Новости науки и практики // Октябрь 2021

The quiescent centre of the root apical meristem: conceptual developments from Clowes to modern times

In this review Dubrovsky and Ivanov discuss the concepts of the quiescent centre (QC) of the root apical meristem (RAM) and their change over time, from their formulation by F.A.L. Clowes to the present. This review is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Clowes, and they present his short biography and a full bibliography of Clowes’ work.

https://academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jxb/erab305/6308507?redirectedFrom=fulltext&utm_campaign=The%20Week%20in%20Botany&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

New study captures sugar transport fundamental to plants

Researchers have just elucidated structures of a sugar transport protein that drives transport of sugar in plants. The study provides a comprehensive insight into sugar uptake into plant organs such as flowers, seeds and fruit. Future research can benefit from these discoveries to address challenges like food security through crop improvement.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211004104137.htm

Microtubule-based mitotic spindles contain a micron-sized mixed-nucleotide zone

Current models infer that the microtubule-based mitotic spindle is built from GDP-tubulin with small GTP caps at microtubule plus-ends, including those that attach to kinetochores (K-fibres). Catrogiovanni et al. reveal that K-fibres additionally contain a dynamic mixed-nucleotide zone that reaches several microns in length. This zone becomes visible in cells expressing fluorescently labelled EBs, a known marker for GTP-tubulin, and endogenously-labelled HURP - a protein which they show to preferentially bind the GDP microtubule lattice in vitro.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.07.23.453504v1?utm_campaign=The%20Week%20in%20Botany&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

An update on passive transport in and out of plant cells

Tomkins et al. focus on the passive transport of molecules, describing the fundamental concepts and demonstrating how different levels of abstraction can lead to different interpretations of the driving forces. They summarise recent developments on quantitative frameworks for describing diffusive and bulk flow transport processes in and out of cells, with a more detailed focus on plasmodesmata, and outline open questions and challenges.

https://academic.oup.com/plphys/advance-article/doi/10.1093/plphys/kiab406/6364193?utm_campaign=The%20Week%20in%20Botany&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

Complete root specimen of plants grown in soil-filled root box: sampling, measuring, and staining method

Detailed datasets containing root system and its architecture in soil are required to improve understanding of resource capture by roots. However, most of the root study methods have paid little attention to make and preserve whole root specimens. This study introduces root system sampling equipment that makes the entire root specimen with minimum impairment and without displacement of the spatial arrangement of the root system in root boxes.

https://plantmethods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13007-021-00798-3?utm_campaign=The%20Week%20in%20Botany&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

Two plastid POLLUX ion channel-like proteins are required for stress-triggered stromal Ca2+ release

Two decades ago, large cation currents were discovered in the envelope membranes of Pisum sativum L. (pea) chloroplasts. The deduced K+-permeable channel was coined fast-activating chloroplast cation (FACC) channel but its molecular identity remained elusive. To reveal candidates, Völkner et al. mined proteomic datasets of isolated pea envelopes. Our search uncovered distant members of the nuclear POLLUX ion channel family.

https://academic.oup.com/plphys/advance-article/doi/10.1093/plphys/kiab424/6365950?utm_campaign=The%20Week%20in%20Botany&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

The CaM1-associated CCaMK–MKK1/6 cascade positively affects lateral root growth via auxin signaling under salt stress in rice

Ca2+/calmodulin (CaM)-dependent protein kinases (CCaMKs) and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinases (MAPKKs) are two types of kinases that regulate salt stress response in plants. It remains unclear, however, how they cooperatively affect lateral root growth under salt stress. Here, two conserved phosphorylation sites (S102 and T118) of OsCaM1 were identified, and found to affect the ability to bind to Ca2+  in vitro and the kinase activity of OsCCaMK in vivo.

https://academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jxb/erab287/6299182?redirectedFrom=fulltext&utm_campaign=The%20Week%20in%20Botany&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

Mechanisms that regulate the formation of the protective layer of plant roots

Plants adapt to their nutritional needs by modifying the permeability of their roots through the production or degradation of a cork-like layer called suberin. By studying the regulation of this protective layer in Arabidopsis thaliana, an international team has discovered four molecular factors responsible for the genetic activation of suberin. The identification of these factors allowed the production of plants with roots that are continuously covered -- or, on the contrary, completely devoid -- of suberin. These factors are of major interest for the selection of plants more resistant to environmental stresses.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210923122412.htm

How plants can respond to threats

Plants are constantly exposed to adverse environmental influences and attacks, for example from pest infestation. Researchers have now described a central part of the signal mechanism used by plants to respond to threats and thus initiate a defense response in unaffected parts of the plant. In a new study, they describe the role played by the protein MSL10 among others.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210908180535.htm

Первые наземные растения произошли от пресноводных водорослей

Ученые изучили споры древних растений и пришли к выводу, что наземные формы произошли от пресноводных зеленых водорослей.

https://naked-science.ru/article/biology/pervye-nazemnye-rasteniya-proizoshli

Cytokinin regulates vegetative phase change in Arabidopsis thaliana through the miR172/TOE1-TOE2 module

During vegetative growth plants pass from a juvenile to an adult phase causing changes in shoot morphology. This vegetative phase change is primarily regulated by the opposite actions of two microRNAs, the inhibitory miR156 and the promoting miR172 as well as their respective target genes, constituting the age pathway. Here we show that the phytohormone cytokinin promotes the juvenile-to-adult phase transition through regulating components of the age pathway.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26088-z

Mutant clover reveals the connections between carbon and nitrogen fixation for legumes

Some mutant plants ‘super-nodulate’ and these are thought to be carbon-limited. So what will happen to them with elevated carbon concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?

https://www.botany.one/2021/09/mutant-clover-reveals-the-connections-between-carbon-and-nirogen-fixation-for-legumes/

Researchers visualise for the first time the colonisation of plant roots by fungi in real time

A collaboration between researchers from the Department of Plant Sciences and the Sainsbury Laboratory has visualised the colonisation of plant roots by fungi in real time. This is the first time that this vital, 400-million-year-old process has been visualised in real time in full root systems of living plants.

https://www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/news/researchers-visualise-first-time-colonisation-plant-roots-fungi-real-time

Adaptive mechanisms of plant specialized metabolism connecting chemistry to function

As sessile organisms, plants evolved elaborate metabolic systems that produce a
plethora of specialized metabolites as a means to survive challenging terrestrial
environments. Decades of research have revealed the genetic and biochemical
basis for a multitude of plant specialized metabolic pathways. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-021-00822-6