Plant development
- The HK5 and HK6 cytokinin receptors mediate diverse developmental pathways in rice
Summary: Disrupting a subset of histidine kinase (HK) genes in Oryza sativa reveals that HK5 and HK6 act as cytokinin receptors with overlapping functions to regulate diverse aspects of rice growth and development.
- How can developmental biology help feed a growing population?
Summary: Technological advances in sequencing, genome editing and advanced data processing should allow developmental biologists to improve crop performance further as crop yields come under pressure to meet the growing human population's needs.
- Epidermal expression of a sterol biosynthesis gene regulates root growth by a non-cell-autonomous mechanism in Arabidopsis
Highlighted Article: Driving gene expression in different Arabidopsis root cell types demonstrates that the importance of the epidermis in regulating root growth is partly due to its role in auxin transport via sterol biosynthesis.
- Successive duplication-divergence mechanisms at the RCO locus contributed to leaf shape diversity in the Brassicaceae
Summary: Cis-regulatory diversification among RCO paralogs has resulted in the evolution of a three-gene cluster, in which each member regulates distinct aspects of leaf margin patterning.
- Developing a ‘thick skin’: a paradoxical role for mechanical tension in maintaining epidermal integrity?
Summary: This Review explores the relationship between tension and cell adhesion in the plant epidermis, identifying parallels between plant epidermal and animal epithelial tissues.
- Modeling halotropism: a key role for root tip architecture and reflux loop remodeling in redistributing auxin
Summary: During halotropism, root tip architecture allows for a decrease in PIN2 at the salt-exposed side of the root, resulting in re-routing of auxin to the opposite side; feedback on AUX1 amplifies this auxin asymmetry.
- The never-ending story: from pluripotency to plant developmental plasticity
Summary: This Review discusses how pluripotency is established in plant stem cell systems, how it is maintained during development and growth, and how it is re-initiated during regeneration.
- Plant stem cell maintenance by transcriptional cross-regulation of related receptor kinases
Highlighted article: Transcriptional cross regulation between CLAVATA1 family receptor kinases operates in the stem cell niche, thereby explaining the apparent genetic redundancy amongst these receptor kinases.