Plants regulate their development with a distinct group of molecular players. ROP proteins, a group of plant-specific proteins, are known to control plant tissue formation. Now, Hugh Mulvey and Liam Dolan at the GMI show that ROP proteins evolved at…

Viruses are a threat to all organisms, including plants. A small group of plant stem cells, however, successfully defends itself from infection. Marco Incarbone, now at MPIMP Golm, Gabriele Bradamante and their co-authors at the Gregor Mendel…

The key protein complex PRC2 was discovered decades ago to silence genes, but new findings by Frederic Berger and his group at the Gregor Mendel Institute show that PRC2 represses transposons in a range of eukaryotes and only gradually evolved to…

Long non-coding RNAs, an enigmatic class of genes that do not encode proteins, exhibit greater variability and are subject to more silencing mechanisms than previously known, a new study in Arabidopsis shows. Some lncRNAs even resemble transposons…

A new eLife paper by Fred Berger uncovers the key role histone variants play in establishing chromatin states in Arabidopsis.

How do individual cells give rise to the range of cellular lineages in multicellular organisms? Now, researchers from Ortrun Mittelsten Scheid’s lab at GMI present a CRISPR-Cas9-based technique for lineage tracing within living plants, which can help…

Conserved signaling molecules, called RHO GTPases, define where growth occurs on the surface of eukaryotic cells. Researchers from the Dolan group at GMI discovered how “RHO GTPase of plants” – called ROP proteins for short – coordinate cell growth…

The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana shows a striking natural variation in a key epigenetic marker. Researchers from the Nordborg group at the Gregor Mendel Institute (GMI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences sought to uncover what causes this…

Seed germination depends on light in many plants. But not always: Aethionema arabicum, a plant adapted to challenging environmental conditions, does it its own way. Here, the phytochromes, the receptors for red and far-red light, play an unexpected…

Autophagy, or “self-eating”, is an essential cellular quality control mechanism that clears the cell of protein aggregates and damaged organelles. This mechanism is inactive under normal conditions and only triggered upon persistent cellular stress.…