Volume 162, Issue 4, August 2013

A comprehensive overview is presented of the effects of water limitation on growing shoot tissues, with a focus on molecular mechanisms and networks restricting growth, adaptations for maintained growth, and the molecular interplay between growth and stress tolerance with potential for crop engineering.

Photosynthesis is the basis of plant growth, and it is argued that improving photosynthesis can contribute toward greater food security in the coming decades as world population increases.

Differential DNA accessibility, which is established by local chromatin environments and strongly affects gene expression, can be assayed utilizing DNase I digestion coupled to detection by PCR or on tiling arrays.

RootNav is a novel image analysis tool that facilitates the accurate recovery of root system architectures from images.

A simple and high-sensitivity quantitation strategy based on simplified extraction, purification, and derivatization processes enables quantification of brassinosteroids in small amounts of plant tissue.

The synthesis of the immune signal salicylic acid is abolished by a mutation in a hitherto unknown transporter protein. This article describes the transporter localization at the chloroplast and its function in the export of salicylic acid from the chloroplast.

Pollen metabolism shows a dynamic transition from pollen grain germination to pollen tube growth and can quickly compensate inhibition of the oxidative phosporylation.

Transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of a plastidic glutamine synthetase mutant shows a coordinate repression of photorespiratory genes and accumulation of several key metabolites.

Arabidopsis plants exposed to triple stress are characterized by transcript responses not predictable from single stress treatments that significantly alter the expression of genes involved in signaling and defense processes.

Disruption of the OsClpP6 gene causes a virescent-yellow leaf phenotype, demonstrating an important role of caseinolytic proteases in regulating chloroplast biogenesis and leaf development in rice.

Pepper arginine decarboxylase, CaADC1, which interacts with Xanthomonas effector AvrBsT, induces increased polyamine and γ-aminobutyric acid levels, and triggers nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species bursts, ultimately leading to plant cell death and defense responses.

A transcription factor triggers embryonic characteristics in Arabidopsis vegetative organs.

HAPLESS13 is the Arabidopsis 1µ adaptin protein and affects multiple developmental and cellular processes by sorting membrane proteins, including auxin and brassinosteroid signaling elements, at the trans-Golgi network/early endosome.

Initiation of brassinosteroid signal transduction involves a small number of preassembled BRI1-BAK1(SERK3) heterooligomers.

A new class of lipid droplet-associated proteins in nonseed tissues is identified by integrated omics approaches.

Diverse land plant species possess similar proteins that function in transcriptional regulation of aluminum tolerance.

Plants must coordinate exclusion and internal detoxification to reduce aluminum toxicity effectively.

Ocean acidification and fast mixing or fluctuation of solar radiation could act synergistically to lower carbon fixation by G. oceanica, though ocean acidification may decrease UVB-related photochemical inhibition.

Nitrogen stress has strong effects on the size and turnover of nitrogen pools supplying leaf growth of a grass but does not alter the relative contributions of currently assimilated and remobilized nitrogen for leaf growth.

Disrupting fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase leads to cell death in Arabidopsis, indicating that the Tyr degradation pathway is essential for plant survival under short-day conditions.

Brassinosteroid regulates Arabidopsis seed size and shape by transcriptionally modulating specific seed developmental pathways.

ERECTA family receptors are involved in the regulation of phyllotaxy and leaf initiation.

The transcription factor SOC1 is regulated by two GATA transcription factors for the control of flowering while the GATAs are controlled by SOC1 to control greening and cold tolerance.

A bacterial peptide effector undergoes proteolytic processing in plants and releases small peptides that alter plant morphology.

The analysis of a mutant in the main enzyme responsible for cyanide detoxification, the mitochondrial β-cyanoalanine synthase, uncovers a new signaling role for cyanide in the plant response to pathogens.

Arabidopsis responds to simultaneous water stress and nematode infection by activating a unique program of gene expression that is distinct from the response to individual stresses.

Analysis of symbiotic nodulation indicates low auxin activity and auxin hypersensitivity during nodule initiation, and regulatory feedback with auxin and cytokinin during nodule development.

By enhancing abscisic acid levels, a novel herbivore elicitor-regulated protein plays an essential role in efficient defense of metabolite accumulation against herbivores in plants.

GA signaling controls seed germination in the sly1 mutant background, in which DELLA repressors cannot be destroyed by the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway.

A metabolic/regulatory network of rice incorporates two important tissue types, germinating seeds and photorespiring leaves, is validated through experiments with rice suspension cultures, and applied to analyze metabolic capability under flooding and drought conditions.