This largest ever Arabidopsis Research Roundup (ARR) includes 6 papers from Norwich Research Park (NRP), including three featuring Cyril Zipfel (TSL) as a co-author on papers that investigate different aspects of plant immune signaling. Elsewhere on the NRP site Veronica Grieneisen (JIC) is a co-author on a study that defines the root auxin maximum whilst Dale Sanders and Saskia Hogenhout lead a paper that defines a method for the analysis of calcium signaling. Finally Robert Sablowski’s group at the JIC investigates the role of the DELLA proteins during meristem development.
Elsewhere investigators from Kew Gardens and Bangor University have used nanopore sequencing for the facile characterisation of field populations of Arabidopsis. Similarly Seth Davies (University of York) is part of a collaboration that looks how alterations in the circadian clock might affect plant fitness.
Verena Kriechbaumer (Oxford Brookes) leads a phylogenetic study into the conservation of auxin biosynthesis genes whilst Hilary Rodgers (Cardiff University) is a co-author on a Chinese-led study that looks into role of cadmium on the Arabidopsis cell cycle.
This ARR is full of examples of UK researchers involved in global collaborations. This includes Cambridge researchers involved in a proteomic analysis of microsomes, Justin Goodrich from the University of Edinburgh as part of a US-led study that defines the regulation of the PRC2 complex and Katherine Denby (University of York) as a member of a consortium that has performed a network analysis of jasmonic acid signaling.
Finally are two studies in which the research takes place within a single institution. Malcolm Hawksford (Rothamsted Research) looks at the effect of wheat transcription factors in the response to the heavy metal zinc whilst Emily Larson and Mike Blatt (University of Glasgow) investigate the role of clathrin on plant vesicular transport.
D’Ambrosio JM, Couto D, Fabro G, Scuffi D, Lamattina L, Munnik T, Andersson MX, Alvarez ME, Zipfel C, Laxalt AM (2017) PLC2 Regulates MAMP-Triggered Immunity by Modulating ROS Production in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol 10.1104/pp.17.00173
This Argentinian-led study includes Cyril Zipfel (TSL) as a co-author on this work that uses miRNA-mediated gene silencing to assess the role of the phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) in plant immune signaling.
Imkampe J, Halter T, Huang S, Schulze S, Mazzotta S, Schmidt N, Manstretta R, Postel S, Wierzba M, Yang Y, vanDongen WM, Stahl M, Zipfel C, Goshe MB, Clouse S, de Vries SC, Tax F, Wang X, Kemmerling B (2017) The Arabidopsis Leucine-rich Repeat Receptor Kinase BIR3 Negatively Regulates BAK1 Receptor Complex Formation and Stabilizes BAK1. Plant Cell. 10.1105/tpc.17.00376
Cyril Zipfel (TSL) is a co-author on this global collaboration that further defines the role of the BAK1 receptor in hormone and immune signaling through its interaction with two LRR-RK proteins (BIR2 and BIR3).
Singh V, Perraki A, Kim SY, Shrivastava S, Lee JH, Zhao Y, Schwessinger B, Oh MH, Marshall-Colon A, Zipfel C, Huber SC (2017) Tyrosine-610 in the Receptor Kinase BAK1 Does Not Play a Major Role in Brassinosteroid Signaling or Innate Immunity. Front Plant Sci. 10.3389/fpls.2017.01273
Cyril Zipfel (TSL) is a co-author on this US-led manuscript that again looks into the role of the BRI1-ASSOCIATED KINASE1 (BAK1) on plant immune signaling. Importantly they show that the phosphorylation of tyrosine-610 is actually not necessary for this proteins role in brassinosteroid or immune signaling
Di Mambro R, De Ruvo M,,, Pacifici E, Salvi E, Sozzani R, Benfey PN,, Busch W, Novak O, Ljung K, Di Paola L, Marée AFM, Costantino P, Grieneisen VA, Sabatini S (2017) Auxin minimum triggers the developmental switch from cell division to cell differentiation in the Arabidopsis root. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 10.1073/pnas.1705833114
Veronica Grieneisen (JIC) is a co-corresponding author on this work with Sabrina Sabatini from the University of Rome. They define the auxin minimum, a newly characterised determinat of root patterning that delineates the separation of root division and the differentiation zones. This is defined by the interaction between cytokinin and auxin signaling cascades.
Veronica discusses this paper on the GARNet YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYdL6eddOcA
Vincent TR, Canham J, Toyota M, Avramova M, Mugford ST, Gilroy S, Miller AJ, Hogenhout S, Sanders D (2017) Real-time In Vivo Recording of Arabidopsis Calcium Signals During Insect Feeding Using a Fluorescent Biosensor. J Vis Exp. 10.3791/56142
Dale Sanders and GARNet committee member Saskia Hogenhout (JIC) lead this study that describes an imaging technique that allows for the real time assessment of calcium dynamics using a fluorescently tagged sensor.
Serrano-Mislata A, Bencivenga S, Bush M, Schiessl K, Boden S, Sablowski R (2017) DELLA genes restrict inflorescence meristem function independently of plant height. Nature Plants. 10.1038/s41477-017-0003-y
Robert Sablowski (JIC) leads this paper that investigates the role of DELLA proteins in the control of cell cycle regulators and how this impacts meristem size in both barley and Arabidopsis. Read more about it on the John Innes Centre website.
