Root hair cells are important sensors of soil conditions. They grow towards and absorb water-soluble nutrients. This fast and oscillatory growth is mediated by continuous remodeling of the cell wall.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe molecular machinery orchestrating microautophagy, whereby eukaryotic cells sequester autophagic cargo by direct invagination of the vacuolar/lysosomal membrane, is still largely unknown, especially in plants. Here, we demonstrate microautophagy of storage proteins in the maize aleurone cells of the endosperm and analyzed proteins with potential regulatory roles in this process. Within the cereal endosperm, starchy endosperm cells accumulate storage proteins (mostly prolamins) and starch whereas the peripheral aleurone cells store oils, storage proteins, and specialized metabolites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPollen wall assembly is crucial for pollen development and plant fertility. The durable biopolymer sporopollenin and the constituents of the tryphine coat are delivered to developing pollen grains by the highly coordinated secretory activity of the surrounding tapetal cells. The role of membrane trafficking in this process, however, is largely unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne of the major events of early plant immune responses is a rapid influx of Ca into the cytosol following pathogen recognition. Indeed, changes in cytosolic Ca are recognized as ubiquitous elements of cellular signaling networks and are thought to encode stimulus-specific information in their duration, amplitude, and frequency. Despite the wealth of observations showing that the bacterial elicitor peptide flg22 triggers Ca transients, there remain limited data defining the molecular identities of Ca transporters involved in shaping the cellular Ca dynamics during the triggering of the defense response network.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe adapted an efficient cell-free protein synthesis-based protocol for the production of lipid-binding proteins. The experimental procedures are based on the following steps: (1) cell-free synthesis of soluble, lipid-binding proteins fused to small tags; (2) analysis by dot blot of the accessibility of antibodies to the small tags. (3) protein lipid overlay assay with, immunodetection of bound protein by either chemiluminescence or fluorescence.
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