Volume 5 Issue 7, July 2019

Receptor-mediated regulation of SPEECHLESS by a MAP kinase cascade coordinates cell fate specification during stomatal development. SCREAM functions as a scaffold to bring SPEECHLESS in proximity with MPK3/MPK6, thereby allowing its down-regulation to inhibit stomatal cell fate.

The stigma has tightly regulated recognition mechanisms at several levels to prevent unwanted pollen from achieving fertilization. Knowledge about barriers controlling interspecific incompatibility is scarce. New evidence reveals a novel gene involved in regulating interspecies incompatibility in self-compatible Arabidopsis thaliana.

A comprehensive analysis of genetic gains in winter wheat, spanning 50 years of breeding and conducted under a wide range of cropping systems, validates the inherent efficiency of breeding for optimal environments.

Atmospheric nitrogen deposits are overloading the ability of plant species to live and thrive. Bringing the complex and underestimated link between nitrogen and biodiversity to light is necessary to start restoration projects.

Herbacious grain annuals in the mid-Holocene period were typically so hard to forage and eat that their use by humans was seen as a ‘last resort’, but this Perspective argues that a switch from animal to human dispersal allowed for domestication into the crops that became the foundation for societies around the world.

The gametophyte phase is extremely reduced in angiosperms, reduced to a few haploid cells in flowers. This Perspective discusses recent studies in Marchantia polymorpha that have identified conserved components of gametogenesis.

Walking ants can slightly bend Venus flytrap sensory hairs and induce an action potential (AP) in vivo. The minimal deflection angle able to fire an AP and other properties of these trigger hairs are described and quantified.

In poplar, a quantitative genetic screen identifies a G-type lectin receptor-like kinase that mediates ectomycorrhizal symbiosis with Laccaria bicolor. Expression of the kinase in non-host Arabidopsis makes mycorrhizal colonization possible.

In moss, a subgroup of uncharacterized AP2/ERF transcription factors called STEMIN promotes stem cell formation and regeneration, specifically through a repressive chromatin mark on its target genes.

The Early Cretaceous record of monocots is poor compared to other angiosperms. A well-preserved fossil monocot from the Crato plattenkalk limestone supports the possibility of an early radiation of monocots into the tropics of Northern Gondwana.

Fossil fuel and fertilizer use has led to increased nitrogen and sulfur pollution deposition in the United States, introducing mixed impacts on herbaceous species that could impact ecosystems as well as the individual plants.

Using large-scale data describing five decades of wheat breeding progress in western Europe, a study shows that breeding for high performance enhances wheat productivity under not only optimal conditions but also conditions with reduced agrochemical inputs.

Expression of heterologous proteins from plastid genomes can compromise plant growth. However, field-grown tobacco plants overproducing a bacterial cellulase suffer no loss in biomass or Rubisco content and little reduction in photosynthesis.

Knockout of cytoplasmic male-sterility-associated genes using TALENs with mitochondria localization signals rescues male sterility in rice and rapeseed, validating the role of these genes, and provides a method for plant mitochondrial genome editing.

STIGMATIC PRIVACY 1 (SPRI1) encodes a stigma-specific plasma membrane protein. It ensures intraspecific fertilization by rejecting pollen tubes of distantly related species in a manner independent of self-incompatibility, thus functioning as an interspecies barrier mechanism.

Arabidopsis MPK3 and MPK6 are involved in many biological processes. How do they achieve their signalling specificity? Structural, biochemical and genetic approaches show that the bHLH protein SCREAM acts as a scaffold to recruit downstream substrates during stomatal development.

In C₄ grasses, malate is decarboxylated by NADP-malic enzyme in bundle sheath cells. The structures of maize and sorghum varieties identify amino acids important for catalytic efficiency, tetrameric structure and pH-dependent inhibition malate