live-cell imaging and finite-element modelling shows how the plant's cytoskeleton gives shape to trichomes. The actin-related protein (ARP)2/3 complex generates an actin meshwork that directs growth through cell-wall anisotropy and organelle transport control.
Herbivorous insects influence forest structure and function. Experiments at the Aspen FACE facility in the US suggest that elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide enhance insect-induced reductions in forest productivity, whereas elevated concentrations of ozone have the opposite effect.
In Arabidopsis the plasma membrane nitrate transceptor (transporter/receptor) NRT1.1 governs many physiological and developmental responses to nitrate. Point mutations in two key residues of the transceptor differentially affect several of the NRT1.1-dependent responses to nitrate, suggesting that NRT1.1 activates independent signalling pathways.
The plant auxin receptor TIR1 needs to associate with the SCF complex to be functional and target substrates. Newly discovered mutations that can block this interaction suggest that TIR1 is autocatalytically degraded once assembled in the SCF complex.
Touch can lead to a reduction in plant growth and a delay in flowering time. Experiments with wild-type Arabidopsis plants, and mutants impaired in gibberellin signalling and breakdown, suggest that touch-induced changes in plant morphology depend on gibberellin catabolism.
Little is known about the selection of regulatory mechanisms for plant microRNAs. Now a Dicer partnering protein, DRB2, is reported to determine translational inhibition and repress transcript cleavage, allowing the selection of the two mechanisms.
Transposons are a major component of many plant genomes. A comparison of two related species differing in genome size and transposon content provides an opportunity to study how transposons contribute to shaping the genome and epigenome.
Asymmetric cell divisions establish the patterning of stomata in maize. PAN receptor-like kinases were thought to start a signalling cascade leading to pre-mitotic polarization of the cell. Re-analysis of mutants now reveals that the SCAR/WAVE complex is involved in the early initiation of polarity in mother cells.
The development of a new jasmonate reporter further extends the tools that add greater detail to the investigation of plant hormones. Such reporters for the various types of plant hormones, exploiting different aspects of their activity, will help us to eventually study hormone signalling, distribution and dynamics in intact tissue.
People have learned much from being fed, clothed, sheltered and medicated by plants over millennia. Such traditional knowledge can yield practical discoveries and an understanding of our societies.
Buried in a notebook from his undergraduate days lie Newton's musings on the movement of sap in trees. Viewed in conjunction with our modern understanding of plant hydrodynamics, his speculations seem prescient.
The United States is one of the largest soybean exporters in the world. An analysis of meteorological and field-trial data spanning the past 20 years suggests that climatic changes have reduced US soybean yields by around 30%.
Closely related plant species can have drastically different abundances of transposable elements. Now it is shown that the genome of Arabis alpina has experienced a striking expansion of retrotransposons, probably shaped by reduced DNA methylation.