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GARNet Research Roundup: June 26th 2020

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Published on: June 26, 2020

This edition of the GARNet Research Roundup begins with a study from Nottingham and Leeds that looks at the much-neglected subject of the control of floral arrest. The second paper from Edinburgh identifies a signaling role for the co-opted transposable elements ALP1 and ALP2 in Arabidopsis. Hans-Wilhelm Nützmann from the University of Bath leads the next study that looks at the co-regulation of clustered biosynthetic pathway genes. The fourth paper is from Cambridge and looks at the role of the ASY1 protein during meiotic recombination. The next paper is from Durham and looks at the role of GA-regulated DELLA proteins in the regulation of stomatal aperature.

The next five papers have a methods-type application that should be useful to other researchers. Firstly a research team led from Oxford highlights an improved protocol for the proteome-analysis technique of RNA interactome capture. Secondly researchers from UEA introduce the NATpare tool, which is a pipeline for high-throughput prediction and functional analysis of nat-siRNAs. The third ‘methods’ paper is from the University of Warwick where they have developed novel markers for protoplast-based analyses of hormone signaling. The fourth paper is a protocol for using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in Brachypodium. The final ‘methods-type’ paper is from Alison Smith’s group in Cambridge and has developed a riboswitch-based resource for use in the model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

The eleventh paper is led from the University of Glasgow and looks at the activity of the circadian clock in Arabidopsis roots. The next paper introduces genes from the parasitic plant Striga hermonthica into Arabidopsis to show that strigolactone signaling can replace GA signaling in the control of seed germination. The final two papers are focused on research in wheat, first led from the University of Leicester that looks at recombination in durum wheat and secondly from Rothamsted in which they have identified a whole family of NPF membrane transporter genes.

Ware A, Walker CH, Šimura J, et al (2020) Auxin export from proximal fruits drives arrest in temporally competent inflorescences Nat Plants. 2020;10.1038/s41477-020-0661-z. doi:10.1038/s41477-020-0661-z

Open Access with this link rdcu.be/b4rmT

Al Ware and Catriona Walker are co-first authors on this study from the Universities of Nottingham and Leeds. They have looked at the factors that control the timing of floral arrest in Arabidopsis. They discover that there is a minimum number and optimal positioning of fruits that is necessary for floral arrest, as well as looking into the role of auxin transport in this process.

Velanis CN, Perera P, Thomson B, et al (2020) The domesticated transposase ALP2 mediates formation of a novel Polycomb protein complex by direct interaction with MSI1, a core subunit of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) PLoS Genet. 2020;16(5):e1008681. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1008681

Open Access

Christos Velanis is first author on this research led by the Goodrich group at the University of Edinburgh that looked at the function of the Arabidopsis ANTAGONIST OF LIKE HETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN 1 (ALP1) gene, which has arose by domestication of the Harbinger class of transposable elements (TEs). ALP1 is a component of the POLYCOMB REPRESSIVE COMPLEX 2 (PRC2) but yet its functional significance is not yet known. They also identify the related ALP2 gene and find that it interacts with MULTICOPY SUPPRESSOR OF IRA1 (MSI1) as part of the PRC2.

Nützmann HW, Doerr D, Ramírez-Colmenero A, et al (2020) Active and repressed biosynthetic gene clusters have spatially distinct chromosome states Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020;201920474. doi:10.1073/pnas.1920474117

Hans-Wilhelm Nützmann is a now a member of faculty at the University of Bath but led this research as a member of the Osbourn group at the John Innes Centre. They use Hi-C and related techniques to study the control of expression of clustered biosynthetic pathway genes in Arabidopsis. This study reveals potential mechanisms that suggest gene clustering in the one-dimensional chromosome is accompanied by compartmentalization of the 3D chromosome.

Lambing C, Kuo PC, Tock AJ, Topp SD, Henderson IR (2020) ASY1 acts as a dosage-dependent antagonist of telomere-led recombination and mediates crossover interference in Arabidopsis Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020;201921055. doi:10.1073/pnas.1921055117

Open Access

Christophe Lambing is first author on this study from the Henderson lab at the University of Cambridge that investigates the role of the ASY1 protein in the control of recombination frequency during meiosis. ASY1 is localized in an ascending telomere-to-centromere gradient and this informs the role that it plays to antagonize telomere-recombination to ensure this occurs in more gene-rich regions of the chromosomes.

Sukiran NA, Steel PG, Knight MR (2020) Basal stomatal aperture is regulated by GA-DELLAs in Arabidopsis J Plant Physiol. 2020;250:153182. doi:10.1016/j.jplph.2020.153182

Nur Afiqah Sukiran is the first author of this study from the Durham University that investigates the role of DELLA proteins in the regulation of stomatal aperature. They also find that the GID1 gibberellin receptor is necessary for optimal basal stomatal aperture.

Professor Marc Knight will be discussing his labs work on the #GARNetPresents webinar on June 30th 2020

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/4555062676282771981

Bach-Pages M, Homma F, Kourelis J, et al (2020) Discovering the RNA-Binding Proteome of Plant Leaves with an Improved RNA Interactome Capture Method. Biomolecules. 2020;10(4):661 doi:10.3390/biom10040661

Open Access

Marcel Bach-Pages is first author on this research led from the University of Oxford that has improved the proteome-analysis technique of RNA interactome capture (RIC) to identify 717 RNA Binding Proteins (RBP) from Arabidopsis. Many of these RBPs exhibit unconventional modes of RNA binding and uncovered greater diversity in the number of proteins for which RNA binding is an important part of their function.

Thody J, Folkes L, Moulton V (2020) NATpare: a pipeline for high-throughput prediction and functional analysis of nat-siRNAs Nucleic Acids Res. 2020;gkaa448. doi:10.1093/nar/gkaa448

Joshua Thody leads this work from the University of East Anglia in which the authors present a new software pipeline, called NATpare, for prediction and functional analysis of Natural antisense transcript-derived small interfering RNAs (nat-siRNAs) using sRNA and degradome sequencing data. Although this tool could be used to analyse data from different experimental systems it is benchmarked using Arabidopsis data and the authors show that it could rapidly identify a comprehensive set of nat-siRNAs from different tissues and that are produced in response to different stresses.

Lehmann S, Dominguez-Ferreras A, Huang WJ, Denby K, Ntoukakis V, Schäfer P (2020) Novel markers for high-throughput protoplast-based analyses of phytohormone signaling. PLoS One. 2020;15(6):e0234154. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0234154

Open Access

Silke Lehmann leads this work from the University of Warwick that has generated a community-resource of 18 promoter::luciferase constructs that respond to different phytohormones. In addition they suggest an experimental setup for high-throughput analyses in which these new reporter constructs might be used to screen for biological and environmental stimuli that effect hormone-mediated gene expression.

Hus K, Betekhtin A, Pinski A, et al (2020) A CRISPR/Cas9-Based Mutagenesis Protocol for Brachypodium distachyon and Its Allopolyploid Relative, Brachypodium hybridum. Front Plant Sci. 2020;11:614. doi:10.3389/fpls.2020.00614 Open Access

This Polish project is led by Karolina Hus and includes co-authors from Cambridge and Aberystwyth. They have developed a protocols for CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing in Brachypodia species. As proof of concept they target two cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKG1 and CDKG2) that are involved in DNA recombination.

Mehrshahi P, Nguyen GTDT, Gorchs Rovira A, et al (2020) Development of Novel Riboswitches for Synthetic Biology in the Green Alga Chlamydomonas ACS Synth Biol. 2020;10.1021/acssynbio.0c00082. doi:10.1021/acssynbio.0c00082

Open Access

Payam Mehrshahi is the first author on this Academia-Industry collaboration led from the University of Cambrige. They have used a synthetic biology approach to assess the effectiveness of riboswitchs (RNA regulatory elements) in the control of gene expression in the model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Nimmo HG, Laird J, Bindbeutel R, Nusinow DA (2020) The evening complex is central to the difference between the circadian clocks of Arabidopsis thaliana shoots and roots Physiol Plant. 2020;10.1111/ppl.13108. doi:10.1111/ppl.13108 Open Access

Hugh Nimmo from the University of Glasgow is lead author on this UK-USA collaboration that has looked at the operation of the circadian clock in root tissues and in particularly how it responds to light quality. They found that plants with mutations in certain genes that make up the circadian clock evening complex have root-specific effects, confirming that the shoot and root clocks response to differently to light signals.

Bunsick M, Toh S, Wong C, et al (2020) SMAX1-dependent seed germination bypasses GA signalling in Arabidopsis and Striga Nat Plants. 2020;10.1038/s41477-020-0653-z. doi:10.1038/s41477-020-0653-z

Michael Bunsick is first author of this Canadian-led study that includes Julie Scholes from the University of Sheffield as a co-author. Leading from a curiosity about the relationship between host root exudates and the parasitic plant Striga hermonthica, they were led to find that expression of Striga strigolactone-hormone receptor proteins in Arabidopsis is able to bypass the requirement for GA in seed germination. This demonstrates both how the Striga might sense host signals and that there is no absolute requirement for GA-during seed germination.

Desjardins SD, Ogle DE, Ayoub MA, et al (2020) MutS homologue 4 and MutS homologue 5 maintain the obligate crossover in wheat despite stepwise gene loss following polyploidization Plant Physiol. 2020;pp.00534.2020. doi:10.1104/pp.20.00534

Open Access

Stuart Desjardins is first author on his research led from the University of Leicester. They work with allotetraploid (AABB) durum wheat and show that this plant undergoes two pathways of meiotic recombination. They show that the class I pathway requires the MSH4 and MSH5 (MutSγ) proteins and the authors show that these genes are absent in hexaploid (AABBDD) wheat. These findings enable the authors to speculate about the function of these proteins in allopolyploid wheat.

Wang H, Wan Y, Buchner P, King R, Ma H, Hawkesford MJ (2020) Phylogeny and gene expression of the complete NITRATE TRANSPORTER 1/PEPTIDE TRANSPORTER FAMILY (NPF) in Triticum aestivum L J Exp Bot. 2020;eraa210. doi:10.1093/jxb/eraa210 Open Access

Huadun Wang is first author on this manuscript that is led from Rothamsted Research and includes Chinese collaborators. They investigate the 331 member family of wheat NPF genes that encode membrane transporters that transport a diverse range of substrates. Phylogenetically these wheat NPF genes are closely clustered with Arabidopsis, Brachypodium and rice orthologs and this study and lays the foundation for their further functional analysis in wheat.

GARNet Research Roundup: May 29th 2020

by Geraint

Categories: Cambridge University, Durham University, Essex University, Global, John Innes Centre, Nottingham University, SLCU, Uncategorized, University of Cambridge, University of Liverpool, University of Nottingham, Warwick University

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Published on: May 29, 2020

This bumper GARNet Research Roundup begins with two sets of papers in related areas. First are three papers that investigate the biology of plasmodesmatata. These include work from the Faulkner lab at the JIC, the Band lab at Nottingham and a broad European collaboration that includes co-authors from Durham, Cambridge and St Andrews.

