Новости науки и практики // Октябрь 2019

New function in a protein of plants essential to developing drought-tolerant crops

The BAG4 protein regulates the flow of potassium in occlusive cells, which optimizes the use of water by the plant.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/uom-nfi092619.php

A Matter of concentration

Scientists have studed regulation the balance between stem cells and specialized cells in plants and have determined that the concentration of so-called Argonaute proteins, such as AGO1 and ZLL/AGO10, plays a central role in this process.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/uof-amo091719.php

Ethylene-mediated nitric oxide depletion pre-adapts plants to hypoxia stress

Plants can rapidly detect submergence through passive ethylene entrapment and use this signal to pre-adapt to impending hypoxia.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12045-4

Princeton researchers explore how a carbon-fixing organelle forms via phase separation

A new study yields insights into how an organelle called the pyrenoid, which helps algae remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, forms via a process similar to how oil separates from water.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/pu-pre091219.php

Plant research could benefit wastewater treatment, biofuels and antibiotics

Duckweed genome discovery reveals how aquatic plants cope in challenging environments.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/ru-prc090419.php

SPEECHLESS, SCREAM and stomata development in plant leaves

The key step in stomata development in plants has been discovered; genes that make stomata and enforce proper stomatal patterning identified.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/nu-ssa090419.php

The Ribosome can act as a Metabolite Multi-sensor

How can plants react to so many chemicals? Do they need a vast array of sensors? New research says not.

https://www.botany.one/2019/09/the-ribosome-can-act-as-a-metabolite-multi-sensor/

A wall with integrity: surveillance and maintenance of the plant cell wall under stress

This review focuses on the sensing and maintenance of CWI (cell wall integrity) during diffuse growth in eudicots. Emerging evidence and ideas are presented on how potential signals and sensors mediate CWI sensing and how they elicit downstream signaling events. It is concluded of how these processes allow plant cells to survive stress conditions through acclimation.

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.16166

Root Hair Sizer: an algorithm for high throughput recovery of different root hair and root developmental parameters

Guichard et al. developed an image analysis algorithm that semi-automatically detects root hairs and measures their length along the whole differentiation zone of roots. This method, implemented as a simple automated script in ImageJ/Fiji software that we termed Root Hair Sizer, slides a rectangular window along a binarized and straightened image of root tips to estimate the maximal root hair length in a given measuring interval.

https://plantmethods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13007-019-0483-z

Building a CO2-concentrating mechanism

Researchers have demonstrated a key step towards reconstructing a CO2-concentrating mechanism (CCM) used by green algae in plants.

https://blogs.plos.org/synbio/2019/09/02/building-a-co2-concentrating-mechanism/

A Lignin Molecular Brace Controls Precision Processing of Cell Walls Critical for Surface Integrity in Arabidopsis

Lee et al. identify two neighboring cell types in Arabidopsis that coordinate their activities to control cell wall processing.

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(18)30392-1?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0092867418303921%3Fs

Faster than ever - neutron tomography detects water uptake by roots

A team from Potsdam, Berlin and Grenoble was able to visualize the transport of water in soil as well as through roots of lupine plants using ultrafast 3D neutron imaging.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/hbfm-fte092519.php

Aphid-stressed pines show different secondary organic aerosol formation

Plant species emit a wide variety of VOCs (volatile organic compounds), including terpenoids, benzenoids and plant stress compounds, and the mixture can change with environmental conditions, such as temperature, drought or insect outbreaks. Researchers have compared VOC emissions and SOA (secondary organic aerosols) production from Scots pines under healthy and aphid-stressed conditions.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/acs-aps091119.php

Generalized fire response strategies in plants and animals

What are the similarities and the differences in response to fire between animals and plants? These basic strategies are resistance, refugia, avoidance, dormancy, recolonization, crypsis and intolerance.

https://www.uv.es/jgpausas/papers/pausas-2019-oikos_plant-animal-fire-strategies.pdf

A ‘nodemap’ to sustainable maize roots: linking nitrogen and water uptake improvements

Study by Lagunas et al. on two new articles that find that nodal root phenes are key traits for high nitrogen use efficiency and discovering variation amongst inbred and hybrid lines that will enable the genetic mechanisms underpinning this phenotypic relationship to be investigated.

https://academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jxb/erz315/5551323

Electronic plants

With integrated and distributed electronics in plants, one can envisage a range of applications including precision recording and regulation of physiology, energy harvesting from photosynthesis, and alternatives to genetic modification for plant optimization.

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/10/e1501136

An Auxin Transport Inhibitor Targets Villin-Mediated Actin Dynamics to Regulate Polar Auxin Transport

This study provides mechanistic insight into the link between the actin cytoskeleton, vesicle trafficking, and auxin transport.

http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/181/1/161

Helping tobacco plants save water

Implantable Organic Electronic Ion Pump Enables ABA Hormone Delivery for Control of Stomata in an Intact Tobacco Plant.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/lu-htp093019.php