Current opinion in plant biology最新文献

Celastrol, a triterpenoid found in the root of the traditional medicinal plant Tripterygium wilfordii, is a potent anti-inflammatory and antiobesity agent. However, pharmacological exploitation of celastrol has been hindered by the limited accessibility of plant material, the co-existence of other toxic compounds in the same plant tissue, and the lack of an efficient chemical synthesis method. In this review, we highlight recent progress in elucidating celastrol biosynthesis and discuss how this knowledge can facilitate its scalable bioproduction using cell factories and its further development as an antiobesity and anti-inflammatory drug.

ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers play a crucial role in modifying chromatin configuration by utilizing the energy of ATP hydrolysis. They are involved in various processes, including transcription, DNA replication, and maintaining genome stability. These remodeling remodelers usually form multi-subunit chromatin remodeling complexes in eukaryotes. In plants, chromatin remodeling complexes have diverse functions in regulating plant development and stress response. Recent studies have conducted extensive research on plant chromatin remodeling complexes. This review focuses on recent advances in the classification and composition of plant chromatin remodeling complexes, the protein–protein interactions within the complexes, their impact on chromatin configuration, and their interactions with chromatin modifications and transcription factors.

In order to discriminate between detrimental, commensal, and beneficial microbes, plants rely on polysaccharides such as β-glucans, which are integral components of microbial and plant cell walls. The conversion of cell wall-associated β-glucan polymers into a specific outcome that affects plant-microbe interactions is mediated by hydrolytic and non-hydrolytic β-glucan-binding proteins. These proteins play crucial roles during microbial colonization: they influence the composition and resilience of host and microbial cell walls, regulate the homeostasis of apoplastic concentrations of β-glucan oligomers, and mediate β-glucan perception and signaling. This review outlines the dual roles of β-glucans and their binding proteins in plant immunity and symbiosis, highlighting recent discoveries on the role of β-glucan-binding proteins as modulators of immunity and as symbiosis receptors involved in the fine-tuning of microbial accommodation.

Nicotiana benthamiana is a model plant, widely used for research. The susceptibility of young plants to Agrobacterium tumefaciens has been utilised for transient gene expression, enabling the production of recombinant proteins at laboratory and commercial scales. More recently, this technique has been used for the rapid prototyping of synthetic genetic circuits and for the elucidation and reconstruction of metabolic pathways. In the last few years, many complex metabolic pathways have been successfully reconstructed in this species. In addition, the availability of improved genomic resources and efficient gene editing tools have enabled the application of sophisticated metabolic engineering approaches to increase the purity and yield of target compounds. In this review, we discuss recent advances in the use of N. benthamiana for understanding and engineering plant metabolism, as well as efforts to improve the utility of this species as a production chassis for natural products.

Chromatin is dynamically modified throughout the plant life cycle to regulate gene expression in response to environmental and developmental cues. Although such epigenetic information can be inherited across generations in plants, chromatin features that regulate gene expression are typically reprogrammed during plant gametogenesis and directly after fertilization. Nevertheless, environmentally induced epigenetic marks on genes can be transmitted across generations. Moreover, epigenetic information installed on early embryonic chromatin can be stably inherited during subsequent growth and influence how plants respond to environmental conditions much later in development. Here, we review recent breakthroughs towards deciphering mechanisms underlying epigenetic reprogramming and transcriptional priming during early plant embryogenesis.

Cyanogenic glycosides are α-hydroxynitrile glucosides present in approximately 3000 different plant species. Upon tissue disruption, cyanogenic glycosides are hydrolyzed to release toxic hydrogen cyanide as a means of chemical defense. Over 100 different cyanogenic glycosides have been reported, with structural diversity dependent on the precursor amino acid, and subsequent modifications. Cyanogenic glycosides represent a prime example of sporadic metabolite evolution, with the metabolic trait arising multiple times throughout the plant lineage as evidenced by recruitment of different enzyme families for biosynthesis. Here, we review the latest developments within cyanogenic glycoside biosynthesis, and argue possible factors driving sporadic evolution including shared intermediates and crossovers with other metabolic pathways crossovers, and metabolite multifunctionality beyond chemical defense.

Partial or complete floral organ fusion, which occurs in most angiosperm lineages, promotes integration of whorls leading to specialization and complexity. One of the most remarkable floral organ fusions occurs in the gynostemium, a highly specialized structure formed by the congenital fusion of the androecium and the upper portion of the gynoecium. Here we review the gynostemia evolution across flowering plants, the morphological requirements for the synorganization of the two fertile floral whorls, and the molecular basis most likely responsible for such intimate fusion process.

It is undeniable that tropane alkaloids (TAs) have been both beneficial and detrimental to human health in the modern era. Understanding their biosynthesis is vital for using synthetic biology to engineer organisms for pharmaceutical production. The most parsimonious approaches to pathway elucidation are traditionally homology-based methods. However, this approach has largely failed for TA biosynthesis in angiosperms. In the recent decade, significant progress has been made in elucidating the TA synthesis pathway in Erythroxylum coca, highlighting the parallel development of TAs in both the Solanaceae and Erythroxylaceae families. This separate evolutionary path has uncovered substantial divergence in the TAs formed by E. coca and distinct enzymatic reactions that differ from the traditional TA biosynthetic pathway found in TA-producing nightshade plants.

Legume plants establish an endosymbiosis with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria, which are taken up from the environment anew by each host generation. This requires a dedicated genetic program on the host side to control microbe invasion, involving coordinated reprogramming of host cells to create infection structures that facilitate inward movement of the symbiont. Infection initiates in the epidermis, with different legumes utilizing distinct strategies for crossing this cell layer, either between cells (intercellular infection) or transcellularly (infection thread infection). Recent discoveries on the plant side using fluorescent-based imaging approaches have illuminated the spatiotemporal dynamics of infection, underscoring the importance of investigating this process at the dynamic single-cell level. Extending fluorescence-based live-dynamic approaches to the bacterial partner opens the exciting prospect of learning how individual rhizobia reprogram from rhizospheric to a host-confined state during early root infection.

Terpenoids are ubiquitous to all kingdoms of life and are one of the most diverse groups of compounds, both structurally and functionally. Despite being derived from common precursors, isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate, their exceptional diversity is partly driven by the substrate and product promiscuity of terpene synthases that produce a wide array of terpene skeletons. Plant terpene synthases can be subdivided into different subfamilies based on sequence homology and function. However, in many cases, structural architecture of the enzyme is more essential to product specificity than primary sequence alone, and distantly related terpene synthases can often mediate similar reactions. As such, the focus of this brief review is on some of the recent progress in understanding terpene synthase function and diversity.