Archive: January, 2017

Recently, we’ve been profiling first authors of Plant Cell papers that are selected for In Brief summaries. Here are the first-author profiles from the December issue of The Plant Cell. Yao-Pin Lin, featured author of Identification of Chlorophyll Dephytylase Involved in Chlorophyll Turnover in Arabidopsis Current…

A summary of recent research onto the recognition of strigolactones by parasitic plants, written for high school students, including a glossary. Source: Science News for Students View resource

New York Times article (July 27, 2013) by Amy Harmon that describes the bacterial disease of citrus, citrus greening disease, and its impact on producers of oranges and orange juice. One strategy to compbat the disease involves the use of GM technology; would consumers rather drink GM orange juice, or…

Ideal for flipped classrooms or as a discussion starter anywhere, this 8-minute video features a science journalist and researchers explaining specific issues and solutions for meeting the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050. GMO crops, the nature of science and the politics of food delivery…

An excellent set of 7 fact-sheets, produced by the European Plant Science Organisation, explaining how crop genetic improvement techniques work. Fact-sheet titles are: Site-Directed Nucleases Oligonucleotide-Directed Mutagenesis RNA-directed DNA Methylation Cisgenesis Grafting using…

"Debates rage over what to do about genetically modified organisms, but we rarely stop to ask a more basic question: Do GMOs really exist? It’s an important question, because no one in this debate can tell you precisely what a GMO is. I’ve come to the conclusion that “GMO” is a cultural construct.…

In the past week you’ve probably eaten crops that wouldn’t exist in nature, or that have evolved extra genes to reach freakish sizes. You’ve probably eaten “cloned” food and you may have even eaten plants whose ancestors were once deliberately blasted with radiation. And you could have bought…

What are genetically modified (GM) plants? Is genetic modification safe? Where are GM crops grown and eaten? Food security is one of this century's key global challenges, as noted in our earlier report Reaping the Benefits, and due to the scale of the challenge, we should really think carefully before…