The advent of genome editing technologies, particularly CRISPR/Cas9, has significantly advanced the generation of legume mutants for reverse genetic studies and understanding the mechanics of the rhizobial symbiosis. The legume–rhizobia symbiosis is crucial for sustainable agriculture, enhancing nitrogen fixation and improving soil fertilit...
C4 photosynthesis is used by the most productive plants on the planet, and compared with the ancestral C3 pathway, it confers a 50% increase in efficiency1. In more than 60 C4 lineages, CO2 fixation is compartmentalized between tissues, and bundle-sheath cells become photosynthetically activated2. How the bundle sheath acquires this alternate ident...
Acknowledgements: The authors thank Peter Coppola, Ezra Kitson and Henry Lloyd-Laney for helpful discussions. / Publication status: Published / Funder: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council; FundRef: https://doi.org/10.13039/10.13039/501100000268 / Funder: the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council / Technologies which ...
Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) was the first virus to be studied in detail and, for many years, TMV and other tobamoviruses, particularly tomato mosaic virus (ToMV) and tobamoviruses infecting pepper (Capsicum spp.), were serious crop pathogens. By the end of the twentieth and for the first decade of the twenty-first century, tobamoviruses were under s...
Ilarviruses are a relatively understudied but important group of plant RNA viruses that includes a number of crop pathogens. Their genomes comprise three RNA segments encoding two replicase subunits, movement protein, coat protein (CP), and (in some ilarvirus subgroups) a protein that suppresses RNA silencing. Here we report that, in many ilarvirus...
Plants growing with neighbors compete for light and consequently increase the growth of their vegetative organs to enhance access to sunlight. This response, called shade avoidance syndrome (SAS), involves photoreceptors such as phytochromes as well as phytochrome interacting factors (PIFs), which regulate the expression of growth-mediating genes. ...
In plants, iron (Fe) regulated transporters (IRT) play important roles in uptake and transport of Fe that contributes to plant growth and development. However, biological functions of IRT transporters in fruit trees are still unknown. This study isolated 10 VvIRT genes from ‘Marselan’ grape, with varying expression levels across different tissues/o...
So-called ‘forgotten’ or ‘orphan’ crops are an important component of strategies aimed at preserving and promoting biodiversity. Knowledge of historical cultivation, usage, and geographic and evolutionary trajectories of plants, i.e. crop history research, is important for the long-term success of such efforts. However, research biases in the crops...
C4 photosynthesis is an adaptation that has independently evolved at least 66 times in angiosperms. C4 plants, unlike their C3 ancestral, have a carbon concentrating mechanism which suppresses photorespiration, often resulting in faster photosynthetic rates, higher yields, and enhanced water use efficiency. Moreover, the presence of C4 ...
This paper touches on how political interests and power structures shape state-led crop conservation and food policy. As a crop that relates to culture and belonging, the chile crop is helpful to question how food security policy and crop conservation schemes integrate aspects beyond staple crops, calories, and/or electoral incentives. What do thes...
