The molecular basis of primary wall extension endures as one of the central enigmas in plant cell morphogenesis. Classical cell wall models suggest that xyloglucan endo-transglycosylase activity is the primary catalyst (together with expansins) of controlled cell wall loosening through the transient cleavage and religation of xyloglucan-cellulose cross links. The genome of Arabidopsis (Arabidop...

Iron-sulfur [Fe-S] clusters are prosthetic groups required to maintain life processes including respiration, photosynthesis, metabolic reactions, sensing, signaling,and gene regulation. In plants the biogenesis of Fe-S proteins is compartmentalized and adapted to specific needs of the eukaryotic and photosynthetic cell. Although critical to so many fundamental metabolic pathways and drastically...

The genome-wide role of heterotrimeric G-proteins in abiotic stress response in rice has not been examined from a functional genomics perspective, despite the availability of mutants and evidences involving individual genes/processes/stresses. Our rice whole transcriptome microarray analysis (GSE 20925 at NCBI GEO) using the G-alpha subunit (RGA1) null mutant (Daikoku 1 or d1) and its correspon...

p110α; moreover, in transfected cells, increased p85β/p110α expression moderately enhanced PI3K activity in basal conditions. Nevertheless, both p85α/ p110αand p85β/p110α-expressing cells showed maximal PI3K activation only after growth factor addition, suggesting that despite basal activation, p85β/p110α responds to receptor stimulation. These results imply a difference in the effects of p85α ...

Transcriptomes as assessed by either microarrays or nextgeneration sequencing have produced a hitherto unprecedented data flood regarding transcript identity and levels in plant systems. Microarray data has been extensively used over the last 15 years or so and evaluation of the data thus produced has progressed well beyond early statistically quality evaluation and descriptive lists to a matur...

Over the last years a number of bioinformatic software programs have been developed in the area of molecular biology. The application of these bioinformatic tools to the wealth of existing transcriptomic and proteomic data can be used to predict the structure and hierarchy of signalling pathways and gene networks. In genetically tractable model organisms such as Arabidopsis thaliana, these hyph...