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Touch can lead to a reduction in plant growth and a delay in flowering time. Experiments with wild-type Arabidopsis plants, and mutants impaired in gibberellin signalling and breakdown, suggest that touch-induced changes in plant morphology depend on gibberellin catabolism.
Little is known about the selection of regulatory mechanisms for plant microRNAs. Now a Dicer partnering protein, DRB2, is reported to determine translational inhibition and repress transcript cleavage, allowing the selection of the two mechanisms.
The United States is one of the largest soybean exporters in the world. An analysis of meteorological and field-trial data spanning the past 20 years suggests that climatic changes have reduced US soybean yields by around 30%.
Closely related plant species can have drastically different abundances of transposable elements. Now it is shown that the genome of Arabis alpina has experienced a striking expansion of retrotransposons, probably shaped by reduced DNA methylation.
The Gora mountains of north-eastern Albania are home to the culturally distinct Gorani and Albanian peoples. Comparison of each's local plant knowledge shows how culture has moulded their use of the environment to alleviate food insecurity.
By genetic studies the authors report a gene, Ppd-1, which controls paired spikelet development in wheat by regulating the expression of FT. Modulating the expression of Ppd-1 and FT can be used to improve grain-producing spikelets in wheat.
Asymmetric cell divisions establish the patterning of stomata in maize. Here it is demonstrated that the SCAR/WAVE complex and actin networks are involved in the early polarity establishment of PAN's receptor-like kinases in mother cells before division.
Chloroplasts of the moss Physcomitrella patens have two types of supercomplex containing light harvesting complexes and photosystem I. One is like those in green algae due to acquisition of the algal protein Lhcb9 by horizontal gene transfer.
Rubisco catalyses the conversion of atmospheric CO2 to organic compounds in photosynthetic organisms. Biochemical and structural analyses suggest that a selective sugar phosphatase found in plants and algae degrades a potent Rubisco inhibitor.
Plants perceive UVB from sunlight. For this, Arabidopsis thaliana use the receptor UVR8. Dynamic crystallography reveals early signalling structural events and intermediates between the homodimeric (inactive) and monomeric (active) states of UVR8.
Maize originated in southern Mexico from domestication of the wild grass teosinte, and diffused throughout the Americas. Sequenced DNA from archaeological samples spanning 6,000 years, documents the diffusion route and reveals the genes that were specifically selected for climatic and cultural adaptation to the US Southwest.
Gloger's rule describes how the colouring of animals darkens the closer to the equator they live. Similar global trends have not been observed in plants. Here Gloger's rule holds for the variation of UV pigments in silverweed (Argentina anserine).
Combining transcriptomics and molecular cell biology has identified homologous hormone systems between land plants and freshwater green algae. In particular, Arabidopsis and Spirogyra possess homologous ethylene-signalling pathways.
Sugar beet provides around one third of the sugar consumed worldwide and serves as a significant source of bioenergy. A series of laboratory experiments suggests that the transporter BvTST2.1 is responsible for sucrose uptake in the vacuoles of sugar beet taproots.
To avoid self-fertilization, members of the Solanaceae family, such as Petunia, use a system in which components of S-ribonucleases in pistils are detoxified by a collection of 16–20 different S-locus F-box proteins expressed in non-self pollen.