As photosynthetic organisms, plants are desirable and potentially cost-effective chassis for the production of novel compounds, but they are also inherently metabolically complex. Synthetic metabolic pathways can also improve upon nature by making plants more metabolically efficient. Küken and Nikoloski…

Synechococcus elongates UTEX 2973 (also known as Synechococcus 2973) has the fastest doubling time of known cyanobacteria, completely replicating itself in just over two hours. This fast growth rate makes it an interesting platform for industrial applications. Hendry et al set out to understand what…

Plants respond to a low phosphate environment through increased elongation of root hairs. Bhosale et al. showed that low external P increases levels of the auxin (IAA) in Arabidopsis roots through the TAA1 (TRYPTOPHAN AMINO TRANSFERASE 1)-mediated auxin biosynthesis pathway. At the same time, the auxin…

The cytokinin-based response is assumed to be achieved through context-dependent transcriptional regulatory mechanisms. Potter et al. analyzed cytokinin-induced alterations in chromatin accessibility using ATAC-seq (Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin using Sequencing) and combined these results…

Physiologia Plantarum Special Issue: Root Biology The year 2019 kicks off with a special issue on root biology, with all articles free to access for six months. Topics include interactions of roots with parasites and symbionts, root branching, transport in the root system, and roots of woody species.…

Li-Bo Han, First author of The cotton apoplastic protein CRR1 stabilizes chitinase 28 to facilitate defense against the fungal pathogen Verticillium dahliae Current Position: Associate professor of Haixia institute of Science and Technology, Fujian Agriculture And Forestry University, Fuzhou, China Educations:…

Marina Rohr, first author of The role of plastidic trigger factor serving protein biogenesis in green algae and land plants Current Position: PhD student, Molecular Genetics of Eukaryotes, TU Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern Education: M.S in Ecology TU Kaiserslautern Non-scientific interest: Skiing,…

Tom Schreiber, first author of Split-TALE - A TALE-based two-component system for synthetic biology applications in planta Current position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry, Department of Cell and Metabolic Biology, Halle (Saale), Germany Education: PhD in plant biology…