{"title":"The m6A-YTH regulatory system in plants: A status","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102650","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102650","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Plants use mRNA methylation to regulate gene expression. As in other eukaryotes, the only abundant methylated nucleotide in plant mRNA bodies is <em>N6</em>-methyladenosine (m<sup>6</sup>A). The conserved core components of m<sup>6</sup>A-based genetic control are a multi-subunit nuclear methyltransferase, and a set of nuclear and cytoplasmic RNA-binding proteins consisting of an m<sup>6</sup>A recognition module, the YT521-B homology (YTH) domain, and long intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs). In plants, this system is essential for growth during embryonic and post-embryonic development, but emerging evidence also points to key functions in plant-virus interactions and stimulus-dependent gene regulation. Cytoplasmic YTH-domain proteins are particularly important for these functions, and recent progress has identified two elements of the underlying molecular mechanisms: IDR-mediated phase separation and conserved short linear motifs mediating interactions with other key mRNA-binding proteins.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142564159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unlocking diversity from wild relatives of perennial fruit crops in the pan-genomics era","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102652","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102652","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Crop wild relatives of perennial fruit crops have a wealth of untapped genetic diversity that can be utilized for cultivar development. However, barriers such as linkage drag, long juvenility, and high heterozygosity have hindered their utilization. Advancements in genome sequencing technologies and assembly methods, combined with the integration of chromosome conformation capture have made it possible to construct high-quality reference genomes. These genome assemblies can be combined into pan-genomes, capturing inter- and intraspecific variations across coding and non-coding regions. Pan-genomes of perennial fruit crops are being developed to identify the genetic basis of traits. This will help overcome breeding challenges, enabling faster and more targeted development of new cultivars with novel traits through breeding and biotechnology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142544293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Current status of MSI research in Japan to measure the localization of natural products in plants","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102651","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102651","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To understand biological functions in organisms, it is important to investigate what is happening in different locations in cells and tissues. The conventional approach is to extract compounds from whole tissue, and then to measure their concentrations or other characteristics using equipment tailored to the different molecules. Recent advances in mass spectrometry have made it possible to measure trace amounts of compounds. Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI), which uses positional information and mass spectrometry data to show where and how much of each compound is present in tissues, has been in the spotlight. Improvements in MSI over the past few decades have enabled its use for visualizing the localization of small molecules including drugs, lipids, and many other compounds in a range of organisms. MSI has also been used to clarify the localization of natural products in plant tissues.</div><div>This review summarizes the recent research related to MSI technology in Japan.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142460095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Biosynthesis of oxindole alkaloids: Recent advances and challenges","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102648","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102648","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The monoterpenoid oxindole alkaloids (MOA) are specialized plant metabolites of pharmacological importance, whose biosynthesis is linked to a unique oxidative process of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIA). These transformations arise from complex biosynthetic pathways defined by species, organs, tissues, and growth stages. Initial studies of their biosynthesis using labeled precursors date back more than five decades ago. This review shows the advances in this topic within the years 2022–2023, which highlight the research by integrative omics strategies, validating previously stated hypotheses. The MOA biosynthesis pathway is beginning to be elucidated, especially in the early and intermediate stages starting from MIA. Also, progress in the characterization of enzymes that regulate the process has been made. The discovery of a key enzyme in the formation of the spirooxindole scaffold represents a starting point for an enormous amount of work that remains to be done to clarify and understand the formation mechanisms of MOA.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142375280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Diversity and development of domatia: Symbiotic plant structures to host mutualistic ants or mites","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102647","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102647","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Across the tree of life, specialized structures that offer nesting sites to ants or mites – known as domatia – have evolved independently hundreds of times, facilitating ecologically important defence and/or nutritional mutualisms. Domatia show remarkable diversity in morphology and developmental origin. Here we review the morpho-anatomical diversity of domatia, aiming to unveil the primary mechanisms governing their development. We propose hypotheses to explain the formation of these structures, based on anatomical studies of domatia and developmental genetic analyses in model species. While genes involved in domatium formation are so far unknown, domatia appear to originate via spatiotemporal shifts in the expression of common developmental genetic pathways. Our review paves the way to the genetic dissection of domatium