Volume 29, Issue 10, October 2017

With no capital costs, inexpensive Oxford Nanopore sequencing can be applied to novel ∼1-Gb plant genomes.

Many enzyme activity and metabolite quantitative trait loci (QTL) colocalize, including a pleiotropic QTL at ACCELERATED CELL DEATH6 that points to a trade-off between defense and central metabolism.

This joint linkage and genome-wide association study comprehensively investigates natural variation in maize grain vitamin E levels using the 5000-line U.S. nested association-mapping panel.

Tracking cell-type transcriptomic responses to treatments that change root development at an unprecedented level of temporal detail reveals molecular mechanisms that shape root architecture.

The polygalacturonase PGX3 functions in tissue growth and stomatal dynamics in Arabidopsis thaliana, revealing how controlled pectin degradation influences stomatal function.

The CELLULOSE SYNTHASE INTERACTING1 protein directs secondary wall patterning during the early phases of xylem vessel development.

Genome-wide association mapping and protein characterization reveal that the small heat shock-like protein SLI1 restricts phloem feeding by aphids and improves seed set during heat stress.

CAMTA3-mediated repression of SA pathway genes in nonstressed plants involves action of a repression module that acts independently of calmodulin binding, a finding that challenges current models.

R-loop homeostasis in Arabidopsis plastid determines chloroplast genome stability and development.

Using optimized protocols, nuclear photoreceptor genes were successfully modified or inactivated in the alga Chlamydomonas via directed gene targeting using zinc-finger nucleases or the nuclease Cas9.

Silencing phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase kinase in a CAM species more than halves dark period CO₂ fixation and causes arrhythmia in some components of the central circadian clock.

The photorespiratory metabolite 2-phosphoglycolate is central in a control loop that regulates photosynthetic CO₂ fixation and starch accumulation in response to changes in the environment.

The ALMT4 anion channel of Arabidopsis mediates Mal²⁻ efflux from the vacuole during stomatal closure and its activity depends on phosphorylation.

The phytotoxin fusicoccin stabilizes the interaction between KAT1 channels and their regulatory protein 14-3-3, leading to an increase in the number and in the activity of the channels.

Maize NPF6 proteins transport both nitrate and chloride with different specificity and activity that is influenced by the presence or absence of a proposed nitrate-binding His residue in NPF6.

ZYGO1, a novel F-box protein that interacts with OSK1, mediates bouquet formation to promote pairing, synapsis, and CO formation in rice meiosis.

Plants have evolved to utilize the SCD complex, which is architecturally distinct from—but performs similar functions as—the structurally related exocytic yeast and mammalian Sec2/Rabin8 Rab GEFs.

The Arabidopsis MOS4-associated complex promotes microRNA biogenesis and precursor messenger RNA splicing.

The existence of a ribosomal stress response in plant cells is revealed by molecular genetic studies that implicate ANAC082 as a crucial mediator of this pathway.

Fl3 is regulated by genomic imprinting and encodes a PLATZ protein involved in protein-protein interaction with RNAPIII for biogenesis of tRNAs and 5S rRNA.