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Current Biology : CB Jul 2023The proper development and function of stomata - turgor-driven valves for efficient gas-exchange and water control - impact plant survival and productivity. It has... (Review)
Review
The proper development and function of stomata - turgor-driven valves for efficient gas-exchange and water control - impact plant survival and productivity. It has become apparent that various receptor kinases regulate stomatal development and immunity. Although stomatal development and immunity occur over different cellular time scales, their signaling components and regulatory modules are strikingly similar, and often shared. In this review, we survey the current knowledge of stomatal development and immunity signaling components, and provide a synthesis and perspectives on the key concepts to further understand the conservation and specificity of these two signaling pathways.
Topics: Lens, Crystalline; Signal Transduction; Knowledge; Plant Development; Water
PubMed: 37433278
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.05.018 -
Annual Review of Cell and Developmental... Oct 2021Nutrients are vital to life through intertwined sensing, signaling, and metabolic processes. Emerging research focuses on how distinct nutrient signaling networks... (Review)
Review
Nutrients are vital to life through intertwined sensing, signaling, and metabolic processes. Emerging research focuses on how distinct nutrient signaling networks integrate and coordinate gene expression, metabolism, growth, and survival. We review the multifaceted roles of sugars, nitrate, and phosphate as essential plant nutrients in controlling complex molecular and cellular mechanisms of dynamic signaling networks. Key advances in central sugar and energy signaling mechanisms mediated by the evolutionarily conserved master regulators HEXOKINASE1 (HXK1), TARGET OF RAPAMYCIN (TOR), and SNF1-RELATED PROTEIN KINASE1 (SNRK1) are discussed. Significant progress in primary nitrate sensing, calcium signaling, transcriptome analysis, and root-shoot communication to shape plant biomass and architecture are elaborated. Discoveries on intracellular and extracellular phosphate signaling and the intimate connections with nitrate and sugar signaling are examined. This review highlights the dynamic nutrient, energy, growth, and stress signaling networks that orchestrate systemwide transcriptional, translational, and metabolic reprogramming, modulate growth and developmental programs, and respond to environmental cues.
Topics: Nutrients; Plant Development; Plants; Signal Transduction
PubMed: 34351784
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-cellbio-010521-015047 -
Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology Aug 2019Despite their paramount role in plant life, the study of roots has been largely neglected until recently. Here, I shortly describe a few newly-discovered abilities of... (Review)
Review
Despite their paramount role in plant life, the study of roots has been largely neglected until recently. Here, I shortly describe a few newly-discovered abilities of plants to undergo adaptive changes and execute developmental decisions based on roots' perception of non-resource information pertaining to imminent challenges and opportunities. Seemingly simple in their morphology and architecture and lacking central information-processing centres, roots are able to sense and integrate complex cues and signals over time and space that allow plants to perform elaborate behaviours analogous, some claim even homologous, to those of intelligent animals. Although our knowledge of root behaviour is rapidly expanding, further understanding of its underlying mechanisms is largely preliminary, calling for detailed investigation of the involved cues, signals and information processing controls, as well as their implications for plant development, growth and reproduction under realistic ecological and agricultural settings.
Topics: Plant Development; Plant Roots; Plants
PubMed: 30974171
DOI: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2019.03.009 -
Trends in Plant Science Apr 2022The way we currently capture biological processes in space and time often limits our understanding of plant development and stress responses, leading to an incomplete... (Review)
Review
The way we currently capture biological processes in space and time often limits our understanding of plant development and stress responses, leading to an incomplete picture of plant life. Choosing the correct time frame for the study of every biological process, from seed germination to senescence or in plant stress responses, is essential, despite methodological limitations. A greater effort is needed in current plant biology studies to incorporate spatiotemporal approaches so that scientific knowledge meets the possibilities technological advances currently provide. From molecular, biochemical, and cellular approaches to (eco)physiological and population studies scaled up to the ecosystem level, there is an urgent need to link space and time using integrative and scalable data.
