TFIIS is required for reproductive development and thermal adaptation in barley.

Barley reproductive fitness and efficient heat stress adaptation requires the activity of TFIIS, the elongation cofactor of RNAPII. Regulation of transcriptional machinery and its adaptive role under different stress conditions are studied extensively in the dicot model plant Arabidopsis, but our knowledge on monocot species remains elusive. TFIIS is an RNA polymerase II-associated transcription elongation cofactor.

Coding and noncoding transcriptomes of NODULIN HOMEOBOX (NDX)-deficient Arabidopsis inflorescence.

Arabidopsis NODULIN HOMEOBOX (NDX) is a plant-specific transcriptional regulator whose role in small RNA biogenesis and heterochromatin homeostasis has recently been described. Here we extend our previous transcriptomic analysis to the flowering stage of development. We performed mRNA-seq and small RNA-seq measurements on inflorescence samples of wild-type and ndx1-4 mutant (WiscDsLox344A04) Arabidopsis plants.

NODULIN HOMEOBOX is required for heterochromatin homeostasis in Arabidopsis.

Arabidopsis NODULIN HOMEOBOX (NDX) is a nuclear protein described as a regulator of specific euchromatic genes within transcriptionally active chromosome arms. Here we show that NDX is primarily a heterochromatin regulator that functions in pericentromeric regions to control siRNA production and non-CG methylation. Most NDX binding sites coincide with pericentromeric het-siRNA loci that mediate transposon silencing, and are antagonistic with R-loop structures that are prevalent in euchromatic chromosomal arms.

Elongation factor TFIIS is essential for heat stress adaptation in plants.

Elongation factor TFIIS (transcription factor IIS) is structurally and biochemically probably the best characterized elongation cofactor of RNA polymerase II. However, little is known about TFIIS regulation or its roles during stress responses. Here, we show that, although TFIIS seems unnecessary under optimal conditions in Arabidopsis, its absence renders plants supersensitive to heat; tfIIs mutants die even when exposed to sublethal high temperature.

Condition-dependent functional shift of two Mtmr lipid phosphatases in autophagy control.

Myotubularin (MTM) and myotubularin-related (MTMR) lipid phosphatases catalyze the removal of a phosphate group from certain phosphatidylinositol derivatives. Because some of these substrates are required for macroautophagy/autophagy, during which unwanted cytoplasmic constituents are delivered into lysosomes for degradation, MTM and MTMRs function as important regulators of the autophagic process. Despite its physiological and medical significance, the specific role of individual MTMR paralogs in autophagy control remains largely unexplored.

Genome-Wide Identification of RNA Silencing-Related Genes and Their Expressional Analysis in Response to Heat Stress in Barley ( L.).

Barley ( L.) is an economically important crop cultivated in temperate climates all over the world. Adverse environmental factors negatively affect its survival and productivity.

miR824/AGAMOUS-LIKE16 Module Integrates Recurring Environmental Heat Stress Changes to Fine-Tune Poststress Development.

Plant development is continually fine-tuned based on environmental factors. How environmental perturbations are integrated into the developmental programs and how poststress adaptation is regulated remains an important topic to dissect. Vegetative to reproductive phase change is a very important developmental transition that is complexly regulated based on endogenous and exogenous cues.