This edition of GARNet Research Roundup begins with two studies from the John Innes Centre. The first takes a detailed look at meiosis in Arabidopsis arenosa and the second introduces a novel mode of auxin perception.
The third paper from the Grierson lab in Bristol uses innovative methods to assess root-soil cohesion through study of root hairs. The fourth paper is also from Bristol and looks at the evolution of stomata.
The fifth and sixth papers are from Scotland. Firstly researchers at Edinburgh have developed a deep learning approach for plant phenotyping whilst in the second research from Glasgow looks at the role of UVR8 in the UV response of UV-B adapted plants.
The seventh paper is from The Sainsbury lab, Norwich and reveals a new role for phosphorylation in the formation of the RRS1-R/RPS4 immune receptor complex.
The final paper includes co-authors from Cambridge and looks at the role of epigenetic changes in the reponse to an experimentally evolved plant virus.
Morgan C, Zhang H, Henry CE, Franklin FCH, Bomblies K (2020) Derived alleles of two axis proteins affect meiotic traits in autotetraploid Arabidopsis arenosa. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1919459117 Open Access
Chris Morgan works at the John Innes Centre and leads this research that looks at meiosis in Arabidopsis arenosa. They use super resolution microscopy to look in great detail at the intertaction of the ASY1 and ASY3 loci. Chris discussed this work on the GARNet community podcast.
Kuhn A, Ramans Harborough S, McLaughlin HM, Natarajan B, Verstraeten I, Friml J, Kepinski S, Østergaard L (2020) Direct ETTIN-auxin interaction controls chromatin states in gynoecium development. Elife doi: 10.7554/eLife.51787 Open Access
Andre Kuhn works with Lars Ostergaard at the John Innes Centre and leads this research that has identified a novel mode of auxin perception in which the ETTIN transcription factor directly interacts with auxin. This allows a rapid response that does not rely on the canonical mode of auxin perception via protein degradation. Andre discussed this work on the GARNet community podcast.
De Baets S, Denbigh TDG, Smyth KM, Eldridge BM, Weldon L, Higgins B, Matyjaszkiewicz A, Meersmans J, Larson ER, Chenchiah IV, Liverpool TB, Quine TA, Grierson CS (2020) Micro-scale interactions between Arabidopsis root hairs and soil particles influence soil erosion. Commun Biol. doi: 10.1038/s42003-020-0886-4 Open Access
This work from the University of Bristol is led by Sarah De Baets S, Tom Denbigh, Kevin Smyth, Beth Eldridge. They have developed a series o fthree innovative assays to investigate the role of root hairs in the cohesion of the roots-soil interaction. This research shows that root hairs play a significant role in this process. Tom and Beth discussed this work on the GARNet community podcast.
Harris BJ, Harrison CJ, Hetherington AM, Williams TA (2020) Phylogenomic Evidence for the Monophyly of Bryophytes and the Reductive Evolution of Stomata. Curr Biol. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.03.048 Open Access
This paper from the University of Bristol is led by Brogan Harris and investigates the evolutionary origins of genes that specify stomatal development and function in bryophytes. They show that important stomatal lineage genes are present in bryophytes, indicating that their stomata have undergone reductive evolution.
Dobrescu A, Giuffrida MV, Tsaftaris SA (2020) Doing More With Less: A Multitask Deep Learning Approach in Plant Phenotyping. Front Plant Sci. 2020 Feb 28;11:141. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.00141 Open Access
Andrei Dobrescu leads this methods paper from the University of Edinburgh that uses multitask deep learning to develop software for plant phenotying. They test their method on the analysis of Arabidopsis rosettes.
Liao X, Liu W, Yang HQ, Jenkins GI (2020) A dynamic model of UVR8 photoreceptor signaling in UV-B-acclimated Arabidopsis. New Phytol. doi: 10.1111/nph.16581 Open Access
Xinyang Liao leads this work from the University of Glasgow that continues the Jenkins’ lab research on the UVR8 photoreceptor. In this paper they analysed the role of UVR8 in UV-B-acclimated plants in which the switch between between monomeric and dimeric states can response to high UV-B without the need for new translation. This response is also alters the interaction of UVR8 with the COP1 and RUP2 proteins.
Guo H, Ahn HK, Sklenar J, Huang J, Ma Y, Ding P, Menke FLH, Jones JDG (2020) Phosphorylation-Regulated Activation of the Arabidopsis RRS1-R/RPS4 Immune Receptor Complex Reveals Two Distinct Effector Recognition Mechanisms. Cell Host Microbe. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.03.008
Hailong Guo and Hee-Kyung Ahn work with Jonathan Jones at the Sainsbury lab, Norwich and lead this work that investigates the role of phosphorylation in the formation of the RRS1-R/RPS4 Immune Receptor Complex. This response is different to the effector-triggered conformational changes of RRS1 and represents a distinct novel route for immune signalling.
Corrêa RL, Sanz-Carbonell A, Kogej Z, Müller SY, Ambrós S, López-Gomollón S, Gómez G, Baulcombe DC, Elena SF (2020) Viral Fitness Determines the Magnitude of Transcriptomic and Epigenomic Reprogramming of Defense Responses in Plants. Mol Biol Evol. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msaa091
This Spanish led study includes Regis Corrêa as lead author and includes David Baulcombe from Cambridge as a co-author. They infected Arabidopsis with an ancestral and experimentally-evolved isolates of turnip mosaic potyvirus (TuMV). The evolved version was more virulent and triggered a greater transcriptomic response in the plant as well inducing other epigenetic changes.