Plant sciences articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The plant hormone auxin is essential for plant development and growth and is transported across cellular membranes via specialized transporter proteins. In this study, Ranocha et al. identify the first vacuolar auxin transporter, WAT1, suggesting an involvement of the vacuole in auxin signalling.

    • Philippe Ranocha
    • , Oana Dima
    •  & Deborah Goffner

  • Article |

    Plants have two mechanisms to respond to infection; pattern-triggered immunity detects conserved microbial compounds, whereas effector-triggered immunity recognizes proteins secreted by pathogens. In this study, Cheng et al. report that temperature determines which of these immune systems is preferentially induced.

    • Cheng Cheng
    • , Xiquan Gao
    •  & Ping He

  • Article |

    The plant hormone auxin controls growth and development, and is recognized by auxin-binding protein 1 (ABP1) and other receptors. In this study, Tromas et al.investigate the role of ABP1 and show that the protein functions upstream of other auxin receptors and controls auxin repressors via the SCF ubiquitin ligase pathway.

    • Alexandre Tromas
    • , Sébastien Paque
    •  & Catherine Perrot-Rechenmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mulberry trees are the primary food source for silkworms, which are reared for the production of silk. In this study, He et al. present the draft genome sequence of Morus notabilisand find that it evolved significantly faster than other plants in the Rosales order.

    • Ningjia He
    • , Chi Zhang
    •  & Zhonghuai Xiang

  • Article |

    Mineral delivery to plant tissues must be tightly controlled to prevent tissue toxicity. Here, Yamaji et al. describe a manganese transporter in rice that delivers manganese to young leaves and panicles at low metal concentrations, while at high concentrations the metal is transported to older tissues due to rapid degradation of the transporter.

    • Naoki Yamaji
    • , Akimasa Sasaki
    •  & Jian Feng Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding how species assemblages change over time is crucial for conservation. Here, the authors assess the changes of compartmentalized structure in native and alien species across millennia, and show that older assemblages can form more functionally distinctive modules than younger ones.

    • Cang Hui
    • , David M. Richardson
    •  & Vojtěch Jarošík

  • Article |

    The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum displays a primitive form of agriculture with some clones carrying bacteria to seed out food crops. Brock et al. now demonstrate that these farmers also carry non-food bacteria that harm competing non-farmer amoeba clones, protecting the crop from exploitation.

    • Debra A. Brock
    • , Silven Read
    •  & Joan E. Strassmann

  • Article |

    Agrobacterium uses a single-stranded DNA molecule–T-strand–to transform host plants, but the mechanism of insertion into the host genome is unclear. Here, the authors find that T-strand to double-stranded T-DNA conversion, which precedes integration into the genome, may be initiated by the host DNA repair machinery.

    • Zhuobin Liang
    •  & Tzvi Tzfira

  • Article |

    MADS-box genes regulate flowering plant development, but their evolutionary origins are unclear. Here, Ruelens et al.show that three major, apparently flowering plant-specific, MADS-box gene clades are derived from a single ancestral tandem duplication, and identify FLOWERING LOCUS C-like genes in cereals.

    • Philip Ruelens
    • , Ruud A. de Maagd
    •  & Kerstin Kaufmann

  • Article |

    Sorghum is an important crop species for the African continent but the grain is difficult to digest. The authors of this study examine a previously identified sorghum mutant known for improved digestion and find that the mutant is the result of a point mutation in the seed-processing protein kafirin.

    • Yongrui Wu
    • , Lingling Yuan
    •  & Joachim Messing

  • Article |

    Climate change and increasing temperature have an impact on the flowering time of plants but models predicting these effects are lacking. Satake et al. provide a model based on differential gene expression to predict the response of plants to warmer temperatures and find that the flowering period is shortened.

    • Akiko Satake
    • , Tetsuhiro Kawagoe
    •  & Hiroshi Kudoh

  • Article |

    The control of RNA stability is essential for gene regulation in eukaryotes. Hirayama et al. demonstrate that poly(A)-specific ribonuclease and bacterial-type poly(A) polymerase control mitochondrial mRNA poly(A) status in Arabidopsis, showing that a unique system regulating mitochondrial function operates in plants.

