Priming crop plants with rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus Spenn, syn Rosmarinus officinalis L.) extract triggers protective defense response against pathogens.

Plant bioactive compounds provide novel straightforward approaches to control plant diseases. Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus)-derived extracts carry many prominent pharmacological activities, including antimicrobial and antioxidant, mainly due to its phenolic compounds, rosmarinic acid (RA), carnosic acid and carnosol. However, the effects of these extracts on plant diseases are still unknown, which constrains its potential application as bioprotectant in the agricultural production.

Identification of new microRNA-regulated genes by conserved targeting in plant species.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are major regulators of gene expression in multicellular organisms. They recognize their targets by sequence complementarity and guide them to cleavage or translational arrest. It is generally accepted that plant miRNAs have extensive complementarity to their targets and their prediction usually relies on the use of empirical parameters deduced from known miRNA-target interactions.

A mechanistic link between STM and CUC1 during Arabidopsis development.

The KNOXI transcription factor SHOOT MERISTEMLESS (STM) is required to establish and maintain the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) apical meristem, yet little is known about its direct targets. Using different approaches we demonstrate that the induction of STM causes a significant up-regulation of the organ boundary gene CUP SHAPED COTYLEDON1 (CUC1), which is specific and independent of other meristem regulators. We further show that the regulation of CUC1 by STM is direct and identify putative binding sites in its promoter.

Plants contain two SCO proteins that are differentially involved in cytochrome c oxidase function and copper and redox homeostasis.

Two Arabidopsis thaliana genes (HCC1 and HCC2), resulting from a duplication that took place before the emergence of flowering plants, encode proteins with homology to the SCO proteins involved in copper insertion during cytochrome c oxidase (COX) assembly in other organisms. Heterozygote HCC1 mutant plants produce 25% abnormal seeds with defective embryos arrested at the heart or torpedo stage. These embryos lack COX activity, suggesting that the requirement of HCC1 during the early stages of plant development is related with its COX assembly function.