Molecular PlantPub Date : 2024-11-04Epub Date: 2024-09-25DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.010
Ning Wang, Jiale Xing, Xiaodong Su, Junting Pan, Hui Chen, Lifang Shi, Long Si, Wenqiang Yang, Mei Li
{"title":"Architecture of the ATP-driven motor for protein import into chloroplasts.","authors":"Ning Wang, Jiale Xing, Xiaodong Su, Junting Pan, Hui Chen, Lifang Shi, Long Si, Wenqiang Yang, Mei Li","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Thousands of nuclear-encoded proteins are transported into chloroplasts through the TOC-TIC translocon that spans the chloroplast envelope membranes. A motor complex pulls the translocated proteins out of the TOC-TIC complex into the chloroplast stroma by hydrolyzing ATP. The Orf2971-FtsHi complex has been suggested to serve as the ATP-hydrolyzing motor in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, but little is known about its architecture and assembly. Here, we report the 3.2-Å resolution structure of the Chlamydomonas Orf2971-FtsHi complex. The 20-subunit complex spans the chloroplast inner envelope, with two bulky modules protruding into the intermembrane space and stromal matrix. Six subunits form a hetero-hexamer that potentially provides the pulling force through ATP hydrolysis. The remaining subunits, including potential enzymes/chaperones, likely facilitate the complex assembly and regulate its proper function. Taken together, our results provide the structural foundation for a mechanistic understanding of chloroplast protein translocation.</p>","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":" ","pages":"1702-1718"},"PeriodicalIF":17.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142350552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mirids secrete a TOPLESS targeting protein to enhance JA-mediated defense and gossypol accumulation for antagonizing cotton bollworms on cotton plants.","authors":"Yu-Pei Mu, Dian-Yang Chen, Yu-Jie Liu, Ming-Yu Zhu, Xian Zhang, Yin Tang, Jia-Ling Lin, Mu-Yang Wang, Xiao-Xia Shangguan, Xiao-Ya Chen, Chengshu Wang, Ying-Bo Mao","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.008","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Most coexisting insect species exhibit stunted growth compared to individual species on plants. This phenomenon reflects an interspecific antagonism drawing extensive attention, while the underlying mechanisms remain largely uncharacterized. Mirids (Apolygus lucorum) and cotton bollworms (Helicoverpa armigera) are two common cotton pests. We identified a secretory protein, ASP1, from the oral secretion of mirids, found in the nucleus of mirid-infested cotton leaves. ASP1 specifically targets the transcriptional co-repressor TOPLESS (TPL) and inhibits NINJA-mediated recruitment of TPL, promoting plant defense response and gossypol accumulation in cotton glands. ASP1-enhanced defense inhibits the growth of cotton bollworms on cotton plants, while having limited impact on mirids. The mesophyll-feeding characteristic allows mirids to avoid most cotton glands, invalidating cotton defense. Our investigation reveals the molecular mechanism by which mirids employ cotton defense to selectively inhibit the feeding of cotton bollworms.</p>","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":" ","pages":"1687-1701"},"PeriodicalIF":17.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142350553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Molecular PlantPub Date : 2024-11-04Epub Date: 2024-10-01DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.013
Qianqian Zhang, Qianya Xu, Nan Zhang, Tao Zhong, Yuexian Xing, Zhou Fan, Mingzhu Yan, Mingliang Xu
{"title":"A maize WAK-SnRK1α2-WRKY module regulates nutrient availability to defend against head smut disease.","authors":"Qianqian Zhang, Qianya Xu, Nan Zhang, Tao Zhong, Yuexian Xing, Zhou Fan, Mingzhu Yan, Mingliang Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.013","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.013","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Obligate biotrophs depend on living hosts for nutrient acquisition to complete their life cycle, yet the mechanisms by which hosts restrict nutrient availability to pathogens remain largely unknown. The fungal pathogen Sporisorium reilianum infects maize seedlings and causes head smut disease in inflorescences at maturity, while a cell wall-associated kinase, ZmWAK, provides quantitative resistance against it. In this study, we demonstrate that S. reilianum can rapidly activate ZmWAK kinase activity, which is sustained by the 407th threonine residue in the juxtamembrane domain, enabling it to interact with and phosphorylate ZmSnRK1α2, a conserved sucrose non-fermenting-related kinase α subunit. The activated ZmSnRK1α2 translocates from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, where it phosphorylates and destabilizes the transcription factor ZmWRKY53. The reduced ZmWRKY53 abundance leads to the downregulation of genes involved in transmembrane transport and carbohydrate metabolism, resulting in nutrient starvation for S. reilianum in the apoplast. Collectively, our study uncovers a WAK-SnRK1α2-WRKY53 signaling module in maize that conveys phosphorylation cascades from the plasma membrane to the nucleus to confer plant resistance against head smut in maize, offering new insights and potential targets for crop disease management.</p>","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":" ","pages":"1654-1671"},"PeriodicalIF":17.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142365875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Molecular PlantPub Date : 2024-11-04Epub Date: 2024-10-04DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2024.10.001
