10 февраля, 2025

Новости науки и практики // Февраль 2025

Activation and memory of the heatshock response is mediated by Prion-like domains of sensory HSFs in Arabidopsis

Plants are able to sense and remember heat stress. An initial priming heat stress enables plants to acclimate so that they are able to survive a subsequent higher temperature. The heatshock transcription factors (HSFs) play a crucial role in this process, but the mechanisms by which plants sense heat stress are not well understood. By comprehensively analyzing the binding targets of all the HSFs, we find that HSFs act in a network, with upstream sensory acting in a transcriptional cascade to activate downstream HSFs and protective proteins.

https://www.cell.com/molecular-plant/pdf/S1674-2052(25)00028-0.pdf

Exploring quantum mechanics in photosynthesis: Insights into energy transfer in plants

Scientists see their study as an important new basis in the effort to clarify how chlorophyll, the pigment in leaf green, works. Applying these findings in the design of artificial photosynthesis units could help to utilize solar energy with unprecedented efficiency for electricity generation or photochemistry.

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-exploring-quantum-mechanics-photosynthesis-insights.html

A rare PRIMER cell state in plant immunity

Nobori et al infect Arabidopsis thaliana leaves with bacterial pathogens that trigger or supress immune responses and integrate time-resolved single-cell transcriptomic, epigenomic and spatial transcriptomic data to identify cell states. They describe cell-state-specific gene-regulatory logic that involves transcription factors, putative cis-regulatory elements and target genes associated with disease and immunity.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08383-z

Decoding the Intricate Metabolic and Biochemical Changes in Plant Senescence: a focus on chloroplasts and mitochondria

This review seeks to clarify the complex metabolic and biochemical transformations involved in plant senescence by explaining the mechanisms in a straightforward and connected manner. It focuses on key cellular processes such as genetically programmed or stress-induced senescence, chlorophyll metabolism and nutrient recycling, while also exploring the roles of signaling molecules and pathways.

https://academic.oup.com/aob/advance-article/doi/10.1093/aob/mcaf003/7990648

Plant Defense Hormones: Thermoregulation and Their Role in Plant Adaptive Immunity

The influence of global climate change on agricultural output is substantial and increasing in tropical and temperate regions. Recent events in global climate change, such as increases in temperature, have negatively impacted not only plant growth but also plant immunity to pathogens. The emergence of novel pathotypes or modifications in host specificity due to climate change has emerged as a future threat to sustainable agriculture.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00344-024-11620-4

Resolving spatially distinct phytohormone response zones in Arabidopsis thaliana roots colonized by Fusarium oxysporum

Jasmonic acid (JA), ethylene (ET) and salicylic acid (SA) are the three major phytohormones coordinating plant defense responses, and all three are implicated in the defense against the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum. However, their distinct modes of action and possible interactions remain unknown, in part because all spatial information on their activity is lacking. Calabria et al set out to probe this spatial aspect of plant immunity by using live-microscopy with newly developed fluorescence-based transcriptional reporter lines.

https://academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jxb/erae516/7959743

Молекулярная филогенетика помогает реконструировать общего предка современных эукариот

Группа испанских микробиологов провела молекулярно-филогенетическое исследование нескольких малоизвестных групп одноклеточных эукариот, таких, как апузомонады и анкиромонады. В результате уточнено положение этих групп и показано, что общий предок всех современных эукариот, вероятно, обладал примерно таким же набором признаков, как примитивные члены ранее выделявшейся супергруппы «Excavata».

https://elementy.ru/novosti_nauki/434303/Molekulyarnaya_filogenetika_pomogaet_rekonstruirovat_obshchego_predka_sovremennykh_eukariot

How plants fend off pathogens: The role of calcium and kinases

A team headed by biologist Prof Jörg Kudla of the University of Münster has identified important components and mechanisms of the molecular machinery that transmits information about a pathogen encounter within the plant organism.The study, which has now been published in the journal Science Advances, also provides clues as to how plants manage to transmit immune signals from cell to cell without disrupting other signaling chains in the affected cells.

https://phys.org/news/2025-01-fend-pathogens-role-calcium-kinases.html

The evolution of signaling and monitoring in plant–fungal networks

Experiments have shown that when one plant is attacked by a herbivore, this can lead to other plants connected to the same mycorrhizal network up-regulating their defense mechanisms. It has been hypothesized that this represents signaling, with attacked plants producing a signal to warn other plants of impending harm. We found theoretically that plant warning signals are rarely evolutionarily stable. Instead, Scott et al identify two viable alternatives that could explain the empirical data: 1) being attacked leads to a cue (information about the attack) which is too costly for the attacked plant to suppress; 2) mycorrhizal fungi monitor their host plants, detect when they are attacked, and then the fungi signal this information to warn other plants in their network. "We thought plants that are being munched on send warning signals to others, allowing them to boost defences. Turns out, plants are actually selfish jerks and their neighbours resort to chemical eavesdropping.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2420701122

Cryo-EM structure of the NDH–PSI–LHCI supercomplex from Spinacia oleracea

The nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) dehydrogenase (NDH) complex is crucial for photosynthetic cyclic electron flow and respiration, transferring electrons from ferredoxin to plastoquinone while transporting H+ across the chloroplast membrane. This process boosts adenosine triphosphate production, regardless of NADPH levels. In flowering plants, NDH forms a supercomplex with photosystem I, enhancing its stability under high light.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41594-024-01478-1

Editing plant chromosomes using molecular scissors

With the help of CRISPR/Cas technology, genes can be removed, inserted, or exchanged easily. CRISPR/Cas stands for a certain section on the DNA (CRISPR—Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) and an enzyme (Cas) that recognizes this section and cuts the DNA precisely at this point. Crops produced by genome editing do not contain any DNA, which is why they are not to be equated with classical genetically modified organisms.

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-chromosomes-molecular-scissors.html