development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142357884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Emerging trends in plant natural products biosynthesis: a chemical perspective","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102649","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102649","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Biosynthetic pathways are multistep processes transforming simple substrates into more complex structures. Over the past two decades, our understanding of these pathways, especially for specialized plant metabolites, has significantly increased. This surge is due to numerous scientific advancements such as next-generation sequencing, improved analytical platforms, and metabolite-transcript networks. The uprising of data sharing through public databases has also fostered collaboration and knowledge dissemination. Growing concerns about the supply of therapeutic natural products and their environmental impact have led to exploring sustainable alternatives like heterologous expression, which requires extensive knowledge of these pathways. Herein, we review emerging approaches in biosynthetic pathway elucidations and their prospects for their efficient integration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142357883","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transcriptional junk: Waste or a key regulator in diverse biological processes?","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102639","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102639","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Plant genomes, through their evolutionary journey, have developed a complex composition that includes not only protein-coding sequences but also a significant amount of non-coding DNA, repetitive sequences, and transposable elements, traditionally labeled as “junk DNA”. RNA molecules from these regions, labeled as “transcriptional junk,” include non-coding RNAs, alternatively spliced transcripts, untranslated regions (UTRs), and short open reading frames (sORFs). However, recent research shows that this genetic material plays crucial roles in gene regulation, affecting plant growth, development, hormonal balance, and responses to stresses. Additionally, some of these regulatory regions encode small proteins, such as miRNA-encoded peptides (miPEPs) and microProteins (miPs), which interact with DNA or nuclear proteins, leading to chromatin remodeling and modulation of gene expression. This review aims to consolidate our understanding of the diverse roles that these so-called “transcriptional junk” regions play in regulating various physiological processes in plants.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142322816","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"β-Glucosidases in specialized metabolism: Towards a new understanding of the gatekeepers of plant chemical arsenal","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102638","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102638","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Plants produce an exceptional multitude of chemicals to compensate with challenging environments. Despite the structural pluralism of specialized metabolism, often defensive compounds are stored <em>in planta</em> as glycosides and reactive aglycones are conditionally activated by specific β-glucosidases—a large family of enzymes with pluripotent contribution in homeostasis and a pivotal role in plant chemical defense. Typically, these detonating enzymes are characterized by exceptional substrate specificity and, in several cases, even isoenzymes exhibit differentiated molecular or biochemical characteristics. This article focuses on important intrinsic characteristics of plant β-glucosidases detonating defensive compounds and highlights recent studies with novel implications in regulatory mechanisms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142320196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Plant cell walls: source of carbohydrate-based signals in plant-pathogen interactions","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102630","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102630","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Plant cell walls are essential elements for disease resistance that pathogens need to overcome to colonise the host. Certain pathogens secrete a large battery of enzymes to hydrolyse plant cell wall polysaccharides, which leads to the release of carbohydrate-based molecules (glycans) that are perceived by plant pattern recognition receptors and activate pattern-triggered immunity and disease resistance. These released glycans are used by colonizing microorganisms as carbon source, chemoattractants to locate entry points at plant surface, and as signals triggering gene expression reprogramming. The release of wall glycans and their perception by plants and microorganisms determines plant-microbial interaction outcome. Here, we summarise and discuss the most recent advances in these less explored aspects of plant-microbe interaction.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369526624001213/pdfft?md5=9b3cccb746532c55406a1c639ceeda4d&pid=1-s2.0-S1369526624001213-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142274311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Plant Pattern recognition receptors: Exploring their evolution, diversification, and spatiotemporal regulation","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102631","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102631","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Plant genomes possess hundreds of candidate surface localized receptors capable of recognizing microbial components or modified-self molecules. Surface-localized pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) can recognize proteins, peptides, or structural microbial components as nonself, triggering complex signaling pathways leading to defense. PRRs possess diverse extracellular domains capable of recognizing epitopes, lipids, glycans and polysaccharides. Recent work highlights advances in our understanding of the diversity and evolution of PRRs recognizing pathogen components. We also discuss PRR functional diversification, pathogen strategies to evade detection, and the role of tissue and age-related resistance for effective plant defense.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142274310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}