Lars H Wegner, Igor Pottosin, Ingo Dreyer, Sergey Shabala
{"title":"Potassium homeostasis and signalling: from the whole plant to the subcellular level.","authors":"Lars H Wegner, Igor Pottosin, Ingo Dreyer, Sergey Shabala","doi":"10.1017/qpb.2025.10","DOIUrl":"10.1017/qpb.2025.10","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Potassium is an essential macronutrient required for plant growth and development. Over the recent decade, an important signalling role of K<sup>+</sup> has emerged. Here, we discuss some aspects of such signalling at the various levels of plant functional organisation. The topic covered include: (1) mechanisms of long-distant K<sup>+</sup> transport in the xylem and phloem and the molecular identity and regulation of K<sup>+</sup> loading and unloading into plant vasculature; (2) essentiality and physiological roles of K<sup>+</sup> cycling between shoots and roots; (3) plant sensing and signalling of low K<sup>+</sup>; (4) maintenance of K<sup>+</sup> homeostasis at the cellular level; (5) stress-induced modulation of cytosolic K<sup>+</sup> as a signal in plant adaptive responses to hostile environment; (6) stress-specific K<sup>+</sup> \"signatures\" and mechanisms of their decoding by regulation of purine metabolism and H<sup>+</sup>-ATPase activity; (7) cytosolic K<sup>+</sup> loss as a metabolic switch and a regulator of autophagy; and (8) vacuolar K<sup>+</sup> transport and sensing.</p>","PeriodicalId":101358,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative plant biology","volume":"6 ","pages":"e13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12086022/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144103405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"To flow or to grow? Impacts of tapping on sugar maple.","authors":"Hannah Grace McNulty, Roberto Silvestro, Minhui He, Fabio Gennaretti, Sergio Rossi","doi":"10.1017/qpb.2025.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/qpb.2025.9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Maple sugaring is a rapidly growing industry in North America. Maples are tapped annually, thus undergoing repeated wounding and resource reduction for sap water collection. We aim to understand the effects of tapping and sap exudation on annual radial wood growth and xylem traits in sugar maple (<i>Acer saccharum</i> Marsh.), utilizing eight mature trees monitored during 2018-2021 in Simoncouche, Canada. Compared to the first year of tapping, trees exhibited a 49.7% drop in tree-ring width. Vessel density, potential hydraulic conductivity and hydraulic vessel diameter decreased, but not lumen area. We showed evidence of a trade-off among sap extraction, resource depletion and reduced tree growth. The repeated reduction of resources through tapping can have a detrimental effect on tree growth, even if the effect on the hydraulic function remains marginal. These insights underscore the need for sustainable tapping practices that consider the long-term health and productivity of sugar maple trees.</p>","PeriodicalId":101358,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative plant biology","volume":"6 ","pages":"e11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12035781/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144061832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Wood formation of drought-resistant <i>Eucalyptus cladocalyx</i> under cyclical drought treatment.","authors":"Gugu Gama, Kim C Martin, David M Drew","doi":"10.1017/qpb.2025.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/qpb.2025.7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><i>Eucalyptus cladocalyx</i>, known for its drought tolerance, has complex wood anatomy influenced by environmental conditions. This study investigated the xylem response of <i>E. cladocalyx</i> seedlings to cyclic drought stress compared to continuous irrigation. Seedlings were subjected to alternating drought and watering cycles, and their growth, xylem traits and cambial activity were monitored. Continuously irrigated seedlings exhibited greater height and stem diameter growth than periodically irrigated ones. Xylem response between the periodic and continuous irrigations showed no significant differences. Vessel and fibre features showed significant temporal variation, with substantial interaction between treatment and time for vessel area, fibre area and fibre thickness and not for vessel frequency. The cambium remained active under drought conditions, indicating resilience. Overall, anatomical properties varied complexly and inconsistently across drought cycles, likely due to differences in drought intensity, strategies and genetic factors.</p>","PeriodicalId":101358,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative plant biology","volume":"6 ","pages":"e12"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12035783/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144003665","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Changing paradigms for the micronutrient zinc, a known protein cofactor, as a signal relaying also cellular redox state.","authors":"Ute Krämer","doi":"10.1017/qpb.2025.