Plant sciences articles within Nature

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  • Letter |

    A diploid organism has two copies of each gene, one inherited from each parent. The expression levels of the two alleles can be biased by dominant/recessive relationships. In Brassica, self-incompatibility in pollen is determined by dominance relationships between the two alleles of the gene SP11; the recessive allele is methylated and hence silenced. Here it is shown that such methylation is controlled by a small non-coding RNA encoded in the flanking region of the dominant allele.

    • Yoshiaki Tarutani
    • , Hiroshi Shiba
    •  & Seiji Takayama

  • News & Views |

    An aggressive and unpredictable fungal pathogen is devastating larch plantations in Britain. Its remarkably broad host range, and the possibility of further geographical spread, give heightened cause for concern.

    • Clive Brasier
    •  & Joan Webber

  • Article |

    Using historical data combined with more recent satellite observations, these authors show that global phytoplankton biomass has been declining during the past century.

    • Daniel G. Boyce
    • , Marlon R. Lewis
    •  & Boris Worm

  • News Feature |

    Plant breeders are turning their attention to roots to increase yields without causing environmental damage. Virginia Gewin unearths some promising subterranean strategies.

    • Virginia Gewin

  • News |

    A proposal to let nations opt out of growing European-approved GM varieties is under fire from all sides.

    • Andrea Chipman

  • News Feature |

    With its plentiful sun, water and land, Brazil is quickly surpassing other countries in food production and exports. But can it continue to make agricultural gains without destroying the Amazon? Jeff Tollefson reports from Brazil.

    • Jeff Tollefson

  • Letter |

    DNA replication occurs only once per cell cycle, and numerous pathways prevent re-replication. Here it is shown that mutations in ARABIDOPSIS TRITHORAX-RELATED PROTEIN5 (ATXR5) and ATXR6 — which encode histone methyltransferases — lead to re-replication of specific genomic locations, notably those corresponding to transposons and other repetitive and silenced elements. ATXR5 and ATXR6 are proposed to be components of a pathway that prevents over-replication of heterochromatin in Arabidopsis.

    • Yannick Jacob
    • , Hume Stroud
    •  & Steven E. Jacobsen

  • Letter |

    It remains uncertain whether added nitrogen enhances total plant productivity in response to CO2-fertilisation in natural ecosystems. Here the authors show that nitrogen addition initially enhances the CO2-stimulation of plant productivity but also promotes the encroachment of plant species that respond less strongly to elevated CO2 concentrations. Overall, the observed shift in the plant community ultimately suppresses the CO2-stimulation of plant productivity.

    • J. Adam Langley
    •  & J. Patrick Megonigal

  • Letter |

    A survey of organic and conventional potato fields shows that species evenness is greater under organic management. Replicating these levels of evenness in a field trial shows that the evenness of natural enemies found in organic fields promotes pest control and increases crop biomass. This is independent of the identity of the dominant enemy species, so is a result of evenness itself.

    • David W. Crowder
    • , Tobin D. Northfield
    •  & William E. Snyder

  • Letter |

    In higher animals and plants, the processes of growth and patterning are coordinated. In this study, the authors study patterning in Arabidopsis root and show that two key regulators of root organ patterning directly control the transcription of specific components of the cell-cycle machinery. This study provides a direct link between developmental regulators, components of the cell-cycle machinery and organ patterning.

    • R. Sozzani
    • , H. Cui
    •  & P. N. Benfey

  • Letter |

    One potential mechanism for maintaining biodiversity is negative feedback between a species and its specific enemies, meaning that other species can grow in its vicinity better than further individuals of the species in question. These authors show that in a tropical forest it is the soil biota that is the main cause of this feedback, and that this effect can explain the diversity.

    • Scott A. Mangan
    • , Stefan A. Schnitzer
    •  & James D. Bever

  • Letter |

    Here, a combination of forward genetics and genome-wide association analyses has been used to show that variation at a single genetic locus in Arabidopsis thaliana underlies phenotypic variation in vegetative growth as well as resistance to infection. The strong enhancement of resistance mediated by one of the alleles at this locus explains the allele's persistence in natural populations throughout the world, even though it drastically reduces the production of new leaves.

    • Marco Todesco
    • , Sureshkumar Balasubramanian
    •  & Detlef Weigel

  • Letter |

    Nucleosomes are composed of around 147 bases of DNA wrapped around an octamer of histone proteins. Here, a genome-wide analysis of nucleosome positioning in Arabidopsis thaliana has been combined with profiles of DNA methylation at single base resolution, revealing 10-base periodicities in the DNA methylation status of nucleosome-bound DNA. The results indicate that nucleosome positioning influences the pattern of DNA methylation throughout the genome.

    • Ramakrishna K. Chodavarapu
    • , Suhua Feng
    •  & Matteo Pellegrini

  • News & Views |

    In plant roots, patterning of two types of water-conducting xylem tissue is determined by a signalling system that involves the reciprocal dance of a mobile transcription factor and mobile microRNAs.

