Plant core environmental stress response genes are systemically coordinated during abiotic stresses.

Studying plant stress responses is an important issue in a world threatened by global warming. Unfortunately, comparative analyses are hampered by varying experimental setups. In contrast, the AtGenExpress abiotic stress experiment displays intercomparability.

Alanine zipper-like coiled-coil domains are necessary for homotypic dimerization of plant GAGA-factors in the nucleus and nucleolus.

GAGA-motif binding proteins control transcriptional activation or repression of homeotic genes. Interestingly, there are no sequence similarities between animal and plant proteins. Plant BBR/BPC-proteins can be classified into two distinct groups: Previous studies have elaborated on group I members only and so little is known about group II proteins.

The Arabidopsis thaliana response regulator ARR22 is a putative AHP phospho-histidine phosphatase expressed in the chalaza of developing seeds.

Background: The Arabidopsis response regulator 22 (ARR22) is one of two members of a recently defined novel group of two-component system (TCS) elements. TCSs are stimulus perception and response modules of prokaryotic origin, which signal by a His-to-Asp phosphorelay mechanism. In plants, TCS regulators are involved in hormone response pathways, such as those for cytokinin and ethylene.

The root cap determines ethylene-dependent growth and development in maize roots.

Besides providing protection against mechanical damage to the root tip, the root cap is involved in the perception and processing of diverse external and internal stimuli resulting in altered growth and development. The transduction of these stimuli includes hormonal signaling pathways such as those of auxin, ethylene and cytokinin. Here, we show that the root cap is essential for the ethylene-induced regulation of elongation growth and root hair formation in maize.