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Plant Physiology Feb 2022The ability to engineer plant form will enable the production of novel agricultural products designed to tolerate extreme stresses, boost yield, reduce waste, and...
The ability to engineer plant form will enable the production of novel agricultural products designed to tolerate extreme stresses, boost yield, reduce waste, and improve manufacturing practices. While historically, plants were altered through breeding to change their size or shape, advances in our understanding of plant development and our ability to genetically engineer complex eukaryotes are leading to the direct engineering of plant structure. In this review, I highlight the central role of auxin in plant development and the synthetic biology approaches that could be used to turn auxin-response regulators into powerful tools for modifying plant form. I hypothesize that recoded, gain-of-function auxin response proteins combined with synthetic regulation could be used to override endogenous auxin signaling and control plant structure. I also argue that auxin-response regulators are key to engineering development in nonmodel plants and that single-cell -omics techniques will be essential for characterizing and modifying auxin response in these plants. Collectively, advances in synthetic biology, single-cell -omics, and our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underpinning development have set the stage for a new era in the engineering of plant structure.
Topics: Crops, Agricultural; Plant Breeding; Plant Development; Plants, Genetically Modified; Synthetic Biology
PubMed: 34904660
DOI: 10.1093/plphys/kiab568 -
International Journal of Molecular... Sep 2022MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play crucial roles in plant development and stress responses, and a growing number of studies suggest that miRNAs are promising targets for crop... (Review)
Review
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play crucial roles in plant development and stress responses, and a growing number of studies suggest that miRNAs are promising targets for crop improvement because they participate in the regulation of diverse, important agronomic traits. MicroRNA398 (miR398) is a conserved miRNA in plants and has been shown to control multiple stress responses and plant growth in a variety of species. There are many studies on the stress response and developmental regulation of miR398. To systematically understand its function, it is necessary to summarize the evolution and functional roles of miR398 and its target genes. In this review, we analyze the evolution of miR398 in plants and outline its involvement in abiotic and biotic stress responses, in growth and development and in model and non-model plants. We summarize recent functional analyses, highlighting the role of miR398 as a master regulator that coordinates growth and diverse responses to environmental factors. We also discuss the potential for fine-tuning miR398 to achieve the goal of simultaneously improving plant growth and stress tolerance.
Topics: Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; MicroRNAs; Plant Development; Plants; RNA, Plant; Stress, Physiological
PubMed: 36142715
DOI: 10.3390/ijms231810803 -
Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology Jul 2018
Topics: Animals; Flowers; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Insecta; Plant Development; Plant Leaves; Plants; Pollination
PubMed: 29128623
DOI: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2017.11.004 -
Development (Cambridge, England) Oct 2020Why living forms develop in a relatively robust manner, despite various sources of internal or external variability, is a fundamental question in developmental biology.... (Review)
Review
Why living forms develop in a relatively robust manner, despite various sources of internal or external variability, is a fundamental question in developmental biology. Part of the answer relies on the notion of developmental constraints: at any stage of ontogenesis, morphogenetic processes are constrained to operate within the context of the current organism being built. One such universal constraint is the shape of the organism itself, which progressively channels the development of the organism toward its final shape. Here, we illustrate this notion with plants, where strikingly symmetric patterns (phyllotaxis) are formed by lateral organs. This Hypothesis article aims first to provide an accessible overview of phyllotaxis, and second to argue that the spiral patterns in plants are progressively canalized from local interactions of nascent organs. The relative uniformity of the organogenesis process across all plants then explains the prevalence of certain patterns in plants, i.e. Fibonacci phyllotaxis.
