{"title":"Transcriptional junk: Waste or a key regulator in diverse biological processes?","authors":"Anwesha Anyatama, Tapasya Datta, Shambhavi Dwivedi, Prabodh Kumar Trivedi","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":"82 ","pages":"Article 102639"},"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":"Angeliki Stathaki , Georgia Pantidi , Margarita Thomopoulou , Konstantinos Koudounas","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":"82 ","pages":"Article 102638"},"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}
Antonio Molina , Andrea Sánchez-Vallet , Lucía Jordá , Cristian Carrasco-López , José Juan Rodríguez-Herva , Emilia López-Solanilla
{"title":"Plant cell walls: source of carbohydrate-based signals in plant-pathogen interactions","authors":"Antonio Molina , Andrea Sánchez-Vallet , Lucía Jordá , Cristian Carrasco-López , José Juan Rodríguez-Herva , Emilia López-Solanilla","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":"82 ","pages":"Article 102630"},"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":"Tianrun Li , Alba Moreno-Pérez , Gitta Coaker","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":"82 ","pages":"Article 102631"},"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}
{"title":"Novel structural insights at the extracellular plant-pathogen interface","authors":"Brian Críostóir Mooney, Renier A.L. van der Hoorn","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102629","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102629","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Plant pathogens represent a critical threat to global agriculture and food security, particularly under the pressures of climate change and reduced agrochemical use. Most plant pathogens initially colonize the extracellular space or apoplast and understanding the host–pathogen interactions that occur here is vital for engineering sustainable disease resistance in crops. Structural biology has played important roles in elucidating molecular mechanisms underpinning plant-pathogen interactions but only few studies have reported structures of extracellular complexes. This article highlights these resolved extracellular complexes by describing the insights gained from the solved structures of complexes consisting of CERK1-chitin, FLS2-flg22-BAK1, RXEG1-XEG1-BAK1 and PGIP2-<em>Fp</em>PG. Finally, we discuss the potential of AI-based structure prediction platforms like AlphaFold as an alternative hypothesis generator to rapidly advance our molecular understanding of plant pathology and develop novel strategies to increase crop resilience against disease.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":"82 ","pages":"Article 102629"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369526624001201/pdfft?md5=3c22908d0a4066ecfd12437518879800&pid=1-s2.0-S1369526624001201-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142240209","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":"New frontiers in the biosynthesis of psychoactive specialized metabolites","authors":"Ginny Li, Peter J. Facchini","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102626","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102626","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The recent relaxation of psychedelic drug regulations has prompted extensive clinical investigation into their potential use to treat diverse mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and substance-abuse disorders. Most clinical trials have relied on a small number of known molecules found in nature, such as psilocybin, or long-known synthetic analogs of natural metabolites, including lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). Elucidation of biosynthetic pathways leading to several psychedelic compounds has established an opportunity to use synthetic biology as a complement to synthetic chemistry for the preparation of novel derivatives with potentially superior pharmacological properties compared with known drugs. Herein we review the metabolic biochemistry of pathways from plants, fungi and animals that yield the medicinally important hallucinogenic specialized metabolites ibogaine, mescaline, psilocybin, lysergic acid, and <em>N</em>,<em>N</em>-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). We also summarize the reconstitution of these pathways in microorganisms and comment on the integration of native and non-native enzymes to prepare novel derivatives.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":"82 ","pages":"Article 102626"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369526624001171/pdfft?md5=4a53038a56b1bda56af461c2cfca4fb9&pid=1-s2.0-S1369526624001171-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142240208","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":"At knifepoint: Appressoria-dependent turgor pressure of filamentous plant pathogens","authors":"Tobias Müller, David Scheuring","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102628","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102628","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Filamentous pathogens need to overcome plant barriers for successful infection. To this end, special structures, most commonly appressoria, are used for penetration. In differentiated appressoria, the generation of high turgor pressure is mandatory to breach plant cell wall and cuticle. However, quantitative description of turgor pressure and resulting invasive forces are only described for a handful of plant pathogens. Recent advances in methodology allowed determination of surprisingly high pressures and corresponding forces in oomycetes and a necrotrophic fungus. Here, we describe turgor generation in appressoria as essential function for host penetration. We summarize the known experimentally determined turgor pressure as well as invasive forces and discuss their universal role in plant pathogen infection.