Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
A study sequenced the genome of a museum specimen of Egyptian emmer wheat chaff dated back to 3,000 years ago. The genome reveals the unique genetic diversity contained in this ancient sample as well as the domestication and dispersal history of emmer wheat.
Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) protects plants from photodamage. A mutant lacking LHCII, the main antenna complex of plants, shows that NPQ mainly occurs in LHCII, but there is an additional quenching site within the Photosystem II core.
Chitin oligomers from fungal cell walls induce plant immunity. Genetic evidence shows that chitin deacetylation by a secreted fungal enzyme hides the presence of the pathogen from the immune recognition system and is essential for host colonization.
The vascular cambium contains meristem cells that produce secondary xylem and phloem in the stems and roots of many plants. Its activity largely determines wood formation. Now, a genome-wide transcript profiling of Arabidopsis thaliana root cambium is presented to unlock the complex network that regulates cambium development and activity.
The 2.37 Å structure of a tetrameric photosystem I complex from the cyanobacterium Anabaena shows a dimer of dimers organization. This oligomerization is physiologically linked to cyclic electron flow and thylakoid membrane organization.
There are three families of orange carotenoid protein (OCP), a cyanobacterial blue-light sensor. OCPX most closely resembles their common ancestor. OCP2 has fast deactivation and weak antenna interaction but does not dimerize, unlike OCPX and OCP1.
Gibberelins comprise a large number of species, with some being bioactive forms and the others being inactive. The different gibberelin species are interconvertible, and a new subfamily of cytochrome P450 enzymes has now been identified to be responsible for gibberelin deactivation in Brassicaceae.
Plants frequently face trade-offs of growth and defence. One way for the switch is to produce defensive compounds from primary pathway intermediates. Here, the researchers characterized the biosynthetic pathway of an antibiotic diterpenoid in maize and revealed a crosstalk between maize secondary metabolism and gibberellin biosynthesis.
This study identified structural variants in grapevine populations, including wild progenitors, using a de novo assembly and comparative genomics approach, and examined their evolutionary genomics and roles in domestication and phenotypic evolution.
Coumarins are a large class of plant secondary metabolites in the phenylpropanoids family. Now, a novel enzyme, coumarin synthase, is shown to catalyse a key step of coumarin synthesis in Arabidopsis roots and regulate iron uptake in alkaline soils.
The remarkable diversity of plant leaf shapes raises a question: what is the biological relevance of the different shapes? Now researchers have discovered the preference of a leaf-processing herbivore for non-lobed leaves, indicating that leaf shape is an adaptive trait.
This study identifies the CLE peptides involved with the SUNN receptor in the autoregulation of the mycorrhizal symbiosis pathway during colonization of Medicago roots by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.
Using a set of eleven maize lines that were selfed for six generations, a study examined the dynamics of heterozygosity and genome size resulting from selfing and the purging patterns of deleterious single nucleotide polymorphisms and transposable elements.
In Brassicaceae, half of the flowers are formed on secondary inflorescences, independently of the absolute number of flowers. This rule is valid in several species and various Arabidopsis mutants.
Phosphatidic acid constitutes less than 1% of total lipids, but does not play a minor role. It serves as a lipid precursor, affects membrane curvature and regulates signalling transduction. Now, by employing a new powerful PAleon biosensor, the researchers visualized PA dynamics in different pH conditions corresponding to salt stress responses in Arabidopsis.
Climate change is projected to warm higher latitudes at an increasing rate, probably causing more forest fires and altering native boreal forest composition. Alaskan conifer trees could decline in importance relative to deciduous broadleaf trees, modifying feedback loops within the entire forest ecosystem and with the climate.
Stomata act to control CO2 uptake and water loss, integrating endogenous signals with environmental cues to ‘set’ stomatal aperture. Separate closure-inducing signals access unique but partially overlapping, modular gene networks.
A novel algorithm, ALLHiC, for building allele-aware, chromosomal-scale assembly for autopolyploid genomes using Hi-C paired-end reads is developed and successfully applied in constructing the autotetraploid and autooctoploid sugar-cane genomes.
The three-dimensional (3D) genomes of Brassica rapa and Brassica oleracea generated using Hi-C provide insights into the role of 3D organization in genome evolution. Specifically, stronger chromatin interaction is associated with gene retention during diploidization.
A sex determination gene, FrBy, is identified in the dioecious kiwifruit and demonstrated to maintain male functions across angiosperm species. FrBy and the known female suppressor gene, SyGI, support the evolution of dioecy via the ‘two-mutations’ model.