Chromosomes are long, and DNA sequencing reads have typically been short, meaning that it is necessary to assemble lots and lots of short reads by looking for overlapping sequences. This strategy is made more difficult in repeat-rich and transposon-rich regions of genomes, which characterize many plant…

The current version of the Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0 reference genome, TAIR10, still has some gaps and mis-assemblies due to centromeres and repeat-rich regions. In another demonstration of the promise of single-molecule sequencing, Michael, Jupe et al. used a single nanopore flow cell to sequence the…

Olive oil is a staple of the healthy “Mediterranean diet” and contains high levels of the monounsaturated fat oleic acid. Unver, Wu et al. present the genome of the wild olive tree (Olea europaea var. sylvestris) (draft sequences of domesticated olive trees without extensive functional annotation…

The N-end rule pathway is a conserved pathway for the control of protein turnover, through which the clipping or modification of amino acids from the amino-terminus of a protein leads to an interaction with PROTEOLYSIS 6 (PRT6; an N-recognin E3 ligase) and 26S proteasome-mediated proteolysis. Previously,…

Rice is one of our most important crops, and previous work has indicated that it was domesticated independently in Asia (Oryza sativa) and Africa (Oryza glaberrima). Using archeological approaches, Hilbert et al. for the first time show evidence for domestication of a rice species (Oryza sp.) in the…

Ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation is important in many plant processes (growth, development, responses to stress) but little is known about F-box proteins, a key component of the SCF (SKP1-CUL1-F-box protein) E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, due to their unstable protein structures. Li et al. investigated…

It is becoming increasingly evident that small, secreted peptides (SSPs) are important regulators of plant development and responses to stress. Traditional gene prediction algorithms are biased toward larger coding sequences and have therefore been inadequate in the hunt for plant SSPs. To address this…

Introducing new desirable traits in domesticated crops takes time and is limited by the need for existing trait variation in members of the same species or closely related species. Rodríguez-Leal et al. propose a system by which variation in a quantitative trait can be generated by editing the promoter…