TY - GEN AB - Eva Benkova received a PhD in Biophysics at the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in 1998. After working as a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute in Cologne and the Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP) in Tübingen, she became a group leader at the Plant Systems Biology Department of the Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB) in Gent. In 2012, she transitioned to an Assistant Professor position at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) where she was later promoted to Professor. Since 2021, she has served as the Dean of the ISTA Graduate School. As a plant developmental biologist, she focuses on unraveling the molecular mechanisms and principles that underlie hormonal interactions in plants. In her current work, she explores the intricate connections between hormones and regulatory pathways that mediate the perception of environmental stimuli, including abiotic stress and nitrate availability. AU - Benková, Eva ID - 14842 IS - 1 T2 - Current Biology TI - Eva Benkova VL - 34 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Epithelial barrier function is commonly analyzed using transepithelial electrical resistance, which measures ion flux across a monolayer, or by adding traceable macromolecules and monitoring their passage across the monolayer. Although these methods measure changes in global barrier function, they lack the sensitivity needed to detect local or transient barrier breaches, and they do not reveal the location of barrier leaks. Therefore, we previously developed a method that we named the zinc-based ultrasensitive microscopic barrier assay (ZnUMBA), which overcomes these limitations, allowing for detection of local tight junction leaks with high spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we present expanded applications for ZnUMBA. ZnUMBA can be used in Xenopus embryos to measure the dynamics of barrier restoration and actin accumulation following laser injury. ZnUMBA can also be effectively utilized in developing zebrafish embryos as well as cultured monolayers of Madin–Darby canine kidney (MDCK) II epithelial cells. ZnUMBA is a powerful and flexible method that, with minimal optimization, can be applied to multiple systems to measure dynamic changes in barrier function with spatiotemporal precision. AU - Higashi, Tomohito AU - Stephenson, Rachel E. AU - Schwayer, Cornelia AU - Huljev, Karla AU - Higashi, Atsuko Y. AU - Heisenberg, Carl-Philipp J AU - Chiba, Hideki AU - Miller, Ann L. ID - 14082 IS - 15 JF - Journal of Cell Science SN - 0021-9533 TI - ZnUMBA - a live imaging method to detect local barrier breaches VL - 136 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Nitrogen is an important macronutrient required for plant growth and development, thus directly impacting agricultural productivity. In recent years, numerous studies have shown that nitrogen-driven growth depends on pathways that control nitrate/nitrogen homeostasis and hormonal networks that act both locally and systemically to coordinate growth and development of plant organs. In this review, we will focus on recent advances in understanding the role of the plant hormones auxin and cytokinin and their crosstalk in nitrate-regulated growth and discuss the significance of novel findings and possible missing links. AU - Abualia, R AU - Riegler, Stefan AU - Benková, Eva ID - 13214 IS - 12 JF - Cells SN - 2073-4409 TI - Nitrate, auxin and cytokinin - a trio to tango VL - 12 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Mineral nutrition is one of the key environmental factors determining plant development and growth. Nitrate is the major form of macronutrient nitrogen that plants take up from the soil. Fluctuating availability or deficiency of this element severely limits plant growth and negatively affects crop production in the agricultural system. To cope with the heterogeneity of nitrate distribution in soil, plants evolved a complex regulatory mechanism that allows rapid adjustment of physiological and developmental processes to the status of this nutrient. The root, as a major exploitation organ that controls the uptake of nitrate to the plant body, acts as a regulatory hub that, according to nitrate availability, coordinates the growth and development of other plant organs. Here, we identified a regulatory framework, where cytokinin response factors (CRFs) play a central role as a molecular readout of the nitrate status in roots to guide shoot adaptive developmental response. We show that nitrate-driven activation of NLP7, a master regulator of nitrate response in plants, fine tunes biosynthesis of cytokinin in roots and its translocation to shoots where it enhances expression of CRFs. CRFs, through direct transcriptional regulation of PIN auxin transporters, promote the flow of auxin and thereby stimulate the development of shoot organs. AU - Abualia, Rashed AU - Ötvös, Krisztina AU - Novák, Ondřej AU - Bouguyon, Eleonore AU - Domanegg, Kevin AU - Krapp, Anne AU - Nacry, Philip AU - Gojon, Alain AU - Lacombe, Benoit AU - Benková, Eva ID - 11734 IS - 31 JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America TI - Molecular framework integrating nitrate sensing in root and auxin-guided shoot adaptive responses VL - 119 ER - TY - JOUR AB - The phytohormone auxin triggers transcriptional reprogramming through a well-characterized perception machinery in the nucleus. By contrast, mechanisms that underlie fast effects of auxin, such as the regulation of ion fluxes, rapid phosphorylation of proteins or auxin feedback on its transport, remain unclear1,2,3. Whether auxin-binding protein 1 (ABP1) is an auxin receptor has been a source of debate for decades1,4. Here we show that a fraction of Arabidopsis thaliana ABP1 is secreted and binds auxin specifically at an acidic pH that is typical of the apoplast. ABP1 and its plasma-membrane-localized partner, transmembrane kinase 1 (TMK1), are required for the auxin-induced ultrafast global phospho-response and for downstream processes that include the activation of H+-ATPase and accelerated cytoplasmic streaming. abp1 and tmk mutants cannot establish auxin-transporting channels and show defective auxin-induced vasculature formation and regeneration. An ABP1(M2X) variant that lacks the capacity to bind auxin is unable to complement these defects in abp1 mutants. These data indicate that ABP1 is the auxin receptor for TMK1-based cell-surface signalling, which mediates the global phospho-response and auxin canalization. AU - Friml, Jiří AU - Gallei, Michelle C AU - Gelová, Zuzana AU - Johnson, Alexander J AU - Mazur, Ewa AU - Monzer, Aline AU - Rodriguez Solovey, Lesia AU - Roosjen, Mark AU - Verstraeten, Inge AU - Živanović, Branka D. AU - Zou, Minxia AU - Fiedler, Lukas AU - Giannini, Caterina AU - Grones, Peter AU - Hrtyan, Mónika AU - Kaufmann, Walter AU - Kuhn, Andre AU - Narasimhan, Madhumitha AU - Randuch, Marek AU - Rýdza, Nikola AU - Takahashi, Koji AU - Tan, Shutang AU - Teplova, Anastasiia AU - Kinoshita, Toshinori AU - Weijers, Dolf AU - Rakusová, Hana ID - 12291 IS - 7927 JF - Nature SN - 0028-0836 TI - ABP1–TMK auxin perception for global phosphorylation and auxin canalization VL - 609 ER -