A conserved hexapeptide switch controls autoinhibition of plant cytosolic invertases

The Arabidopsis PAL3 is a carboxy-tyrosine ammonia lyase

Dynamic Filament Assembly Regulates the Prolyl Aminopeptidase Activity of Plant Immune Protein DM3

It is shown that DM3 reversibly assembles into higher-order filaments in a salt-sensitive manner, which reveals how structural plasticity in protein assemblies enables a single protein to coordinate multiple stress-response functions, highlighting a general mechanism for regulating protein activity in plants.

Discovery of the rosalexin pathway expands the modular network of maize diterpenoid phytoalexins

The evolutionary expansion of specialized metabolism has shaped the ability of plants to adapt to combined pest, disease, and environmental pressures. In maize (Zea mays), the duplication and divergence of ancestral gibberellin pathway genes have given rise to specialized kauralexin and dolabralexin diterpenoids that s...

The complex regulatory properties of the plastidial phosphorylase L80 intrinsically disordered region

Plastidial α-glucan phosphorylase (Pho1) regulates starch metabolism and also modulates photosystem I (PSI) activity. In rice, Pho1 contains an 80-amino-acid intrinsically disordered region (IDR), L80, that acts as a negative regulator. While total removal of the L80 IDR boosts seedling growth, flowering time, overall...

Type III effectors of symbiotic Rhizobia include diverse predicted transcriptional and post-transcriptional modulators

Rhizobia are soil bacteria that establish nitrogen-fixing symbioses with legumes. While many rhizobia use a Type III Secretion System to deliver “Nodulation Outer Protein” (Nop) effectors, some uniquely use these proteins to initiate nodule organogenesis, bypassing classical signalling. The molecular functions of these...

Neofunctionalised plastid translocon regulates chloroplast ageing in Arabidopsis

Protein import across the chloroplast outer membrane is mediated by the TOC complex and regulated by GTP hydrolysis at two receptor GTPases, large and small. The former are the β-barrel-containing Toc159 family of proteins (Sun and Jarvis 2023; H. Li and Chiu 2010; Shi and Theg 2013a; Kessler and Schnell 2009). The sma...