    • Takashi Hirayama
    • , Takakazu Matsuura
    •  & Shimpei Hayashi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Abscisic acid plays an essential role in the induction of vegetative desiccation tolerance in bryophytes. Here the authors show that elimination of protein phosphatases 2C is sufficient for the mossPhyscomitrella patensto survive desiccation without the assistance of abscisic acid.

    • Kenji Komatsu
    • , Norihiro Suzuki
    •  & Yoichi Sakata

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transition from a spread panicle typical of ancestral wild rice to the compact panicle of present cultivars was a crucial event in rice domestication. Here the authors show that this panicle architecture is controlled by the transcription factor OsLG1 and that a mutation in its regulatory region led to the compact panicle phenotype.

    • Zuofeng Zhu
    • , Lubin Tan
    •  & Chuanqing Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantitative trait loci mapping has traditionally been used to discover desirable alleles in plants. In this study, Lyu et al. use a comparative genome approach to identify an allele that is prevalent in upland rice varieties and alters the function of a protein involved in abscisic acid biosynthesis.

    • Jun Lyu
    • , Shilai Zhang
    •  & Wen Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Blue light stimulates stomatal opening in Arabidopsis by activating phototropins. By screening for mutants that lack this response, the authors isolate the protein kinase blus1, and show that its phosphorylation by phototropin-1 promotes guard cell signalling and stomatal opening.

    • Atsushi Takemiya
    • , Naoyuki Sugiyama
    •  & Ken-ichiro Shimazaki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Algae beds are a promising resource for bio-energy and gas production, but their productivity is often limited by solar energy harvesting efficiency. Wondraczek et al. promote algal growth by using photoluminescent phosphor, which shifts the light spectrum to better match the algal adsorption band.

    • Lothar Wondraczek
    • , Miroslaw Batentschuk
    •  & Christoph J. Brabec

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Flowering time is a critical developmental transition for a plant’s reproductive success and it depends on endogenous and environmental signals. Here Gu et al.show that MADS-domain floral repressors form protein complexes that coordinate Arabidopsis responses to these cues and regulate its flowering time.

    • Xiaofeng Gu
    • , Chau Le
    •  & Yuehui He

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Plant cell division is driven by the expansion of the phragmoplast, a characteristic structure that forms in the middle of the plant cell during cytokinesis. Murata et al. use genetic and cell imaging approaches to clarify the microtubule behaviour that leads to phragmoplast expansion.

    • Takashi Murata
    • , Toshio Sano
    •  & Mitsuyasu Hasebe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    RecQ helicases are enzymes that play a central role in maintaining genome stability in the DNA repair cascade. Klaue et al. show that RecQ2 and RecQ3 from Arabidopsis thalianaprocess DNA by, respectively, unwinding and rewinding forked DNA substrates, using a frequent strand switching mechanism.

    • Daniel Klaue
    • , Daniela Kobbe
    •  & Ralf Seidel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The switch from linear to cyclic electron flow has long been thought to rely on the migration of antenna proteins from Photosystem II to Photosystem I. Takahashi et al. report that this is not the case and that cyclic electron flow is tuned by the intrachloroplastic redox power.

    • Hiroko Takahashi
    • , Sophie Clowez
    •  & Fabrice Rappaport

  • Article |

    Rates of molecular evolution vary significantly between species, but the reasons behind this variation remain unclear. Lanfear et al.show that height accounts for one-fifth of the rate variation measured in plant genomes, and suggest that is because taller plants copy their genomes less frequently.

    • Robert Lanfear
    • , Simon Y. W. Ho
    •  & Andrew P. Allen

  • Article |

    Spatial positioning of the division plane in plant cells is determined premitotically by the preprophase band of microtubules. Spinner et al. show that its formation in Arabidopsisrequires a PP2A complex containing FASS and TON1 which is recruited to cortical microtubules by the TRM protein family.

    • Lara Spinner
    • , Astrid Gadeyne
    •  & Martine Pastuglia

  • Article |

    Differentiated genomic regions among conserved loci, known as speciation islands, are believed to form because of reduced inter-population gene flow near loci under divergent selection. Renault et al.show that reduced recombination, rather than slower gene flow, accounts for the formation of these regions in sunflowers.

