Category: Research

Climate change is having negative effects on yield of economically important crops such as rice. Therefore, there is a pressing need for climate-change adapted crops. Previous research has highlighted that a decrease in stomatal density can enhance drought tolerance. EPIDERMAL PATTERNING FACTOR-LIKE9…

The (apparently delicious) fruit called atemoya is produced from a hybrid of Annona squamosa (sugar apple) × Annona cherimola (cherimoya), native to the American tropics but now grown widely. The hybridization event led to plants with several ploidies; diploid, triploid and tetraploid, which serve as…

This is one of those “straight into the textbook” stories. Kellenberger et al. investigated the unusual petal pigmentation pattern of a South African daisy Gorteria diffusa, which has petals with odd lumpy irregular spots that mimic female flies and enhance pollination through sexual deception. The…

The pressing need to restore degraded areas has led to an unprecedented demand for native seeds. However, seeds are not always available in sufficient quantity and quality in nature, so some restoration practitioners might opt to source their seeds from wild plants grown on farms, just like any crop.…

Review: Proximity labeling in plants Genetic studies can suggest that two proteins function in the same pathway, but how can we figure out if they share the same space? In this review, Xu et al. provide an overview of proximity labeling, a method to identify proteins that co-localize in space. Proximity…

Noriyuki Konishi, first author of "Polar localization of a rice silicon transporter requires isoleucine at both C- and N-termini as well as positively charged residues" Current Position: Assistant professor, Okayama University, Japan Education: B.S. (2008-2012) and Ph.D. (2012-2017) in Graduate…

Alexander J. Cummins, first author of "A cryptic natural variant allele of BYPASS2 suppresses the bypass1 mutant phenotype" Current Position: Ph.D. Student in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah Education: B.S. in Biology from California State University San Bernardino Non-scientific…

Katie M. Murphy, first author of "A dolabralexin-deficient mutant provides insight into specialized diterpenoid metabolism in maize" Current Position: Director of Phenotyping & Principal Investigator, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Education: PhD in Plant Biology from UC Davis, BS in…