Topics: Plant Development; Plant Leaves; Plant Shoots; Plants
PubMed: 33046454
DOI: 10.1242/dev.165878 -
Journal of Plant Research Jan 2018Plants have endogenous biological clocks that allow organisms to anticipate and prepare for daily and seasonal environmental changes and increase their fitness in... (Review)
Review
Plants have endogenous biological clocks that allow organisms to anticipate and prepare for daily and seasonal environmental changes and increase their fitness in changing environments. The circadian clock in plants, as in animals and insects, mainly consists of multiple interlocking transcriptional/translational feedback loops. The circadian clock can be entrained by environmental cues such as light, temperature and nutrient status to synchronize internal biological rhythms with surrounding environments. Output pathways link the circadian oscillator to various physiological, developmental, and reproductive processes for adjusting the timing of these biological processes to an appropriate time of day or a suitable season. Recent genomic studies have demonstrated that polymorphism in circadian clock genes may contribute to local adaptations over a wide range of latitudes in many plant species. In the present review, we summarize the circadian regulation of biological processes throughout the life cycle of plants, and describe the contribution of the circadian clock to local adaptation.
Topics: Adaptation, Biological; Circadian Clocks; Plant Development
PubMed: 29134443
DOI: 10.1007/s10265-017-0991-8 -
Plant Physiology Sep 2020The plant kingdom produces hundreds of thousands of low molecular weight organic compounds. Based on the assumed functions of these compounds, the research community has... (Review)
Review
The plant kingdom produces hundreds of thousands of low molecular weight organic compounds. Based on the assumed functions of these compounds, the research community has classified them into three overarching groups: primary metabolites, which are directly required for plant growth; secondary (or specialized) metabolites, which mediate plant-environment interactions; and hormones, which regulate organismal processes and metabolism. For decades, this functional trichotomy of plant metabolism has shaped theory and experimentation in plant biology. However, exact biochemical boundaries between these different metabolite classes were never fully established. A new wave of genetic and chemical studies now further blurs these boundaries by demonstrating that secondary metabolites are multifunctional; they can function as potent regulators of plant growth and defense as well as primary metabolites sensu lato. Several adaptive scenarios may have favored this functional diversity for secondary metabolites, including signaling robustness and cost-effective storage and recycling. Secondary metabolite multifunctionality can provide new explanations for ontogenetic patterns of defense production and can refine our understanding of plant-herbivore interactions, in particular by accounting for the discovery that adapted herbivores misuse plant secondary metabolites for multiple purposes, some of which mirror their functions in plants. In conclusion, recent work unveils the limits of our current functional classification system for plant metabolites. Viewing secondary metabolites as integrated components of metabolic networks that are dynamically shaped by environmental selection pressures and transcend multiple trophic levels can improve our understanding of plant metabolism and plant-environment interactions.
Topics: Adaptation, Physiological; Plant Development; Plants; Secondary Metabolism
PubMed: 32636341
DOI: 10.1104/pp.20.00433 -
The Science of the Total Environment Jul 2018With the overwhelmingly rapid advancement in the field of nanotechnology, the engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) have been extensively used in various areas of the plant... (Review)
Review
With the overwhelmingly rapid advancement in the field of nanotechnology, the engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) have been extensively used in various areas of the plant system, including quality improvement, growth and nutritional value enhancement, gene preservation etc. There are several recent reports on the ENMs' influence on growth enhancements, growth inhibition as well as certain toxic impacts on plant. However, translocation, growth responses and stress modulation mechanisms of ENMs in the plant systems call for better and in-depth understanding. Herein, we are presenting a comprehensive and critical account of different types of ENMs, their applications and their positive, negative and null impacts on physiological and molecular aspects of plant growth, development and stress responses. Recent reports revealed mixed effects on plants, ranging from enhanced crop yield, epi/genetic alterations, and phytotoxicity, resulting from the ENMs' exposure. Creditable research in recent years has revealed that the effects of ENMs on plants are species specific and are variable among plant species. ENM exposures are reported to trigger free radical formation, responsive scavenging, and antioxidant armories in the exposed plants. The ENMs are also reported to induce aberrant expressions of microRNAs, the key post-transcriptional regulators of plant growth, development and stress-responses of plants. However, these modulations, if judiciously done, may lead to improved plant growth and yield. A better understanding of the interactions between ENMs and plant responses, including their uptake transport, internalization, and activity, could revolutionize crop production through increased disease resistance, nutrient utilization, and crop yield. Therefore, in this review, we are presenting a critical account of the different selected ENMs, their uptake by the plants, their positive/negative impacts on plant growth and development, along with the resultant ENM-responsive post-transcriptional modifications, especially, aberrant miRNA expressions. In addition, underlying mechanisms of various ENM-plant cell interactions have been discussed.
