John Innes Centre

A broad-host-range Rhizobium rhizogenes strain enables transient expression across diverse crop species

Agrobacterium -mediated transient expression has revolutionised plant research, enabling numerous landmark discoveries across diverse areas of plant biology. Yet this powerful approach remains largely confined to solanaceous species, leaving most economically important crop famil...

Dual mechanisms give rise to biphasic stomatal opening in onion

Stomata are controllable micropores on the leaf surface that regulate gas exchange and water loss. Pore aperture adjustment is a mechanical process whereby changes in guard cell turgor drive changes in cell shape, resulting in stomatal opening or closure. Previous computational m...

FLOWERING LOCUS C orthologues with expression maxima in seeds are associated with an effect of vernalisation intensity on seed size Brassica napus

Abstract Warming during seed development can have negative impacts on seed size and crop yield across many species. Given the fact that there is substantial maternal control of seed size, it is also possible that temperature earlier in the growth cycle can affect crop physiology....

Multiple Argonaute complexes orchestrate epigenetic silencing in the Arabidopsis germline

Abstract Small RNAs (sRNAs) are widespread across diverse flowering plant species and play important roles regulating reproduction and environmental responses. However, how sRNAs exert their function is largely unknown, likely due to their typical origin in non-genic regions, the...

Rapidly evolving aphid gall effector proteins exhibit saposin-like folds

Abstract Many insects manipulate plants by injecting effector proteins. In one extreme example of this molecular “hijacking”, Hormaphis cornu aphids inject bicycle proteins into Hamamelis virginiana , contributing to the development of novel organs called galls. Bicycle proteins...

Network analysis of flowering time genes suggests regulatory changes among SOC1 orthologues in response to cold in Brassica napus

Flowering plants respond to multiple environmental and endogenous cues to determine the timing of their transition from the vegetative to floral state. Most of our knowledge of the gene regulatory network (GRN) controlling the floral transition has been derived from the model pla...

TrbA binds and locks a sliding clamp KorB to repress transcription on multi-drug resistance plasmids

ABSTRACT Precise regulation of gene expression is essential for all living systems. Genes encoded on mobile genetic elements such as conjugative plasmids are also highly regulated to ensure stable inheritance, successful horizontal transfer, and adaptation to diverse bacterial ho...

Wheat genotypic variation in root architecture modifies soil pore structure and hydraulic properties

Root-driven modification of soil hydraulic properties may influence crop water availability and resilience under climatic variability, yet genotype-specific effects on rhizosphere hydrology remain poorly understood. This study examined how contrasting root architectures of four w...