This Arabidopsis Research Roundup covers the final papers of 2017 and the first of this new year. The initial paper is led by researchers in Bristol and characterises how the multifaceted BIG protein influences stomatal dynamics in response to altered CO2. Second is a manuscript from SLCU that for the first time in plants demonstrates nuclear sequestration of cell cycle regulated mRNAs.
Next is a paper from Rothamsted that describes a role for the hormone GA during floral development. David Salt (Nottingham) is then a co-author on a manuscript that has determined a role for the CTL protein in ion homeostasis.
Seth Davies from York is the lead author on the next study that investigates a link between metabolism and the circadian clock. The sixth paper looks at genes involved in the control of autophagy and features Patrick Gallois (Manchester) as a co-author.
There are three papers from researchers working on Norwich Research Park with Cyril Zipfel (TSL) involved in a study that looks at vacuolar trafficking of BR signaling components. Janneke Balk leads a study that characterises enzymes involved in biosynthesis of metal co-factors whilst the final NRP-based paper from Nick Pullen and Steven Penfield (John Innes Centre) describes the Leaf-GP open software for automated plant phenotyping.
The penultimate paper uses a set of PlantProbes (developed by Paul Knox at Leeds) to study pollen development whilst the final paper from Keith Lindsey (Durham) describes the application of a Bayesian statistical methodology to model the parameters that control a hormone signaling network.
He J, Zhang RX, Peng K, Tagliavia C, Li S, Xue S, Liu A, Hu H,, Zhang J, Hubbard KE,, Held K, McAinsh MR, Gray JE, Kudla J, Schroeder JI, Liang YK, Hetherington AM (2018) The BIG protein distinguishes the process of CO2 -induced stomatal closure from the inhibition of stomatal opening by CO2. New Phytol. doi: 10.1111/nph.14957 Open Access
Alistair Hetherington (University of Bristol) leads this UK-USA-China collaboration that has characterised a role for the mysterious BIG protein during stomatal closure in response to altered CO2 concentration. Interestingly BIG mutants do not show a defect in stomatal opening in response to altered CO2, allowing the dissection of this complex response through the activity of this protein. It remains to be determined exactly how the BIG protein influences this process.
Yang W, Wightman R, Meyerowitz EM (2017) Cell Cycle Control by Nuclear Sequestration of CDC20 and CDH1 mRNA in Plant Stem Cells. Mol Cell. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2017.11.008
Elliott Meyerowitz (SLCU) is the corresponding author of this research that provides the first characterisation in plants of nuclear sequestration of mRNAs from developmental important genes. The authors show that Arabidopsis anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) coactivator genes CDC20 and CCS52B are confined to the nucleus in prophase, preventing translation of the cognate proteins until metaphase, which appears to protect cyclins from degradation at an inappropriate phase of the cell cycle
Plackett ARG, Powers SJ, Phillips AL, Wilson ZA, Hedden P, Thomas SG4 (2017) The early inflorescence of Arabidopsis thaliana demonstrates positional effects in floral organ growth and meristem patterning. Plant Reprod. doi: 10.1007/s00497-017-0320-3
This study is led from Rothamsted Research and includes Zoe Wilson from the University of Nottingham. They perform a systematic analysis of early floral organ initiation across the Arabidopsis inflorescence, discovering that both GA-dependent and independent stages are important for this process, albeit via the activity of presently unknown factors.
Gao YQ, Chen JG, Chen ZR An D, Lv QY, Han ML, Wang YL, Salt DE, Chao DY (2017) A new vesicle trafficking regulator CTL1 plays a crucial role in ion homeostasis. PLoS Biol. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2002978
Open Access
David Salt (University of Nottingham) is a co-author on this Chinese-led investigation into the role of the vesicle trafficking regulator choline transporter (CTL) during the control of ionome homeostasis. Using ctl1 mutants they show that this function is required for the action of certain ion transporters as well as during plasmodesmata (PD) development. This study provides novel insights into the role of vesicular transport in the control of ion homeostasis and how the location of these ions might alter vesicle activity.
