A regulatory module mediating temperature control of cell-cell communication facilitates tree bud dormancy release.

The control of cell-cell communication via plasmodesmata (PD) plays a key role in plant development. In tree buds, low-temperature conditions (LT) induce a switch in plasmodesmata from a closed to an open state, which restores cell-to-cell communication in the shoot apex and releases dormancy. Using genetic and cell-biological approaches, we have identified a previously uncharacterized transcription factor, Low-temperature-Induced MADS-box 1 (LIM1), as an LT-induced, direct upstream activator of the gibberellic acid (GA) pathway.

Remittance from migrants reinforces forest recovery for China's reforestation policy.

Forests play a key role in the mitigation of global warming and provide many other vital ecosystem goods and services. However, as forest continues to vanish at an alarming rate from the surface of the planet, the world desperately needs knowledge on what contributes to forest preservation and restoration. Migration, a hallmark of globalization, is widely recognized as a main driver of forest recovery and poverty alleviation.

Elementary effects for models with dimensional inputs of arbitrary type and range: Scaling and trajectory generation.

The Elementary Effects method is a global sensitivity analysis approach for identifying (un)important parameters in a model. However, it has almost exclusively been used where inputs are dimensionless and take values on [0, 1]. Here, we consider models with dimensional inputs, inputs taking values on arbitrary intervals or discrete inputs.

Modelling how plant cell-cycle progression leads to cell size regulation.

Populations of cells typically maintain a consistent size, despite cell division rarely being precisely symmetrical. Therefore, cells must possess a mechanism of "size control", whereby the cell volume at birth affects cell-cycle progression. While size control mechanisms have been elucidated in a number of other organisms, it is not yet clear how this mechanism functions in plants.

Hydro-bio-geo-socio-chemical interactions and the sustainability of residential landscapes.

Residential landscapes are essential to the sustainability of large areas of the United States. However, spatial and temporal variation across multiple domains complicates developing policies to balance these systems' environmental, economic, and equity dimensions. We conducted multidisciplinary studies in the Baltimore, MD, USA, metropolitan area to identify locations (hotspots) or times (hot moments) with a disproportionate influence on nitrogen export, a widespread environmental concern.

Multiscale Asymptotic Analysis Reveals How Cell Growth and Subcellular Compartments Affect Tissue-Scale Hormone Transport.

Determining how cell-scale processes lead to tissue-scale patterns is key to understanding how hormones and morphogens are distributed within biological tissues and control developmental processes. In this article, we use multiscale asymptotic analysis to derive a continuum approximation for hormone transport in a long file of cells to determine how subcellular compartments and cell growth and division affect tissue-scale hormone transport. Focusing our study on plant tissues, we begin by presenting a discrete multicellular ODE model tracking the hormone concentration in each cell's cytoplasm, subcellular vacuole, and surrounding apoplast, represented by separate compartments in the cell-file geometry.

Assessing and improving the outcomes of nonpoint source water quality trading policies in urban areas: A case study in Virginia.

Nonpoint source (NPS) water quality trading (WQT) is a market-based approach to improving water quality. Past work has shown that these programs could increase localized pollutant loadings, in part by exporting water quality controls from urban to rural areas. Virginia's NPS WQT program has enabled thousands of transactions and may provide a model for other programs, but its impacts on urban water quality have not been thoroughly assessed.

Gibberellin and abscisic acid transporters facilitate endodermal suberin formation in Arabidopsis.

The plant hormone gibberellin (GA) regulates multiple developmental processes. It accumulates in the root elongating endodermis, but how it moves into this cell file and the significance of this accumulation are unclear. Here we identify three NITRATE TRANSPORTER1/PEPTIDE TRANSPORTER (NPF) transporters required for GA and abscisic acid (ABA) translocation.

Long-distance hormone transport via the phloem.

Several key plant hormones are synthesised in the shoot and are advected within the phloem to the root tip. In the root tip, these hormones regulate growth and developmental processes, and responses to environmental cues. However, we lack understanding of how environmental factors and biological parameters affect the delivery of hormones to the root tip.

evidence for the utility of parsimonious root phenotypes for improved vegetative growth and carbon sequestration under drought.

Drought is a primary constraint to crop yields and climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of drought stress in the future. It has been hypothesized that crops can be made more resistant to drought and better able to sequester atmospheric carbon in the soil by selecting appropriate root phenotypes. We introduce , an upgraded version of the functional-structural plant/soil model , and use it to test the utility of a maize root phenotype with fewer and steeper axial roots, reduced lateral root branching density, and more aerenchyma formation (i.

Uncertainty and error in SARS-CoV-2 epidemiological parameters inferred from population-level epidemic models.

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, epidemic models have been central to policy-making. Public health responses have been shaped by model-based projections and inferences, especially related to the impact of various non-pharmaceutical interventions. Accompanying this has been increased scrutiny over model performance, model assumptions, and the way that uncertainty is incorporated and presented.

Plasmodesmata play a key role in leaf vein patterning.

Leaf veins provide a vital transport route in plants. The formation of leaf vein patterns has fascinated many scientists. In PLOS Biology, Linh and Scarpella reveal that transport through plasmodesmata plays a key role in vein patterning.

Modeling root loss reveals impacts on nutrient uptake and crop development.