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/qpb.2025.4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The micronutrient zinc (Zn) is often poorly available but toxic when present in excess, so a tightly controlled Zn homoeostasis network operates in all organisms. This review summarizes our present understanding of plant Zn homoeostasis. In <i>Arabidopsis</i>, about 1,900 Zn-binding metalloproteins require Zn as a cofactor. Abundant Zn metalloproteins reside in plastids, mitochondria and peroxisomes, emphasizing the need to address how Zn reaches these proteins. Apo-Zn metalloproteins do not acquire Zn<sup>2+</sup> from a cytosolic pool of free cations, but instead through associative ligand exchange from Zn-buffering molecules. The importance of cytosolic thiols in Zn buffering suggests that, besides elevated Zn influx, a more oxidized redox state is also predicted to cause elevated labile-bound Zn levels, consistent with the suppression of a Zn deficiency marker under oxidative stress. Therefore, we consider a broadened physiological scope in plants for a possible signalling role of Zn<sup>2+</sup>, experimentally supported only in animals to date.</p>","PeriodicalId":101358,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative plant biology","volume":"6 ","pages":"e7"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12035779/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144056671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Colour pattern studies: the SE (せ) method, a shape-centred approach to explore biodiversity and avoid aesthetic biases.","authors":"Pierre Galipot","doi":"10.1017/qpb.2025.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/qpb.2025.8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The preference towards colourful patterns generates many aesthetic biases, including in Biology research, leading to taxonomic preferences and understudied groups, including many plant taxa. After reviewing the importance of aesthetics in Turing colour pattern studies and the relative nature of the sense of beauty in Biology, I present a method called SE (せ) that strongly reduces taxonomic preferences in colour pattern formation studies, together with allowing the exploration of colour patterns biodiversity and facilitating the discovery of new morphogenesis processes.</p>","PeriodicalId":101358,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative plant biology","volume":"6 ","pages":"e10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12035780/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144065556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Virginie Battu, Annamaria Kiss, Abigail Delgado-Vaquera, Fabien Sénéchal, Corentin Mollier, Diego A Hartasánchez, Arezki Boudaoud, Françoise Monéger
{"title":"A 3D morpho-space of sepal geometry reveals the importance of organ curvature.","authors":"Virginie Battu, Annamaria Kiss, Abigail Delgado-Vaquera, Fabien Sénéchal, Corentin Mollier, Diego A Hartasánchez, Arezki Boudaoud, Françoise Monéger","doi":"10.1017/qpb.2025.5","DOIUrl":"10.1017/qpb.2025.5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>How robust three-dimension (3D) organ shape emerges during morphogenesis is a fundamental question in biology. Addressing this question requires a comprehensive quantification of organ geometry in 3D. To tackle these issues, we considered the sepal of Arabidopsis as a model. Using a unique pipeline allowing to recover 3D sepal morphology, we analysed fifteen mutants affected in different pathways. The results of a Principal Component Analysis reveal sepal curvature as an important parameter accounting for variations in sepal morphology within genotypes. Unexpectedly, despite genetic homogeneity of the wild-type plants and reproducible culture conditions, we found a significant level of variability in sepal morphology. Our data also show that sepal shape from wild-type plants is more robust (less variable) than sepal size, hinting to a possible selective pressure on shape parameters.</p>","PeriodicalId":101358,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative plant biology","volume":"6 ","pages":"e9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11955309/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143756851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dynamics of homeostats: the basis of electrical, chemical, hydraulic, pH and calcium signaling in plants.","authors":"Leslie Contador-Álvarez, Tamara Rojas-Rocco, Talía Rodríguez-Gómez, María Eugenia Rubio-Meléndez, Janin Riedelsberger, Erwan Michard, Ingo Dreyer","doi":"10.1017/qpb.2025.6","DOIUrl":"10.1017/qpb.2025.6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Homeostats are important to control homeostatic conditions. Here, we have analyzed the theoretical basis of their dynamic properties by bringing the K homeostat out of steady state (i) by an electrical stimulus, (ii) by an external imbalance in the K<sup>+</sup> or H<sup>+</sup> gradient or (iii) by a readjustment of transporter activities. The reactions to such changes can be divided into (i) a short-term response (tens of milliseconds), where the membrane voltage changed along with the concentrations of ions that are not very abundant in the cytosol (H<sup>+</sup> and Ca<sup>2+</sup>), and (ii) a long-term response (minutes and longer) caused by the slow changes in K<sup>+</sup> concentrations. The mechanistic insights into its dynamics are not limited to the K homeostat but can be generalized, providing a new perspective on electrical, chemical, hydraulic, pH and Ca<sup>2+</sup> signaling in plants. The results presented here also provide a theoretical background for optogenetic experiments in plants.