Sánchez-Villarreal A, Davis AM, Davis SJ (2017) AKIN10 Activity as a Cellular Link Between Metabolism and Circadian-Clock Entrainment in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Plant Signal Behav. doi: 10.1080/15592324.2017.1411448
Seth Davies (University of York) is the corresponding author on this study demonstrating that overexpression of the AKIN10 subunit of the SnRK1 complex results in increased period length of the circadian clock. The authors postulate about the possible links between metabolic rate and function of the clock, allowing them to present a model of action that features each of the central regulatory elements.
Havé M, Balliau T, Cottyn-Boitte B, Dérond E, Cueff G, Soulay F, Lornac A, Reichman P, Dissmeyer N, Avice JC, Gallois P, Rajjou L, Zivy M, Masclaux-Daubresse C (2017) Increase of proteasome and papain-like cysteine protease activities in autophagy mutants: backup compensatory effect or pro cell-death effect? J Exp Bot. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erx482
Open Access
This study is led by French researchers and includes Patrick Gallois (University of Manchester) as a co-author. The work focuses on the role of the ATG genes during autophagy, the key process that controls nutrient recycling during senescence. In atg5 mutants they show that different sets of proteases are misregulated, suggestive of a complex relationship between the enzymes involved in nutrient remobilization.
Liu Q, Vain T, Viotti C, Doyle SM, Tarkowská D, Novák O, Zipfel C, Sitbon F, Robert S, Hofius D (2017) Vacuole Integrity Maintained by DUF300 Proteins Is Required for Brassinosteroid Signaling Regulation. Mol Plant. doi: 10.1016/j.molp.2017.12.015
Cyril Zipfel (TSL) is a member of this Pan-European consortium that investigates the role of the vacuolar proteins, LAZARUS1 (LAZ1) and LAZ1 HOMOLOG1 (LAZ1H1) on the cellular cycling of BR-signaling components. Plants with mutations in laz1 and laz1h1 show increased BAK1 accumulation at the tonoplast as well as enhanced BRI1 trafficking and degradation. These DUF300 proteins appear to play a specific role in BR signalling as other vacuolar-associated proteins are not involved in this process.
Kruse I, Maclean A, Hill L, Balk J (2017) Genetic dissection of cyclic pyranopterin monophosphate biosynthesis in plant mitochondria. Biochem J. doi: 10.1042/BCJ20170559 Open Access
Janneke Balk (John Innes Centre) leads this study that has identified novel alleles in mitochondrial enzymes that are involved in the biosynthesis of metal cofactors. Analysis of these enzyme mutant reveals that they show deficiencies in the synthesis of cyclic pyranopterin monophosphate (cPMP), revealing fresh insights into the metabolic processes involving this key intermediate.
Zhou J, Applegate C, Alonso AD, Reynolds D, Orford S, Mackiewicz M, Griffiths S, Penfield S, Pullen N (2017) Leaf-GP: an open and automated software application for measuring growth phenotypes for arabidopsis and wheat. Plant Methods. doi: 10.1186/s13007-017-0266-3
Open Access
Nick Pullen and Steve Penfield (John Innes Centre) introduce this new software tool for the automated measurement of plant phenotypes. This Leaf-GP software is open access and has the sophistication to discriminate between different aspects of both Arabidopsis and greenhouse growth wheat.
This paper is back of a special issue of Plant Methods that is based on the use of Computer Vision in Plant Phenotyping.
Ndinyanka Fabrice T, Vogler H, Draeger C, Munglani G, Gupta S, Herger AG, Knox JP, Grossniklaus U, Ringli C (2017) LRX Proteins play a crucial role in pollen grain and pollen tube cell wall development. Plant Physiol. doi: 10.1104/pp.17.01374
Open Access
This Swiss-led study looks into the role of LRX proteins during cell wall formation and how they affect pollen germination and pollen tube formation. The authors took advantage of the molecular tools produced by Paul Knox (University of Leeds) as part of his Plant Probes project.
Vernon I, Liu J, Goldstein M, Rowe J, Topping J, Lindsey K (2017) Bayesian uncertainty analysis for complex systems biology models: emulation, global parameter searches and evaluation of gene functions. BMC Syst Biol. doi: 10.1186/s12918-017-0484-3 Open Access
Keith Lindsey (University of Durham) leads this paper that applies a Bayesian statistical methodology to analyse a model of hormonal crosstalk in the Arabidopsis root. They show that this technique can provide new insight into the behavior of models and enables the identification of new interesting rate parameters.
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