Pinpointing the timing of meiosis: a critical factor in evaluating the impact of abiotic stresses on the fertility of cereal crops.

The development of male gametes, vital to sexual reproduction in crops, requires meiosis followed by successive mitotic cell divisions of haploid cells. The formation of viable pollen is especially vulnerable to abiotic stress, with consequences both for yield and for grain quality. An understanding of key molecular responses when specific stages during pollen development are subjected to stress (e.

Nuclear EGFR in breast cancer suppresses NK cell recruitment and cytotoxicity.

Natural Killer (NK) cells can target and destroy cancer cells, yet tumor microenvironments typically suppress NK cell recruitment and cytotoxicity. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a potent oncogene that can activate survival, migration, and proliferation pathways, and clinical data suggests it may also play an immunomodulating role in cancers. Recent work has demonstrated a novel role for nuclear EGFR (nEGFR) in regulating transcriptional events unique from the kinase domain.

Physiological and structural traits contribute to thermotolerance in wild Australian cotton species.

Background And Aims: Five species of cotton (Gossypium) were exposed to 38°C days during early vegetative development. Commercial cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) was contrasted with four wild cotton species (G. australe, G.

Leaf phosphorus fractions vary with leaf economic traits among 35 Australian woody species.

Adaptations of plants to phosphorus (P) deficiency include reduced investment of leaf P in storage (orthophosphates in vacuoles), nucleic acids and membrane lipids. Yet, it is unclear how these adaptations are associated with plant ecological strategies. Five leaf P fractions (orthophosphate P, P ; metabolite P, P ; nucleic acid P, P ; lipid P, P ; and residual P, P ) were analysed alongside leaf economic traits among 35 Australian woody species from three habitats: one a high-P basalt-derived soil and two low-P sandstone-derived soils, one undisturbed and one disturbed by human activities with artificial P inputs.

A universal protocol for high-quality DNA and RNA isolation from diverse plant species.

Next-generation sequencing demands high-quality nucleic acid, yet isolating DNA and RNA is often challenging, particularly from plant tissues. Despite advances in developing various kits and reagents, these products are tailored to isolation of nucleic acid from model plant tissues. Here we introduce a universal lysis buffer to separate nucleic acid from various plant species, including recalcitrant plants, to facilitate molecular analyses, such as quantitative PCR (qPCR), transcriptomics, and whole-genome sequencing (WGS).