Volume 7 Issue 6, June 2021

The single-nucleus transcriptional atlas of Arabidopsis endosperm reveals variation in gene imprinting across endosperm compartments and cell cycle stages, and provides new evidence for the role of imprinting in balancing resource allocation in the developing seed.

Polarity cues direct tissue patterning by defining the cell division plane. Proteins containing the IQ67 calmodulin-binding domain govern cell division by establishing and maintaining cell polarity during cytokinesis.

Ginkgo biloba is well known for its unique morphological features, key phylogenetic position and long association with humans. A refined, high-quality reference genome of G. biloba helps to fix the problems in the draft release and understand the genetic basis of some important morphological features.

How do plants acquire their shape? In this Perspective, the authors discuss how morphogenesis and patterning occur in the Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem, and the benefits of computational modelling to understand this complex process.

Not only is climate change having an impact on invasive plants through changes in ecosystem, atmospheric carbon may be changing the plants themselves. This analysis finds higher concentrations of parthenin at higher levels of CO₂, making an invasive weed more toxic.

This study generated a transcriptional atlas of developing Arabidopsis seeds with single-nucleus RNA-sequencing, reporting transcriptionally uncharacterized nuclei types in the chalazal endosperm and spatially and temporally heterogenous imprinting in the seeds.

The IQ67 DOMAIN (IQD) family are plant-specific calmodulin-binding proteins. Several members are associated with the microtubule cytoskeleton, and now IQD6, IQD7 and IQD8 are characterized as functioning in the set-up of the cell division plane in the root meristem of Arabidopsis.

Analyses on a newly assembled, nearly complete genome of Ginkgo biloba revealed the cause of genome expansion and candidate genes associated with the formation of spermatophore flagellum in ginkgo, advancing our understanding about gymnosperm evolution.

Correcting organizational errors of the Brassica A, B and C genomes reveals the conserved structure of each genome across species and genome evolutionary pathways. Genus-wide pan-genomes were constructed, helping to elucidate the genomic impacts of alien introgressions.

A sorghum pan-genome generated from 16 genomes representing cultivated and wild sorghum shows extensive variation, with 64% of the gene families exhibiting presence/absence variations, some of which confer phenotypic outcomes and contribute to domestication and improvement.

An introgression platform for transferring genetic variations of Aegilops tauschii to hexaploid wheat is established based on synthetic octoploid wheat. Combined with newly generated genome resources of A. tauschii, it represents a powerful tool for wheat gene discovery and breeding.

Salt-responsive gene regulatory networks in two distantly related species, Arabidopsis and Marchantia polymorpha, are characterized and compared. While WRKY transcription factors are central nodes in both networks, their target promoter sequences have been expanded in Arabidopsis.

Analyses of individual shoot meristem transcriptomes in wild-type and mutant tomato, at high temporal resolution, produce remarkably precise information about gene expression patterns during the transition from vegetative to floral growth that translates into genetic hierarchies.

Plants evolved powerful mechanisms to fight against pathogenic microorganisms. So how can they accept and even favour the presence of growth-promoting fungi or bacteria? Here, the authors show that helpful commensal bacteria can suppress part of the plant innate immune system.

Pavement cells in the epidermal layer of plant leaves are frequently used to study plant cell morphogenesis. Comprehensive mechanistic models are now developed to integrate the mechanisms underlying the process of symmetry breaking and lobe formation in pavement cells.

A massively parallel reporter assay was used to measure the activity of nearly complete sets of promoters from Arabidopsis, maize and sorghum in two assay systems, uncovering the sequence features affecting promoter strength and facilitating promoter strength prediction and synthetic design.