</p>","PeriodicalId":101358,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative plant biology","volume":"6 ","pages":"e8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11950792/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143756920","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Synthetic gene circuits in plants: recent advances and challenges.","authors":"Adil Khan, Ryan Lister","doi":"10.1017/qpb.2025.3","DOIUrl":"10.1017/qpb.2025.3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Plant synthetic biology is a rapidly advancing multidisciplinary research area that applies engineering principles to design, construct, and implement new plant capabilities at the molecular, cellular, and whole organism scales. Synthetic gene circuits are important tools for enabling increased customizability in the control of gene expression in plants, with widespread applications spanning new approaches for basic biology to introduction of new traits for advancing agriculture. In this review, we first aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of synthetic circuits. Next, we discuss recent progress in the construction of advanced synthetic gene circuits in plants for programmable control of gene expression. Finally, we discuss the current challenges associated with developing and applying effective circuits while also highlighting future prospects and research directions, including quantitative measurement, high-throughput testing, and circuit modelling.</p>","PeriodicalId":101358,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative plant biology","volume":"6 ","pages":"e6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11894408/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143607676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cellular calcium homeostasis and regulation of its dynamic perturbation.","authors":"Colin Brownlee, Glen L Wheeler","doi":"10.1017/qpb.2025.2","DOIUrl":"10.1017/qpb.2025.2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Calcium ions (Ca<sup>2+</sup>) play pivotal roles in a host of cellular signalling processes. The requirement to maintain resting cytosolic Ca<sup>2+</sup> levels in the 100-200 nM range provides a baseline for dynamic excursions from resting levels that determine the nature of many physiological responses to external stimuli and developmental processes. This review provides an overview of the key components of the Ca<sup>2+</sup> homeostatic machinery, including known channel-mediated Ca<sup>2+</sup> entry pathways along with transporters that act to shape the cytosolic Ca<sup>2+</sup> signature. The relative roles of the vacuole and endoplasmic reticulum as sources or sinks for cytosolic Ca<sup>2+</sup> are considered, highlighting significant gaps in our understanding. The components contributing to mitochondrial, chloroplast and nuclear Ca<sup>2+</sup> homeostasis and organellar Ca<sup>2+</sup> signals are also considered. Taken together, a complex picture of the cellular Ca<sup>2+</sup> homeostatic machinery emerges with some clear differences from mechanisms operating in many animal cells.</p>","PeriodicalId":101358,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative plant biology","volume":"6 ","pages":"e5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11894410/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143607675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sofía Correa, Marie-Thérèse Charreyre, Olivier Hamant, Mathieu Thomas
{"title":"Why participatory plant research now?","authors":"Sofía Correa, Marie-Thérèse Charreyre, Olivier Hamant, Mathieu Thomas","doi":"10.1017/qpb.2024.20","DOIUrl":"10.1017/qpb.2024.20","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In the current polycrisis era, plant science, particularly when applied to agronomy, becomes instrumental: because our main substantial and renewable resource is plant biomass, many future solutions will depend on our ability to grow and transform plant material in a sustainable way. This also questions the way we conduct plant research and thus quantitative plant biology. In response to the increasing polarization between science and society, participatory plant research offers a pertinent framework. Far from moving away from quantitative approaches, participatory plant research builds on complexity associated with biology and situated knowledge. When researchers and citizens work together on societal issues, such friction becomes more fertile, quantitative questions become more complex, societal issues are addressed at their roots and outcomes often exceed that of top-down strategies. This article serves as an introduction to this ongoing bifurcation in plant science, using plant breeding as a key example.</p>","PeriodicalId":101358,"journal":{"name":"Quantitative plant biology","volume":"6 ","pages":"e4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11894404/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143607677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}