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Three independent genetic studies reveal that the GRF–miR396 module regulates rice grain yield by controlling the number of spikelets or the size of individual grains. These findings provide promising targets for significantly increasing crop yield.
To understand the mechanisms of grain size control, researchers experimentally reveal that the molecular module miR396/GRF4 regulates rice grain size by activating brassinosteroid signalling. Modulating miR396/GRF4 or brassinosteroid responses can thus be used to improve crop yield.
Arsenic contamination of groundwater and soils threatens the health of tens of millions people worldwide. A series of laboratory experiments suggest that in Arabidopsis, inositol transporters are responsible for arsenite loading into the phloem, the key source of arsenic in seeds.
The molecular network controlling seed size remains elusive. Using genetic and functional analyses, researchers found that the transcription factor OsGRF4 (GS2) forms a module with its regulator OsmiR396 and coactivator GIFs to regulate grain size in rice.
The regulatory pathway associated with crop yield remains poorly understood. Now researchers have found that blocking miR396 dramatically increases rice grain yield by inducing the GRF6 gene and subsequently activating the auxin pathway and development-related genes.
Central carbon metabolism in cyanobacteria consists of the CBB cycle, glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway and the TCA cycle. Metabolic analyses of mutant and wild-type Synechocystis reveal the presence of a functional phosphoketolase pathway, previously uncharacterized in photosynthetic organisms.
How spiral flowers produce organs in variable numbers remains elusive. By studying Nigella damascena, scientists now illuminate the genetic programs that specify floral organ identity and determine the flexibility of organ numbers in spiral flowers.
The impacts of the prokaryotic ancestry of chloroplasts extend to the occurrence of a bacterial ‘alarm’ hormone, or alarmone, in plants, which is triggered by nutrient deficiency or stress. A new study shows that chloroplast development itself is reduced by alarmone, with seemingly paradoxical consequences for plant growth.
Causal signals for seed initiation have been sought ever since double fertilization was discovered in 1898. New research reveals that auxin is an early driver of endosperm proliferation in Arabidopsis central cells, with or without fertilization.
Medical science has acknowledged that research resources are not always directed where they will be most effective. Is it time that we paid similar attention to blind spots within the plant sciences?
Ethylene is a gaseous plant hormone. The finding that unveils regulation of ethylene signalling at the translational level adds complexity to the ethylene signalling ‘regulatome’ and generates insightful questions that may advance our understanding of the pathway.
Agriculture is often viewed as a source of problems needing innovative solutions. But agriculture can actually be a source of innovations for the bioeconomy, if researchers embrace the cultural changes needed.
Wheat stem rust is a devastating fungal disease, especially since the emergence of the virulent Ug99 lineage. An efficient resistance gene, encoding a CC–NB–LRR, is identified in a highly diverse locus of rye, and is effective against Ug99.
In the Brassica self-incompatibility (SI) response, the downstream signalling network of ARC1 E3 ubiquitin ligase remains elusive. Now, glyoxalase I is shown to be an ARC1-targted compatibility factor whose degradation leads to the SI response.