Volume 176, Issue 2, February 2018

Complex signaling networks between the chloroplast and the nucleus mediate the emergence of the seedling into the light and the establishment of photosynthesis.

Crops are regularly exposed to frequent irradiance fluctuations, which decrease their integrated CO₂ assimilation and affect their phenotype.

Recent advances in understanding photosynthetic responses to dynamic light environments reveal opportunities to improve crop plant photosynthetic efficiency.

Photooxidative stress plays a crucial role in organ growth and development, with some similarities but also important differences in the development of leaves, flowers, and fruits.

NRL proteins coordinate different aspects of phototropin signaling through signaling processes that are conserved in land plants and algae.

Recent discoveries focus on the central phytochrome signaling mechanisms that have profound impact on plant growth and development in response to light.

Phytochrome signaling controls biomass accumulation, growth plasticity, and metabolism.

Light signaling can affect root development and plasticity, either directly or through shoot-root communication via sugars, hormones, light, or other mobile factors.

A balance between dark and light signaling directs seedling establishment through integrating internal and environmental information.

Developmental transitions depend on the availability of sufficient carbon resources, which is sensed by sugar signaling pathways for high and low carbon availability.

SnRK1 is a central integrator of energy signaling in different subcellular locations with emerging roles in organellar and hormone metabolism.

TOR signaling regulates plant translation via a specific translation initiation mechanism: reinitiation.

Flooding triggers several internal changes in plant cells, and interactions between these signals can provide critical information for downstream beneficial gene expression, stress acclimation, and survival.

Knowledge of the genetic regulation of adventitious roots, aerenchyma, and radial oxygen loss barrier formation, and the signaling for acclimation, will assist the development of waterlogging-tolerant crops.

Integration of multiple cellular signals provides new opportunities in understanding oxygen sensing and response mechanisms in plants.

The role of ERF-VII TFs in higher plants is to coordinate their signature response to oxygen deficiency, but additional layers of modulation of ERF-VII activity enrich their regulatory range.

Cellular responses to low-oxygen stress and to respiratory inhibitors share common mitochondrial energy signaling pathways.

The decision of a quiescent axillary bud to commit to regrowth is governed by both metabolic and signaling functions, driven by light, energy, and oxygen availability.

Photosynthetic and glycolytic phosphoglycerate kinase mutants are transcriptionally coregulated to achieve metabolic homeostasis and to optimize growth in Arabidopsis.

The establishment of photosynthesis is a two-phase process with a clear checkpoint associated with the second regulatory phase allowing coordination of the activities of the nuclear and plastid genomes.

An empirically parameterized model of canopy photosynthesis in soybeans reveals that leaf chlorophyll can be reduced with significant nitrogen savings and only minor reductions in daily carbon gain.

High-resolution 3D reconstruction and ray tracing combined with an empirical model of photosynthesis reveals suboptimal photosynthetic acclimation in wheat canopies.

A model-based analysis of photosynthetic electron transport chain identifies several mechanisms by which photosynthetic metabolic hubs may be coordinated under a range of environmental conditions.

The OsbZIP48 gene from rice can complement the hy5 mutant of Arabidopsis but exerts pleiotropic effects and causes semidwarfism when overexpressed in rice, and its mutant/RNAi lines are seedling lethal.

The induction of genes involved in the anaerobic response is repressed if the sugar status of the plant is low.

An energy signaling pathway, photoperiod, and light intensity regulate sugar-induced hypocotyl elongation.

Far-red light alleviates cold-induced photoinhibition and enhances photoprotection in shade leaves via activation of phyA-dependent HY5-ABI5-RBOH1 signaling pathways.

COL12 is a substrate of the COP1/SPA ubiquitin ligase and regulates flowering time and plant architecture

The transcription factor PIF7 recruits the H3K4me3/H3K36me3-reader protein MRG1/MRG2 to promote histone acetylations in activating genes to promote stem elongation in plant shade response.

Ethylene and light are major determinants of an altered root system architecture in flooded rice plants.

The development of leaves requires photoreceptors to initiate auxin export, cytokinin action, and sugar-dependent signaling at dividing cells, energy signaling further adjusting growth to available light.

By storing and releasing a multitude of compounds, vacuoles play a multifaceted role in the plant development and response to environment Al changes.

Relating glycan structures in the wall to their cellular function can be achieved by combining methods for visualization of glycan epitopes, identification of their precise chemistry, and measurement of wall mechanics.

LTR_retriever is an accurate and sensitive program that identifies LTR retrotransposons and generates nonredundant exemplars from DNA sequences for whole-genome annotation and evolutionary studies.

