Suchergebnisse

Root analysis is essential for both academic and agricultural research. Despite the great advances in root phenotyping and imaging, calculating root length is still performed manually and involves considerable amounts of labor and time. To overcome these limitations, we developed MyROOT, a software for the semiautomatic quantification of root growth of seedlings growing directly on agar plates. Our method automatically determines the scale from the image of the plate, and subsequently measures the root length of the individual plants. To this aim, MyROOT combines a bottom‐up root tracking approach with a hypocotyl detection algorithm. At the same time as providing accurate root measurements, MyROOT also significantly minimizes the user intervention required during the process. Using Arabidopsis, we tested MyROOT with seedlings from different growth stages and experimental conditions. When comparing the data obtained from this software with that of manual root measurements, we found a high correlation between both methods (R2 = 0.997). When compared with previous developed software with similar features (BRAT and EZ‐Rhizo), MyROOT offered an improved accuracy for root length measurements. Therefore, MyROOT will be of great use to the plant science community by permitting high‐throughput root length measurements while saving both labor and time. ; AIC‐D is a recipient of a BIO2016‐78150‐P grant funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Agencia Estatal de Investigación (MINECO/AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), and a European Research Council, ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC‐2015‐CoG – 683163). IB‐P is funded by the FPU15/02822 grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. DB‐E is funded by the ERC‐2015‐CoG – 683163 granted to the AIC‐D laboratory. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (Grant Agreement No. 683163). This work was supported by the CERCA Programme from the Generalitat de Catalunya. We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), through the 'Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D' 2016–2019 (SEV‐2015‐0533)'. ; Peer reviewed

Drought is the primary cause of agricultural loss globally, and represents a major threat to food security. Currently, plant biotechnology stands as one of the most promising fields when it comes to developing crops that are able to produce high yields in water-limited conditions. From studies of Arabidopsis thaliana whole plants, the main response mechanisms to drought stress have been uncovered, and multiple drought resistance genes have already been engineered into crops. So far, most plants with enhanced drought resistance have displayed reduced crop yield, meaning that there is still a need to search for novel approaches that can uncouple drought resistance from plant growth. Our laboratory has recently shown that the receptors of brassinosteroid (BR) hormones use tissue-specific pathways to mediate different developmental responses during root growth. In Arabidopsis, we found that increasing BR receptors in the vascular plant tissues confers resistance to drought without penalizing growth, opening up an exceptional opportunity to investigate the mechanisms that confer drought resistance with cellular specificity in plants. In this review, we provide an overview of the most promising phenotypical drought traits that could be improved biotechnologically to obtain drought-tolerant cereals. In addition, we discuss how current genome editing technologies could help to identify and manipulate novel genes that might grant resistance to drought stress. In the upcoming years, we expect that sustainable solutions for enhancing crop production in water-limited environments will be identified through joint efforts. ; AIC-D is a recipient of a BIO2016-78150-P grant funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Agencia Estatal de Investigación (MINECO/AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), and a European Research Council, ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2015-CoG – 683163). JBF-M is supported by the grant 2017SGR718 from Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya and by the ERC- 2015-CoG – 683163 granted to the AIC-D laboratory. AR-M is a predoctoral fellow from Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno. DB-E and DM are funded by the ERC-2015-CoG – 683163 granted to the AIC-D laboratory. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No 683163). This work was supported by the CERCA Programme from the Generalitat de Catalunya. We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), through the "Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D" 2016-2019 (SEV-2015-0533). ; Peer reviewed

Telomeres are specialized nucleoprotein caps that protect chromosome ends assuring cell division. Single-cell telomere quantification in animals established a critical role for telomerase in stem cells, yet, in plants, telomere-length quantification has been reported only at the organ level. Here, a quantitative analysis of telomere length of single cells in Arabidopsis root apex uncovered a heterogeneous telomere-length distribution of different cell lineages showing the longest telomeres at the stem cells. The defects in meristem and stem cell renewal observed in tert mutants demonstrate that telomere lengthening by TERT sets a replicative limit in the root meristem. Conversely, the long telomeres of the columella cells and the premature stem cell differentiation plt1,2 mutants suggest that differentiation can prevent telomere erosion. Overall, our results indicate that telomere dynamics are coupled to meristem activity and continuous growth, disclosing a critical association between telomere length, stem cell function, and the extended lifespan of plants. ; We thank M. Gallego for providing anti-H2AX antibodies, I. Flores and C. Vilella for help with data analysis and comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by NIH R01-GM065383 to D.E.S. Research in the M.A.B. lab is funded by European Research Council (ERC) Project TEL STEM CELL (GA#232854), European Union FP7 Projects 2007-A-20088 (MARK-AGE) and 2010-259749 (EuroBATS), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Projects SAF2008-05384 and CSD2007-00017, Regional of Government of Madrid Project S2010/BMD-2303 (ReCaRe), AXA Research Fund (Life Risks Project), and Lilly 2010 Preclinical Biomedicine Research Award and Fundacion Botin (Spain). M. I. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through grant FIS2012-37655-C02-02 and to the Generalitat de Catalunya through grant 2014 SGR 878. A.I.C.-D. is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BIO2010-16673 and BIO2013-43873) and a Marie-Curie Initial Training Network (grant no. PITN-GA-2008-215118) .M.-P.G.-G. was the recipient of a postdoctoral contract from BIO2010-16673 and an EMBO short-term fellowship and I.P. is funded by a JAE-CSIC PhD fellowship in the A.I.C.-D. laboratory. ; Sí

Telomeres are specialized nucleoprotein caps that protect chromosome ends assuring cell division. Single-cell telomere quantification in animals established a critical role for telomerase in stem cells, yet, in plants, telomere-length quantification has been reported only at the organ level. Here, a quantitative analysis of telomere length of single cells in Arabidopsis root apex uncovered a heterogeneous telomere-length distribution of different cell lineages showing the longest telomeres at the stem cells. The defects in meristem and stem cell renewal observed in tert mutants demonstrate that telomere lengthening by TERT sets a replicative limit in the root meristem. Conversely, the long telomeres of the columella cells and the premature stem cell differentiation plt1,2 mutants suggest that differentiation can prevent telomere erosion. Overall, our results indicate that telomere dynamics are coupled to meristem activity and continuous growth, disclosing a critical association between telomere length, stem cell function, and the extended lifespan of plants. ; This work was supported by NIH R01-GM065383 to D.E.S. Research in the M.A.B. lab is funded by European Research Council (ERC) Project TEL STEM CELL (GA#232854), European Union FP7 Projects 2007-A-20088 (MARK-AGE) and 2010-259749 (EuroBATS), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Projects SAF2008-05384 and CSD2007-00017, Regional of Government of Madrid Project S2010/BMD-2303 (ReCaRe), AXA Research Fund (Life Risks Project), and Lilly 2010 Preclinical Biomedicine Research Award and Fundación Botín (Spain). M.I. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through grant FIS2012-37655-C02-02 and to the Generalitat de Catalunya through grant 2014 SGR 878. A.I.C.-D. is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BIO2010-16673 and BIO2013-43873) and a Marie-Curie Initial Training Network (grant no. PITN-GA-2008-215118). M.-P.G.-G. was the recipient of a postdoctoral contract from BIO2010-16673 and an EMBO short-term fellowship and I.P. is funded by a JAE-CSIC PhD fellowship in the A.I.C.-D. laboratory. ; Peer reviewed