Volume 2 Issue 5, May 2016

Medicinal plants, often harvested directly from the wild, are under increasing pressure from climate change, development and over-exploitation in response to increasing demand. Is cultivation the answer, or can a certification programme create incentives to achieve sustainable harvests?

Sustainable intensification is a concept of growing importance, yet it is in danger of becoming scientifically obsolete because of the diversity of meanings it has acquired. To avoid this, it is important to consider the various scales on which it can aid progress towards feeding human populations while also protecting the environment.

Solid genetic and biochemical data now support a surprising AGO4-like function of AGO3 in regulating epigenetic silencing.

Micronutrient deficiency in human diets that are over-reliant on cereals can have grave consequences for health. Combining genetics, grafting and multi-elemental image analysis, new research shows that two P1B-ATPases maternally export zinc inside the developing seed in Arabidopsis, offering a new strategy for crop biofortification.

A new study combines cell sorting with DNA methylation and RNA profiling to identify novel epigenomic features in plant roots.

In response to biotic or abiotic stress, plants can regulate cell–cell communication by modulating plasmodesmal permeability. Here the authors show that callose synthases CalS1/8 are involved in this process.

Micronutrient deficiency in a cereal-based human diet can have grave consequences. Combining genetics, grafting and multi-elemental image analysis, the authors show how two maternal P1B-ATPases export zinc to the developing seed in Arabidopsis.

C₄ photosynthesis is thought to be more efficient than the ancestral C₃ form, but data directly comparing the two are inconsistent. This study compares 382 grasses and finds a consistent increase in growth and greater investment in water and nutrient acquisition in C₄ species.

Future food demand may require agricultural intensification, which depends on material input such as phosphorous fertilizers. This paper quantifies the necessary P input to intensify global crop production on P-fixing soils, based on Brazilian data.

Non-photochemical quenching protects the photosynthetic apparatus of plants from damage in high light conditions. High-resolution time-resolved fluorescence measurements now show that the level of this photoprotection is regulated by subtle changes in the number of LHCIIs in a quenched state.

Most Arabidopsis AGO proteins have been well studied, but the function of AGO3 remains elusive. Now a study has shown that, unexpectedly, AGO3 is functionally different from its closest paralogue AGO2, and instead shares similar function with AGO4 in the epigenetic pathway.

The bittersweet nightshade Solanum dulcamara produces extrafloral nectar from herbivore-inflicted wounds, without the need for any specialized structure. This nectar attracts ants that defend the plant against two of its native herbivores.

Temperature modulates flowering times. Alternative splicing, followed by nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, downregulates the thermosensitive repressor gene FLM at high temperatures, which accelerates the timing of floral transition.

Cell-type-specific DNA methylation in plants has only been studied for reproductive tissues. Now a study reports cell-type-specific methylomes of the Arabidopsis root meristem, providing insights into the epigenetic diversity between somatic cell types.