The second set of two papers features work on different species of Kalanchoë, which is a key model for the study of CAM. This research is from the Hartwell lab in Liverpool and the Borland lab in Newcastle.

The fifth paper is from RHUL and looks at the relationship between nucleus and chloroplast signaling. The sixth paper is from QMUL and introduces research suggesting that a rethink is needed in our understanding of the relationship between chloroplast movement and photoprotection.

The next paper is from the University of the West of England and looks at the effect of ionising radiation on multiple generation of Arabidopsis growth whilst the eighth paper investigates the relationship between starch degradation and stomatal movements in guard cells and includes co-authors from Essex and Glasgow.

The next two papers include research undertaken in Cambridge; firstly looking at the integration of signalling between karrikin and strigolactone signaling in rice and secondly identifying a novel mRNA thermoswitch that controls thermomorphogenesis.

The next paper is a pan-European project led from Nottingham that has characterised the role of the CEP5 peptide during regulation of osmostic stress, drought and auxin signaling.

The twelveth paper is from the University of Warwick and also looks at the auxin response, this time during senescence. The next paper as well includes co-authors from Warwick in a study that investigates the global regulatory role for the histone acetyltransferase GCN5.

The penultimate paper includes co-authors from Norwich Research Park looks at the evolution of immune NLR signaling between closely related species. The final paper includes Patrick Hussey from Durham as a co-author in a Spanish study that identifies an uncharacterized compartment of the plant vacuolar trafficking pathway.

Cheval C, Samwald S, Johnston MG, de Keijzer J, Breakspear A, Liu X, Bellandi A, Kadota Y, Zipfel C, Faulkner C (2020) Chitin perception in plasmodesmata characterizes submembrane immune-signaling specificity in plants. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Apr 28;117(17):9621-9629. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1907799117 Open Access

Cecilia Cheval, Sebastian Samwald and Matthew Johnston are co-first authors on this work from the Faulkner lab at the John Innes Centre. They looked at a plasmodesmata-localised plasma membrane microdomain, which hosts specific receptors and responses. They showed that immune chitin signalling requires the plasmodesmal PM localised LYM2 and LYK4 proteins. Overall this demonstrates that distinct membrane domains can integrate common signals to produce a localized response.

https://www.pnas.org/content/117/17/9621.long

Brault ML, Petit JD, Immel F, Nicolas WJ, Glavier M, Brocard L, Gaston A, Fouché M, Hawkins TJ, Crowet JM, Grison MS, Germain V, Rocher M, Kraner M, Alva V, Claverol S, Paterlini A, Helariutta Y, Deleu M, Lins L, Tilsner J, Bayer EM (2020) Multiple C2 domains and transmembrane region proteins (MCTPs) tether membranes at plasmodesmata. EMBO Rep. 2019 Aug;20(8):e47182. doi: 10.15252/embr.201847182 Open Access

Marie Brault works with Emmualle Bayer is first author on this French-led pan-European study that includes co-authors from Durham, Cambridge and St Andrews. They investigate the plasmodesmal plasma membrane and show that Multiple C2 domains and transmembrane region proteins (MCTP) are needed to tether ER-PM linkages at this location. They show Atmctp3/Atmctp4 loss of function double mutants have plant developmental defects demonstrating that MCTPs also play a significant role in cell-to-cell signalling.

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/embr.201847182#.XSRrrlB2xG0.twitter

Mellor NL, Voß U, Janes G, Bennett MJ, Wells DM, Band LR (2020) Auxin fluxes through plasmodesmata modify root-tip auxin distribution. Development. doi: 10.1242/dev.181669 Open Access

Nathan Mellor leads this research from the University of Nottingham that has developed a model to explain auxin movement around the Arabidopsis root tip. They propose that carrier mediated movement is not sufficient foir this and that there must be a symplastic route via plasmodesmata. This introduces plasmodesmata as playing a key role in hormone signaling.

https://dev.biologists.org/content/147/6/dev181669

GARNet committee member Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso discusses her labs work on plasmodesmata in the first #GARNetPresents webinar

Boxall SF, Kadu N, Dever LV, Kneřová J, Waller JL, Gould PJD, Hartwell J (2020) Kalanchoë PPC1 Is Essential for Crassulacean Acid Metabolism and the Regulation of Core Circadian Clock and Guard Cell Signaling Genes. Plant Cell. doi: 10.1105/tpc.19.00481

Susie Boxall leads this study from the Hartwell lab at the University of Liverpool in which they investigate the role of the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase gene in the CAM-plant Kalanchoë laxiflora. They use RNA interference to silence the PPC1 gene and show that these transgenic plants have defects in guard cell signaling and regulation of the circadian clock. These findings provide direct evidence that the regulatory patterns of key guard cell signaling genes are linked with the characteristic inverse pattern of stomatal opening and closing during CAM.

http://www.plantcell.org/content/32/4/1136.long

Abraham PE, Hurtado Castano N, Cowan-Turner D, Barnes J, Poudel S, Hettich R, Flütsch S, Santelia D, Borland AM (2020) Peeling back the layers of Crassulacean acid metabolism: functional differentiation between Kalanchoë fedtschenkoi epidermis and mesophyll proteomes. Plant J. doi: 10.1111/tpj.14757 Open Access

Paul Abraham is first author on this work from the Borland lab at the University of Newcastle. They are working with the CAM species Kalanchoë fedtschenkoi and here perform a large-scale proteomics analysis of the epidermis and mesophyll cell layers. This reveals that different proteins and biological processes are enriched in each layer, showing how plants adapt to hot and dry environments by modifying leaf physiology for improved plant sustainability.

Loudya N, Okunola T, He J, Jarvis P, López-Juez E (2020) Retrograde signalling in a virescent mutant triggers an anterograde delay of chloroplast biogenesis that requires GUN1 and is essential for survival Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2020;375(1801):20190400. doi:10.1098/rstb.2019.0400 Open Access

Naresh Loudya from Royal Hollaway University of London is first author on this work that investigates the relationship between nucleus and chloroplast gene expression in the control of chloroplast biogenesis. They analyse the cue8 mutant that shows differential changes in the activity of plastid-encoded and nucleus-encoded polymerases.

Naresh discussed this paper on the GARNet Community podcast.

Wilson S, Ruban AV (2020) Rethinking the influence of chloroplast movements on non-photochemical quenching and photoprotection. Plant Physiol. 2020 May 13. pii: pp.00549.2020. doi: 10.1104/pp.20.00549 Open Access

Sam Wilson is first author on this work from the Ruban lab at the Queen Mary University of London. In this study they have assessed the relationship between blue light induced chloroplast relocation and high-light tolerance. Their data argues against the existence of a chloroplast movement-dependent component of the non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) respose. Therefore the authors suggest that thinking on the influence of chloroplast movements on photoprotection should be reevaluated.

Caplin NM, Halliday A, Willey NJ (2020) Developmental, Morphological and Physiological Traits in Plants Exposed for Five Generations to Chronic Low-Level Ionising Radiation. Front Plant Sci. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.00389 Open Access

Nicol Caplin is first author on this research from the University of the West of England that looked at the effects of ionising radiation (IR) on seven generations of Arabidopsis growth. They found that although chronic exposure to IR caused some individual trait changes, these are not carried across generations at the population level but still call for more research in this area to be sure of the current regulations provided by the International Commission for Radiological Protection (ICRP).

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.00389/full

Flütsch S, Wang Y, Takemiya A, Vialet-Chabrand SR, Klejchova M, Nigro A, Hills A, Lawson T, Blatt MR, Santelia D (2020) Guard Cell Starch Degradation Yields Glucose for Rapid Stomatal Opening in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell. doi: 10.1105/tpc.18.00802

This Swiss-led study has Sabrina Flütsch as first author and co-authors from Essex and Glasgow. They looked at the integration of starch degradation in guard cells with the kinetics of stomatal reopening. The timing of rapid stomatal unopening was unchanged in starch degrading mutants but there were alterations in slower responses, most likely due to alterations in the composition of guard cell starch metabolites.

Choi J, Lee T, Cho J, Servante EK, Pucker B, Summers W, Bowden S, Rahimi M, An K, An G, Bouwmeester HJ, Wallington EJ, Oldroyd G, Paszkowski U (2020) The negative regulator SMAX1 controls mycorrhizal symbiosis and strigolactone biosynthesis in rice. Nat Commun. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16021-1 Open Access

This research is led from the Paszkowski lab at the University of Cambridge by Jeongmin Choi. They have found that the rice ortholog of Arabidopsis Suppressor of MAX2-1 plays a novel role to link the pre-symbiotic perception of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi with karrikin and strigolactone signaling. This response functions through a modification of the D14L signalling pathway.

Chung BYW, Balcerowicz M, Di Antonio M, Jaeger KE, Geng F, Franaszek K, Marriott P, Brierley I, Firth AE, Wigge PA (2020) An RNA thermoswitch regulates daytime growth in Arabidopsis. Nat Plants. doi: 10.1038/s41477-020-0633-3

This Wigge lab-led collaboration includes Betty Chung as first author and investigate the role of the PIF7 messenger RNA as a thermoswitch that activates the thermomorphogenesis pathway. This is controlled by the formation of an RNA hairpin within the mRNA and they show that this mechanism is conserved so controls translation of other mRNAs, enabling the plant to respond and adapt rapidly to high temperatures.

Smith S, Zhu S, Joos L, Roberts I, Nikonorova N, Vu LD, Stes E, Cho H, Larrieu A, Xuan W, Goodall B, van de Cotte B, Waite JM, Rigal A, R Harborough SR, Persiau G, Vanneste S, Kirschner GK, Vandermarliere E, Martens L, Stahl Y, Audenaert D, Friml J, Felix G, Simon R, Bennett M, Bishopp A, De Jaeger G, Ljung K, Kepinski S, Robert S, Nemhauser J, Hwang I, Gevaert K, Beeckman T, De Smet I (2020) The CEP5 peptide promotes abiotic stress tolerance, as revealed by quantitative proteomics, and attenuates the AUX/IAA equilibrium in Arabidopsis. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2020 May 13. pii: mcp.RA119.001826. doi: 10.1074/mcp.RA119.001826 Open Access

Stephanie Smith at the University of Nottingham is first author on this collaboration between researchers in 8 different countries. They use quantitative proteomics to assess the role of the CEP8 peptide in the response to osmotic and drought stress and in the control of auxin signaling.

Gören-Sağlam N, Harrison E, Breeze E, Öz G, Buchanan-Wollaston V (2020) Analysis of the impact of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) on gene expression during leaf senescence in Arabidopsis thaliana. Physiol Mol Biol Plants. doi: 10.1007/s12298-019-00752-7

Nihal Gören-Sağlam is first author on this study from the University of Warwick in which they investigate the role of externally applied auxin on senescence in Arabidopsis thaliana. They show that PSII activity, as a determinant of chlorophyll fluorescence, declined after auxin treatment and that this response changed across different leaves.

