Plant-io- Plant

Translocation of mRNA
Growing evidence indicates that mRNA is trafficked over long distances in plants through the phloem and that this process plays an important role in regulating plant development. Messenger RNA has even been found to move across grafts between separa te species. This raises the question of whether mRNA is also translocated from host plants into plants that naturally parasitize them? Dodders are parasitic plants that obtain resources by drawing from the phloem (and xylem) of a host plant. They even form joint plasmodesmatal connections with host cortical cells. Although viruses are known to move between dodder and its hosts, translocation of endogenous plant mRNA has not been reported. In this issue, Roney et al. (pp.1037-1043) show thatphloemmobile mRNAs are translocated from a host tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) plant to the parasite lespedeza dodder (Cuscuta pentagona; Fig. 1). Reverse transcriptase-PCR and microarray analysis revealed the presence of four toma to transcripts in dodder grown on tomato that were not present in control dodder grown on other host species. These results point to a potentially new level of in terspecies comm unication, and raise questions about the ability of parasites to recognize, use, and respond to transcripts acquired from their hosts.

Effects of lncreased NADP(H) Reductase on Photosynthesis

With the aim of genetically engineering enhanced productivity in plants, considerable effort has been aimed at identifying the biochemical steps that limit photosynthesis. Relatively few investigations, however, have been carried out with genotypes modified in their photosynthetic electron transport chain components. FerredoxinNADP(H) reductase (FNR) catalyzes the last step of photosynthetic electron transport in chloroplasts, transferring electrons from red uced ferredoxin to NADP+. Previous analyses of plants transformed with an antisense version of FNR supported the idea that FNR mediates a rate-limiting step of photosynthesis under both limiting and satmating light conditions. These fndings raised the possibility that the overexpression of FNR might enhance photosynthesis and ultimately lead to increased biomass production. To investigate if the accumulation of FNR 'over wildtype levels could improve photosynthetic efficiency and growth, Rodriguez et al. (pp. 639-649) generated transgenic tobacco (Ncotiana tabacum) plants expressing a pea (Pisum sativum) FNR targeted to chloroplasts. Contrary to the authors' hopes, however, transformants grown at low or high irradiation exhibited phenotypes and photosynthetic activities comparable to those of wild type, even though FNR occurred at levels up to 6-fold greater than wildtype levels. In isolated thylakoids, rates of NADP+ photoreduction were correlated with FNR levels only when electron donors of PSI were employed to drive the reaction. The results suggest that photosynthetic electron transport has several rate-limiting steps, with FNR catalyzing just one of them. Not a11 the results were disappointing. Interestingly, the transgenic Iines with enhanced FNR exhibited greater tolerance to photooxidative damage and redox-cycling herbicides that produce reactive oxygen speeies.

the regulation of many biological functions. 14-3-3 proteins, which are present in all eukaryotes, have the ability to bind a multitude of functionally diverse signaling proteins, including kinases, phosphatases, and transmembrane receptors. There are 15 isoforms in Arabidopsis (Ambidopsis thaliana) and eight isoforms in rice (Oryza satva). 14-3-3 proteins regulate a variety of different ce11ular processes, such as cell division. apoptosis. signaling, and carbon and nitrogen metabolismo Most of the 14-3-3 targets identified to date.in plants are metabolic enzymes. These results contrast with studies from animal cells where 14-3-3 proteins are more often involved in signal perception (receptors), transduction (kinases), and processing (transcription factors). This difference is surprising given the conserved nature of 14-3-3 proteins. Schoonheim et al. (pp, 670683) hypothesize that current views of the plant 14-3-3 interactome may be biased due to the methods used so far to identify 14-3-3 target proteins. Therefore, they carried out a comprehensive identifica tion of 14-3-3 targets present in barley iHordeum vulgare) leaf tis sue using two complementary methods: a yeast (Saccharomyces cerevsae) twohybrid screen and an affinity purification strategy using a11 five known barley 14-3-3 proteins. Using yeast two-hybrid screens, they succeeded in identifying 132 proteins that interact with at least one of the five barley 14-3-3 isoforms. The affinity chromatography approach yielded 30 target proteins with the majority having a function in primary metabolism, possibly reflecting a bias of this method in identifying more abundant proteins. Most of the proteins identified in the two-hybrid screenare signal mediators, providing evidence that plant 14-3-3 proteins not only play an important role iri regulation of the Calvin cycle, glycolysis, and nitrogen metabolism, but are also important intermediates in signaling cascades in plants.

Figure 1. The parasitic plant (Cuscuta pentagana) forms connections to the phloem and xylem 01 host plants. Symplastically transported host mRNAs can be isolated from the parasitic plant. Photo by Charles T. Bryson (U.S. Department of Agriculture).

Target Proteins of 14-3-3 Isoforms

Phosphorylation-dependent proteinprotein interactions play crueial roles in

Extracellular Defense " Proteins Released from Root Tips

The newly synthesized tissue in the region of elongation just behind the root tip of plants is the primary si te where infection by nernatodes, fungi,