Publications by authors named "Kelly M Balmant"

Legumes establish a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing rhizobia by developing nodules. Nodules are modified lateral roots that undergo changes in their cellular development in response to bacteria, but the transcriptional reprogramming that occurs in these root cells remains largely uncharacterized. Here, we describe the cell-type-specific transcriptome response of Medicago truncatula roots to rhizobia during early nodule development in the wild-type genotype Jemalong A17, complemented with a hypernodulating mutant (sunn-4) to expand the cell population responding to infection and subsequent biological inferences.

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Background: Symbiotic associations between bacteria and leguminous plants lead to the formation of root nodules that fix nitrogen needed for sustainable agricultural systems. Symbiosis triggers extensive genome and transcriptome remodeling in the plant, yet an integrated understanding of the extent of chromatin changes and transcriptional networks that functionally regulate gene expression associated with symbiosis remains poorly understood. In particular, analyses of early temporal events driving this symbiosis have only captured correlative relationships between regulators and targets at mRNA level.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on understanding how stem cells in the shoot apex of woody plants like Populus develop into different tissues and organs, specifically examining the lack of a lineage map for these cells.
  • Using single-nuclei RNA-sequencing, researchers identified seven major cell populations and established developmental pathways for various tissues, including epidermis, leaf mesophyll, and vascular tissue.
  • By comparing the vascular development between Populus and the model plant Arabidopsis, the study highlights similarities and differences in cell differentiation processes across species, providing insights for future research on plant biology.
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Article Synopsis
  • Nitrogen is a key nutrient for plants, but many species rely on symbiotic relationships with nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules to access it.
  • Research on 25 nodulating species revealed 3,091 conserved noncoding sequences (CNS) in this nitrogen-fixing group, indicating potential regulatory elements for root-nodule symbiosis.
  • Specific CNS identified were found to significantly influence genes involved in nodulation, highlighting their critical role in the evolution of this symbiotic trait.
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Article Synopsis
  • * While mammalian studies utilize microfluidic methods for isolating mRNA, plant studies face challenges with cell wall structures, necessitating protoplast generation for effective analysis.
  • * This research presents a new method for extracting mRNA from individual plant nuclei, improving the representation of diverse cell types in transcriptome studies, demonstrated through Populus plant tissues using 10× Genomics technology.
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Redox-based post-translational modifications (PTMs) involving protein cysteine residues as redox sensors are important to various physiological processes. However, little is known about redox-sensitive proteins in guard cells and their functions in stomatal immunity. In this study, we applied an integrative protein labeling method cysTMTRAQ, and identified guard cell proteins that were altered by thiol redox PTMs in response to a bacterial flagellin peptide flg22.

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Breeding forest species can be a costly and slow process because of the extensive areas needed for field trials and the long periods (e.g., five years) that are required to measure economically and environmentally relevant phenotypes (e.

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Despite the growing resources and tools for high-throughput characterization and analysis of genomic information, the discovery of the genetic elements that regulate complex traits remains a challenge. Systems genetics is an emerging field that aims to understand the flow of biological information that underlies complex traits from genotype to phenotype. In this study, we used a systems genetics approach to identify and evaluate regulators of the lignin biosynthesis pathway in by combining genome, transcriptome, and phenotype data from a population of 268 unrelated individuals of The discovery of lignin regulators began with the quantitative genetic analysis of the xylem transcriptome and resulted in the detection of 6706 and 4628 significant local- and distant-eQTL associations, respectively.

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Alternative splicing (AS) is a mechanism of regulation of the proteome via enabling the production of multiple mRNAs from a single gene. To date, the dynamics of AS and its effects on the protein sequences of individuals in a large and genetically unrelated population of trees have not been investigated. Here we describe the diversity of AS events within a previously genotyped population of 268 individuals of and their putative downstream functional effects.

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Article Synopsis
  • The radiation of angiosperms has significantly influenced the evolution of most plant species and major food crops, attributed to their advanced vascular system using vessel elements for efficient water transport.
  • The size and structure of these vessel elements are crucial for water flow and overall plant health, yet the genetic underpinnings of their dimensions remain largely unknown.
  • Research has identified a new gene that plays a role in shaping vessel element dimensions and improving hydraulic conductivity, suggesting its origins trace back to algae and that it may have undergone ancient horizontal gene transfer.
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Unlabelled: Glucosinolates present in Brassicales are important for human health and plant defense against insects and pathogens. Here we investigate the proteomes and metabolomes of Arabidopsis myb28/29 and cyp79B2/B3 mutants deficient in aliphatic glucosinolates and indolic glucosinolates, respectively. Quantitative proteomics of the myb28/29 and cyp79B2/B3 mutants led to the identification of 2785 proteins, of which 142 proteins showed significant changes in the two mutants compared to wild type (WT).

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Post-translational modification (PTM) is recognized as a major process accounting for protein structural variation, functional diversity, and the dynamics and complexity of the proteome. Since PTMs can change the structure and function of proteins, they are essential to coordinate signaling networks and to regulate important physiological processes in eukaryotes. Plants are constantly challenged by both biotic and abiotic stresses that reduce productivity, causing economic losses in crops.

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Unlike mammals with adaptive immunity, plants rely on their innate immunity based on pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) for pathogen defense. Reactive oxygen species, known to play crucial roles in PTI and ETI, can perturb cellular redox homeostasis and lead to changes of redox-sensitive proteins through modification of cysteine sulfhydryl groups. Although redox regulation of protein functions has emerged as an important mechanism in several biological processes, little is known about redox proteins and how they function in PTI and ETI.

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