Kim S, Piquerez SJM, Ramirez-Prado JS, Mastorakis E, Veluchamy A, Latrasse D, Manza-Mianza D, Brik-Chaouche R, Huang Y, Rodriguez-Granados NY, Concia L, Blein T, Citerne S, Bendahmane A, Bergounioux C, Crespi M, Mahfouz MM, Raynaud C, Hirt H, Ntoukakis V, Benhamed M (2020) GCN5 modulates salicylic acid homeostasis by regulating H3K14ac levels at the 5′ and 3′ ends of its target genes. Nucleic Acids Res. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkaa369 Open Access

This French-led study includes Soonkap Kim as first author and co-authors from the University of Warwick. They analysed the role of the histone acetyltransferase GCN5 in global control of gene expression. They used several methodologies (ATAC-seq, ChIP-seq and RNA-seq) to assess the effect of GCN5 loss-of-function on the expression and epigenetic regulation of its target genes.

Baggs E, Monroe JG, Thanki AS, O’Grady R, Schudoma C, Haerty W, Krasileva KV (2020) Convergent Loss of an EDS1/PAD4 Signaling Pathway in Several Plant Lineages Reveals Co-evolved Components of Plant Immunity and Drought Response. Plant Cell. doi: 10.1105/tpc.19.00903 Open Access

This research is led by Erin Baggs in the Krasileva lab at the University of California Berkeley and includes co-authors from Norwich Research Park. They assessed the variation in nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptors (NLRs) involved in plant immunity, focusing on closely related species that have different NLR compositions. Loss of NLRs corresponds to other changes in downstream immune signaling complexes. This excellent extensive multi-omic analysis provides evolutionary evidence for the rewiring of immunity in some plant lineages.

http://www.plantcell.org/content/early/2020/05/14/tpc.19.00903.long

Delgadillo MO, Ruano G, Zouhar J, Sauer M, Shen J, Lazarova A, Sanmartín M, Lai LTF, Deng C, Wang P, Hussey PJ, Sánchez-Serrano JJ, Jiang L, Rojo E (2020) MTV proteins unveil ER- and microtubule-associated compartments in the plant vacuolar trafficking pathway. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1919820117

María Otilia Delgadillo is first author on this Spanish-led study that includes Patrick Hussey from Durham as a co-author. The study identifies 13 components of the vacuolar trafficking machinery through a genetic screen for mutants that abnormally secrete the synthetic vacuolar cargo VAC2. Eight of these components localize at the interface between the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and the multivesicular bodies (MVBs), which excitingly reveals a previously uncharacterized compartment of the plant vacuolar trafficking pathway.

https://www.pnas.org/content/117/20/10623

GARNet Research Roundup: March 13th 2020

by Geraint

Categories: Aberystwyth University, Bristol University, Durham University, Global, Kings College, Lancaster Unversity, Uncategorized, University of Nottingham, University of York

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Published on: March 13, 2020

This edition of the GARNet Research Roundup begins with research from Durham University that links environmental sensing, SUMOylation and BR signaling. The second paper is from the Baulcombe lab in Cambridge and investigates the epigenetic control of transposons. The third paper is from Aberystwyth University and introduces the DeepPod learning framework for the automated counting of Arabidopsis siliques.

The fourth paper includes co-authors from the University of Nottingham in research that conducts a comprehensive analysis of the Arabidopsis auxin receptor gene family. The next paper from the University of Bristol looks at different statistical methods to measure segregation distortion.

The sixth paper is a structural-biology study of an Arabidopsis histone methyltransferase and includes co-authors from King’s College London and the Crick Institute. The penultimate paper includes Brian Forde from Lancaster University as a co-author and analyses the ZmTMM1 transcription factor from maize. The final paper investigates the role of the WRKY6 transcription factor during seed development and includes Ian Bancroft as a co-author.

Srivastava M, Srivastava AK, Orosa-Puente B, Campanaro A, Zhang C, Sadanandom A (2020) SUMO Conjugation to BZR1 Enables Brassinosteroid Signaling to Integrate Environmental Cues to Shape Plant Growth. Curr Biol. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.089 Open Access

Moumita Srivastava is first author on this study from Durham University that introduces SUMO regulation of brassinosteroid (BR) signalling through the BZR1 transcription factor. During salt stress Arabidopsis plants arrest growth by upregulating the SUMO protease ULP1a that in turn deSUMOylates BZR1 allowing for its destabilizing interaction with the BIN2 kinase. This study environmental sensing, SUMOylation and the BR response.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)30169-X?_

Wang Z, Baulcombe DC (2020) Transposon age and non-CG methylation. Nat Commun. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-14995-6 Open Access

Zhengming Wang and David Baulcombe from the University of Cambridge are authors on this research that assesses the ordering of the mechanisms through which transposon-containing chromatin is silenced. They demonstrate that both RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) and RNA-independent silencing through chromodomain DNA methyltransferases (CMTs) occurs to provide long-term control of transposons and concomitant alterations to the transcriptome.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14995-6

Hamidinekoo A, Garzón-Martínez GA, Ghahremani M, Corke FMK, Zwiggelaar R, Doonan JH, Lu C (2020) DeepPod: a convolutional neural network based quantification of fruit number in Arabidopsis. Gigascience doi: 10.1093/gigascience/giaa012 Open Access

This research from Aberystwyth University includes Azam Hamidinekoo as first author in which they have developed the DeepPod deep learning framework for the automated identification of Arabidopsis siliques from complex images. They used a training set of over 2400 images to develop prediction software that had comparable success with manual expert human counting. The project code is available on GitHub.

https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/9/3/giaa012/5780255

Prigge MJ, Platre M, Kadakia N, Zhang Y, Greenham K, Szutu W, Pandey BK, Bhosale RA, Bennett MJ, Busch W, Estelle M (2020) Genetic analysis of the Arabidopsis TIR1/AFB auxin receptors reveals both overlapping and specialized functions. Elife doi: 10.7554/eLife.54740 Open Access

Mike Prigge from UCSD in California leads this research that includes co-authors from the University of Nottingham. They analyse the phenotypes of all mutant combinations of the six-member TIR1/AFB family of auxin receptors, demonstrating significant functional overlap but that the presence of a functional TIR1 or AFB2 is needed to maintain growth throughout the life cycle. Interestingly they find that the mysterious AFB1 receptor appears to play a specalised role in processes dependent on more rapid auxin-mediated effects.

https://elifesciences.org/articles/54740

Coulton A, Przewieslik-Allen AM, Burridge AJ, Shaw DS, Edwards KJ, Barker GLA (2020) Segregation distortion: Utilizing simulated genotyping data to evaluate statistical methods. PLoS One. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228951 Open Access

Alexander Coulton is the first author on this study from the University of Bristol that looks at different statistical tests that are used to confirm segregation distortion in high-density SNP data. In this data they find that the false discovery rate correction best fits the traditional p-value threshold of 0.05 and they perform empirical tests using mapping populations generated between different wheat varieties.

Dobrovolska O, Brilkov M, Madeleine N, Ødegård-Fougner Ø, Strømland Ø, Martin SR, De Marco V, Christodoulou E, Teigen K, Isaksson J, Underhaug J, Reuter N, Aalen RB, Aasland R, Halskau Ø (2020) The Arabidopsis (ASHH2) CW domain binds monomethylated K4 of the histone H3 tail through conformational selection. FEBS J doi: 10.1111/febs.15256

This Norwegian-led study has Olena Dobrovolska as first author and co-authors from King’s College London and the Crick Institute. They have performed a structural analysis using NMR and molecular dynamics of the Arabidopsis Histone lysine methyltransferase ASHH2.

Liu Y, Jia Z, Li X, Wang Z, Chen F, Mi G, Forde B, Takahashi H, Yuan L (2020) Involvement of a truncated MADS-box transcription factor ZmTMM1 in root nitrate foraging. J Exp Bot. doi: 10.1093/jxb/eraa116

Ying Liu leads this Chinese study that includes Brian Forde from Lancaster as a co-author. They show that the maize ZmTMM1 transcription factor is able to rescue the nitrate foraging defect in Arabidopsis anr1agl21 double mutants, demonstrating a link between nitrate-induced transcriptional regulation in grasses and dicots.

https://academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jxb/eraa116/5781150

Song G, Li X, Munir R, Khan AR, Azhar W, Yasin MU, Jiang Q, Bancroft I, Gan Y (2020) The WRKY6 transcription factor affects seed oil accumulation and alters fatty acid compositions in Arabidopsis thaliana. Physiol Plant. doi: 10.1111/ppl.13082

Ian Bancroft from the University of York is a co-author on this Chinese-led study in which Ge Song is first author. They discovered a high expression level of the WRKY6 transcription factor in developing seeds of Arabidopsis and that wrky6 mutants have larger seeds with altered fatty acid (FA) content and composition. The authors suggest that WRKY6 could be a target for the genetic improvement of FA content in the oil-seed crop of Brassica napus.

GARNet Research Roundup: Jan 24th 2020

by Geraint

Categories: Aberystwyth University, Bristol University, Cardiff University, Durham University, Glasgow University, Global, James Hutton Institute, Rothamsted Research, Uncategorized, University of Bristol, University of Cambridge, University of Dundee, University of Glasgow

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Published on: January 24, 2020

The first GARNet Research Roundup of 2020 begins with a study from the University of Dundee at the James Hutton Institute in which they have adapted nanopore direct sequencing to analyse the Arabidopsis mRNA methylome. The second study is also from Dundee and is an analysis of alternative splicing in C4 sugarcane.

The next two papers look at the control of stomatal development. In the first, researchers from Bristol investigate the integration of temperature and light-induced signals whilst the second paper is from Sheffield and looks at the role, or lack thereof, of the HY5 protein. The fifth paper is also from Sheffield and looks at the role of the MALECTIN DOMAIN KINESIN 2 protein in dividing tissues.

The next two papers investigate the control of lateral root formation. Firstly researchers from Glasgow look at how potassium signaling integrates with both the mechanisms of RNA-directed DNA-methylation and the auxin response. The other paper looks at how auxin signaling integrates with the plasmodesmata development and includes co-authors from the University of Nottingham.

The eighth paper is led from Nottingham and looks at the role of the PROTEOLYSIS (PRT)1 during the plant immune response whilst the next paper, which is from the University of Cambridge, also looks at plant immunity, specifically at how the biosynthesis of phytic acid impacts this response.

The remaining four papers include UK-based co-authors from University of South Wales, Rothamsted and Cardiff, Durham, Oxford and Aberystwyth in international research teams led from Malaysian (the expression of Acyl-CoA-binding proteins in oil palm), China (the effect of silver nanoparticles on plant growth), Japan (convergent evolution of lateral organ formation) and Chile (the factors that influence grain filling in wheat) respectively.