Parker J, Helmstetter AJ, Devey D, Wilkinson T, Papadopulos AST (2017) Field-based species identification of closely-related plants using real-time nanopore sequencing. Sci Rep. 10.1038/s41598-017-08461-5 Open Access
This investigation led by researchers at Kew Gardens and at the Bangor University use Real Time Nanopore Sequencing (RTnS) that allows for rapid species identification in the field and that combining RTnS and laboratory-based high-throughput sequencing leads to a significant improvement in genome assembly.
Rubin MJ, Brock MT, Davis AM, German ZM, Knapp M, Welch SM, Harmer SL, Maloof JN7, Davis SJ, Weinig C (2017) Circadian rhythms vary over the growing season and correlate with fitness components. Mol Ecol. 10.1111/mec.14287 Open Access
Seth Davies (University of York) is a co-author on this US-led work that conducts a study of field-growth Arabidopsis to evaluate the contribution of the circadian clock toward survival and fecundity. They show that variation in clock function correlates with growth performance in a natural environment.
Poulet A, Kriechbaumer V (2017) Bioinformatics Analysis of Phylogeny and Transcription of TAA/YUC Auxin Biosynthetic Genes. Int J Mol Sci. 10.3390/ijms18081791 Open Access
The paper from Oxford Brookes University provides a phylogenetic analysis of TAA/TAR (tryptophan aminotransferase related) and YUCCA proteins that are involved in auxin biosynthesis. In addition they provide tissue and cell-specific information about the function of these proteins and that their function is conserved in lower plant species.
Cui W, Wang H, Song J, Cao X, Rogers HJ, Francis D, Jia C, Sun L, Hou M, Yang Y, Tai P, Liu W (2017) Cell cycle arrest mediated by Cd-induced DNA damage in Arabidopsis root tips. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2017.07.074 Open Access
Hilary Rodgers (Cardiff University) is a co-author on this Chinese-led study that looks into the effect of cadmium treatment on the regulation of the cell cycle and DNA damage repair. They show that different cadmium concentrations effect different phases of the cell cycle.
Alqurashi M, Thomas L, Gehring C, Marondedze C (2017) A Microsomal Proteomics View of H₂O₂- and ABA-Dependent Responses. Proteomes. 10.3390/proteomes5030022 Open Access
This international collaboration includes members of the Cambridge Centre for Proteomics and conducts a quantitative analysis of the Arabidopsis microsomal proteome following treatment with hydrogen peroxide or ABA. Perhaps unsurprisingly a high number of proteins characterized as ‘responsing to stress’ were found upregulated following treatment with H2O2 or ABA.
Xiao J, Jin R, Yu X, Shen M, Wagner JD, Pai A, Song C, Zhuang M, Klasfeld S, He C, Santos AM, Helliwell C, Pruneda-Paz JL, Kay SA, Lin X, Cui S, Garcia MF, Clarenz O, Goodrich J, Zhang X, Austin RS,, Bonasio R, Wagner D (2017) Cis and trans determinants of epigenetic silencing by Polycomb repressive complex 2 in Arabidopsis. Nature Genet 10.1038/ng.3937
Justin Goodrich (University of Edinburgh) is a co-author on this US-led study that looks into the role of Polycomb response element (PREs) in directing the placement of the Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) via their interaction with a newly identified transcription factors. Justin has recently discussed a paper on a similar topic on the GARNet YouTube channel.
Hickman R, van Verk MC, Van Dijken AJH, Pereira Mendes M, Vroegop-Vos IA, Caarls L, Steenbergen M, Van Der Nagel I, Wesselink GJ, Jironkin A, Talbot A, Rhodes J, de Vries M, Schuurink RC, Denby K, Pieterse CMJ, Van Wees SCM (2017) Architecture and Dynamics of the Jasmonic Acid Gene Regulatory Network. The Plant Cell 10.1105/tpc.16.00958 Open Access
GARNet committee member Katherine Denby (University of York) is a member of this large consortium of researchers who have performed a network analysis on the dynamics of jasmonic acid signaling
Evens NP, Buchner P, Williams LE, Hawkesford MJ (2017) The role of ZIP transporters and group F bZIP transcription factors in the Zn-deficiency response of wheat (Triticum aestivum) Plant J. 10.1111/tpj.13655 Open Access
Malcolm Hawkesford (Rothamsted Research) leads this study that investigate a set of wheat bZIP transcription factors and ZIP transporters that are involved in the uptake and transport of zinc. As part of this work they use Arabidopsis to test the conserved function of these wheat proteins.
Larson ER, Van Zelm E, Roux C, Marion-Poll A, Blatt MR (2017) Clathrin Heavy Chain subunits coordinate endo- and exocytic traffic and affect stomatal movement. Plant Physiol. 10.1104/pp.17.00970 Open Access
Mike Blatt and Emily Larson (University of Glasgow) are the co-corresponding authors on this study that looks into the role of clathrin heavy chain on vesicular transport in Arabidopsis. They looked at clathrin mutants to show that the protein plays an unsurprisingly important role in both endo- and exocytosis.