Pathways of nitric oxide metabolism and operation of phytoglobins in legume nodules: missing links and future directions.

The interaction between legumes and rhizobia leads to the establishment of a beneficial symbiotic relationship. Recent advances in legume–rhizobium symbiosis revealed that various reactive oxygen and nitrogen species including nitric oxide (NO) play important roles during this process. Nodule development occurs with a transition from a normoxic environment during the establishment of symbiosis to a microoxic environment in functional nodules.

The WRKY3 Transcription Factor SlWRKY3 Is Involved in Salt Stress Tolerance in Tomato.

Salinity threatens productivity of economically important crops such as tomato ( L.). WRKY transcription factors appear, from a growing body of knowledge, as important regulators of abiotic stresses tolerance.

Phytohormone profiling in relation to osmotic adjustment in NaCl-treated plants of the halophyte tomato wild relative species Solanum chilense comparatively to the cultivated glycophyte Solanum lycopersicum.

A holistic approach was used to investigate the hormonal profile in relation with osmotic adjustment under salinity in Solanum lycopersicum and its halophyte wild relative Solanum chilense. Plants were subjected to 125mM NaCl for 7days. Solanum chilense displayed a contrasting behaviour comparatively to S.

SlDREB2, a tomato dehydration-responsive element-binding 2 transcription factor, mediates salt stress tolerance in tomato and Arabidopsis.

To counter environmental cues, cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) has evolved adaptive mechanisms requiring regulation of downstream genes. The dehydration-responsive element-binding protein 2 (DREB2) transcription factors regulate abiotic stresses responses in plants.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) SlIPT3 and SlIPT4 isopentenyltransferases mediate salt stress response in tomato.

Background: Cytokinins (CKs) are involved in response to various environmental cues, including salinity. It has been previously reported that enhancing CK contents improved salt stress tolerance in tomato. However, the underlying mechanisms of CK metabolism and signaling under salt stress conditions remain to be deciphered.

Nitric oxide: a multifaceted regulator of the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis.

The specific interaction between legumes and Rhizobium-type bacteria leads to the establishment of a symbiotic relationship characterized by the formation of new differentiated organs named nodules, which provide a niche for bacterial nitrogen (N2) fixation. In the nodules, bacteria differentiate into bacteroids with the ability to fix atmospheric N2 via nitrogenase activity. As nitrogenase is strongly inhibited by oxygen, N2 fixation is made possible by the microaerophilic conditions prevailing in the nodules.

The Solanum lycopersicum Zinc Finger2 cysteine-2/histidine-2 repressor-like transcription factor regulates development and tolerance to salinity in tomato and Arabidopsis.

The zinc finger superfamily includes transcription factors that regulate multiple aspects of plant development and were recently shown to regulate abiotic stress tolerance. Cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum Zinc Finger2 [SIZF2]) is a cysteine-2/histidine-2-type zinc finger transcription factor bearing an ERF-associated amphiphilic repression domain and binding to the ACGTCAGTG sequence containing two AGT core motifs. SlZF2 is ubiquitously expressed during plant development, and is rapidly induced by sodium chloride, drought, and potassium chloride treatments.

A single amino acid change within the R2 domain of the VvMYB5b transcription factor modulates affinity for protein partners and target promoters selectivity.

Background: Flavonoid pathway is spatially and temporally controlled during plant development and the transcriptional regulation of the structural genes is mostly orchestrated by a ternary protein complex that involves three classes of transcription factors (R2-R3-MYB, bHLH and WDR). In grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.), several MYB transcription factors have been identified but the interactions with their putative bHLH partners to regulate specific branches of the flavonoid pathway are still poorly understood.

Root-targeted biotechnology to mediate hormonal signalling and improve crop stress tolerance.

Since plant root systems capture both water and nutrients essential for the formation of crop yield, there has been renewed biotechnological focus on root system improvement. Although water and nutrient uptake can be facilitated by membrane proteins known as aquaporins and nutrient transporters, respectively, there is a little evidence that root-localised overexpression of these proteins improves plant growth or stress tolerance. Recent work suggests that the major classes of phytohormones are involved not only in regulating aquaporin and nutrient transporter expression and activity, but also in sculpting root system architecture.

Recent advances in the transcriptional regulation of the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway.

Flavonoids are secondary metabolites involved in several aspects of plant development and defence. They colour fruits and flowers, favouring seed and pollen dispersal, and contribute to plant adaptation to environmental conditions such as cold or UV stresses, and pathogen attacks. Because they affect the quality of flowers (for horticulture), fruits and vegetables, and their derivatives (colour, aroma, stringency, etc.

The grapevine transcription factor WRKY2 influences the lignin pathway and xylem development in tobacco.

Previous work has shown that transgenic tobacco plants constitutively over-expressing the Vitis vinifera L. transcription factor VvWRKY2 exhibit reduced susceptibility to necrotrophic fungal pathogens, suggesting that this transcription factor plays a role in grapevine response to phytopathogens. The work presented here characterizes the modifications in cell wall structure observed in the stems and petioles of these transgenic plants.