Parker MT, Knop K, Sherwood AV, Schurch NJ, Mackinnon K, Gould PD, Hall AJ, Barton GJ, Simpson GG (2020) Nanopore direct RNA sequencing maps the complexity of Arabidopsis mRNA processing and m(6)A modification. Elife. doi: 10.7554/eLife.49658 Open Access

Matt Parker, Kasia Knop, Anya Sherwood and Nicholas Schurch are co-first authors on this study from the University of Dundee at the James Hutton Institute in which they perform direct RNA sequencing using a nanopore sequencer. They used this technical advance to analyse the mRNA (m6A) methylome and reveal a contribution to the control of the circadian clock. Future use of this technique will undoubtedly allow for an improved annotation of the Arabidopsis genome (and others).

https://elifesciences.org/articles/49658

Dantas LLB, Calixto CPG, Dourado MM, Carneiro MS, Brown JWS, Hotta CT (2019) Alternative Splicing of Circadian Clock Genes Correlates With Temperature in Field-Grown Sugarcane. Front Plant Sci. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01614 Open Access

This study is led from Brazil with Luiza Dantas as first author and includes co-authors from the University of Dundee at the James Hutton Institute. They investigate the level of alternative splicing (AS) in commercial sugarcane, which is an important C4 crop. Tissue samples were collected in winter and summer and this analysis reveals temperature- and organ-dependent differences in the levels of AS across a set of genes under circadian control.

Kostaki KI, Coupel-Ledru A, Bonnell VC, Gustavsson M, Sun P, Mclaughlin FJ, Fraser DP, McLachlan DH, Hetherington AM, Dodd AN, Franklin KA (2020). Guard cells integrate light and temperature signals to control stomatal aperture. Plant Physiol. doi: 10.1104/pp.19.01528 Open Access

Kalliopi-Ioanna Kostaki is first author on this study from the University of Bristol that begins to unpick the mechanisms that integrate light and temperature signals in the control of stomatal development. These signals converge on phototropin photoreceptors and multiple members of the 14-3-3 protein family. This work also reveals a currently uncharacterised pathway that controls temperature regulation of guard cell movement.

http:// http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/early/2020/01/22/pp.19.01528

Zoulias N, Brown J, Rowe J, Casson SA (2020) HY5 is not integral to light mediated stomatal development in Arabidopsis. PLoS One. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222480 Open Access

Nick Zoulias is first author on this study from the Casson lab at University of Sheffield. ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5) is a key regulator of light-mediated development yet in this study the authors show that the HY5-signaling cascade does not play a role in stomatal development. This key finding shows that phytochrome and cryptochrome signaling in guard cells is transmitted via non-HY5 signaling components.

Galindo-Trigo S, Grand TM, Voigt CA, Smith LM (2020) A malectin domain kinesin functions in pollen and seed development in Arabidopsis. J Exp Bot doi: 10.1093/jxb/eraa023
This research from the Smith lab at the University of Sheffield is led by Sergio Galindo-Trigo. They show that MALECTIN DOMAIN KINESIN 2 (MDKIN2) is involved in pollen, embryo and endosperm development. Malectin domains bind polysaccharides and peptides when found extracellularly in receptor-like kinases so this might suggest that in dividing tissues MDKIN2 plays a role during the physical division of cells.

Shahzad Z, Eaglesfield R, Carr C, Amtmann A (2020) Cryptic variation in RNA-directed DNA-methylation controls lateral root development when auxin signalling is perturbed. Nat Commun. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13927-3 Open Access

Zaigham Shahzad at the University of Glasgow is the first author in this study that looks at the relationship between potassium deficiency and lateral root formation. This effect is mediated via the impact of CLSY1, a key component of the RNA-directed DNA-methylation machinery, on the transcriptional repression of the AuxIAA protein IAA27. Interestingly this system appears to act as a backup to the auxin-dependent proteolysis pathway that is primarily responsible for the control of IAA27 activity.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-13927-3

Sager R, Wang X, Hill K, Yoo BC, Caplan J, Nedo A, Tran T, Bennett MJ, Lee JY (2020) Auxin-dependent control of a plasmodesmal regulator creates a negative feedback loop modulating lateral root emergence. Nat Commun. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-14226-7.

This US study is led by Ross Sager and includes co-authors from the University of Nottingham. This research links the role of auxin in lateral root formation with plasmodesmata development through control of the plasmodesmal regulator PDLP5. They present a model wherein molecules required for lateral root emergence transit through plasmodesmata following an inductive auxin signal.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-14226-7

Till CJ, Vicente J, Zhang H, Oszvald M, Deery MJ, Pastor V, Lilley KS, Ray RV, Theodoulou FL, Holdsworth MJ (2019) The Arabidopsis thaliana N-recognin E3 ligase PROTEOLYSIS1 influences the immune response. Plant Direct. doi: 10.1002/pld3.194 Open Access

Christopher Till, Jorge Vicente and Hongtao Zhangis are co-first authors on this research led from the University of Nottingham and Rothamsted Research that involves use of quantitative proteomics to define the role of the N-recognin E3 ligase PROTEOLYSIS (PRT)1 during the plant immune response.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pld3.194

Poon JSY, Le Fevre RE, Carr JP, Hanke DE, Murphy AM (2019) Inositol hexakisphosphate biosynthesis underpins PAMP-triggered immunity to Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato in Arabidopsis thaliana but is dispensable for establishment of systemic acquired resistance. Mol Plant Pathol. doi: 10.1111/mpp.12902
This research from the University of Cambridge is led by Jacquelyne Poon and Alex Murphy and looks at the role of the phytic acid (inositol hexakisphosphate, InsP6) biosynthesis in dividing tissues during the plant immune response. They characterize Arabidopsis plants with mutations in biosynthetic enzymes to show that there are multiple mechanisms of basal resistance that are dependent upon InsP6.

Amiruddin N, Chan PL, Azizi N, Morris PE, Chan KL, Ong PW, Rosli R, Masura SS, Murphy DJ, Sambanthamurthi R, Haslam RP, Chye ML, Harwood JL, Low EL (2019) Characterisation of Oil Palm Acyl-CoA-Binding Proteins and Correlation of their Gene Expression with Oil Synthesis. Plant Cell Physiol. doi: 10.1093/pcp/pcz237.
Nadzirah Amiruddin is lead author on this Malaysian-led research that includes collaborators from the University of South Wales, Rothamsted Research and Cardiff University. This paper looks at the expression of Acyl-CoA-binding proteins (ACBPs) in oil palm; providing important information about the role of this protein family during oil synthesis in the world’s most important oil crop.

Wang L, Sun J, Lin L, Fu Y, Alenius H, Lindsey K, Chen C (2019) Silver nanoparticles regulate Arabidopsis root growth by concentration-dependent modification of reactive oxygen species accumulation and cell division. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2019.110072.

This Chinese-study is led by Likai Wang and includes Keith Lindsey from Durham University as a co-author. They look at the effect of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on growth of Arabidopsis. AgNPs are taken up by roots and have opposing effects at either 50 mg L-1 or 100mg mg L-1. This is an important preliminary study to understand how plant growth might be altered if AgNP’s are used as a delivery mechanism.

Naramoto S, Jones VAS, Trozzi N, Sato M, Toyooka K, Shimamura M, Ishida S, Nishitani K, Ishizaki K, Nishihama R, Kohchi T, Dolan L, Kyozuka J (2019) A conserved regulatory mechanism mediates the convergent evolution of plant shoot lateral organs. PLoS Biol. 2019 doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000560 Open Access

This Japanese study is led by Satoshi Naramoto and Junko Kyozuka and includes co-authors from the University of Oxford. They performed a mutant screen in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha to identify the LATERAL ORGAN SUPRESSOR 1 (MpLOS1) gene, which regulates meristem maintenance and lateral organ development. Remarkably they showed this gene is also functions in the control of lateral organ development in rice, therefore demonstrating convergent evolution across plant lineages in the control of lateral organs.

Del Pozo A, Méndez-Espinoza AM, Romero-Bravo S, Garriga M, Estrada F, Alcaíno M, Camargo-Rodriguez AV, Corke FMK, Doonan JH, Lobos GA (2020) Genotypic variations in leaf and whole-plant water use efficiencies are closely related in bread wheat genotypes under well-watered and water-limited conditions during grain filling. Sci Rep. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-57116-0 Open Access

Alejandro del Pozo leads this Chilean study that includes co-authors from Aberystwyth and NIAB. This large-scale glasshouse experiment looked at the effect of water deficit on the growth of 14 bread wheat genotypes. Measurement of multiple parameters revealed that plants face limitations to the assimilation process during grain filling due to natural senesce and water stress.

GARNet Research Roundup: December 23rd 2019

by Geraint

Categories: Durham University, Global, John Innes Centre, Uncategorized, University of Birmingham, University of Cambridge, University of Glasgow, University of Leeds, University of Southampton, University of York

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Published on: December 23, 2019

The final GARNet Research Roundup of 2019 begins with three studies from the John Innes Centre. Firstly Steve Penfield’s group conducts a field-experiment that monitors FLC levels in winter oilseed rape. Second is a study from the Zilberman lab looking at the relationship between Histone H1 and DNA methylation.

Third is work from the Yant lab in JIC/Nottingham that investigates adaptive gene flow between Arabidopsis arenosa and Arabidopsis lyrata.

The next two papers are led from the Etchells lab in Durham, the first has developed a vascular-localised transcriptional network and the second is a methods paper for image analysis.

The sixth paper includes co-authors from Southampton and investigates nuclear-chloroplast signaling in Arabidopsis mediated by the GUN1 protein.

The next two papers include members of the current GARNet advisory committee. Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso from the University of Leeds is an author on a paper that models plasmodesma geometry whilst members of the Kaiserli lab in Glasgow are involved in a study that investigates the factors involved in auxin-dependent thermomorphogenesis.

The Dupree lab in Cambridge leads the next research paper that looks at the detailed composition of the cell wall in the softwood Spruce.

The next two papers are from the Sainsbury lab, Norwich. Firstly the Kamoun lab looks at the molecular code of a plant NLR immune receptors whilst in the second paper members of the Zipfel lab are co-authors on a study that looks at defence-related protease activity from a fungal pathogen of strawberry.

The twelfth paper is from Ian Graham’s lab at the University of York and looks at the role of light signaling during seed development.

Sue Armstrong from Birmingham is a co-author on the next paper in which researchers present a genetic map of the field cress Lepidium campestre.

The final two papers include researchers from Royal Holloway University of London and look at the role of different transcription factors during embryo or root meristem development.

O’Neill CM, Lu X, Calderwood A, Tudor EH, Robinson P, Wells R, Morris R, Penfield S (2019) Vernalization and Floral Transition in Autumn Drive Winter Annual Life History in Oilseed Rape. Curr Biol. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.051
Open Access

Carmel O’Neill is first author on the research from the Morris and Penfield labs at the John Innes Centre. This paper describes experiments that monitored FLC levels in field-growth winter oilseed rape. Surprisingly they shows that decline of FLC during October in relatively mild-temperatures of 10-15C reduce FLC levels, leading to floral transition prior to the colder winter temperatures. This work shows the importance of field experiments to understand real-world mechanisms that control crop development.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)31391-0

Choi J, Lyons DB, Kim MY, Moore JD, Zilberman D (2019) DNA Methylation and Histone H1 Jointly Repress Transposable Elements and Aberrant Intragenic Transcripts. Mol Cell. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2019.10.011
This research from the Zilberman lab at the John Innes Centre is led by Jaemyoung Choi and looks at the relationship between histone H1 and the DNA methylation machinery during the maintenance of transcriptional homeostasis.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1097276519307890?via%3Dihub

Marburger S, Monnahan P, Seear PJ, Martin SH, Koch J, Paajanen P, Bohutínská M, Higgins JD, Schmickl R, Yant L (2019) Interspecific introgression mediates adaptation to whole genome duplication. Nat Commun. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13159-5
Open Access

Sarah Marburger from Levi Yant’s lab at the John Innes Centre/University of Nottingham leads this research that includes co-authors from Leicester, Edinburgh and the Czech Republic. They look at the effect of whole-genome duplication on gene flow between Arabidopsis arenosa and Arabidopsis lyrata.