Topics: Biology; Ecosystem; Plant Development; Plants
PubMed: 34750071
DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2021.10.005 -
International Journal of Molecular... Jun 2022Autophagy is a highly conserved cell degradation process that widely exists in eukaryotic cells. In plants, autophagy helps maintain cellular homeostasis by degrading... (Review)
Review
Autophagy is a highly conserved cell degradation process that widely exists in eukaryotic cells. In plants, autophagy helps maintain cellular homeostasis by degrading and recovering intracellular substances through strict regulatory pathways, thus helping plants respond to a variety of developmental and environmental signals. Autophagy is involved in plant growth and development, including leaf starch degradation, senescence, anthers development, regulation of lipid metabolism, and maintenance of peroxisome mass. More and more studies have shown that autophagy plays a role in stress response and contributes to maintain plant survival. The meristem is the basis for the formation and development of new tissues and organs during the post-embryonic development of plants. The differentiation process of meristems is an extremely complex process, involving a large number of morphological and structural changes, environmental factors, endogenous hormones, and molecular regulatory mechanisms. Recent studies have demonstrated that autophagy relates to meristem development, affecting plant growth and development under stress conditions, especially in shoot and root apical meristem. Here, we provide an overview of the current knowledge about how autophagy regulates different meristems under different stress conditions and possibly provide new insights for future research.
Topics: Autophagy; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Meristem; Plant Development; Plant Leaves
PubMed: 35682913
DOI: 10.3390/ijms23116236 -
Annual Review of Genetics Dec 2019The genetic control of the characteristic cell sizes of different species and tissues is a long-standing enigma. Plants are convenient for studying this question in a... (Review)
Review
The genetic control of the characteristic cell sizes of different species and tissues is a long-standing enigma. Plants are convenient for studying this question in a multicellular context, as their cells do not move and are easily tracked and measured from organ initiation in the meristems to subsequent morphogenesis and differentiation. In this article, we discuss cell size control in plants compared with other organisms. As seen from yeast cells to mammalian cells, size homeostasis is maintained cell autonomously in the shoot meristem. In developing organs, vacuolization contributes to cell size heterogeneity and may resolve conflicts between growth control at the cellular and organ levels. Molecular mechanisms for cell size control have implications for how cell size responds to changes in ploidy, which are particularly important in plant development and evolution. We also discuss comparatively the functional consequences of cell size and their potential repercussions at higher scales, including genome evolution.
Topics: Cell Size; DNA Replication; Eukaryotic Cells; Meristem; Mitosis; Models, Biological; Plant Cells; Plant Development; Ploidies; Yeasts
PubMed: 31430180
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-genet-112618-043602 -
Plant Communications Nov 2020It has long been recognized that natural selection during the haploid gametophytic phase of the plant life cycle may have widespread importance for rates of evolution... (Review)
Review
It has long been recognized that natural selection during the haploid gametophytic phase of the plant life cycle may have widespread importance for rates of evolution and the maintenance of genetic variation. Recent theoretical advances have further highlighted the significance of gametophytic selection for diverse evolutionary processes. Genomic approaches offer exciting opportunities to address key questions about the extent and effects of gametophytic selection on plant evolution and adaptation. Here, we review the progress and prospects for integrating functional and evolutionary genomics to test theoretical predictions, and to examine the importance of gametophytic selection on genetic diversity and rates of evolution. There is growing evidence that selection during the gametophyte phase of the plant life cycle has important effects on both gene and genome evolution and is likely to have important pleiotropic effects on the sporophyte. We discuss the opportunities to integrate comparative population genomics, genome-wide association studies, and experimental approaches to further distinguish how differential selection in the two phases of the plant life cycle contributes to genetic diversity and adaptive evolution.
