Plant Biology

A molecular glue in plants: The lectin domain of LecRK-I.9 creates persistent plasma membrane - cell wall connections

1. Denise S. Arico
2. Ugo Segura
3. Annalisa Bellandi
4. Claire Lionnet
5. Marjolaine Martin
6. Olivier Hamant
7. Herve Canut

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The cell wall and plasma membrane are tightly associated in plant cells, and even after plasmolysis, sites of strong contact remain between the plasma membrane and cell wall. Here, the authors provide solid data to implicate an Arabidopsis lectin-like receptor kinase in plasma-membrane-to-cell-wall contact sites, and propose that these attachment sites are of importance for plant resistance to hyperosmotic stress, yet the evidence remains incomplete without key controls. These important results broaden our view on dynamic modulation of plasma membrane topology and its physiological consequences.

Reviewed by eLife

Cellulose Synthase Complexes and Remorins Mediate Stress Resilience Through Cell Wall-Plasma Membrane Attachments

1. Yue Rui
2. Magda Zaoralova
3. William P. Dwyer
4. Andres V. Reyes
5. Tarabryn S. Grismer
6. Nikolaj B. Abel
7. Dharanidaran Jayachandran
8. Shishir P.S. Chundawat
9. Thomas Ott
10. Joseph J. Kieber
11. Peter Dahlberg
12. Shou-Ling Xu
13. Jose Ramon Dinneny

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Phosphoinositide-specific Phospholipase C 2 (SlPLC2) Facilitates Vesicle Formation and Modulates Immune Signaling in Tomato Phytophthora infestans Interactions

1. Enzo A. Perk
2. Juan Martín D’Ambrosio
3. Ignacio Cerrudo
4. Luciana Robuschi
5. Marcelo Juárez
6. Pilar Vélez
7. Verónica Mary
8. Martín Theumer
9. María Eugenia Segretin
10. Ana M. Laxalt

Reviewed by PREreview

An elevated environmental temperature impairs accumulation of the pattern recognition receptor FLS2

1. Bryony C.I.C. Jacobs
2. Kyle W. Bender
3. Emma Six
4. Cyril Zipfel
5. Marc R. Knight

Reviewed by PREreview

Targeted and random mutagenesis of cassava brown streak disease susceptibility factors reveal molecular determinants of disease severity

1. ZJ Daniel Lin
2. Myia K Stanton
3. Gabriela L Hernandez
4. Elizabeth J De Meyer
5. Zachary von Behren
6. Katherine Benza
7. Helene Tiley
8. Anna Meirink
9. Emerald Hood
10. Greg Jensen
11. Kerrigan B Gilbert
12. James C Carrington
13. Rebecca S Bart

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This valuable study shows that targeted mutations in specific cassava eIF4E-family genes can reduce infection and disease symptoms caused by cassava brown streak viruses. Through systematic knockouts across the eIF4E gene family, the authors provide convincing evidence that certain double mutants show resistance-associated outcomes. Overall, the work supports practical routes to engineer cassava with improved resistance and clarifies which host factors are relevant for this disease.

Reviewed by eLife

A lettuce receptor-like kinase recognizes the highly conserved heptapeptide motif within microbial NEP1-like proteins

1. Iñigo Bañales
2. Sarah L. Mehrem
3. Samara Almeida Landman
4. Marrit Alderkamp
5. L.C.P. (Max) Pijfers
6. Stan Baijens
7. Alix von Bredow
8. Peter Schutte
9. Sander Prevoo
10. Gijs van Asselt
11. Sagayamary Sagayaradj
12. Basten Snoek
13. Richard Michelmore
14. Dmitry Lapin
15. Guido Van den Ackerveken

Reviewed by PREreview

AT-HOOK-MOTIF NUCLEAR LOCALIZED 15 extends plant longevity by binding at poorly accessible, epigenetic mark-depleted chromatin that surrounds transcribed regions

1. Thalia Luden
2. Jihed Chouaref
3. Remko Offringa

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study presents an important study into the molecular function of AT-HOOK MOTIF NUCLEAR LOCALIZED 15 (AHL15), a member of the AHL protein family, identifying it as a potential regulator of three-dimensional gene-loop organization within transcribed gene bodies. The authors support this claim with compelling genome-wide evidence, integrating AHL15 binding profiles with transcriptional and chromatin accessibility changes, as well as demonstrating overlap with genes known to form loops across transcribed regions. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid. Collectively, these findings will be of broad interest to biologists seeking to understand the core regulatory mechanisms underlying gene expression.

Reviewed by eLife

The influence of heavy metal stress on the evolutionary transition of teosinte to maize

1. Jonathan Acosta-Bayona
2. Miguel Vallebueno-Estrada
3. Jean-Philippe Vielle-Calzada

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This study investigates whether heavy metal stress can induce maize-like phenotypic and molecular responses in teosinte and whether these responses overlap with genomic regions implicated in domestication. By combining copper and cadmium treatments with quantitative phenotyping, gene-expression analyses, and expanded assessments of nucleotide diversity across a key chromosome 5 interval, the authors provide an integrated view of how abiotic stress responses intersect with domestication-related traits. The significance of the findings is valuable, as the work offers meaningful insights for the subfield of maize evolution and stress biology by extending heavy-metal response analyses to teosinte and linking them to domestication-associated loci, although the evolutionary implications remain indirect. The strength of evidence is solid, with appropriately designed and quantitatively supported experiments that broadly support the claims, but do not yet establish a causal or historical role for heavy metal stress in domestication.

Reviewed by eLife

The parasitic plant Cuscuta campestris selectively loads trans -species miRNAs onto host Argonautes, but not self Argonautes

1. Ya-Chi Nien
2. Michael J. Axtell

Reviewed by PREreview