Functional Organization of the Plant Nucleus

Abstract

For many years, the molecular processes in the eukaryotic nucleus were believed to occur randomly within the nuclear space, without functionally important spatial organization. Recently, much progress has been made in establishing that nuclear spatial organization is indeed important, and that many nuclear processes deserve the question “where?” as much as the question “how?” While the eukaryotic nucleus was first discovered in plants, the predominant progress in the field of its functional organization has been made in non-plant models. Recently, however, plant molecular biologists have begun to address the connection between structure and function and the integration of mechanistic and organizational aspects of the plant nucleus, too. While some aspects, such as the histone code, appear to be highly conserved between plants and animals, others, such as the composition of the nuclear pore, appear to differ profoundly. Here, we address various aspects of plant nuclear biology with the specific emphasis on the relationship between structure and function. We compare and contrast findings from plants and non-plant model systems and point out exciting future research directions.