New advancements are constantly refining what we know, and what remains unknown, about plant cell wall synthesis. Heather’s new article in the Journal of Experimental Botany “Open questions in plant cell wall synthesis” highlights recent findings and the questions that remain unanswered about cell wall synthesis.  This article is part of the Centenary Review Collection, a collection of Darwin Reviews that have been commissioned as part of the celebrations surrounding the 100^th anniversary of the Society of Experimental Biology.

https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erad110

Free access is temporarily provided by the journal here.

Editorial on values-driven lab leadership published in JXB Following an exciting workshop at ICAR 2021 “Running a Research Group in the Next Generation” co-hosted by Heather and Jacqueline Monaghan from Queen’s University and featuring Siobhan Brady, Liz Haswell, and Sonali Roy, we have compiled the reflections and resources from this workshop into a short article for Journal of Experimental Botany with additional insights from Benjamin Schwessinger.

This article is aimed at early career researchers and anyone else considering their leadership. We elaborate on ideas emerging from the workshop that we hope will allow current and future group leaders to reflect upon and adjust to the rapidly evolving nature of the academic scientific enterprise.

https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erac407

Update: Our article has been highlighted on Plantae, the blog from the American Society of Plant Biologists.

Our collaboration with Yi Zhang’s group at Beijing Normal University that was recently published PNAS has been highlighted in Nature Plants. The research highlight article emphasizes the intriguing link between energy sensing and actin cytoskeleton dynamics that was uncovered by Dai et al.

The actin cytoskeleton is constantly remodelled during daily activity of a cell. However, this remodelling requires a constant input of cellular energy in the form of ATP. Our collaboration with Yi Zhang’s group at Beijing Normal University is now available online with PNAS.

This work reports that the TOR complex, a master regulatory hub that integrates cellular energy information to coordinate cell growth and metabolism, controls cellular ATP levels in plant cells. Interestingly, low ATP levels cause reduced actin dynamics in plant cells, providing insight into how plant cells handle low energy situations.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2004822117

Plant cells must carefully regulate cell wall synthesis to maintain growth and to respond to developmental, biotic, and abiotic signals. Cellulose, the main load-bearing component of the plant cell wall is made at the cell membrane, so plants can regulate cell wall synthesis by regulating whether cellulose synthase enzymes are active and localized in the cell membrane, or whether they are held inactive within the cell. Yu’s paper in Current Opinion in Plant Biology reviews the mechanisms by which cellulose synthesis is regulated by cellulose synthase enzyme trafficking to the plasma membrane (via exocytosis) or removal from the plasma membrane (via endocytosis).

Free access to the full-text is generously provided by Current Opinion in Plant Biology until October 5.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2022.102273

The plant trans-Golgi network acts as a hub for both secretory and endocytic trafficking ad delicate mechanisms are in place to balance trafficking in and out of this organelle, including pH and ion gradients. This collaboration, led by Stefanie Wege’s group at the University of Adelaide, provided compelling evidence that the single isoform of cation chloride cotransporter (CCC1) encoded in Arabidopsis thaliana provides a cation and anion efflux mechanism to regulate pH in the trans-Golgi network/early endosome and has now been published in eLife.

https://elifesciences.org/articles/70701

Live cell imaging is an invaluable tool for understanding how cells grow, develop, and respond to stimuli.  By tracking the movement of fluorescently-tagged cellulose synthase enzymes using live cell imaging, the McFarLab is able to track cell wall synthesis enzyme activity in real time in living cells.

Jana & Jenny’s paper describes a protocol for preparing samples, imaging fluorescently-tagged cellulose synthase (CESA) enzymes in live plant cells, image processing, and data analysis and has now been published in the new Cell Press journal, STAR Protocols.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2021.100863

Have you ever wondered how herbicides can inhibit plant growth, or how some herbicides can target one class of plants but not another?

Raegan’s review on cellulose biosynthesis inhibitors is now available online with Plant and Cell Physiology and can answer some of these questions! Check it out here: https://doi.org/10.1093/pcp/pcab108

Our latest paper on plant responses to cell wall signaling: “A G protein-coupled receptor-like module regulates cellulose synthase secretion from the endomembrane system in Arabidopsis” is now available online at Developmental Cell!

The cell wall provides mechanical support and protection to plant cells. Since plant cells must grow and develop within the confines of their cell wall, there is constant communication between the plant cell and its cell wall, called cell wall signaling. In this paper, we investigate the way that plants respond to signals that the cell wall is weak or damaged. We characterize a mechanism by which plants fortify their cell walls in response to stress and find that this mechanism acts through a G-protein coupled receptor-like module that facilitates secretion of cell wall synthesis enzymes.

doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2021.03.031