Smit M, McGregor S, Sun H, Gough C, Bågman AM, Soyars CL, Kroon JTM, Gaudinier A, Williams CJ, Yang X, Nimchuk ZL, Weijers D, Turner SR, Brady SM, Etchells P (2019) A PXY-Mediated Transcriptional Network Integrates Signaling Mechanisms to Control Vascular Development in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell. doi: 10.1105/tpc.19.00562
Open Access

This large-scale systems-biology paper is a UK-US-China-Dutch collaboration led by Margot Smit at Wageningen, Shauni McGregor and Peter Etchells at Durham University. They have developed a detailed transcriptional network based on the vascular-localised PHLOEM INTERCALATED WITH XYLEM (PXY) receptor kinase.

http://www.plantcell.org/content/early/2019/12/05/tpc.19.00562.long

Bagdassarian KS, Connor KA, Jermyn IH, Etchells JP (2019) Versatile method for quantifying and analyzing morphological differences in experimentally obtained images. Plant Signal Behav. doi: 10.1080/15592324.2019.1693092
This paper from Peter Etchells lab in Durham is led by Kristine Bagdassarian and introduces a bespoke method for inspecting the differences between the morphologies of several plant mutants at the cellular level.

Shimizu T, Kacprzak SM, Mochizuki N, Nagatani A, Watanabe S, Shimada T, Tanaka K, Hayashi Y, Arai M, Leister D, Okamoto H, Terry MJ, Masuda T (2019) The retrograde signaling protein GUN1 regulates tetrapyrrole biosynthesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1911251116

Open Access

Sylwia M. Kacprzak and Matthew Terry from the University of Southampton are co-authors on this Japanese-led study that looks at the interaction between nuclear and chloroplast genomes as controlled by role that the GUN1 protein plays in control of tetrapyrrole metabolism.

Deinum EE, Mulder BM, Benitez-Alfonso Y (2019) From plasmodesma geometry to effective symplasmic permeability through biophysical modelling. Elife. doi: 10.7554/eLife.49000
Open Access

Eva Deinum is lead author of this study that includes GARNet Committee member Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso as co-author. They have applied biophysical modeling to calculate effective symplasmic permeability for the transport of molecules through plasmodesmata. The resulting open-source model has been refined through experimental observations.

Dr Deinum will be leading a GARNet-supported workshop on this multilevel model during the July 2020 EMBO workshop on ‘Intercellular communication and plasmodesmata in plant development and disease’.

van der Woude LC, Perrella G, Snoek BL, van Hoogdalem M, Novák O, van Verk MC, van Kooten HN, Zorn LE, Tonckens R, Dongus JA, Praat M, Stouten EA, Proveniers MCG, Vellutini E, Patitaki E, Shapulatov U, Kohlen W, Balasubramanian S, Ljung K, van der Krol AR, Smeekens S, Kaiserli E, van Zanten M (2019) HISTONE DEACETYLASE 9 stimulates auxin-dependent thermomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis thaliana by mediating H2A.Z depletion. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1911694116

This wide collaboration is led by Lennard van der Woude at Utrecht University and includes Giorgio Perrella and Eirini Kaiserli from Glasgow as co-authors. This research looks at the complex relationship between thermomorphogenesis, auxin and light signaling, histone deacylation and the regulation of histone variant H2A.Z.

Terrett OM, Lyczakowski JJ, Yu L, Iuga D, Franks WT, Brown SP, Dupree R, Dupree P (2019) Molecular architecture of softwood revealed by solid-state NMR. Nat Commun. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12979-9

Open Access

This research from the Dupree lab in Cambridge is led by Olivier Terrett and uses solid-state NMR to analyse the cell wall composition of the softwood spruce, in part through comparison with Arabidopsis cell walls. This information is an essential requirement to build experimental strategies for the biorefining of particular wood-types.

Adachi H, Contreras M, Harant A, Wu CH, Derevnina L, Sakai T, Duggan C, Moratto E, Bozkurt TO, Maqbool A, Win J, Kamoun S (2019) An N-terminal motif in NLR immune receptors is functionally conserved across distantly related plant species. Elife. doi: 10.7554/eLife.49956

Open Access

Hiroaki Adachi leads this study from lab of Sophien Kamoun at the Sainsbury lab, Norwich. In this research they interrogate the molecular code of a plant NLR immune receptor to identify the minimal functional motifs that are required to induce hypersensitive cell death in response to a plant pathogen.

https://elifesciences.org/articles/49956

Caro MDP, Holton N, Conti G, Venturuzzi AL, Martínez-Zamora MG, Zipfel C, Asurmendi S, Díaz-Ricci JC (2019) The fungal subtilase AsES elicits a PTI-like defence response in Arabidopsis thaliana plants independently of its enzymatic activity. Mol Plant Pathol. doi: 10.1111/mpp.12881
Open Access

Nicolas Holton and Cyril Zipfel from the Sainsbury Lab in Norwich are co-authors on this Argentinian-led study with María del Pilar Caro as both first and corresponding author. They characterize the proteolytic role of the elicitor subtilisin (AsES) from strawberry fungal pathogen Acremonium strictum during an immune response.

Barros-Galvão T, Dave A, Gilday AD, Harvey D, Vaistij FE, Graham IA (2019) ABA INSENSITIVE4 promotes rather than represses PHYA-dependent seed germination in Arabidopsis thaliana. New Phytol. doi: 10.1111/nph.16363
Open Access

Thiago Barros-Galvão and Ian Graham at the University of Leeds lead this research that investigates the role of phytochrome A (PHYA) and PHYB signaling during seed development in Arabidopsis.

https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nph.16363

Desta ZA, Kolano B, Shamim Z, Armstrong SJ, Rewers M, Sliwinska E, Kushwaha SK, Parkin IAP, Ortiz R, de Koning DJ (2019) Field cress genome mapping: Integrating linkage and comparative maps with cytogenetic analysis for rDNA carrying chromosomes. Sci Rep. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-53320-0

Open Access

This Swedish led study has Zeratsion Abera Desta as lead author and includes Sue Armstrong from the University of Birmingham as a co-author. They have produced an early genome map of field cress (Lepidium campestre), which is a potential oilseed plant. They show that diploid Lepidium campestre has 16 chromosomes.

Leviczky T, Molnár E, Papdi C, Őszi E, Horváth GV, Vizler C, Nagy V, Pauk J, Bögre L, Magyar Z (2019) E2FA and E2FB transcription factors coordinate cell proliferation with seed maturation. Development. doi: 10.1242/dev.179333
Open Access

Tünde Leviczky is first author on this Hungarian-led study that includes co-authors from Royal Hollaway University of London. This work characterises the role of the E2F transcription factors and the RETINOBLASTOMA-RELATED repressor protein during Arabidopsis embryo development.

https://dev.biologists.org/content/146/22/dev179333.long

Lokdarshi A, Papdi C, Pettko-Szandtner A, Dorokhov S, Scheres B, Magyar Z, von Arnim AG, Bogre L, Horváth B (2019) ErbB-3 BINDING PROTEIN 1 Regulates Translation and Counteracts RETINOBLASTOMA RELATED to Maintain the Root Meristem. Plant Physiol. doi: 10.1104/pp.19.0080
This UK-US-Hungary collaboration includes Ansul Lokdarshi and Csaba Papdi as co-first authors and Laszlo Bogre and Beatrix Horvath from Royal Hollaway University of London as corresponding authors. They assessed the role of the ErbB-3 BINDING PROTEIN 1 transcription factor during Arabidopsis root meristem development

GARNet Research Roundup: November 22nd 2019

by Geraint

Categories: Cambridge University, Durham University, Glasgow University, Global, John Innes Centre, Lancaster Unversity, Nottingham University, SLCU, Uncategorized, University of Birmingham, University of Cambridge, University of Manchester, University of Nottingham, University of York

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Published on: November 22, 2019

This bumper edition of the GARNet Research Roundup begins with three papers that have a focus on the circadian clock. First is from Cambridge and looks at a novel role for TTG1 in control of the clock. The second paper also includes co-authors from Cambridge and looks at the clock Evening Complex. The final clock paper includes co-authors from York and looks at the new roles for EARLY FLOWERING 3 and GIGANTEA.

The next four papers include researchers from the John Innes Centre. Yiling Ding’s lab lead an exciting study into the role of RNA G-quadruplex to define liquid-liquid phase separations. Next David Seung and Alison Baker look at production of amylose starch across Arabidopsis accessions. The third JIC paper is from the Charpentier lab and looks at nuclear calcium signaling in the root. Finally Lars Ostergaard is a co-author on a paper that identifies a novel biostimulant that controls podshatter in Brassica.

The eighth paper is from Glasgow and describes the bioengineering of plants to express a novel antibiotic bacteriocin.

Next are three papers introduce exciting new research tools. 1. Weibei Yang in the Meyerowitz lab introduces a method for co-labeling of RNAs and protein 2. Researchers in Nottingham introduce RootNav2.0 for the automated measurement of root archtiectures 3. The Haydon Lab has developed a GAL4-GFP luciferase system for tissue-specific gene expression analysis.

Two Photosynthesis-based papers come next with firstly an analysis on the link between metabolism and the light response curve (from Manchester) and secondly a look at the role of aquaporins in control of CO2 conductance (Cambridge and Lancaster).

The fourteenth paper is from Durham and characterises an important protein regulator of the autophagy-dependent degradation pathway whilst the fifteenth is from Cambridge and uses cryo-SEM to analyse cell wall structures.

The penultimate paper is from Birmingham and looks at the role of redox signaling in aphid fecundity and the final paper includes co-authors from RHUL and looks at the interaction between the E2FB and RETINOBLASTOMA-RELATED proteins.