Sophia Müller, Wouter Kohlen
{"title":"Jazzin' up nodules: The groovy role of jasmonic acid during nodulation.","authors":"Sophia Müller, Wouter Kohlen","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.10.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.10.001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":" ","pages":"1639-1641"},"PeriodicalIF":17.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142375675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Genomic and metabolomic insights into the selection and differentiation of bioactive compounds in citrus.","authors":"Xiao Liang, Yue Wang, Wanxia Shen, Bin Liao, Xiaojuan Liu, Zimeng Yang, Jiebiao Chen, Chenning Zhao, Zhenkun Liao, Jinping Cao, Ping Wang, Peng Wang, Fuzhi Ke, Jianguo Xu, Qiong Lin, Wanpeng Xi, Lishu Wang, Juan Xu, Xiaochun Zhao, Chongde Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.10.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.10.009","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bioactive compounds play an increasingly prominent role in breeding functional and nutritive fruit crops such as citrus. However, the genomic and metabolic bases for the selection and differentiation underlying bioactive compound variations in citrus remain poorly understood. In this study, we constructed a species-level variation atlas of genomes and metabolomes using 299 citrus accessions. A total of 19 829 significant SNPs were targeted to 653 annotated metabolites, among which multiple significant signals were identified for secondary metabolites, especially flavonoids. Significant differential accumulation of bioactive compounds in the phenylpropane pathway, mainly flavonoids and coumarins, was unveiled across ancestral citrus species during differentiation, which is likely associated with the divergent haplotype distribution and/or expression profiles of relevant genes, including p-coumaroyl coenzyme A 2'-hydroxylases, flavone synthases, cytochrome P450 enzymes, prenyltransferases, and uridine diphosphate glycosyltransferases. Moreover, we systematically evaluated the beneficial bioactivities such as the antioxidant and anticancer capacities of 219 citrus varieties, and identified robust associations between distinct bioactivities and specific metabolites. Collectively, these findings provide citrus breeding options for enrichment of beneficial flavonoids and avoidance of potential risk of coumarins. Our study will accelerate the application of genomic and metabolic engineering strategies in developing modern healthy citrus cultivars.</p>","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":" ","pages":"1753-1772"},"PeriodicalIF":17.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142504551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Molecular PlantPub Date : 2024-11-04Epub Date: 2024-09-30DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.011
Jakub Hajný, Tereza Trávníčková, Martina Špundová, Michelle Roenspies, R M Imtiaz Karim Rony, Sebastian Sacharowski, Michal Krzyszton, David Zalabák, Christian S Hardtke, Aleš Pečinka, Holger Puchta, Szymon Swiezewski, Jaimie M van Norman, Ondřej Novák
{"title":"Sucrose-responsive osmoregulation of plant cell size by a long non-coding RNA.","authors":"Jakub Hajný, Tereza Trávníčková, Martina Špundová, Michelle Roenspies, R M Imtiaz Karim Rony, Sebastian Sacharowski, Michal Krzyszton, David Zalabák, Christian S Hardtke, Aleš Pečinka, Holger Puchta, Szymon Swiezewski, Jaimie M van Norman, Ondřej Novák","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.011","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In plants, sugars are the key source of energy and metabolic building blocks. The systemic transport of sugars is essential for plant growth and morphogenesis. Plants evolved intricate molecular networks to effectively distribute sugars. The dynamic distribution of these osmotically active compounds is a handy tool for regulating cell turgor pressure, an instructive force in developmental biology. In this study, we have investigated the molecular mechanism behind the dual role of the receptor-like kinase CANAR. We functionally characterized a long non-coding RNA, CARMA, as a negative regulator of CANAR. Sugar-responsive CARMA specifically fine-tunes CANAR expression in the phloem, the route of sugar transport. Our genetic, molecular, microscopy, and biophysical data suggest that the CARMA-CANAR module controls the shoot-to-root phloem transport of sugars, allows cells to flexibly adapt to the external osmolality by appropriate water uptake, and thus adjust the size of vascular cell types during organ growth and development. Our study identifies a nexus of plant vascular tissue formation with cell internal pressure monitoring, revealing a novel functional aspect of long non-coding RNAs in developmental biology.</p>","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":" ","pages":"1719-1732"},"PeriodicalIF":17.