The Arabidopsis Mitochondrial Nucleoid-Associated Protein WHIRLY2 Is Required for a Proper Response to Salt Stress.

In the last years, plant organelles have emerged as central coordinators of responses to internal and external stimuli, which can induce stress. Mitochondria play a fundamental role as stress sensors being part of a complex communication network between the organelles and the nucleus. Among the different environmental stresses, salt stress poses a significant challenge and requires efficient signaling and protective mechanisms.

Smart selection of soil microbes for resilient and sustainable viticulture.

The grapevine industry is of high economic importance in several countries worldwide. Its growing market demand led to an acceleration of the entire production processes, implying increasing use of water resources at the expense of environmental water balance and the hydrological cycle. Furthermore, in recent decades climate change and the consequent expansion of drought have further compromised water availability, making current agricultural systems even more fragile from ecological and economical perspectives.

Illuminating the hidden world of calcium ions in plants with a universe of indicators.

The tools available to carry out in vivo analysis of Ca dynamics in plants are powerful and mature technologies that still require the proper controls.

In Vivo NADH/NAD Biosensing Reveals the Dynamics of Cytosolic Redox Metabolism in Plants.

NADH and NAD are a ubiquitous cellular redox couple. Although the central role of NAD in plant metabolism and its regulatory role have been investigated extensively at the biochemical level, analyzing the subcellular redox dynamics of NAD in living plant tissues has been challenging. Here, we established live monitoring of NADH/NAD in plants using the genetically encoded fluorescent biosensor Peredox-mCherry.

WHIRLY2 plays a key role in mitochondria morphology, dynamics, and functionality in .

WHIRLY2 is a single-stranded DNA binding protein associated with mitochondrial nucleoids. In the mutant of , a major proportion of leaf mitochondria has an aberrant structure characterized by disorganized nucleoids, reduced abundance of cristae, and a low matrix density despite the fact that the macroscopic phenotype during vegetative growth is not different from wild type. These features coincide with an impairment of the functionality and dynamics of mitochondria that have been characterized in detail in wild-type and mutant cell cultures.