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Plants often need to bend their organs during their growth and development. It is a complex process, and the different mechanisms involved are discussed in the light of recent findings about genes, signalling, modelling and biomechanics.
This review explores recent advances in research on the regulatory and evolutionary mechanisms of plant specialized metabolism and extrapolates these findings to medicinal plants that synthesize rare molecules.
This Review summarizes our current knowledge from genomics and fossil records about the evolutionary transition from charophycean algae to embryophytes, with a focus on the progressive assembly of the embryophyte genetic innovations during terrestrialization.
The higher-order organization of the monoterpenoid indole alkaloid biosynthesis in Catharanthus roseus leaves was dissected using single-cell RNA sequencing. This work opens the door to elucidate the spatial distribution of plant specialized metabolism at single-cell resolution, which will improve our understanding of the biosynthesis, transport and storage of specialized metabolites.
This Perspective reviews recent advances in crop transformation technologies that promise to lead to the widespread adoption of genome editing in crop species.
The long and trailing vines of most cucurbits represent an undomesticated trait that hampers dense planting and yields, and also incurs a high labour cost. A targeted artificial evolution strategy was developed to suppress stem elongation of cucurbits in a dose-dependent manner, thereby enhancing yield and reducing labour costs.
The TPLATE complex (TPC) is an ancient multi-subunit adaptor complex, essential for clathrin-mediated endocytosis in plants. We found that the evolutionary specific SH3 domain on the large TPC subunit, TASH3, recognizes ubiquitinated cargo proteins at the plasma membrane, providing a link between endocytosis and internalization of ubiquitinated proteins.
Sweet potato weevils (SPWs) pose one of the greatest challenges to sweet potato production worldwide; however, the genetic basis of SPW resistance remains unclear. This study identifies two major SPW resistance genes in sweet potato and provides new insights into the mechanisms by which sweet potato defends against SPWs.
Appropriate root system architecture (RSA) is essential for efficient water and nutrient use, especially in high-density planting conditions in intensive maize cropping systems. Modern maize breeding has favoured steeper, narrower root systems. We identified two auxin-related genes, ZmRSA3.1 and ZmRSA3.2, which can potentially be used for future improvement of maize RSA.
Plant cell wall pectin has a homogalacturonan or rhamnogalacturonan backbone. Incomplete knowledge of RG-I biosynthetic enzymes has impeded in vitro pectin synthesis and pectin structure and function studies. Here, RGGAT1 is identified as a GT116 RG-I backbone biosynthetic galacturonosyltransferase that produces polymeric RG-I backbone when expressed with GT106 RG-I rhamnosyltransferases.
Nitrate is a nutrient and a signal. Membrane protein NRT1.1 reflects this duality as both a nitrate transporter and sensor. A new perception mechanism has just been discovered: transcription factor NLP7 is also a nitrate sensor. Thus, two distinct but interacting systems perceive nitrate. Are there others?
Duplication of KCBP, which encodes a plant-specific microtubule-based kinesin motor, occurs solely in legumes of the clade that form symbiosomes. The nodule-enriched KCBP (nKCBP) is co-opted by rhizobia to control central vacuole morphogenesis in symbiotic cells, thus achieving symbiosome development and nitrogen fixation.
Root hairs have long been considered to elongate exclusively by so-called tip growth, in which the new building material is deposited at the root hair apex. Using a set of newly developed imaging experiments, we revealed that root hair shank expansion can substantially contribute to total root hair growth.
Guard cell outward rectifying potassium (GORK) channel activity is associated with channel clustering at the guard cell membrane. We show that clustering and gating both depend on an extended ‘antenna’ of bound channel voltage sensors. Uncoupling clustering and gating facilitates K+ flux, accelerating stomatal movements in environments typical for plants in the field.
Intracellular H2O2 has emerged as a central player in signalling and stress acclimation, but how specificity is achieved remains elusive. Cytosolic peroxiredoxins play a decisive role as they sense H2O2 and transmit the oxidation signal through the formation of disulfide bridges, leading to stomatal closure that reduces pathogen entry.
Pathogen perception in plants is mediated by immune receptors that detect specific pathogen molecules. Members of one diverse receptor family that occurs in all land plants form a structurally conserved activation complex with a shared signalling mechanism.
Plants rely on cell-surface and intracellular immune receptors to activate immune responses and thwart microbial infection. Large-scale comparative genomic analysis reveals matching size variations of the repertoires for both types of receptors across plants during evolution.
A major bottleneck in plant breeding is the establishment or breakage of genetic linkages by random, naturally occurring meiotic recombination. This problem can be overcome by CRISPR–Cas-mediated chromosome engineering. By inverting ~17 Mb of chromosome 2 of Arabidopsis thaliana, we almost completely suppressed genetic crossovers in nearly the entire chromosome.
Cooperation between nitrogen assimilation and photosynthesis is central for plant growth and development in adaption to changing environmental conditions. This work reveals that the plant energy sensor SnRK1 represses nitrate signalling by phosphorylating NODULE INCEPTION PROTEIN-LIKE PROTEIN (NLP7) to promote its degradation in response to carbon deficiency or nitrate depletion.
Crop production depends to a very large extent on phosphorus fertilization, yet the sustainability of this practice is limited by the predicted exhaustion of phosphorus resources. A new molecular pathway regulating phosphorus accumulation in plants has been identified, with PHO1 found to play a pivotal role in mediating it.
