Reprocessing plant gets green light

Green tea gets molecular.

Green tea and its major polyphenolic flavonoid, epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), have been credited with cancer chemopreventive activity for many years; the mechanism for this activity, however, has remained obscure. Now, as reported in this issue of the journal (beginning on page 1366), Urusova and colleagues showed direct binding of EGCG to the peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerase Pin1, which ...

Traffi c light labelling gets the green light Front - of - Pack Food Labelling

Plant Photomorphogenesis: A green light for cryptochrome research

A feature common to all living organisms is the acquisition of information about their surroundings, through the perception of environmental signals. As a consequence of their sessile nature, plants need to be especially plastic in their development, and so show a vast array of adaptive responses to environmental cues. Plants have evolved exquisite sensory systems for monitoring their environme...

Plant Cell Shape: Trafficking Gets Edgy.

Polyhedral-shaped plant cells have faces, corners, and edges that can have different material properties. As Kirchhelle et al. (2016) now show, RAB-A5c reveals a trafficking compartment that localizes to the edges where two cell walls meet, with a potential role in mediating local wall stiffness.

Myosin light chain phosphatase: it gets around.

The importance of Ca 2 /calmodulin-dependent myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) for smooth muscle contraction is well documented.1 Until recently, myosin light chain (MLC) phosphatase was thought to be unregulated and constitutively active. However, studies have demonstrated that smooth muscle contraction is dependent on regulation of MLC phosphatase activity.2,3 The inhibition of phosphatase act...