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142361813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"On the evolution and genetic diversity of the bread wheat D genome.","authors":"Zihao Wang, Wenxi Wang, Yachao He, Xiaoming Xie, Zhengzhao Yang, Xiaoyu Zhang, Jianxia Niu, Huiru Peng, Yingyin Yao, Chaojie Xie, Mingming Xin, Zhaorong Hu, Qixin Sun, Zhongfu Ni, Weilong Guo","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.007","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) became a globally dominant crop after incorporating the D genome from the donor species Aegilops tauschii, but the evolutionary history that shaped the D genome during this process remains to be clarified. Here, we propose a renewed evolutionary model linking Ae. tauschii and the hexaploid wheat D genome by constructing an ancestral haplotype map covering 762 Ae. tauschii and hexaploid wheat accessions. We dissected the evolutionary trajectories of Ae. tauschii lineages and reported a few independent intermediate accessions, demonstrating that low-frequency inter-sublineage gene flow had enriched the diversity of Ae. tauschii. We discovered that the D genome of hexaploid wheat was inherited from a unified ancestral template, but with a mosaic composition that was highly mixed and derived mainly from three Ae. tauschii L2 sublineages located in the Caspian coastal region. This result suggests that early agricultural activities facilitated innovations in D-genome composition and finalized the success of hexaploidization. We found that the majority (51.4%) of genetic diversity was attributed to novel mutations absent in Ae. tauschii, and we identified large Ae. tauschii introgressions from various lineages, which expanded the diversity of the wheat D genome and introduced beneficial alleles. This work sheds light on the process of wheat hexaploidization and highlights the evolutionary significance of the multi-layered genetic diversity of the bread wheat D genome.</p>","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":" ","pages":"1672-1686"},"PeriodicalIF":17.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142350554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The metal tolerance protein OsMTP11 facilitates cadmium sequestration in the vacuoles of leaf vascular cells for restricting its translocation into rice grains.","authors":"Peng Liu, Liang Sun, Yu Zhang, Yongjun Tan, Yuxing Zhu, Can Peng, Jiurong Wang, Huili Yan, Donghai Mao, Guohua Liang, Gang Liang, Xiaoxiang Li, Yuntao Liang, Feng Wang, Zhenyan He, Wenbang Tang, Daoyou Huang, Caiyan Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.012","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.09.012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Rice (Oryza sativa) provides >20% of the consumed calories in the human diet. However, rice is also a leading source of dietary cadmium (Cd) that seriously threatens human health. Deciphering the genetic network that underlies the grain-Cd accumulation will benefit the development of low-Cd rice and mitigate the effects of Cd accumulation in the rice grain. In this study, we identified a QTL gene, OsCS1, which is allelic to OsMTP11 and encodes a protein sequestering Cd in the leaf during vegetative growth and preventing Cd from being translocated to the grain after heading in rice. OsCS1 is predominantly expressed in leaf vascular parenchyma cells, where it binds to a vacuole-sorting receptor protein OsVSR2 and is translocated intracellularly from the trans-Golgi network to pre-vacuolar compartments and then to the vacuole. In this trafficking process, OsCS1 actively transports Cd into the endomembrane system and sequesters it in the vacuoles. There are natural variations in the promoter of OsCS1 between the indica and japonica rice subspecies. Duplication of a G-box-like motif in the promoter region of the superior allele of OsCS1 from indica rice enhances the binding of the transcription factor OsIRO2 to the OsCS1 promoter, thereby promoting OsCS1 expression. Introgression of this allele into commercial rice varieties could significantly lower grain-Cd levels compared to the inferior allele present in japonica rice. Collectively, our findings offer new insights into the genetic control of leaf-to-grain Cd translocation and provide a novel gene and its superior allele for the genetic improvement of low-Cd variety in rice.</p>","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":" ","pages":"1733-1752"},"PeriodicalIF":17.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142361820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Molecular PlantPub Date : 2024-11-04Epub Date: 2024-10-04DOI: 10.1016/j.molp.2024.10.003
Huang Tan, Chaonan Shi, Alberto P Macho, Rosa Lozano-Durán
{"title":"The cartography of plant immunity: Proximity labeling puts a novel SGT1-NSL1 regulatory module on the map.","authors":"Huang Tan, Chaonan Shi, Alberto P Macho, Rosa Lozano-Durán","doi":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.10.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.molp.2024.10.003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":19012,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Plant","volume":" ","pages":"1645-1647"},"PeriodicalIF":17.1,"publicationDate":"2024-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142375688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}