    • Ben Scheres

  • News |

    Test case for electronic publication of new species names breaks with over 200 years of history.

    • Daniel Cressey

  • Article |

    A fundamental question in developmental biology is how cells communicate positional information to pattern the tissues of an organ. Here, the patterning of a plant's xylem tubes, which transport water and solutes from root to shoot, is studied. A new bidirectional signalling pathway is discovered, whereby a transcription factor moves from cell to cell in one direction, and microRNAs move in the other direction. The result is a differential distribution of target mRNA in the vascular cylinder, determining xylem cell types.

    • Annelie Carlsbecker
    • , Ji-Young Lee
    •  & Philip N. Benfey

  • Letter |

    DNA methylation is an important epigenetic mark in many eukaryotes. In Arabidopsis plants, small interfering RNAs bound to the Argonaute 4 (AGO4) protein can direct de novo DNA methylation and consequent gene silencing. Here, a new regulator of RNA-directed DNA methylation has been discovered. This protein, RDM1, is proposed to bind to methylated DNA and to function in the AGO4 effector complex.

    • Zhihuan Gao
    • , Hai-Liang Liu
    •  & Jian-Kang Zhu

  • Letter |

    During photosynthesis, light energy is used by photosystems I and II to establish electron flow, which ultimately results in the production of ATP and NADPH. Two modes of electron flow exist, a linear electron flow and a cyclic electron flow (CEF). The latter pathway generates more ATP, but its molecular components have been elusive. Here, a combination of biochemical and spectroscopic techniques has been used to identify the supercomplex that drives CEF in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

    • Masakazu Iwai
    • , Kenji Takizawa
    •  & Jun Minagawa

  • Letter |

    In plants, the hormone jasmonoyl-isoleucine (JA-Ile) regulates growth, development and defence against pathogens. Proteins of the JAZ family repress JA-Ile-dependent gene expression, but the mechanism has been unclear. Here, an adaptor protein, NINJA, has been identified, which recruits co-repressor proteins that are known to mediate auxin-responsive gene expression as well. Hence these co-repressors are part of general repression complexes that are recruited to several different signalling pathways.

    • Laurens Pauwels
    • , Gemma Fernández Barbero
    •  & Alain Goossens

  • Letter |

    Self-fertilisation (selfing) in plants is prevented mainly by the self-incompatibility recognition system, which consists of male and female specificity genes and modifier genes. Selfing does occur in Arabidopsis plants, but it is not known how it arose. Here it is reported that selfing in Arabidopsis results from a geographically widespread, 213-base-pair inversion within the male specificity gene. When this inversion is returned to its original orientation, selfing is prevented once more.

    • Takashi Tsuchimatsu
    • , Keita Suwabe
    •  & Kentaro K. Shimizu

  • Letter |

    Making haploid plants — which inherit chromosomes from only one parent — is useful for genetic research and also, crucially, for plant breeding. A new method for generating haploid Arabidopsis plants is now described, involving the manipulation of a single centromeric protein, CENH3. When cenh3 null plants are crossed with wild-type plants, the mutant chromosomes are eliminated, producing haploid progeny.

    • Maruthachalam Ravi
    •  & Simon W. L. Chan

  • News & Views |

    Theoretical analyses reveal how plant investment in the architecture of leaf veins can be shuffled for different conditions, minimizing the construction costs associated with supplying water to leaves.

    • David J. Beerling
    •  & Peter J. Franks

  • Letter |

    Here, large-scale genome-wide association studies were carried out with the naturally occurring inbred lines of Arabidopsis thaliana, which can be genotyped once and phenotyped repeatedly. The results range from significant associations, usually corresponding to single genes, to findings that are more difficult to interpret, because confounding by complex genetics and population structure makes it hard to distinguish true associations from false.

    • Susanna Atwell
    • , Yu S. Huang
    •  & Magnus Nordborg

  • Letter |

    During Arabidopsis embryogenesis, a single cell is specified to become the founder cell of the root meristem — the hypophysis — in response to signals from adjacent cells. Hypophysis specification requires an auxin-responsive transcription factor, MONOPTEROS (MP), which promotes transport of auxin from the embryo to the hypophysis precursor. Here, MP target genes are identified and the means by which they mediate root formation is shown.

    • Alexandra Schlereth
    • , Barbara Möller
    •  & Dolf Weijers

  • Letter |

    Female gametes in flowering plants develop from a meiotic division of a precursor cell followed by mitotic divisions of one of the resulting haploid cells to yield the gametophyte. Here, ARGONAUTE 9 (AGO9) — a protein involved in RNA interference — is identified as a factor required for specification of the gametophyte. AGO9 is found not in the cell destined to be the gametophyte, but in the neighbouring companion cells, suggesting that it functions in a non-cell-autonomous manner.

    • Vianey Olmedo-Monfil
    • , Noé Durán-Figueroa
    •  & Jean-Philippe Vielle-Calzada

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