We are proud to share our latest paper in Current Biology, on leaf movements in response to shade cues from nearby vegetation: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.11.045. We show here how leaf tips perceive far-red light from neighbouring vegetation, and how this information is then relayed to the petiole base. Of course we are in love with our discoveries showing how auxin transport sets up an auxin gradient from the abaxial (lower) to adaxial (upper) side of the petiole base using a new auxin marker, C3PO, that combines a ratiometric DII version (R2D2) with an improved auxin response reporter DR5V2, developed in the Weijers lab. Also, our finding that another hormone, gibberellin, is crucial to the plant response is important and interesting, and we’re sure you’ll like the microscopy in this paper. But if you’re new to the topic, you might want to start with the elegantly written Dispatch by Jorge Casal who also coined the title to this blog post: DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2022.10.057.
First author Jesse Küpers (now postdoc in Wageningen University) led the actual work, and the study benefitted from our awesome collaborators in Utrecht University and Wageningen University.