Airoldi CA, Hearn TJ, Brockington SF, Webb AAR, Glover BJ (2019) TTG1 proteins regulate circadian activity as well as epidermal cell fate and pigmentation. Nat Plants. doi: 10.1038/s41477-019-0544-3

This study from the University of Cambridge is led by Chiara Airoldi and introduces a new role for the TRANSPARENT TESTA GLABRA 1 (TTG1) WD-repeat (WDR) subfamily in the regulation of the circadian clock. TTG1 regulates epidermal cell differentiation and pigment production, while LIGHT-REGULATED WD1 and LIGHT-REGULATED WD2A are known to regulate the clock. The triple lwd1 lwd2 ttg1 mutant has no detectable circadian rhythym. This suggests that members of this protein family have undergone subfunctionalization to diverge from their core functions. This paper is of interest to those who research evolution of protein function as well as the to those interested in the control of the circadian clock.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-019-0544-3

Tong M, Lee K, Ezer D, Cortijo S, Jung J, Charoensawan V, Box MS, Jaeger K, Takahashi N, Mas P, Wigge PA, Seo PJ (2019) The Evening Complex establishes repressive chromatin domains via H2A.Z deposition. Plant Physiol. doi: 10.1104/pp.19.00881

This collaboration between the UK and South Korea is led by Meixuezi Tong and investigates how the Evening Complex (EC) component of the circadian clock interacts with chromatin to control gene expression at dusk. This occurs through direct interaction with the SWI2/SNF2-RELATED complex and together they bind to the core clock genes PRR7 and PRR9, causing the deposition of H2A.Z at these loci subsequent to causing their repression at dusk.

Anwer MU, Davis A, Davis SJ, Quint M (2019) Photoperiod sensing of the circadian clock is controlled by EARLY FLOWERING 3 and GIGANTEA. Plant J. doi: 10.1111/tpj.14604

Amanda Davies and Seth Davies from the University of York are co-authors on this German-led study with Muhammad Anwer as both first and corresponding author. They look at the role of important circadian regulators ELF3 and GIGANTEA through generation of previously unanalysed elf3gi double mutants. In these plants the circadian oscillator fails to synchronize to light-dark cycles even under diurnal conditions, demonstrating that these genes act together to convey photoperiod sensing to the central oscillator.

Zhang Y, Yang M, Duncan S, Yang X, Abdelhamid MAS, Huang L, Zhang H, Benfey PN, Waller ZAE, Ding Y (2019) G-quadruplex structures trigger RNA phase separation. Nucleic Acids Res. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkz978
Open Access

Yueying Zhang is the first author of this study conducted in the lab of Yiliang Ding at the John Innes Centre, in collaboration with the Benfey lab in the USA. They reveal an exciting mode of regulating RNA activity through the formation of RNA G-quadruplex (GQ) complexes. They use the SHORTROOT mRNA as the model for this study, showing that GQ-mediated complex formation can bring liquid-liquid phase separation. This study is of fundamental importance as it provides the first evidence that RNA can adopt structural motifs to trigger and/or maintain the specificity of RNA-driven phase separation.

https://academic.oup.com/nar/advance-article/doi/10.1093/nar/gkz978/5624975?guestAccessKey=d3913912-fdbb-4f35-aa71-625442722842

Seung D, Echevarría-Poza A, Steuernagel B, Smith AM (2019) Natural polymorphisms in Arabidopsis result in wide variation or loss of the amylose component of starch. Plant Physiol. doi: 10.1104/pp.19.01062
Open Access

David Seung at the John Innes Centre the first and corresponding author of this study that used data from the Arabidopsis 1135 Genome project to investigate the prevelance of amylose production. Plants with amylose-free starch have no detrimental phenotypes so the function of this glucose-polymer, that accounts for up to 30% of all natural starch, is unknown. They looked at the polymorphisms within the GRANULE-BOUND STARCH SYNTHASE (GBSS) enzyme, identifying natural accessions that have no GBSS activity yet are viable within their natural environments. This study is a prelude to future research that will discover the adaptive significance of amylose.

Leitão N, Dangeville P, Carter R, Charpentier M (2019) Nuclear calcium signatures are associated with root development. Nat Commun. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12845-8
Open Access

Nuno Leitao is first author on this research from the Charpentier lab at the John Innes Centre. They looked at the role of nuclear Ca2+ signalling on primary root meristem development and auxin homeostasis through activity of the nuclear membrane localised ion channel DOES NOT MAKE INFECTIONS 1 (DMI1). This study discovers a previously unappreciated role for intracellular Ca2+ signalling during plant development.

Łangowski Ł, Goñi O, Quille P, Stephenson P, Carmody N, Feeney E, Barton D, Østergaard L, O’Connell S (2019 A plant biostimulant from the seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum (Sealicit) reduces podshatter and yield loss in oilseed rape through modulation of IND expression. Sci Rep. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-52958-0
Open Access

Lars Ostergaard is a co-author on this Irish-study led by Lukasz Łangowski that investigates the factors that control pod shatter in oil seed rape. They show that the seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum-based biostimulant (Sealicit) is able to reduce podshatter by effecting the expression of the major regulator of pod shattering, INDEHISCENT. This has implications for the use of this compound by farmers wanting to reduce the amount of seed loss due to premature pod shatter.

Rooney WM, Grinter RW, Correia A, Parkhill J, Walker DC, Milner JJ (2019) Engineering bacteriocin-mediated resistance against the plant pathogen Pseudomonas syringae. Plant Biotechnol J. doi: 10.1111/pbi.13294
Open Access

William Rooney at the University of Glasgow is lead author on this study that attempts to combat Pseudomonas syringae infections through expression of a novel protein antibiotic bacteriocin, putidacin. They show that transgenic expression of this bacterial protein provides effective protection against Pseudomonas. This proof of concept opens the possibility for more widespread use of bacteriocins as an effective plant protection strategy.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/pbi.13294

Yang W, Schuster C, Prunet N, Dong Q, Landrein B, Wightman R, Meyerowitz EM (2019) Visualization of Protein Coding, Long Non-coding and Nuclear RNAs by FISH in Sections of Shoot Apical Meristems and Developing Flowers. Plant Physiol. doi: 10.1104/pp.19.00980
This extended methods paper is led by Weibing Yang at the Sainsbury lab in Cambridge. They have adapted RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (rnaFISH) to explore RNA localization in the shoot apical meristem of Arabidopsis. They are able to label mRNA as well as long ncRNAs and have developed double labeling to assay two separate RNAs in the same cell and to assess nucleo-cytoplasmic separation of RNA species. Finally they link rnaFISH with fluorescence immunocytochemistry for the simultaneous localization of a single genes mRNA and protein.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01398/full

Yasrab R, Atkinson JA, Wells DM, French AP, Pridmore TP, Pound MP (2019) RootNav 2.0: Deep learning for automatic navigation of complex plant root architectures. Gigascience. doi: 10.1093/gigascience/giz123
Open Access

Robail Yasrab is lead author on this work from the University of Nottingham that introduces the RootNav2.0 software tool. This was developed by modern deep-learning approaches and allows the fully automated measurement of vertically growth root systems. RootNav2.0 was favourably compared with its semi-automated predecessor RootNav1.0 and can be used for measurement of root architectures from a range of different plant species.

Román Á, Golz JF, Webb AA, Graham IA, Haydon MJ (2019) Combining GAL4 GFP enhancer trap with split luciferase to measure spatiotemporal promoter activity in Arabidopsis. Plant J. doi: 10.1111/tpj.14603

This technical advance is led by Angela Roman, was in the Haydon lab during its time at the University of York. They have used the GAL4-GFP enhancer trap system, to develop a tissue-specific split luciferase assay for non-invasive detection of spatiotemporal gene expression in Arabidopsis. In this example they use the study to measure dynamics of circadian gene expression but is clearly applicable to answer many other experimental questions.

Herrmann HA, Schwartz JM, Johnson GN (2019) From empirical to theoretical models of light response curves – linking photosynthetic and metabolic acclimation. Photosynth Res. doi: 10.1007/s11120-019-00681-2
Open Access

Helena Herrmann is lead author on this work fro the University of Manchester. In this study they developed and then empirically tested a series of simple kinetic models that explains the metabolic changes that are required to alter light response curves (LRCs) across a range of temperatures. This allowed them to show how changes in NADPH and CO2 utilization respond to environmental changes. This provides useful information as to how a plant adapts its metabolic response to light depending on the growth temperature.

Helena explaining her research

Kromdijk J, Głowacka K, Long SP (2019) Photosynthetic efficiency and mesophyll conductance are unaffected in Arabidopsis thaliana aquaporin knock-out lines. J Exp Bot. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erz442

Open Access
Wanne Kromdijk leads this US-led research that includes contributions from the Universities of Cambridge and Lancaster. They looked at the potential role of membrane-bound aquaporins in the control of diffusion conductance for CO2 transfer from substomatal cavity to chloroplast stroma (gm). They tested three aquaporin mutants across a range of light and CO2 concentrations and surprisingly found that they appear to play no significant contribution to the control of gm. The reporting of this type of ‘negative’ result will prevent unnecessary replication of experiments and help to streamline the research process.

Wang P, Pleskot R, Zang J, Winkler J, Wang J, Yperman K, Zhang T, Wang K, Gong J, Guan Y, Richardson C, Duckney P, Vandorpe M, Mylle E, Fiserova J, Van Damme D, Hussey PJ (2019) Plant AtEH/Pan1 proteins drive autophagosome formation at ER-PM contact sites with actin and endocytic machinery. Nat Commun. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12782-6
Open Access

Pengwei Wang is first author in this research led from Durham University that incudes Chinese and Belgian collaborators. They show that the AtEH/Pan1 protein is involved with actin cytoskeleton regulated autophagy and recruits multiple other components to autophagosomes during this process. In addition they show vesicle bound-AtEH/Pan1 interact with VAP27-1 at the ER-PM. This demonstrates that AtEH/Pan1 is a key component of the autophagy-dependent degradation pathway.

Lyczakowski JJ, Bourdon M, Terrett OM, Helariutta Y, Wightman R, Dupree P (2019) Structural Imaging of Native Cryo-Preserved Secondary Cell Walls Reveals the Presence of Macrofibrils and Their Formation Requires Normal Cellulose, Lignin and Xylan Biosynthesis. Front Plant Sci. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01398
Open Access

Jan Lyczakowski from the Dupree lab at the University of Cambridge is first author on this study that has adapted low temperature scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM) to visualize the cell walls of both angiosperm and gymnosperms. They have used Arabidopsis mutants to reveal that cell wall macrofibrils at composed of cellulose, xylan, and lignin. They demonstrate that cryo-SEM is a useful tool for native nanoscale cell wall architectures.

Rasool B, Karpinska B, Pascual J, Kangasjärvi S, Foyer CH (2019) Catalase, glutathione and protein phosphatase 2A-dependent organellar redox signalling regulate aphid fecundity under moderate and high irradiance. Plant Cell Environ. doi: 10.1111/pce.13669
Brwa Rasool is first author on this collaboration between the Universities of Birmingham and Helsinki that looks at how aphids respond to redox changes in Arabidopsis thaliana grown under different light conditions. They also identified defence-related transcription factors differentially upregulated by aphid predation in different light conditions. Overall they show aphid fecundity is in part determined by the plants cellular redox signaling.