    • S. Renaut
    • , C. J. Grassa
    •  & L. H. Rieseberg

  • Article |

    Environmental conditions are likely to become more temporally variable with global environmental change. Parepa et al. show that temporal variability on soil nutrient availability strongly promotes plant invasion and consequently can be a strong driver of ecological changes.

    • Madalin Parepa
    • , Markus Fischer
    •  & Oliver Bossdorf

  • Article |

    Nitrate is a signalling molecule that modulates the expression of a wide range of genes and regulates growth and development in plants. Konoshi and Yanagisawa identify a family of Nin-like transcription factors that bind the nitrate-responsive cis-element and regulate the plant's response to this nutrient.

    • Mineko Konishi
    •  & Shuichi Yanagisawa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The wild rice species can be used as germplasm resources for this crop’s genetic improvement. Here Chen and colleagues report the de novo sequencing of the O. brachyanthagenome, and identify the origin of genome size variation, the role of gene movement and its implications on heterochromatin evolution in the rice genome.

    • Jinfeng Chen
    • , Quanfei Huang
    •  & Mingsheng Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tillering is a multigenic complex trait that influences grain yield in cereal; however, the molecular network for its regulation remains unclear. Guo et al.show that OsMADS57, a transcription factor controlled by miR444a, interacts with OsTEOSINTE BRANCHED1 and targets DWARF14 to control tillering in rice.

    • Siyi Guo
    • , Yunyuan Xu
    •  & Kang Chong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, the key enzyme of C4 photosynthesis, evolved from an ancestral isoform in C3 plants and has a reduced feedback inhibition. Paulus et al.show that enhanced inhibitor tolerance of C4 phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase is achieved by a single amino-acid exchange.

    • Judith Katharina Paulus
    • , Daniel Schlieper
    •  & Georg Groth

  • Article |

    The interaction between nitric oxide and the plant phytohormone cytokinin has a critical role in regulating adaptation growth. Here Feng et al. find that nitric oxide-mediated S-nitrosylation of a phosphotransfer protein inhibits its phosphorylation, thereby repressing cytokinin signalling.

    • Jian Feng
    • , Chun Wang
    •  & Jianru Zuo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Phosphorus supply is one of the major factors responsible for reduced crop yields. Here Okazaki et al.use untargeted lipidomics to elucidate the biosynthetic pathway of a novel plant lipid, glucuronosyldiacylglycerol, which is essential for the protection of plants against phosphorus depletion.

    • Yozo Okazaki
    • , Hitomi Otsuki
    •  & Kazuki Saito

  • Article |

    In plants, the regulatory mechanisms that control disease resistance responses remain poorly understood. Marino et al. show that the Arabidopsis E3 ubiquitin ligase MIEL1 interacts with and ubiquitinates the MYB transcription factor (TF), MYB30, leading to proteasomal degradation of MYB30 and attenuation of plant defence.

    • Daniel Marino
    • , Solène Froidure
    •  & Susana Rivas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sorghum is a drought-adapted cereal, but the grains have lower digestibility than other cereal crops. This work shows that a low-frequency allele type in the starch metabolic gene pullulanase is associated with increased digestibility, which may help improve sorghum yield and therefore food security.

    • Edward K. Gilding
    • , Celine H. Frère
    •  & Ian D. Godwin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The rice sheath blight pathogen, Rhizoctonia solani, is an important fungal pathogen that can devastate rice and maize crops. Zheng and colleagues sequence and assemble the R. solani AG1 IA genome—the first to be sequenced from the Rhizoctoniagenus—using Illumina sequencing technology.

    • Aiping Zheng
    • , Runmao Lin
    •  & Ping Li

  • Article |

    Agrobacterium radiobacter strain K84 generates an antibiotic targeting pathogenic strains of Agrobacterium tumefaciens, enabling its use as a biocontrol to prevent infection of crops. Here the authors show that this antibiotic inhibits leucyl-tRNA synthetases via an unusual mechanism that depends on binding of tRNALeu.

    • Shaileja Chopra
    • , Andrés Palencia
    •  & John S. Reader

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