Volume 4 Issue 10, October 2018

Can genomics, functional analysis and genome editing help build the bridge between orphan crops and modern agriculture?

Integration of transcriptome profiles, epigenomic marks and chromatin-accessible regions highlights the conserved regulatory circuits governing ripening of fleshy fruits and unveils similarities with the development of dry fruits.

Plants’ photosynthetic capacity at high light is limited by the kinetics of the slow, carbon-dioxide-fixing enzyme Rubisco. Increasing Rubisco content in a C₄ crop plant is now shown to enhance photosynthesis and growth.

Plants synthesize a diversity of cell walls to fit the needs of different cell types and phases of development. A group of transcription factors has now been identified that governs formation of one type of primary cell wall.

Seasonal control of flowering is a dramatic example of interactions between genes and environment, and is mostly studied in growth chambers. However, switching from natural settings to artificial conditions affects phenotypes. More natural responses in cabinets can be obtained by only modifying a few environmental parameters.

Biennial plants require exposure to the cold of winter to overcome a block to flowering in the spring. The molecular role of FRIGIDA, a key component of the system that establishes the cold requirement in Arabidopsis, is to assemble a protein super-complex that promotes expression of a flowering repressor in the autumn.

Traditional knowledge of medicinal plants is rich and varied, with uses differing between cultures. Cultural evolutionary theory, particularly phylogenetic comparative methods, provide a framework to investigate continuity and change in medicinal plant knowledge.

A bioinformatic analysis shows that the variance in resistance gene content in recently published Brassicaceae genome annotations is partially caused by repeat masking, providing implications for plant breeding.

A study developed genomic resources and efficient transformation in the orphan crop groundcherry, and managed to improve productivity traits by editing the orthologues of tomato domestication and improvement genes using CRISPR–Cas9.

The authors report the non-canonical crystal structure of the DNA binding domain from BIL1/BZR1, a transcription factor involved in brassinosteroid signalling, in complex with its target DNA fragment.

Plant primary and secondary cell walls have distinct features and functions. Now, scientists have successfully replaced the secondary cell wall in Arabidopsis xylem fibres with a thick primary cell wall by specifically overexpressing AP2/ERF transcription factors.

An analysis of the fruitENCODE data consisting of multiple transcriptome, accessible chromatin, histone and DNA methylation profiles from 11 fleshy fruits reveals three types of transcriptional feedback circuits controlling fruit ripening.

N-linked glycosylation is processed in the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi for eukaryotic proteins. Now, a single Golgi-localized UDP-N-acetyl-d-glucosamine transporter was identified to be essential for the processing of protein N-glycosylation and the synthesis of GlcNAc-containing sphingolipids.

Rubisco, which catalyses a major rate-limiting reaction in photosynthesis, is an important target for ‘improvement’. This study shows that rather than specifically engineering Rubisco’s properties, overexpression alone can increase the photosynthetic performance of transgenic maize plants.

NPR1 is a highly conserved key regulator of SA-mediated immunity. Here, the authors show that it also plays an essential role in a previously unknown pathway that allows plants to adapt and acclimatize to cold temperatures.

The usual light conditions used in laboratories fail to mimic natural conditions. Here, by slightly modifying red/far-red ratios and temperature dynamics, the authors are able to faithfully reproduce natural spring flowering times and variation of the FT gene.

FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) is a central floral repressor in Arabidopsis, whose expression is vernalization-responsive and controlled by a plant-specific scaffold protein FRIGIDA (FRI). Now, the detailed mechanism of FRI-controlled FLC transcription is elucidated.