Disrupted oxylipin biosynthesis mitigates pathogen infections and pest infestations in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum).

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is the world's most important fiber crop, critical to global textile industries and agricultural economies. However, cotton yield and harvest quality are undermined by the challenges introduced from invading pathogens and pests. Plant-synthesized oxylipins, specifically 9-hydroxy fatty acids resulting from 9-lipoxygenase activity (9-LOX), enhance the growth and development of many microbes and pests.

Cotton Meristem Transcriptomes: Constructing an RNA-Seq Pipeline to Explore Crop Architecture Regulation.

Plants stem cells, known as meristems, specify all patterns of growth and organ size. Differences in meristem activities contribute to diverse shoot architectures. As many architectural traits, such as branching patterns, flowering time, and fruit size, are yield determinants, meristem regulation is of fundamental importance to crop productivity.

Altered expression of SELF-PRUNING disrupts homeostasis and facilitates signal delivery to meristems.

Meristem maintenance, achieved through the highly conserved CLAVATA-WUSCHEL (CLV-WUS) regulatory circuit, is fundamental in balancing stem cell proliferation with cellular differentiation. Disruptions to meristem homeostasis can alter meristem size, leading to enlarged organs. Cotton (Gossypium spp.

Cotton architecture: examining the roles of SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS and SELF-PRUNING in regulating growth habits of a woody perennial crop.

By specifying patterns of determinate and indeterminate growth, FLOWERING LOCUS T/SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS (SFT) and TERMINAL FLOWER 1/SELF-PRUNING (SP) regulate plant architecture. Though well characterized in Arabidopsis, the impacts of these genes on the architectures of diverse crops cultivated in different environments, and their potential to enhance crop productivity and management, are less well addressed. Cotton (Gossypium spp.

SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS and SELF-PRUNING signal developmental and metabolic networks to guide cotton architectures.

Patterns of indeterminate and determinate growth specify plant architecture and influence crop productivity. In cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS (SFT) stimulates the transition to flowering and determinate growth, while its closely related antagonist SELF-PRUNING (SP) maintains meristems in indeterminate states to favor vegetative growth. Overexpressing GhSFT while simultaneously silencing GhSP produces highly determinate cotton with reduced foliage and synchronous fruiting.

Cotton CENTRORADIALIS/TERMINAL FLOWER 1/SELF-PRUNING genes functionally diverged to differentially impact plant architecture.

Genes of the CENTRORADIALIS/TERMINAL FLOWER 1/SELF-PRUNING (CETS) family influence meristem identity by controlling the balance between indeterminate and determinate growth, thereby profoundly impacting plant architecture. Artificial selection during cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) domestication converted photoperiodic trees to the day-neutral shrubs widely cultivated today. To understand the regulation of cotton architecture and exploit these principles to enhance crop productivity, we characterized the CETS gene family from tetraploid cotton.

Virus-Induced Flowering: An Application of Reproductive Biology to Benefit Plant Research and Breeding.

Virus-induced flowering combines fundamental research in reproductive biology with efficient tools for manipulating gene expression in nonmodel systems to accelerate discovery and breeding.

Monopodial and sympodial branching architecture in cotton is differentially regulated by the Gossypium hirsutum SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS and SELF-PRUNING orthologs.

Domestication of upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) converted it from a lanky photoperiodic perennial to a day-neutral annual row-crop. Residual perennial traits, however, complicate irrigation and crop management, and more determinate architectures are desired. Cotton simultaneously maintains robust monopodial indeterminate shoots and sympodial determinate shoots.

Phloem-mobile signals affecting flowers: applications for crop breeding.

Transport of endogenous macromolecules within and between tissues serves as a signaling pathway to regulate numerous aspects of plant growth. The florigenic FT gene product moves via the phloem from leaves to apical tissues and induces the flowering program in meristems. Similarly, short interfering RNA (siRNA) signals produced in source or sink tissues move cell-to-cell and long distance via the phloem to apical tissues.

Overexpression of FT in cotton affects architecture but not floral organogenesis.

Flowering marks the change from indeterminate to determinate plant growth, and this developmental transition involves the activity of the Arabidopsis FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) gene product and its orthologs. We demonstrated that when FT is ectopically expressed from a viral vector in cotton, a process referred to as virus induced flowering (VIF), it uncouples flowering from photoperiodic regulation and promotes determinate growth in aerial organs. The accelerated switch to determinate growth affected cotton floral buds and sympodial growth, but did not disrupt floral organogenesis.

Geminivirus-mediated delivery of florigen promotes determinate growth in aerial organs and uncouples flowering from photoperiod in cotton.

Background: Plant architecture and the timing and distribution of reproductive structures are fundamental agronomic traits shaped by patterns of determinate and indeterminate growth. Florigen, encoded by FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) in Arabidopsis and SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS (SFT) in tomato, acts as a general growth hormone, advancing determinate growth. Domestication of upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) converted it from a lanky photoperiodic perennial to a highly inbred, compact day-neutral plant that is managed as an annual row-crop.

Manipulating plant architecture with members of the CETS gene family.

The shape or architecture of a plant is specified through the activities of indeterminate and determinate meristems, and the sum of these events sharply impacts plant growth habit, productivity, and crop management. The CENTRORADIALIS/TERMINAL FLOWER 1/SELF-PRUNING (CETS) gene family shares homology to phosphatidylethanolamine binding protein (PEBP) genes and is prominent in controlling the timing and location of the developmental transition from indeterminate to determinate growth, with different family members balancing the activities of others through antagonistic functions. The CETS members FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) of Arabidopsis and related genes (e.

Arabidopsis plants harbouring a mutation in AtSUC2, encoding the predominant sucrose/proton symporter necessary for efficient phloem transport, are able to complete their life cycle and produce viable seed.

Background And Aims: AtSUC2 encodes a sucrose/proton symporter that localizes throughout the collection and transport phloem and is necessary for efficient transport of sucrose from source to sink tissues in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plants harbouring homozygous AtSUC2 null alleles accumulate sugar, starch, and anthocyanin in mature leaves, have severely delayed development and stunted growth and, in previous studies, failed to complete their life cycle by producing viable seed.

Methods: An AtSUC2 allele with a T-DNA insertion in the second intron was analysed.

A DNA element between At4g28630 and At4g28640 confers companion-cell specific expression following the sink-to-source transition in mature minor vein phloem.

The collection phloem in minor veins is distinct from other vein classes in that the minor veins mature during the sink to source transition and are the primary sites of phloem loading. After maturation, minor vein phloem maintains its character in part through minor-vein specific regulatory cascades; however despite its physiological significance, little of these developmental programs is understood. From an Arabidopsis enhancer trap screen, we identified MATURE MINOR VEIN ELEMENT1 (MMVE1) in the intergenic region between two oppositely oriented genes, the ABC transporter ATM1 (At4g28630) and IAA11 (At4g28640).

A novel Arabidopsis acetyltransferase interacts with the geminivirus movement protein NSP.

Protein acetylation is important in regulating DNA-templated processes specifically and protein-protein interactions more generally in eukaryotes. The geminivirus movement protein NSP is essential for virus movement, shuttling the viral DNA genome between the nucleus and the cytoplasm. We have identified a novel Arabidopsis protein, AtNSI, that interacts with NSP.