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Sequencing ancient DNA from archaeological samples reveals both how maize was transported through North America, and the shifting genomic patterns in response to selection for drought tolerance and sugar content.
Rubisco catalyses the first step in photosynthetic carbon fixation, but it can be easily poisoned by side-products of its activity. Structural and functional analyses of a protein conserved across plants, algae and bacteria shows how one such blockage is both removed and recycled.
Ascorbate is synthesized in mitochondria but needed in chloroplasts. Identification of a transporter bridging the chloroplast envelope membranes that separate cell cytoplasm from chloroplast stroma reveals a connection between ascorbate transport and cellular redox homeostasis.
Rubisco catalyses the conversion of atmospheric CO2 to organic compounds in photosynthetic organisms. Biochemical and structural analyses suggest that a selective sugar phosphatase found in plants and algae degrades a potent Rubisco inhibitor.
Plants perceive UVB from sunlight. For this, Arabidopsis thaliana use the receptor UVR8. Dynamic crystallography reveals early signalling structural events and intermediates between the homodimeric (inactive) and monomeric (active) states of UVR8.
Maize originated in southern Mexico from domestication of the wild grass teosinte, and diffused throughout the Americas. Sequenced DNA from archaeological samples spanning 6,000 years, documents the diffusion route and reveals the genes that were specifically selected for climatic and cultural adaptation to the US Southwest.
Gloger's rule describes how the colouring of animals darkens the closer to the equator they live. Similar global trends have not been observed in plants. Here Gloger's rule holds for the variation of UV pigments in silverweed (Argentina anserine).
Combining transcriptomics and molecular cell biology has identified homologous hormone systems between land plants and freshwater green algae. In particular, Arabidopsis and Spirogyra possess homologous ethylene-signalling pathways.
Sugar beet provides around one third of the sugar consumed worldwide and serves as a significant source of bioenergy. A series of laboratory experiments suggests that the transporter BvTST2.1 is responsible for sucrose uptake in the vacuoles of sugar beet taproots.
To avoid self-fertilization, members of the Solanaceae family, such as Petunia, use a system in which components of S-ribonucleases in pistils are detoxified by a collection of 16–20 different S-locus F-box proteins expressed in non-self pollen.