Topics: Antioxidants; Biological Transport; Nanostructures; Plant Development; Plants
PubMed: 29554761
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.313 -
International Journal of Molecular... Jan 2020To date, extensive studies have identified many classes of hormones in plants and revealed the specific, nonredundant signaling pathways for each hormone. However, plant... (Review)
Review
To date, extensive studies have identified many classes of hormones in plants and revealed the specific, nonredundant signaling pathways for each hormone. However, plant hormone functions largely overlap in many aspects of plant development and environmental responses, suggesting that studying the crosstalk among plant hormones is key to understanding hormonal responses in plants. The phytohormone jasmonic acid (JA) is deeply involved in the regulation of plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. In addition, a growing number of studies suggest that JA plays an essential role in the modulation of plant growth and development under stress conditions, and crosstalk between JA and other phytohormones involved in growth and development, such as gibberellic acid (GA), cytokinin, and auxin modulate various developmental processes. This review summarizes recent findings of JA crosstalk in the modulation of plant growth and development, focusing on JA-GA, JA-cytokinin, and JA-auxin crosstalk. The molecular mechanisms underlying this crosstalk are also discussed.
Topics: Cyclopentanes; Cytokinins; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Gibberellins; Indoleacetic Acids; Oxylipins; Plant Development; Plant Growth Regulators; Plants; Signal Transduction; Stress, Physiological
PubMed: 31906415
DOI: 10.3390/ijms21010305 -
Current Topics in Developmental Biology 2019Transcriptional gene regulation is a fundamental biological principle in the development of eukaryotes. It does control not only cell proliferation, specification, and... (Review)
Review
Transcriptional gene regulation is a fundamental biological principle in the development of eukaryotes. It does control not only cell proliferation, specification, and differentiation, but also cell death processes as an integral feature of an organism's developmental program. As in animals, developmentally regulated cell death in plants occurs in numerous contexts and is of vital importance for plant vegetative and reproductive development. In comparison with the information available on the molecular regulation of programmed cell death (PCD) in animals, however, our knowledge on plant PCD still remains scarce. Here, we discuss the functions of different classes of transcription factors that have been implicated in the control of developmentally regulated cell death. Though doubtlessly representing but a first layer of PCD regulation, information on PCD-regulating transcription factors and their targets represents a promising strategy to understand the complex machinery that ensures the precise and failsafe execution of PCD processes in plant development.
Topics: Apoptosis; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Gene Regulatory Networks; Plant Cells; Plant Development; Plant Proteins; Transcription, Genetic
PubMed: 30612616
DOI: 10.1016/bs.ctdb.2018.10.006 -
International Journal of Molecular... Oct 2022The plant hormone auxin acts as a signaling molecule to regulate numerous developmental processes throughout all stages of plant growth. Understanding how auxin... (Review)
Review
The plant hormone auxin acts as a signaling molecule to regulate numerous developmental processes throughout all stages of plant growth. Understanding how auxin regulates various physiological and developmental processes has been a hot topic and an intriguing field. Recent studies have unveiled more molecular details into how diverse auxin responses function in every aspect of plant growth and development. In this review, we systematically summarized and classified the molecular mechanisms of diverse auxin responses, and comprehensively elaborated the characteristics and multilevel regulation mechanisms of the canonical transcriptional auxin response. On this basis, we described the characteristics and differences between different auxin responses. We also presented some auxin response genes that have been genetically modified in plant species and how their changes impact various traits of interest. Finally, we summarized some important aspects and unsolved questions of auxin responses that need to be focused on or addressed in future research. This review will help to gain an overall understanding of and some insights into the diverse molecular mechanisms of auxin responses in plant growth and development that are instrumental in harnessing genetic resources in molecular breeding of extant plant species.
Topics: Indoleacetic Acids; Plant Growth Regulators; Plant Development; Plants; Signal Transduction; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
PubMed: 36293351
DOI: 10.3390/ijms232012495