Germany’s silent rebalancing has been undone by COVID-19

Low German wages are often cited as a key contributing factor to imbalances in the Eurozone. Donato Di Carlo and Martin Höpner demonstrate that while nominal unit labour cost growth in Germany consistently undershot that of other Eurozone countries in the first decade of the euro, the country has undergone a ‘silent rebalancing’ following the financial crisis. Unfortunately, this incomplete process is likely to be reversed by the shock from Covid-19

Germany is likely to shift toward wage restraint as inflation concerns mount

Rising inflation has put pressure on social partners across Europe to adjust real wages to meet rising living costs. Yet, concerns have also been raised about the risk of a ‘wage-price spiral’ developing if wages rise excessively. Donato Di Carlo and Martin Höpner assess wage-setting in Germany, finding evidence that the country is likely to shift toward wage restraint in the coming years. If other eurozone countries are unwilling – or unable – to mimic Germany’s wage moderation, distortion of real exchange rates in the eurozone could follow, posing a threat to the single currency

A critical view on abc transporters and their interacting partners in auxin transport

Different subclasses of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters have been implicated in the transport of native variants of the phytohormone auxin. Here, the putative, individual roles of key members belonging to the ABCB, ABCD and ABCG families, respectively, are highlighted and the knowledge of their assumed expression and transport routes is reviewed and compared with their mutant phenotypes. Protein–protein interactions between ABC transporters and regulatory components during auxin transport are summarized and their importance is critically discussed. There is a focus on the functional interaction between members of the ABCB family and the FKBP42, TWISTED DWARF1, acting as a chaperone during plasma membrane trafficking of ABCBs. Further, the mode and relevance of functional ABCB-PIN interactions is diagnostically re-evaluated. A new nomenclature describing precisely the most likely ABCB–PIN interaction scenarios is suggested. Finally, available tools for the detection and prediction of ABC transporter interactomes are summarized and the potential of future ABC transporter interactome maps is highlighted

HSP90 and co-chaperones: a multitaskers’ view on plant hormone biology

In order to survive under ever‐changing conditions plants must be able to adaptively respond to their environment. Plant hormones and the signaling cross‐talk among them play a key role in integrating external and internal cues, enabling the plants to acclimate accordingly. HSP90 and several of its co‐chaperones are known as pleiotropic factors involved in the signaling pathways of multiple stress responses, including temperature, drought, and pathogen infection. Recently, hormone receptor components for auxin and jasmonic acid, respectively, have been identified as clients of the HSP90 chaperone system, suggesting a direct HSP90‐dependent link to hormone signaling. In this review, we give an overview of the multiple roles of HSP90 and its co‐chaperones in plant hormone biology and discuss the largely unexplored targets for signal integration that the activity of these apparent multitaskers may suggest

Plant development regulated by cytokinin sinks

Morphogenetic signals control the patterning of multicellular organisms. Cytokinins are mobile signals that are perceived by subsets of plant cells. We found that the responses to cytokinin signaling during Arabidopsis development are constrained by the transporter PURINE PERMEASE 14 (PUP14). In our experiments, the expression of PUP14 was inversely correlated to the cytokinin signaling readout. Loss of PUP14 function allowed ectopic cytokinin signaling accompanied by aberrant morphogenesis in embryos, roots, and the shoot apical meristem. PUP14 protein localized to the plasma membrane and imported bioactive cytokinins, thus depleting apoplastic cytokinin pools and inhibiting perception by plasma membrane–localized cytokinin sensors to create a sink for active ligands. We propose that the spatiotemporal cytokinin sink patterns established by PUP14 determine the cytokinin signaling landscape that shapes the morphogenesis of land plants

EAVI EMG board

[First paragraph] Electromyography (EMG) has been widely adopted to build new interfaces for musical expression by the community [10,4]. Muscular activity is inherently noisy, making EMG signals potentially difficult to map to audio parameters, and work with when designing interactions with audiovisual systems. For decades, musicians and technologists have explored different solutions – from costly medical devices to do-it-yourself (DIY)packages – to find reliable hardware for capturing the best EMG signal in order to facilitate the music and instrument making process.</p

Myosins VIII and XI Play Distinct Roles in Reproduction and Transport of Tobacco Mosaic Virus

Viruses are obligatory parasites that depend on host cellular factors for their replication as well as for their local and systemic movement to establish infection. Although myosin motors are thought to contribute to plant virus infection, their exact roles in the specific infection steps have not been addressed. Here we investigated the replication, cell-to-cell and systemic spread of Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) using dominant negative inhibition of myosin activity. We found that interference with the functions of three class VIII myosins and two class XI myosins significantly reduced the local and long-distance transport of the virus. We further determined that the inactivation of myosins XI-2 and XI-K affected the structure and dynamic behavior of the ER leading to aggregation of the viral movement protein (MP) and to a delay in the MP accumulation in plasmodesmata (PD). The inactivation of myosin XI-2 but not of myosin XI-K affected the localization pattern of the 126k replicase subunit and the level of TMV accumulation. The inhibition of myosins VIII-1, VIII-2 and VIII-B abolished MP localization to PD and caused its retention at the plasma membrane. These results suggest that class XI myosins contribute to the viral propagation and intracellular trafficking, whereas myosins VIII are specifically required for the MP targeting to and virus movement through the PD. Thus, TMV appears to recruit distinct myosins for different steps in the cell-to-cell spread of the infection

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs target TWISTED DWARF1-regulated actin dynamics and auxin transport-mediated plant development

The widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are derivatives of the phytohormone salicylic acid (SA). SA is well known to regulate plant immunity and development, whereas there have been few reports focusing on the effects of NSAIDs in plants. Our studies here reveal that NSAIDs exhibit largely overlapping physiological activities to SA in the model plant Arabidopsis. NSAID treatments lead to shorter and agravitropic primary roots and inhibited lateral root organogenesis. Notably, in addition to the SA-like action, which in roots involves binding to the protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), NSAIDs also exhibit PP2A-independent effects. Cell biological and biochemical analyses reveal that many NSAIDs bind directly to and inhibit the chaperone activity of TWISTED DWARF1, thereby regulating actin cytoskeleton dynamics and subsequent endosomal trafficking. Our findings uncover an unexpected bioactivity of human pharmaceuticals in plants and provide insights into the molecular mechanism underlying the cellular action of this class of anti-inflammatory compounds

SHADE AVOIDANCE 4 is required for proper auxin distribution in the hypocotyl

The phytohormone auxin is involved in virtually every aspect of plant growth and development. Through polar auxin transport, auxin gradients can be established, which then direct plant differentiation and growth. Shade avoidance responses are well- known processes that require polar auxin transport. In this study, we have identified a mutant, shade avoidance 4 (sav4), defective in shade-induced hypocotyl elongation and basipetal auxin transport. SAV4 encodes an unknown protein with armadillo repeat- and tetratricopeptide repeat-like domains known to provide protein-protein interaction surfaces. C terminally yellow fluorescent protein-tagged SAV4 localizes to both the plasma membrane and the nucleus. Membrane-localized SAV4 displays a polar association with the shootward plasma membrane domain in hypocotyl and root cells, which appears to be necessary for its function in hypocotyl elongation. Cotransfection of SAV4 and ATP-binding cassette B1 (ABCB1) auxin transporter in tobacco (Nicotiana benthamiana) revealed that SAV4 blocks ABCB1-mediated auxin efflux. We thus propose that polarly localized SAV4 acts to inhibit ABCB-mediated auxin efflux toward shoots and facilitates the establishment of proper auxin gradients