A land plant-specific VPS13 mediates polarized vesicle trafficking in germinating pollen.

Pollen has an extraordinary ability to convert from a dry state to an extremely rapidly growing state. During pollination, pollen receives water and Ca from the contacting pistil, which will be a directional cue for pollen tube germination. The subsequent rapid activation of directional vesicular transport must support the pollen tube growth, but the molecular mechanism leading to this process is largely unknown.

Structural changes in Nelumbo flower petals during opening and closing.

Premise: Nelumbo nucifera is one of several plant species with flowers that typically open in the early morning and close by noon. This movement normally repeats for 3 days, with all petals falling off on day 4. However, detailed observations of flower movement in Nelumbo species are limited.

Localization of the reb operon expression is inconsistent with that of the R-body production in the stem nodules formed by Azorhizobium caulinodans mutants having a deletion of praR.

Azorhizobium caulinodans, a kind of rhizobia, has a reb operon encoding pathogenic R-body components, whose expression is usually repressed by a transcription factor PraR. Mutation on praR induced a high expression of reb operon and the formation of aberrant nodules, in which both morphologically normal and shrunken host cells were observed. Histochemical GUS analyses of praR mutant expressing reb operon-uidA fusion revealed that the bacterial cells within the normal host cells highly expressed the reb operon, but rarely produced R-bodies.

Physiological characterization of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate accumulation in the moderately thermophilic hydrogen-oxidizing bacterium Hydrogenophilus thermoluteolus TH-1.

Hydrogenophilus thermoluteolus strain TH-1 is a thermophilic hydrogen-oxidizing microorganism that has the highest growth rate among autotrophs. Genomic analysis revealed that this strain comprises the complete gene set for poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) synthesis, i.e.

Transcriptional switch for programmed cell death in pith parenchyma of sorghum stems.

Pith parenchyma cells store water in various plant organs. These cells are especially important for producing sugar and ethanol from the sugar juice of grass stems. In many plants, the death of pith parenchyma cells reduces their stem water content.

Morphological and electrophysiological differences in tarsal chemosensilla between the wild silkmoth Bombyx mandarina and the domesticated species Bombyx mori.

Gustatory and olfactory senses of phytophagous insects play important roles in the recognition of host plants. In the domestic silkmoth Bombyx mori and its wild species Bombyx mandarina, the morphologies and responses of adult olfactory organs (antennae) have been intensely investigated. However, little is known about these features of adult gustatory organs and the influence of domestication on the gustatory sense.

Stringent Expression Control of Pathogenic R-body Production in Legume Symbiont .

R bodies are insoluble large polymers consisting of small proteins encoded by genes and are coiled into cylindrical structures in bacterial cells. They were first discovered in species, which are obligate endosymbionts of paramecia. confers a killer trait on the host paramecia.

DRP3 and ELM1 are required for mitochondrial fission in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha.

Mitochondria increase in number by the fission of existing mitochondria. Mitochondrial fission is needed to provide mitochondria to daughter cells during cell division. In Arabidopsis thaliana, four kinds of genes have been reported to be involved in mitochondrial fission.