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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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
A new screen for Arabidopsis defective in Casparian strip formation identifies EXO70A1 as a central player. This subunit of the exocyst complex is needed for correct ring-like CASP1 localization, but its role is uncoupled from secretion.
Lichens are symbioses of fungi and green algae or cyanobacteria. Here, the finding of 152 fossil lichens from Palaeogene amber greatly increases the number of known fossil lichens. Their morphologies show that the European Palaeogene amber forests were temperate and humid.
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.
Plants protect their photosynthetic apparatus from excess light energy through non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). This study shows that NPQ is catalysed by two independent mechanisms, only one of which is dependent on lutein.
How the two types of key trans-acting factors, PLS-type pentatricopeptide repeat protein and the multiple organellar RNA editing factor, cooperate in plant RNA editing remains unknown. A study now uses crystal structures to characterize the mechanism.
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.
Photosynthesis is a fundamental life process but how photosystem II uses sunlight to split water remains unclear. Comparisons with enzymes from anaerobic prokaryotes suggest a possible mechanism for the photosynthetic O–O bond formation.
The mechanism underlying vegetative desiccation tolerance (DT) of plants remains elusive. A study now sequences the genome and transcriptome for the resurrection plant, Xerophyta viscosa, and supports that vegetative DT arose by redirection of the seed DT pathway.
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.
It remains unclear how post-transcriptional gene silencing in plants discriminates aberrant RNAs from canonical mRNAs. Now, a study shows that the poly(A) tail of canonical mRNAs blocks RDR6 from converting them into the substrates for gene silencing.