Plant Biology

Thermoprotection by a cell membrane–localized metacaspase in a green alga

1. Yong Zou
2. Igor Sabljić
3. Natalia Horbach
4. Adrian N Dauphinee
5. Anna Åsman
6. Lucia Sancho Temino
7. Elena A Minina
8. Marcin Drag
9. Simon Stael
10. Marcin Poreba
11. Jerry Ståhlberg
12. Peter V Bozhkov

Reviewed by Arcadia Science

Characterization of tryptophan oxidation affecting D1 degradation by FtsH in the photosystem II quality control of chloroplasts

1. Yusuke Kato
2. Hiroshi Kuroda
3. Shin-Ichiro Ozawa
4. Keisuke Saito
5. Vivek Dogra
6. Martin Scholz
7. Guoxian Zhang
8. Catherine de Vitry
9. Hiroshi Ishikita
10. Chanhong Kim
11. Michael Hippler
12. Yuichiro Takahashi
13. Wataru Sakamoto

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment:

  This study adds a fundamental new perspective to a long-standing question: What controls the repair of photosystem II (PSII), a key process in maintaining and optimizing photosynthesis? The work supports a role for chemical modification in the recognition and subsequent degradation of a key protein subunit of PSII by a bacterial-type protease, suggesting that tryptophan oxidation of components of the photosynthetic apparatus after high light stress plays a critical role in initiating the PSII repair system. The evidence supporting the authors' conclusions is solid.

Reviewed by eLife

Genome assembly of the bearded iris Iris pallida Lam

1. Robert E. Bruccoleri
2. Edward J. Oakeley
3. Ann Marie E Faust
4. Marc Altorfer
5. Sophie Dessus-Babus
6. David Burckhardt
7. Mevion Oertli
8. Ulrike Naumann
9. Frank Petersen
10. Joanne Wong

• Curated by GigaByte

  **Editors Assessment: **

  Irises on top of being a popular and beautiful ornamental plant, have wider commercial interest due to the many interesting secondary metabolites present in their rhizomes that have value to the fragrance and pharmaceutical industries. Many of these have large and difficult to assemble genomes, and to fill that gap the Dalmatian Iris (Iris pallida Lam.) is sequenced here. Using PacBio long-read sequencing and bionano optical mapping to produce a giant 10Gbp assembly with a scaffold N50 of 14.34 Mbp. The authors didn’t manage to handle the haplotigs separately or to study the ploidy, but as all of the data is available for reuse others can explore these questions further. This reference genome should also allow researchers to study the biosynthesis of these secondary metabolites in much greater detail, opening new avenues of investigation for drug discovery and fragrance formulations.

  This evaluation refers to version 1 of the preprint

Reviewed by GigaByte

Cell-type-specific control of secondary cell wall formation by Musashi-type translational regulators in Arabidopsis

1. Alicia Kairouani
2. Dominique Pontier
3. Claire Picart
4. Fabien Mounet
5. Yves Martinez
6. Lucie Le-Bot
7. Mathieu Fanuel
8. Philippe Hammann
9. Lucid Belmudes
10. Remy Merret
11. Jacinthe Azevedo
12. Marie-Christine Carpentier
13. Dominique Gagliardi
14. Yohann Couté
15. Richard Sibout
16. Natacha Bies-Etheve
17. Thierry Lagrange

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Secondary cell walls support vascular plants and conduct water throughout the plant body, and are crucial resources for lignocellulosic feedstocks. Here the authors present convincing genetic and biochemical evidence that secondary cell wall synthesis, known already to be under complex transcriptional control, is also controlled post-transcriptionally by MUSASHI-like RNA-binding proteins. These important results point to a new mechanism for control of secondary cell wall synthesis, which will be interesting to cell biologists and biochemists studying and attempting to manipulate plant biomass.

Reviewed by eLife

The Arabidopsis SHORTROOT network coordinates shoot apical meristem development with auxin-dependent lateral organ initiation

1. Elmehdi Bahafid
2. Imke Bradtmöller
3. Ann M Thies
4. Thi TON Nguyen
5. Crisanto Gutierrez
6. Bénédicte Desvoyes
7. Yvonne Stahl
8. Ikram Blilou
9. Rüdiger GW Simon

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is a valuable study of Arabidopsis shoot apical meristem maintenance and organ initiation, defining the expression, interactions and functions of four transcription factors (SHR, SCR, JKD, and SCL23) whose roles were initially described in the root apical meristem. The imaging, genetics and FRET-FLIM evidence supporting the claims of the authors is comprehensive, extensive, and solid, although similar mechanisms, protein interactions, and gene regulatory interactions were previously reported in the root. The work will be of interest and importance for plant developmental biologists.

Reviewed by eLife

Helper NLRs Nrc2 and Nrc3 act codependently with Prf/Pto and activate MAPK signaling to induce immunity in tomato

1. Ning Zhang
2. Joyce Gan
3. Lauren Carneal
4. Juliana González‐Tobón
5. Melanie Filiatrault
6. Gregory B. Martin

Reviewed by PREreview

Alternative splicing of a potato disease resistance gene maintains homeostasis between development and immunity

1. Biying Sun
2. Jie Huang
3. Liang Kong
4. Chuyun Gao
5. Fei Zhao
6. Jiayong Shen
7. Tian Wang
8. Kangping Li
9. Luyao Wang
10. Yuanchao Wang
11. Dennis A. Halterman
12. Suomeng Dong

Reviewed by PREreview

Vicia faba SV channel VfTPC1 is a hyperexcitable variant of plant vacuole Two Pore Channels

1. Jinping Lu
2. Ingo Dreyer
3. Miles Sasha Dickinson
4. Sabine Panzer
5. Dawid Jaślan
6. Carlos Navarro-Retamal
7. Dietmar Geiger
8. Ulrich Terpitz
9. Dirk Becker
10. Robert M Stroud
11. Irene Marten
12. Rainer Hedrich

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Plant intracellular ion channels are poorly understood. In this important manuscript, patch-clamp is used to define functional differences between two cation channels present in the vacuole of different plants. The authors find a calcium-biding site whose absence or presence modulate activation at lower voltages and is responsible for increased excitability in the vacuole of the faba bean plant. The experimental evidence presented is convincing and findings have practical implications for the field of plant electrophysiology and channel biophysics.

Reviewed by eLife

H ₂ O ₂ sulfenylates CHE linking local infection to establishment of systemic acquired resistance

1. Lijun Cao
2. Heejin Yoo
3. Tianyuan Chen
4. Musoki Mwimba
5. Xing Zhang
6. Xinnian Dong

Reviewed by preLights

Tetraose steroidal glycoalkaloids from potato provide resistance against Alternaria solani and Colorado potato beetle

1. Pieter J Wolters
2. Doret Wouters
3. Yury M Tikunov
4. Shimlal Ayilalath
5. Linda P Kodde
6. Miriam F Strijker
7. Lotte Caarls
8. Richard GF Visser
9. Vivianne GAA Vleeshouwers

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This valuable study links natural variation in steroidal glycoalkaloid production to disease and insect resistance in potato species. The study design is straightforward and thorough, and the evidence supporting the main conclusions is solid. The work will be of interest to plant biologists and breeders.

Reviewed by eLife