From sensing to acclimation: The role of membrane lipid remodeling in plant responses to low temperatures.

Low temperatures pose a dramatic challenge to plant viability. Chilling and freezing disrupt cellular processes, forcing metabolic adaptations reflected in alterations to membrane compositions. Understanding the mechanisms of plant cold tolerance is increasingly important due to anticipated increases in the frequency, severity, and duration of cold events.

Morphological simulation tests the limits on phenotype discovery in 3D image analysis.

In the past few decades, advances in 3D imaging have created new opportunities for reverse genetic screens. Rapidly growing datasets of 3D images of genetic knockouts require high-throughput, automated computational approaches for identifying and characterizing new phenotypes. However, exploratory, discovery-oriented image analysis pipelines used to discover these phenotypes can be difficult to validate because, by their nature, the expected outcome is not known .

Exploring cotton SFR2's conundrum in response to cold stress.

Cotton is an important agricultural crop to many regions across the globe but is sensitive to low-temperature exposure. The activity of the enzyme SENSITIVE TO FREEZING 2 (SFR2) improves cold tolerance of plants and produces trigalactosylsyldiacylglycerol (TGDG), but its role in cold sensitive plants, such as cotton remains unknown. Recently, it was reported that cotton SFR2 produced very little TGDG under normal and cold conditions.

Rhythmic lipid and gene expression responses to chilling in panicoid grasses.

Chilling stress threatens plant growth and development, particularly affecting membrane fluidity and cellular integrity. Understanding plant membrane responses to chilling stress is important for unraveling the molecular mechanisms of stress tolerance. Whereas core transcriptional responses to chilling stress and stress tolerance are conserved across species, the associated changes in membrane lipids appear to be less conserved, as which lipids are affected by chilling stress varies by species.