Spotlight on Plant Bromodomain Proteins.

Bromodomain-containing proteins (BRD-proteins) are the "readers" of histone lysine acetylation, translating chromatin state into gene expression. They act alone or as components of larger complexes and exhibit diverse functions to regulate gene expression; they participate in chromatin remodeling complexes, mediate histone modifications, serve as scaffolds to recruit transcriptional regulators or act themselves as transcriptional co-activators or repressors. Human BRD-proteins have been extensively studied and have gained interest as potential drug targets for various diseases, whereas in plants, this group of proteins is still not well investigated. In this review, we aimed to concentrate scientific knowledge on these chromatin "readers" with a focus on Arabidopsis. We organized plant BRD-proteins into groups based on their functions and domain architecture and summarized the published work regarding their interactions, activity and diverse functions. Overall, it seems that plant BRD-proteins are indispensable components and fine-tuners of the complex network plants have built to regulate development, flowering, hormone signaling and response to various biotic or abiotic stresses. This work will facilitate the understanding of their roles in plants and highlight BRD-proteins with yet undiscovered functions.

RNA silencing pathways in plant development and defense.

RNA silencing refers to a conserved eukaryotic process and is regarded as one of the most important processes in plants, with the ability to regulate gene expression both transcriptionally and post-transcriptionally. Different classes of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) constitute key components of the RNA silencing pathways and play pivotal roles in modulating various biological processes as well as host-pathogen interactions. One of the most extensively studied classes of ncRNAs are the 20-24 nucleotide (nt) long microRNAs (miRNAs), which are core components of the endogenous gene silencing pathway. miRNAs act as negative regulators of endogenous gene expression through either mRNA-target cleavage, translational inhibition, or DNA methylation, and are inextricably linked to a plethora of developmental processes, such as leaf pattern formation as well as abiotic and biotic stress responses. In this review, we focus on the role of the RNA silencing pathways in the regulation of developmental processes as well as in the plant responses to biotic stress.

Viral Detection: Past, Present, and Future.

Viruses are essentially composed of a nucleic acid (segmented or not, DNA, or RNA) and a protein coat. Despite their simplicity, these small pathogens are responsible for significant economic and humanitarian losses that have had dramatic consequences in the course of human history. Since their discovery, scientists have developed different strategies to efficiently detect viruses, using all possible viral features. Viruses shape, proteins, and nucleic acid are used in viral detection. In this review, the development of these techniques, especially for plant and mammalian viruses, their strengths and weaknesses as well as the latest cutting-edge technologies that may be playing important roles in the years to come are described.

DCL-suppressed Nicotiana benthamiana plants: valuable tools in research and biotechnology.

RNA silencing is a universal mechanism involved in development, epigenetic modifications and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. The major components of this mechanism are Dicer-like (DCL), Argonaute (AGO) and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDR) proteins. Understanding the role of each component is of great scientific and agronomic importance. Plants, including Nicotiana benthamiana, an important plant model, usually possess four DCL proteins, each of which has a specific role, namely being responsible for the production of an exclusive small RNA population. Here, we used RNA interference (RNAi) technology to target DCL proteins and produced single and combinatorial mutants for DCL. We analysed the phenotype for each DCL knockdown plant, together with the small RNA profile, by next-generation sequencing (NGS). We also investigated transgene expression, as well as viral infections, and were able to show that DCL suppression results in distinct developmental defects, changes in small RNA populations, increases in transgene expression and, finally, higher susceptibility in certain RNA viruses. Therefore, these plants are excellent tools for the following: (i) to study the role of DCL enzymes; (ii) to overexpress proteins of interest; and (iii) to understand the complex relationship between the plant silencing mechanism and biotic or abiotic stresses.