Őszi E, Papdi C, Mohammed B, Pettkó-Szandtner A, Vaskó-Leviczky T, Molnár E, Ampudia CG, Khan S, Lopez-Juez E, Horváth B, Bögre L, Magyar Z (2019) E2FB interacts with RETINOBLASTOMA RELATED and regulates cell proliferation during leaf development. Plant Physiol. doi: 10.1104/pp.19.00212
Erika Oszi is first author of this Hungarian-led research that includes co-authors from Royal Holloway University of London. This research looks at the interaction between the transcription factors E2FB and RETINOBLASTOMA-RELATED (RBR) and how this contributes to cell proliferation during organ development in Arabidopsis leaves. The relationship between these proteins changes throughout the stages of leaf development and is critical to determine final leaf cell number.

http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/early/2019/11/06/pp.19.00212.long

GARNet Research Roundup: October 17th 2019

by Geraint

Categories: Bristol University, Cambridge University, Durham University, Edinburgh University, Global, James Hutton Institute, John Innes Centre, Nottingham University, Rothamsted Research, SLCU, Uncategorized, University of Bristol, University of Cambridge, University of Dundee, University of Edinburgh, University of Nottingham, University of Sheffield

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Published on: October 17, 2019

This edition of the GARNet Research Roundup includes a superb selection of papers by scientists from across the UK. First is work from the Spoel lab in Edinburgh that characterizes the fine-tuning of NPR1 activity during the plant immune response. Second is work from SLCU and the University of Helsinki that is an extensive investigation into the molecular basis of cambial development. Next is research from Nottingham that looks at the importance of soil macro-structures during the growth of wheat roots.

Fourth are three papers that highlight the breadth of research occurring at the John Innes Centre. The first paper is from Enrico Coen’s lab that applies their expertise in computational modeling to leaf development in the carnivorous plant Utricularia gibba. Second is work from Saskia Hogenhout’s lab that looks at immunity to infection by Phytoplasma pathogens. Last is work from Lars Ostergaard’s lab that characterises the role of Auxin Binding promoter elements in floral development.

The seventh paper from Bristol and Glasgow looks at shade avoidance signaling via PIF5, COP1 and UVR8 whilst the eighth paper, which is from Rothamsted, demonstrates how metabolic engineering in Arabidopsis seeds can result in a high proportion of human milk fat substitute. The next paper is from the University of Durham and investigates how the composition of the Arabidopsis cell wall impacts freezing tolerance. The first author of this paper, Dr Paige Panter discusses the paper on the GARNet community podcast.

The tenth paper is from Julia Davies’s lab at the University of Cambridge and introduces an uncharacterised response to extracellular ATP signals in Arabidopsis roots. The next paper is from Mike Blatt’s group at University of Glasgow and characterises a new interaction between vesicular transport and ion channels. The penultimate entry includes co-authors from the JIC on a Chinese-led study that demonstrates improved seed vigour in wheat through overexpression of a NAC transcription factor. Finally are two methods papers taken from a special journal issue on ‘Plant Meiosis’.

Skelly MJ, Furniss JJ, Grey HL, Wong KW, Spoel SH (2019) Dynamic ubiquitination determines transcriptional activity of the plant immune coactivator NPR1. Elife. doi: 10.7554/eLife.47005
Open Access

https://elifesciences.org/articles/47005

Michael Skelly is lead author on this paper from the lab of current GARNet chair Steven Spoel. In it they investigate the mechanisms that fine-tune the function of NPR1, a key player in the plant immune response. Progressive ubiquitination of NPR1 by an E3 ligase causes both its interaction with target genes and its subsequent degradation by an E4 ligase. This latter occurrence is opposed by the deubiquitinase activity of UBP6/7, setting up a complex regulatory environment that allows the plant to rapidly response to pathogen attack.

Zhang J, Eswaran G, Alonso-Serra J, Kucukoglu M, Xiang J, Yang W, Elo A, Nieminen K, Damén T, Joung JG, Yun JY, Lee JH, Ragni L, Barbier de Reuille P, Ahnert SE, Lee JY, Mähönen AP, Helariutta Y (2019) Transcriptional regulatory framework for vascular cambium development in Arabidopsis roots. Nat Plants. doi: 10.1038/s41477-019-0522-9

This pan-European-Korean collaboration has Jing Zhang from the University of Helsinki and the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge as first author. They use cambium cell-specific transcript profiling and follow-on network analysis to discover 62 new transcription factors involved in cambial development in Arabidopsis. This information was used to engineer plants with increased radial growth through ectopic cambial activity as well as to generate plants with no cambial activity. This understanding provides a platform for possible future improvements in production of woody biomass.

Atkinson JA, Hawkesford MJ, Whalley WR, Zhou H, Mooney SJ (2019) Soil strength influences wheat root interactions with soil macropores. Plant Cell Environ. doi: 10.1111/pce.13659
This work is led from the University of Nottingham by John Atkinson and Sacha Mooney. They use X-ray Computed Tomography to investigate a trait called trematotropism, which applies to the ability of deep rooting plants to search out macropores and avoid densely packed soil. They show root colonisation of macropores is an important adaptive trait and that strategies should be put in place to increase these structures within the natural soil environment.

Lee KJI, Bushell C, Koide Y, Fozard JA, Piao C, Yu M, Newman J, Whitewoods C, Avondo J, Kennaway R, Marée AFM, Cui M, Coen E (2019) Shaping of a three-dimensional carnivorous trap through modulation of a planar growth mechanism. PLoS Biol. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000427
Open Access

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000427

Karen Lee, Claire Bushell and Yohei Koide are co-first authors on this work led by Enrico Coen at the John Innes Centre and Minlong Cui at the Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University in China. This study uses 3D imaging, cellular and clonal analysis, combined with computational modelling to analyse the development of cup-shaped traps of the carnivorous plant Utricularia gibba. They identify growth ansiotrophies that result in the final leave shape that develops from an initial near-spherical form. These processes have some similarities to the polar growth seen in Arabidopsis leaves. Overall they show that ‘simple modulations of a common growth framework underlie the shaping of a diverse range of morphologies’.

Pecher P, Moro G, Canale MC, Capdevielle S, Singh A, MacLean A, Sugio A, Kuo CH, Lopes JRS, Hogenhout SA (2019) Phytoplasma SAP11 effector destabilization of TCP transcription factors differentially impact development and defence of Arabidopsis versus maize. PLoS Pathog. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008035
Open Access

This work from Saskia Hogenhout’s lab at the John Innes Centre is led by Pascal Pecher and Gabriele Moro. They look at the effect of SAP11 effectors from Phytoplasma species that infect either Arabidopsis or maize. They demonstrate that although both related versions of SAP11 destabilise plant TCP transcription factors, their modes of action have significant differences. Please look out for Saskia discussing this paper on the GARNet Community podcast next week.

Kuhn A, Runciman B, Tasker-Brown W, Østergaard L 92019) Two Auxin Response Elements Fine-Tune PINOID Expression During Gynoecium Development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Biomolecules. doi: 10.3390/biom9100526
Open Access

Andre Kuhn is first author of this research from Lars Østergaard’s lab at the John Innes Centre. They functional characterise two Auxin-responsive Elements (AuxRE) within the promotor of the PINOID gene, which are bound by the ETITIN/ARF3 Auxin Response Factor. Alteration of this AuxRE causes phenotypic changes during flower development demonstrating that even with a complex regulatory environment, small changes to cis-elements can have significant developmental consequences.

Sharma A, Sharma B, Hayes S, Kerner K, Hoecker U, Jenkins GI, Franklin KA (2019) UVR8 disrupts stabilisation of PIF5 by COP1 to inhibit plant stem elongation in sunlight. Nat Commun. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12369-1
Open Access

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12369-1

Ashutosh Sharma is first author of this UK-Spanish-Germany collaboration led by Keara Franklin at University of Bristol. They have characterised the interaction between three significant molecular players that function during the shade avoidance response in Arabidopsis; PIF5, UVR8 and COP1. In shaded conditions, UVR8 indirectly promotes rapid degradation of PIF5 through their interactions with the E3 ubiquitin ligase COP1.

van Erp H, Bryant FM, Martin-Moreno J, Michaelson LV, Bhutada G, Eastmond PJ (2019) Engineering the stereoisomeric structure of seed oil to mimic human milk fat. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1907915116

Open Access

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/09/24/1907915116.long

Harrie Van Arp and Peter Eastmond at Rothamsted Research lead this extremely translational study in which they have modified the metabolic pathway for triacylglycerol (TAG) biosynthesis. By modifying the location of one biosynthesis enzyme and removing the activity of another, the fats produced in these Arabidopsis seeds are enriched to contain TAGs that are similar to those found in human milk. They propose that this technology could be used to develop a source of plant-derived human milk fat substitute.

Panter PE, Kent O, Dale M, Smith SJ, Skipsey M, Thorlby G, Cummins I, Ramsay N, Begum RA, Sanhueza D, Fry SC, Knight MR, Knight H (2019) MUR1-mediated cell-wall fucosylation is required for freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. New Phytol. doi: 10.1111/nph.16209

Paige Panter led this work as part of her PhD at the University of Durham in the lab of Heather Knight. They characterise the role of the MUR1 protein in the control of cell wall fucosylation and how this contributes to plant freezing tolerance. Paige discusses this paper and the long history of MUR1 on the GARNet Community podcast. Please check it out!

Wang L, Stacey G, Leblanc-Fournier N, Legué V, Moulia B, Davies JM (2019) Early Extracellular ATP Signaling in Arabidopsis Root Epidermis: A Multi-Conductance Process. Front Plant Sci. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01064.

Open Access

The UK-French collaboration is led by Limin Wang from Julia Davies’s lab in Cambridge. They use patch clamp electrophysiology to identify previously uncharacterized channel conductances that respond to extracellular ATP across the root elongation zone epidermal plasma membrane.

Waghmare S, Lefoulon C, Zhang B, Lileikyte E, Donald NA, Blatt MR (2019) K+ channel-SEC11 binding exchange regulates SNARE assembly for secretory traffic. Plant Physiol. doi: 10.1104/pp.19.00919

Open Access

This work from Mike Blatt’s lab in Glasgow is led by Sakharam Waghmare. They look at the interaction between SNARE proteins, which are involved in vesicular fusion and K+ channels, which help control turgor pressure during cell expansion. Through combining analysis of protein-protein interactions and electrophysiological measurement they have found that this interaction requires the activity of the regulatory protein SEC11.

Li W, He X, Chen Y, Jing Y, Shen C, Yang J, Teng W, Zhao X, Hu W, Hu M, Li H, Miller AJ, Tong Y (2019) A wheat transcription factor positively sets seed vigour by regulating the grain nitrate signal. New Phytol. doi: 10.1111/nph.16234
Wenjing Li is first author of this Chinese study that includes Yi Chen and Anthony Miller from the John Innes Centre as co-authors. This research shows that seed vigour and nitrate accumulation in wheat is regulated by the TaNAC2 transcriptions factor through its control of the TaNRT2.5 nitrate transporter. The authors suggest that both genes could be used as potential future targets to increase grain yield and nitrogen use efficiency.

The Special Issue of Methods in Molecular Biology on Plant Meiosis includes papers from the University of Cambridge, led by Christophe Lambing and the James Hutton Institute, led by Benoit Darrier.

