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      Expansins: roles in plant growth and potential applications in crop improvement

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          Abstract

          Key message

          Results from various expansin related studies have demonstrated that expansins present an opportunity to improve various crops in many different aspects ranging from yield and fruit ripening to improved stress tolerance.

          Abstract

          The recent advances in expansin studies were reviewed. Besides producing the strength that is needed by the plants, cell walls define cell shape, cell size and cell function. Expansins are cell wall proteins which consist of four sub families; α-expansin, β-expansin, expansin-like A and expansin-like B. These proteins mediate cell wall loosening and they are present in all plants and in some microbial organisms and other organisms like snails. Decades after their initial discovery in cucumber, it is now clear that these small proteins have diverse biological roles in plants. Through their ability to enable the local sliding of wall polymers by reducing adhesion between adjacent wall polysaccharides and the part they play in cell wall remodeling after cytokinesis, it is now clear that expansins are required in almost all plant physiological development aspects from germination to fruiting. This is shown by the various reports from different studies using various molecular biology approaches such as gene achieve these many roles through their non-enzymatic wall loosening ability. This paper reviews and summarizes some of the reported functions of expansins and outlines the potential uses of expansins in crop improvement programs.

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          Most cited references106

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          Seed dormancy and the control of germination.

          Seed dormancy is an innate seed property that defines the environmental conditions in which the seed is able to germinate. It is determined by genetics with a substantial environmental influence which is mediated, at least in part, by the plant hormones abscisic acid and gibberellins. Not only is the dormancy status influenced by the seed maturation environment, it is also continuously changing with time following shedding in a manner determined by the ambient environment. As dormancy is present throughout the higher plants in all major climatic regions, adaptation has resulted in divergent responses to the environment. Through this adaptation, germination is timed to avoid unfavourable weather for subsequent plant establishment and reproductive growth. In this review, we present an integrated view of the evolution, molecular genetics, physiology, biochemistry, ecology and modelling of seed dormancy mechanisms and their control of germination. We argue that adaptation has taken place on a theme rather than via fundamentally different paths and identify similarities underlying the extensive diversity in the dormancy response to the environment that controls germination.
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            Understanding plant responses to drought — from genes to the whole plant

            Functional Plant Biology, 30(3), 239 In the last decade, our understanding of the processes underlying plant response to drought, at the molecular and whole-plant levels, has rapidly progressed. Here, we review that progress. We draw attention to the perception and signalling processes (chemical and hydraulic) of water deficits. Knowledge of these processes is essential for a holistic understanding of plant resistance to stress, which is needed to improve crop management and breeding techniques. Hundreds of genes that are induced under drought have been identified. A range of tools, from gene expression patterns to the use of transgenic plants, is being used to study the specific function of these genes and their role in plant acclimation or adaptation to water deficit. However, because plant responses to stress are complex, the functions of many of the genes are still unknown. Many of the traits that explain plant adaptation to drought — such as phenology, root size and depth, hydraulic conductivity and the storage of reserves — are those associated with plant development and structure, and are constitutive rather than stress induced. But a large part of plant resistance to drought is the ability to get rid of excess radiation, a concomitant stress under natural conditions. The nature of the mechanisms responsible for leaf photoprotection, especially those related to thermal dissipation, and oxidative stress are being actively researched. The new tools that operate at molecular, plant and ecosystem levels are revolutionising our understanding of plant response to drought, and our ability to monitor it. Techniques such as genome-wide tools, proteomics, stable isotopes and thermal or fluorescence imaging may allow the genotype–phenotype gap to be bridged, which is essential for faster progress in stress biology research.
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              Mechanisms of plant desiccation tolerance.

              Anhydrobiosis ("life without water") is the remarkable ability of certain organisms to survive almost total dehydration. It requires a coordinated series of events during dehydration that are associated with preventing oxidative damage and maintaining the native structure of macromolecules and membranes. The preferential hydration of macromolecules is essential when there is still bulk water present, but replacement by sugars becomes important upon further drying. Recent advances in our understanding of the mechanism of anhydrobiosis include the downregulation of metabolism, dehydration-induced partitioning of amphiphilic compounds into membranes and immobilization of the cytoplasm in a stable multicomponent glassy matrix.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                kongyingzhen@163.com , kongyingzhen@caas.cn
                Journal
                Plant Cell Rep
                Plant Cell Rep
                Plant Cell Reports
                Springer Berlin Heidelberg (Berlin/Heidelberg )
                0721-7714
                1432-203X
                18 February 2016
                18 February 2016
                2016
                : 35
                : 949-965
                Affiliations
                Key Laboratory for Tobacco Gene Resources, Tobacco Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Qingdao, 266101 People’s Republic of China
                Author notes

                Communicated by N. Stewart.

                Article
                1948
                10.1007/s00299-016-1948-4
                4833835
                26888755
                00c58d6a-76a7-4357-bfd3-d4f707fcf3d2
                © The Author(s) 2016

                Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

                History
                : 10 December 2015
                : 2 February 2016
                Funding
                Funded by: The National Key Technology R&D Program
                Award ID: 2015BAD15B03-05
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: the National Natural Science Foundation of China
                Award ID: 31470291
                Award Recipient :
                Funded by: the Youth Elite Program of CAAS
                Categories
                Review
                Custom metadata
                © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

                Plant science & Botany
                cell wall,expansin,plant growth,cell wall loosening,crop improvement,abiotic stress,biotic stress

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