Despite the widespread prevalence of root loss in plants, its effects on crop productivity are not fully understood. While root loss reduces the capacity of plants to take up water and nutrients from the soil, it may provide benefits by decreasing the resources required to maintain the root system. Here, we simulated a range of root phenotypes in different soils and root loss scenarios for barley (Hordeum vulgare), common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), and maize (Zea mays) using and extending the open-source, functional-structural root/soil simulation model OpenSimRoot.

Modeling reveals posttranscriptional regulation of GA metabolism enzymes in response to drought and cold.

The hormone gibberellin (GA) controls plant growth and regulates growth responses to environmental stress. In monocotyledonous leaves, GA controls growth by regulating division-zone size. We used a systems approach to investigate the establishment of the GA distribution in the maize leaf growth zone to understand how drought and cold alter leaf growth.

The cellulose synthase-like F3 (CslF3) gene mediates cell wall polysaccharide synthesis and affects root growth and differentiation in barley.

The barley cellulose synthase-like F (CslF) genes encode putative cell wall polysaccharide synthases. They are related to the cellulose synthase (CesA) genes involved in cellulose biosynthesis, and the CslD genes that influence root hair development. Although CslD genes are implicated in callose, mannan and cellulose biosynthesis, and are found in both monocots and eudicots, CslF genes are specific to the Poaceae.

Systems approaches reveal that ABCB and PIN proteins mediate co-dependent auxin efflux.

Members of the B family of membrane-bound ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters represent key components of the auxin efflux machinery in plants. Over the last two decades, experimental studies have shown that modifying ATP-binding cassette sub-family B (ABCB) expression affects auxin distribution and plant phenotypes. However, precisely how ABCB proteins transport auxin in conjunction with the more widely studied family of PIN-formed (PIN) auxin efflux transporters is unclear, and studies using heterologous systems have produced conflicting results.

Integrated root phenotypes for improved rice performance under low nitrogen availability.

Greater nitrogen efficiency would substantially reduce the economic, energy and environmental costs of rice production. We hypothesized that synergistic balancing of the costs and benefits for soil exploration among root architectural phenes is beneficial under suboptimal nitrogen availability. An enhanced implementation of the functional-structural model OpenSimRoot for rice integrated with the ORYZA_v3 crop model was used to evaluate the utility of combinations of root architectural phenes, namely nodal root angle, the proportion of smaller diameter nodal roots, nodal root number; and L-type and S-type lateral branching densities, for plant growth under low nitrogen.

The Virtual Root : Mathematical Modeling of Auxin Transport in the Arabidopsis Root Tip Using the Open-Source Software SimuPlant.

Hormone signals like auxin play a critical role controlling plant growth and development. Determining the mechanisms that regulate auxin distribution in cells and tissues is a vital step in understanding this hormone's role during plant development. Recent mathematical models have enabled us to understand the essential role that auxin influx and efflux carriers play in auxin transport in the Arabidopsis root tip (Band et al.

Nonpoint Source Water Quality Trading outcomes: Landscape-scale patterns and integration with watershed management priorities.

Nonpoint source (NPS) water quality trading (WQT) has been lauded as a way to reduce water pollution while mitigating costs, but NPS WQT programs often do not account for cumulative landscape-scale impacts to hydrological and ecological processes. In this work, we parameterize the landscape-scale patterns of an emerging NPS WQT market in Virginia (n = 606 transactions) and describe potential tradeoffs and synergies. We also examine program outcomes in the context of Virginia's spatially-explicit conservation and restoration priorities, and discuss ways in which NPS WQT integrates or fails to integrate with these state-level watershed management goals.

Auxin fluxes through plasmodesmata.

Characterising the processes that control auxin dynamics is essential to understanding how auxin regulates plant development. Over recent years, several studies have investigated auxin diffusion through plasmodesmata, characterising this cell-to-cell diffusion and demonstrating that it affects auxin distributions. Furthermore, studies have shown that plasmodesmatal auxin diffusion affects developmental processes, including phototropism, lateral root emergence and leaf hyponasty.

Differential biosynthesis and cellular permeability explain longitudinal gibberellin gradients in growing roots.

Control over cell growth by mobile regulators underlies much of eukaryotic morphogenesis. In plant roots, cell division and elongation are separated into distinct longitudinal zones and both division and elongation are influenced by the growth regulatory hormone gibberellin (GA). Previously, a multicellular mathematical model predicted a GA maximum at the border of the meristematic and elongation zones.

Theoretical Perspectives of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study: Conceptual Evolution in a Social-Ecological Research Project.

The Earth's population will become more than 80% urban during this century. This threshold is often regarded as sufficient justification for pursuing urban ecology. However, pursuit has primarily focused on building empirical richness, and urban ecology theory is rarely discussed.

Auxin fluxes through plasmodesmata modify root-tip auxin distribution.

Auxin is a key signal regulating plant growth and development. It is well established that auxin dynamics depend on the spatial distribution of efflux and influx carriers on the cell membranes. In this study, we employ a systems approach to characterise an alternative symplastic pathway for auxin mobilisation via plasmodesmata, which function as intercellular pores linking the cytoplasm of adjacent cells.

Double or Nothing? Cell Division and Cell Size Control.

Size is a fundamental property that must be tightly regulated to ensure that cells and tissues function efficiently. Dynamic size control allows unicellular organisms to adapt to environmental changes, but cell size is also integral to multicellular development, affecting tissue size and structure. Despite clear evidence for homeostatic cell size maintenance, we are only now beginning to understand cell size regulation in the actively dividing meristematic tissues of higher plants.