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The herbicide-resistant BAR gene is broadly used in different plants. The current study reports the first crystal structure of the BAR enzyme and further demonstrate structure-guided engineering strategies to reduce the non-specific activities of BAR.
There is a lack of efficient transcriptional activation tools for plant cells. Now, a study describes the development of a new potent dCas9-based transcriptional activation system that allows activation of single or multiple genes in both plant and mammalian cells.
Plant cell wall consists of multiple components and complex structure. Here, ssNMR was used to investigate the physical interactions between two principle cell wall components, cellulose and xylan, and demonstrate the mechanism for their interactions
MicroRNAs regulate gene expression as part of the RNA-induced silencing complex. An analysis of miRNA in Chlamydomonas reinhardtiishows that algal miRNAs target sites predominantly within coding regions to destabilize mRNA and repress translation.
Recent outbreaks of wheat stem rust pose a threat to global wheat production. A powerful computational modelling approach is now used to trace and predict the spread of these new pathogen stains, and can potentially be applied to other wind-dispersed spores.
The uptake of CO2 by leaves, and its conversion to sugars, is the basis for life on land. This study proposes a model unifying light-use efficiency relationships and a standard model of photosynthesis across species and ecosystems, and globally.
Unlike in animal species, where topologically associated domains (TADs) are prevalent, it has been shown that TADs are not prominent in the Arabidopsis genome. Now, Hi-C shows that prominent TADs differentiate rice from Arabidopsis.
During gibberellic acid signalling, DELLAs restrict the size of the shoot apical meristem by targeting the cell cycle regulator KRP2. The roles of DELLAs in the shoot apical meristem and stem growth can be genetically uncoupled in Arabidopsis and barley.
After trans-zeatin riboside, the active cytokinin trans-zeatin is identified as the second major xylem cytokinin translocated from root to shoot. Interestingly, these two forms of root-derived cytokinins play different roles in regulating shoot development.
In response to drought, acetate accumulates endogenously through redirection of metabolic fluxes, and stimulates jasmonate pathways controlling Arabidopsis drought tolerance. Application of exogenous acetic acid alone increases drought tolerance of major crops such as maize, wheat and rice.
How plants reject foreign pollen remains elusive. Now, it is found that the recognition between two proteins encoded by genes duplicated from pollen–pistil recognition loci causes intraspecific unilateral incompatibility in Brassica rapa.
A new plant virus offensive strategy, in which defensive small RNAs are suppressed through peroxisomal import in Arabidopsis, is identified using peanut clump virus. This novel pathogenic strategy may also have counterparts in other plant and animal viruses.
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 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.
Plant cell growth requires cell wall extension. Here, the nanoscale movement of cellulose microfibrils in onion primary cell wall is imaged by atomic force microscopy and compared under mechanical extension versus enzymatic loosening.
While circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been identified in all eukaryotic kingdoms of life, their functions have remained elusive. Now, a study shows that circRNAs can promote alternative splicing of their cognate mRNA, thus driving homeotic phenotypes.
Setaria viridis is a panicoid grass that can serve as a simpler genetic model for crops, such as maize, and accelerate gene discovery. Here, an auxin influx transporter is identified in both plants as an inflorescence architecture regulator.
GW5 is a major rice quantitative trait locus for grain size. Through genetics experiments, and unlike previous reports, the causal gene is now linked to a calmodulin-binding protein that affects brassinosteroid signalling.
A Japanese group has developed an approach of generating transgenic rice plants with agrochemical-controlled flowering time by overexpressing a floral repressor gene, Ghd7, followed by transformation of an agrochemical-inducible florigen gene, Hd3a.
A comprehensive gene stacking approach is used to rationally design rice varieties that combine multiple desirable quantitative traits to obtain both high yields and high grain quality.