Lambing C, Choi K, Blackwell AR, Henderson IR (2019) Chromatin Immunoprecipitation of Meiotically Expressed Proteins from Arabidopsis thaliana Flowers. Methods Mol Biol. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9818-0_16
Darrier B, Arrieta M, Mittmann SU, Sourdille P, Ramsay L, Waugh R, Colas I (2019) Following the Formation of Synaptonemal Complex Formation in Wheat and Barley by High-Resolution Microscopy. Methods Mol Biol. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9818-0_15

GARNet Research Roundup: June 12th 2019

by Geraint

Categories: Brassica, Cardiff University, Durham University, Edinburgh University, Global, John Innes Centre, Nottingham University, Oxford Brookes University, RHUL, Uncategorized, University of Nottingham, University of Oxford, Warwick University

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Published on: June 12, 2019

In another big edition of the GARNet Research Roundup we cover many different areas of research that utilise a varied group of experimental organisms!

The first paper from the Feng lab at the John Innes Centre performs an assessment of the factors influencing heterochromatin activity in sperm companion cells. Second is work from the JIC and Cardiff University that looks at the role of an auxin minima during fruit valve margin differentiation.

The next two papers have authors from Edinburgh. Firstly the McCormick lab has developed a stereo-based 3D imaging system for plants while Steven Spoel is a co-author on a study that looks at the pathogen responsive gene NPR1.

Coming from across the M8 is a paper from the Christie lab in Glasgow that looks into using phototropin genes as potential targets for crop improvement.

The next paper is from Oxford Brookes University where they visualise the movement of protein nanodomain clusters within the plasma membrane. Elsewhere in Oxford is a paper from the van der Hoorn group that characterises the effect of a novel triazine herbicide.

Two papers from the University of Durham also identify and characterise the role of novel herbicides, in this case on the activity of inositol phosphorylceramide synthases.

The final five papers feature research that each use different experimental organisms. Firstly a paper from the Earlham Institute uses delayed fluorescence to investigate the circadian clock in wheat and OSR. Second is a paper from Warwick that assesses the role of nodulation during nitrogen uptake in Medicago. The next paper features the Yant lab at University of Nottingham looks at growth of two species of Arabidopsis in challenging environments.

The penultimate paper includes authors from the University of Oxford and provides a detailed analysis of the factors controlling leaf shape in Cardamine and Arabidopsis thaliana. The final paper uses the imaging facility at the Hounsfield facility in Nottingham to image the roots of date palms.

He S, Vickers M, Zhang J, Feng X (2019) Natural depletion of H1 in sex cells causes DNA demethylation, heterochromatin decondensation and transposon activation. Elife. doi: 10.7554/eLife.42530

Open Access

Lead author on his paper is Shengbo He from Xiaoqi Feng’s lab at the John Innes Centre. This work looks at activation of Transposable elements (TEs) in the sperm companion cell of Arabidopsis. This is catalyzed by the DEMETER-catalyzed DNA demethylation in regions depleted of histone H1, demonstrating a key role for H1 in determining heterochromatin activity.

https://elifesciences.org/articles/42530

Li XR, Vroomans RMA, Fox S, Grieneisen VA, Østergaard L, Marée AFM (2019) Systems Biology Approach Pinpoints Minimum Requirements for Auxin Distribution during Fruit Opening. Mol Plant. doi: 10.1016/j.molp.2019.05.003

Open Access

Xin-Ran Li and Renske Vroomans are co-lead authors on this work from the Ostergaard, Grieneisen and Maree labs from the John Innes Centre and (now) Cardiff University.They look at the role of an auxin minima in the control of valve margin differentiation in Arabidopsis fruit. They used a cycle of experimental-modeling to develop a model that predicts the maturation of the auxin minimum to ensure timely fruit opening and seed dispersal.

https://www.cell.com/molecular-plant/fulltext/S1674-2052(19)30168-6?

Bernotas G, Scorza LCT, Hansen MF, Hales IJ, Halliday KJ, Smith LN, Smith ML, McCormick AJ (2019) A photometric stereo-based 3D imaging system using computer vision and deep learning for tracking plant growth. Gigascience. doi: 10.1093/gigascience/giz056

Open Access

Gytis Bernotas from UWE and Livia Scorza from the McCormick lab at the University of Edinburgh lead this work that is the result of a 2+ year collaboration with the Melvyn Smith and others at the Computer Machine Vision (CMV) facility at UWE. The authors have developed hardware and software (including a deep neural network) to automate the 3D imaging and segmentation of rosettes and individual leaves using a photometric stereo approach.

https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article/8/5/giz056/5498634

Chen J, Mohan R, Zhang Y, Li M, Chen H, Palmer IA, Chang M, Qi G, Spoel SH, Mengiste T, Wang D, Liu F, Fu ZQ (2019) NPR1 promotes its own and target gene expression in plant defense by recruiting CDK8. Plant Physiol. doi: 10.1104/pp.19.00124

GARNet chairman Steven Spoel is a co-author on this US-led study with Jian Chen as lead author. The paper investigates the interacting partners of NPR1 (NONEXPRESSER OF PR GENES 1), which is a master regulator of salicyclic signaling and therefore an important regulation of plant defense response.

Hart JE, Sullivan S, Hermanowicz P, Petersen J, Diaz-Ramos LA, Hoey DJ, Łabuz J, Christie JM (2019) Engineering the phototropin photocycle improves photoreceptor performance and plant biomass production. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1902915116

Open Access

Jaynee Hart is first author on this research from Christie lab at the University of Glasgow in which they target the phototropin blue light receptor as a candidate for crop improvement. They showed plants that engineered to have a slow-photocycling version of PHOT1 or PHOT2 had increased biomass under low light conditions, due to their increased sensitivity to low light.

McKenna JF, Rolfe DJ, Webb SED, Tolmie AF, Botchway SW, Martin-Fernandez ML, Hawes C, Runions J (2019) The cell wall regulates dynamics and size of plasma-membrane nanodomains in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1819077116

Open Access

Joe McKenna from Oxford Brookes University leads this work that takes advantage of their superb imaging facilities to assess the dynamic regulation of specific protein clusters in the Arabidopsis plasma membrane. They show that the cytoskeleton (both actin and microtubule) and the cell wall play roles in the control of intra-PM moment of the pathogen receptor FLS2 and the auxin transporter PIN3.

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/06/07/1819077116

Morimoto K, Cole KS, Kourelis J, Witt CH, Brown D, Krahn D, Stegmann M, Kaschani F, Kaiser M, Burton J, Mohammed S, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Weerapana E, van der Hoorn RAL (2019) Triazine probes targeting ascorbate peroxidases in plants. Plant Physiol. doi: 10.1104/pp.19.00481

Open Access

Kyoko Morimoto is first author on this UK-German-Japanese collaboration led from the lab of GARNet committee member Renier van der Hoorn. They characterise the herbicidal effect of the small 1,3,5-triazine KSC-3 on ascorbate peroxidases (APXs) across a range of plant species.

Pinneh EC, Stoppel R, Knight H, Knight MR, Steel PG, Denny PW (2019) Expression levels of inositol phosphorylceramide synthase modulate plant responses to biotic and abiotic stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoS One. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217087

Open Access

Pinneh EC, Mina JG, Stark MJR, Lindell SD, Luemmen P, Knight MR, Steel PG, Denny PW (2019) The identification of small molecule inhibitors of the plant inositol phosphorylceramide synthase which demonstrate herbicidal activity. Sci Rep. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-44544-1

Open Access

Elizabeth Pinneh leads these two papers from the Denny lab in Durham. In the first paper they use RNAseq data and analysis of overexpression transgenic lines to define the role of inositol phosphorylceramide synthase (IPCS) during abiotic and biotic stress responses.

Secondly they screened a panel of 11000 compounds for their activity against the AtIPCS2 in a yeast two-hybrid assay. Successful hits from the screen were confirmed with in vitro enzyme assays and in planta against Arabidopsis.

Rees H, Duncan S, Gould P, Wells R, Greenwood M, Brabbs T, Hall A (2019) A high-throughput delayed fluorescence method reveals underlying differences in the control of circadian rhythms in Triticum aestivum and Brassica napus. Plant Methods. doi: 10.1186/s13007-019-0436-6

Open Access

Hannah Rees from Anthony Hall’s lab at the Earlham Institute leads this methods paper that introduces the use of delayed fluorescence to investigate the circadian rhythms in wheat and oil seed rape.

https://plantmethods.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13007-019-0436-6

Lagunas B, Achom M, Bonyadi-Pour R, Pardal AJ, Richmond BL, Sergaki C, Vázquez S, Schäfer P, Ott S, Hammond J, Gifford ML (2019) Regulation of Resource Partitioning Coordinates Nitrogen and Rhizobia Responses and Autoregulation of Nodulation in Medicago truncatula. Mol Plant. doi: 10.1016/j.molp.2019.03.014

Open Access

Beatriz Lagunas is lead author on this paper from the University of Warwick that investigates the role of nodulation in actual nitrogen uptake by the roots of Medicago truncatula. They use integrated molecular and phenotypic analysis to determine that the respond to nitrogen flux are processed on a whole plant level through multiple developmental processes.

https://www.cell.com/molecular-plant/fulltext/S1674-2052(19)30127-3?

Preite V, Sailer C, Syllwasschy L, Bray S, Ahmadi H, Krämer U, Yant L (2019) Convergent evolution in Arabidopsis halleri and Arabidopsis arenosa on calamine metalliferous soils Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0243

Open Access

Veronica Preite is first author on this UK-German collaboration led by Ute Kraemer and Levi Yant in Nottingham. They performed whole genome resequenced of 64 individuals of two Arabidopsis species that grow on calamine metalliferous sites (which have toxic levels of the zinc and cadmium). They revealed a modest amount of gene and network convergence in plants that have colonised these challenging environments.

Kierzkowski D, Runions A, Vuolo F, Strauss S, Lymbouridou R, Routier-Kierzkowska AL, Wilson-Sánchez D, Jenke H, Galinha C, Mosca G, Zhang Z, Canales C, Dello Ioio R, Huijser P, Smith RS, Tsiantis M (2019) A Growth-Based Framework for Leaf Shape Development and Diversity. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.05.011

Open Access

Claudia Canales and Carla Galinha from Oxford are co-authors on this German-led study from Miltos Tsiantis’ lab that performs a detailed dissection of the growth parameters that control differences in leaf-shape in Cardamine and Arabidopsis. They show critical roles for the SHOOTMERISTEMLESS and REDUCED COMPLEXITY homeobox proteins to define differences in shape determination.

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30509-4?

Xiao T, Raygoza AA, Pérez JC, Kirschner G, Deng Y, Atkinson B, Sturrock C, Lube V, Wang JY, Lubineau G, Al-Babili S, Ramírez LAC, Bennett MJ, Blilou I (2019) Emergent Protective Organogenesis in Date Palms: A Morpho-devo-dynamic Adaptive Strategy During Early Development. Plant Cell. doi: 10.1105/tpc.19.00008

Open Access

Members of the Hounsfield CT Imaging Facility  at the University of Nottingham are co-authors on this paper that is led by Tingting Xiao from KAUST in Saudi Arabia. The paper takes a detailed look at root morphology in Date Palm.

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