In Arabidopsis, alternative oxidase activation is isoform specific, with AOX1A activated by oxaloacetate and 2-oxoglutarate, AOX1D solely by 2-oxoglutarate, and AOX1C insensitive to both.

Zeaxanthin accumulation and antenna remodeling protect the extremophilic red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae PSI supercomplex from light stress.

The major phenylalanine ammonia-lyases from Sorghum bicolor were characterized through crystal structures, molecular docking, site-directed mutagenesis, and kinetic and thermodynamic analyses.

In Ononis spinosa, a single oxidosqualene cyclase interacts with squalene epoxidases to produce α-onocerin from squalene dioxide, demonstrating that α-onocerin pathways evolved convergently in plants.

Generation of inducible knockdown mutants for components of the plastid Clp protease system and time-resolved analysis of changes in their proteome allows the identification of a set of putative protease substrates.

A moss flavodiiron protein can substitute the function of cyclic electron transport around photosystem I without any decrease in CO₂ assimilation or biomass production in rice.

Despite previous arguments on chloroplast lipid droplets, all lipid droplets are present in the cytosolic compartment and not in the chloroplast in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Genetic disruption of Arabidopsis SEIPINs reveals the relevance of lipid droplets in pollen transmission and in adjusting seed dormancy levels.

Branched pectic galactan is identified as a component of the cell walls of phloem sieve elements.

Arabidopsis VPS38 is required for the intracellular localization of PI3P, an important lipid regulator of endosomal and vacuolar trafficking.

Reduction of MEP/DOXP pathway activity under elevated CO₂ is not due to limited cytosolic metabolite availability.

A transmembrane protein conserved broadly in plants and animals promotes antiviral silencing by enhancing the amplification of virus-derived small interfering RNAs.

The majority of plant species preferentially express NLRs in root tissues, but the Brassicaceae family displays consistent shoot-skewed NLR expression across different phylogenetic NLR clades.

Stage- and cell type-specific gene expression profiling reveals dynamics and characteristics of the mitosis to meiosis transition in male germinal cells of maize.

DNA methylation differences between isogenic parental lines can directly or indirectly trigger heterosis in Arabidopsis hybrids.

The LOFSEP transcription factors OsMADS1, OsMADS5, and OsMADS34 regulate rice spikelet morphogenesis, form higher order complexes, and promote the expression of other floral homeotic genes.

SOG1 governs the programmed breakdown and reconstruction of the root stem cell niche after acute DNA damage.

Tomato CALCINEURIN B-LIKE PROTEIN 10 (SlCBL10) ensures plant growth by regulating proper distribution of Na+ and Ca2+ in the shoot apical meristem and developing organs under salt stress.

microRNA319-regulated TCP transcription factors influence leaf development in distinct ways in central and marginal parts of the organ.

Distinctive developmental stages lead to de novo root organogenesis in leaves guide genetically dissection of the primary developmental pathways.

The chloroplast NDH complex is built up with the aid of an assembly factor, CRR3, triggering the NDH-PSI supercomplex formation via Lhca6 before the completion of the entire NDH assembly.

Boron is preferentially delivered in rice to developing tissues by OsNIP3;1 located in the nodes, which is regulated at both the transcriptional and protein levels in response to external boron concentration.

Mineral deposition in Ficus leaves is highly regulated, and some of the minerals function in light distribution to enhance photosynthesis, depending upon the mineral location in the leaf.

The host plant Lotus japonicus produces ethylene in response to compatible Nod-factor to regulate nitrogen-fixing symbiosis.

STKR1-overexpressing plants show many phenotypic changes that have previously been associated with SnRK1 overexpression, and thus STKR1 could act as a downstream component of SnRK1 signaling.

Glucose induces dramatic physiological changes in the dinoflagellate Symbiodinium strain SSB01, although there is very little modulation of nuclear gene expression.

Modification of GhLac1 expression leads to redirection of phenylpropanoid metabolism and alteration of JA synthesis to confer broad spectrum resistance to both pathogens and pests.

The adapter protein 4 is involved in plant immunity associated with vacuolar-plasma membrane fusion and in hypersensitive cell death triggered by type-III effector recognition on the plasma membrane.

OsCPK4 has dual functions in rice in promoting the degradation and stability of OsRLCK176 to fine-tune plant immunity through modulating the phosphorylation state of OsRLCK176.

TCP17 acts as a key factor in regulating shade-induced hypocotyl rapid growth by directly promoting the transcriptional levels of PIFs and auxin biosynthesis genes.

A systems biology study reveals that anthocyanin biosynthesis in tomato vegetative tissue is accompanied by changes in the epidermis and architecture of the root.