Volume 3 Issue 6, June 2017

Plant research produces data in a profusion of types and scales, and in ever-increasing volume. What are the challenges and opportunities presented by data management in contemporary plant science? And how can researchers make efficient and fruitful use of data management tools and strategies?

Cell metabolism relies on redox reactions to harness energy for life. Cells need to sense and regulate their internal redox state, typically with cysteine thiols. At plastid origin, cysteine residue frequency increased in the diatom genome lineage, an evolutionary redox footprint preserved in plant DNA.

The first N-acetylglucosamine transporter to be functionally characterized in plants has an unexpected role in root colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in rice.

SHATTERING 4 is a key rice domestication gene. A non-synonymous mutation of this gene was found to be selected during Asian rice domestication as it confers non-shattering. Now, a nonsense mutation of SHATTERING 4 is shown to simultaneously result in non-shattering and small grain size during the independent domestication of African rice.

Fifty per cent of the nitrogen fertilizer used globally is lost as ammonia, nitrate or nitrous oxide. Nitrification inhibitors, exuded by plant roots, play a role in reducing those losses both naturally and in the service of sustainable agriculture.

Invasive plants pose a particular environmental management issue given rapid environmental change and an unpredictable future. Productive connections have recently been established between social and natural science approaches to the problem.

Roots bend towards water. The root cortex in the elongation zone is the site of perception during hydrotropism but also the site of differential root growth, which is different from gravitropism.

An effective and high-throughput technology spatially profiles the whole transcriptome of intact plant tissues from Arabidopsis thaliana, Populus tremula and Picea abies. It is also suitable for other species that are less genetically tractable.

The reason why African cultivated rice has smaller grains than its wild progenitor has remained puzzling. Now, scientists find that the selection of a single-nucleotide polymorphism mutation in the GL4 gene during African rice domestication causes loss of seed shattering and smaller seeds.

The origin of photosynthetic eukaryotes requires two major endosymbiosis events. Organelle acquisitions impose an increase in reactive oxygen species production, as well as the expansion of redox-sensitive proteasome in photosynthetic eukaryotes.

Natural variation in Arabidopsis is used to identify the causal gene for acquired osmotolerance. ACQOS is a resistance NLR gene, highlighting the trade-off between immunity and abiotic stress tolerance.

The NOPE1 gene is required for arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in maize. The causal gene is now identified using rice. It is the first identified GlcNAc transporter in plants, needed for presymbiotic fungal reprogramming.

Carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements of crop remains from archaeological sites in northern Mesopotamia show labour-intensive practices such as manuring and water management forming an integral part of agriculture since the seventh millennium bc.

A double mutant in bHLH transcription factors produces pollen without sperm cells. This pollen is able to germinate, grow, orient itself, penetrate the ovule and rupture, indicating that sperm cells are passive and do not participate in pollen tube development.