Plants evolved to react to the changing environment by developing sensing and signal transduction mechanisms, which ultimately lead to changes in gene expression and altered plant performance. Transcription factors (TFs) are key to regulating the expression of individual genes. TFs can confer sequence…

Evidence of epigenetic gene regulation in plant immunity was first reported in 1975 (Guseinov et al., 1975) with the demonstration that cytosine methylation is altered in response to pathogen infection. Since then, it has been established that pathogen infection influences DNA methylation and histone…

Most chloroplast proteins are encoded by the nuclear genome and synthesized on cytosolic ribosomes. N-terminal transit peptides serve as targeting sequences to direct precursors of chloroplast proteins to receptors on the chloroplast surface. These receptors are part of the translocase of the outer envelope,…

To survive, organisms must sense their nutritional status (including nutrient availability and quality) and regulate their growth and metabolism accordingly. In plants, animals, and fungi, the Target of Rapamycin (TOR) kinase regulates metabolism, nutrient sensing, and growth (reviewed in Dobrenel et…

We’re excited to announce the publication of The Plant Cell’s latest Teaching Tool, “A bioinformatics pipeline for exploring transcriptional regulation in plants,” by Amy Marshall-Colon, Mary Williams and Kranthi Varala, available without subscription at Plantae.org. It is difficult to conceptualize…

    Internship Posts: Internship; Lab Technician; Postdoc in Crop Metabolic Engineering and Genome Editing, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA PhD student in Hydrology & Climate Applications, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA Recent Job Posts: Post-doctoral…

The in vivo imaging of sugars is useful for understanding how assimilated carbon, in the form of sugars, moves in plants and how this process is differentially regulated. Voothuluru et al. (10.1104/pp.18.00614) developed a gel-based enzyme-coupled colorimetric and fluorometric assay to image glucose…

Water deficit is one of the main limiting factors in apple (Malus × domestica) cultivation. Root architecture plays an important role in the drought tolerance of plants. Due to the difficulties associated with the visualization of root systems, however, there is currently a poor understanding of the…