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1. Plasmodesmata mediate cell-to-cell transport of brassinosteroid hormones

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41589-023-01346-x  

   Wang, Yaowei; Perez-Sancho, Jessica; Platre, Matthieu Pierre; Callebaut, Brenda; Smokvarska, Marija; Ferrer, Karoll; Luo, Yongming; Nolan, Trevor M.; Sato, Takeo; Busch, Wolfgang; et al (June 2023, Nature Chemical Biology)

   Brassinosteroids (BRs) are steroidal phytohormones that are essential for plant growth, development and adaptation to environmental stresses. BRs act in a dose-dependent manner and do not travel over long distances; hence, BR homeostasis maintenance is critical for their function. Biosynthesis of bioactive BRs relies on the cell-to-cell movement of hormone precursors. However, the mechanism of the short-distance BR transport is unknown, and its contribution to the control of endogenous BR levels remains unexplored. Here we demonstrate that plasmodesmata (PD) mediate the passage of BRs between neighboring cells. Intracellular BR content, in turn, is capable of modulating PD permeability to optimize its own mobility, thereby manipulating BR biosynthesis and signaling. Our work uncovers a thus far unknown mode of steroid transport in eukaryotes and exposes an additional layer of BR homeostasis regulation in plants. 

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2. Non-genetic inheritance restraint of cell-to-cell variation

   https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.64779  

   Vashistha, Harsh; Kohram, Maryam; Salman, Hanna (February 2021, eLife)

   null (Ed.)

   All the different forms of life on our planet – including animals, plants, fungi and bacteria – tend to grow, multiply and expand. This happens through a process called cell division, where one cell becomes two; two cells become four; four cells become eight; and so on. Each dividing cell passes on the same set of genetic instructions to its two daughter cells in the form of DNA. Its remaining contents, made up of a mixture of proteins, RNA and other chemicals, also get divided up equally between the two new cells. This division of cellular assets establishes a form of 'cellular memory', where daughter cells retain very similar properties to their ancestors, which helps them remain stable over time. Yet this memory can fade, and small changes in how a cell looks or acts can appear over many generations of cell division. This happens even when the exact same set of DNA-based genetic instructions have been passed down to daughter cells, confirming that other factors aside from DNA do influence cellular properties and can act to maintain them or introduce variation over time. Here, Vashistha, Kohram and Salman set out to understand how long cellular memory could be maintained in dividing E. coli bacteria. To do this, they created a technique to track cellular memory as it passed down from a single mother cell to two daughter cells over dozens of generations. Using this technique, Vashistha, Kohram and Salman found that some inherited elements, including cell size and the time cells took to divide, were maintained between mother and daughter cells for almost 10 generations. Other elements, such as the density of proteins inside each cell, started changing almost immediately after daughter cells were formed, and only remained similar for about two generations. These findings suggest that cellular memory may be long, but is not infinite, and that inheritance of non-genetic elements can help maintain cellular memory and reduce variation among new-born cells for considerable number of generations. Building on this research to achieve a better understanding of cellular memory may allow researchers to harness these insights to direct the evolution of different cellular properties over time. This could have a wide range of potential applications, such as designing new infection control measures for viruses or bacteria; enhancing our ability to grow working organs for tissue transplant; or improving the texture and consistency of cultured, lab-grown meat. 

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3. Traveling with purpose: cell-to-cell transport of plant mRNAs

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcb.2023.05.010  

   Kitagawa, Munenori; Tran, Thu M.; Jackson, David (June 2023, Trends in Cell Biology)
4. ROS are universal cell-to-cell stress signals

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pbi.2024.102540  

   Peláez-Vico, María Ángeles; Fichman, Yosef; Zandalinas, Sara I; Foyer, Christine H; Mittler, Ron (June 2024, Current Opinion in Plant Biology)
5. ROS are evolutionary conserved cell-to-cell stress signals

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2305496120  

   Fichman, Yosef; Rowland, Linda; Oliver, Melvin J; Mittler, Ron (August 2023, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   Cell-to-cell communication is fundamental to multicellular organisms and unicellular organisms living in a microbiome. It is thought to have evolved as a stress- or quorum-sensing mechanism in unicellular organisms. A unique cell-to-cell communication mechanism that uses reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a signal (termed the “ROS wave”) was identified in flowering plants. This process is essential for systemic signaling and plant acclimation to stress and can spread from a small group of cells to the entire plant within minutes. Whether a similar signaling process is found in other organisms is however unknown. Here, we report that the ROS wave can be found in unicellular algae, amoeba, ferns, mosses, mammalian cells, and isolated hearts. We further show that this process can be triggered in unicellular and multicellular organisms by a local stress or H₂O₂treatment and blocked by the application of catalase or NADPH oxidase inhibitors and that in unicellular algae it communicates important stress–response signals between cells. Taken together, our findings suggest that an active process of cell-to-cell ROS signaling, like the ROS wave, evolved before unicellular and multicellular organisms diverged. This mechanism could have communicated an environmental stress signal between cells and coordinated the acclimation response of many different cells living in a community. The finding of a signaling process, like the ROS wave, in mammalian cells further contributes to our understanding of different diseases and could impact the development of drugs that target for example cancer or heart disease. 

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