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":"82 ","pages":"Article 102628"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369526624001195/pdfft?md5=23b7ade6a6f7e4090ecf07b219adee67&pid=1-s2.0-S1369526624001195-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142168246","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":"Different roles of the phytohormone gibberellin in the wide-spread arbuscular mycorrhiza and in orchid mycorrhiza","authors":"Chihiro Miura , Takaya Tominaga , Hironori Kaminaka","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102627","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102627","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Gibberellin (GA) is a classical plant hormone that regulates many physiological processes, such as plant growth, development, and environmental responses. GA inhibits arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis, the most ancient and widespread type of mycorrhizal symbiosis. Knowledge about mycorrhizal symbioses at the molecular level has been obtained mainly in model plants such as legumes and rice. In contrast, molecular mechanisms in non-model plants are still unclear. Recent studies have revealed the novel roles of GA in mycorrhizal symbioses: its positive effect in <em>Paris</em>-type AM symbiosis in <em>Eustoma grandiflorum</em> and its negative effect on both seed germination and mycorrhizal symbiosis in orchids. This review focuses on the recent data on GA function in AM and orchid mycorrhizal symbioses.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":"82 ","pages":"Article 102627"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369526624001183/pdfft?md5=32a866ed3a292c936afd13dbb66abfee&pid=1-s2.0-S1369526624001183-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142158005","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":"Meddling with the microbiota: Fungal tricks to infect plant hosts","authors":"Fantin Mesny, Martha Bauer , Jinyi Zhu , Bart P.H.J. Thomma","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102622","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102622","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Plants associate with a wealth of microbes, collectively referred to as the plant microbiota, whose composition is determined by host plant genetics, immune responses, environmental factors and intermicrobial relations. Unsurprisingly, microbiota compositions change during disease development. Recent evidence revealed that some of these changes can be attributed to effector proteins with antimicrobial activities that are secreted by plant pathogens to manipulate host microbiota to their advantage. Intriguingly, many of these effectors have ancient origins, predating land plant emergence, and evolved over long evolutionary trajectories to acquire selective antimicrobial activities to target microbial antagonists in host plant microbiota. Thus, we argue that host-pathogen co-evolution likely involved arms races within the host-associated microbiota.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":"82 ","pages":"Article 102622"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369526624001134/pdfft?md5=d769429fd405a964fef33fc90664573b&pid=1-s2.0-S1369526624001134-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142145364","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 specialized metabolism in medicinal plant biotechnology through plant–microbiome interactions","authors":"Malorie Laffon , Justine Domont , Christophe Hano , Arnaud Lanoue , Nathalie Giglioli-Guivarc'h","doi":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102620","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102620","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Medicinal plants produce specialized metabolites (SM) that are used as drugs. However, due to low yields of field cultivation and the increasing market demand, this production method often failed to meet supply needs. Biotechnological alternatives, such as <em>in vitro</em> plant cultures, offer promising solutions. Nonetheless, SM production in these systems remains too low for industrial exploitation, necessitating an elicitation step to induce the plant defense metabolism. Traditional elicitation methods mimic environmental conditions that trigger plant-specialized metabolism, often with an artificial signal that mimics microbial interaction. Recent insights into the essential role of the plant microbiota, provides new opportunities for elicitation strategies by microbial coculture in a controlled environment. The successful co-culture of <em>in vitro</em> medicinal plants with synthetic microbial communities could enable sustainable production of pharmaceutically important SM.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":11003,"journal":{"name":"Current opinion in plant biology","volume":"82 ","pages":"Article 102620"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3,"publicationDate":"2024-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142145365","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}