Topics: Biological Evolution; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genomics; Germ Cells, Plant; Plant Development; Plants; Selection, Genetic
PubMed: 33367268
DOI: 10.1016/j.xplc.2020.100115 -
International Journal of Molecular... Aug 2019Anthropogenic pollution of agricultural soils with cadmium (Cd) should receive adequate attention as Cd accumulation in crops endangers human health. When Cd is present... (Review)
Review
Anthropogenic pollution of agricultural soils with cadmium (Cd) should receive adequate attention as Cd accumulation in crops endangers human health. When Cd is present in the soil, plants are exposed to it throughout their entire life cycle. As it is a non-essential element, no specific Cd uptake mechanisms are present. Therefore, Cd enters the plant through transporters for essential elements and consequently disturbs plant growth and development. In this review, we will focus on the effects of Cd on the most important events of a plant's life cycle covering seed germination, the vegetative phase and the reproduction phase. Within the vegetative phase, the disturbance of the cell cycle by Cd is highlighted with special emphasis on endoreduplication, DNA damage and its relation to cell death. Furthermore, we will discuss the cell wall as an important structure in retaining Cd and the ability of plants to actively modify the cell wall to increase Cd tolerance. As Cd is known to affect concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and phytohormones, special emphasis is put on the involvement of these compounds in plant developmental processes. Lastly, possible future research areas are put forward and a general conclusion is drawn, revealing that Cd is agonizing for all stages of plant development.
Topics: Cadmium; Cell Wall; Germination; Oxidative Stress; Plant Development; Seeds
PubMed: 31443183
DOI: 10.3390/ijms20163971 -
Protoplasma May 2021Claims that plants have conscious experiences have increased in recent years and have received wide coverage, from the popular media to scientific journals. Such claims... (Review)
Review
Claims that plants have conscious experiences have increased in recent years and have received wide coverage, from the popular media to scientific journals. Such claims are misleading and have the potential to misdirect funding and governmental policy decisions. After defining basic, primary consciousness, we provide new arguments against 12 core claims made by the proponents of plant consciousness. Three important new conclusions of our study are (1) plants have not been shown to perform the proactive, anticipatory behaviors associated with consciousness, but only to sense and follow stimulus trails reactively; (2) electrophysiological signaling in plants serves immediate physiological functions rather than integrative-information processing as in nervous systems of animals, giving no indication of plant consciousness; (3) the controversial claim of classical Pavlovian learning in plants, even if correct, is irrelevant because this type of learning does not require consciousness. Finally, we present our own hypothesis, based on two logical assumptions, concerning which organisms possess consciousness. Our first assumption is that affective (emotional) consciousness is marked by an advanced capacity for operant learning about rewards and punishments. Our second assumption is that image-based conscious experience is marked by demonstrably mapped representations of the external environment within the body. Certain animals fit both of these criteria, but plants fit neither. We conclude that claims for plant consciousness are highly speculative and lack sound scientific support.
Topics: Consciousness; Humans; Plant Development; Plants
PubMed: 33196907
DOI: 10.1007/s00709-020-01579-w -
International Journal of Molecular... Jul 2023Glycosylation is a widespread glycosyl modification that regulates gene expression and metabolite bioactivity in all life processes of plants. Phosphoribosylation is a... (Review)
Review
Glycosylation is a widespread glycosyl modification that regulates gene expression and metabolite bioactivity in all life processes of plants. Phosphoribosylation is a special glycosyl modification catalyzed by phosphoribosyltransferase (PRTase), which functions as a key step in the biosynthesis pathway of purine and pyrimidine nucleotides, histidine, tryptophan, and coenzyme NAD(P) to control the production of these essential metabolites. Studies in the past decades have reported that PRTases are indispensable for plant survival and thriving, whereas the complicated physiological role of PRTases in plant life and their crosstalk is not well understood. Here, we comprehensively overview and critically discuss the recent findings on PRTases, including their classification, as well as the function and crosstalk in regulating plant development, abiotic stress response, and the balance of growth and stress responses. This review aims to increase the understanding of the role of plant PRTase and also contribute to future research on the trade-off between plant growth and stress response.
Topics: Plant Development; Pentosyltransferases; Plants; Stress, Physiological; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
PubMed: 37511586
DOI: 10.3390/ijms241411828