Arabidopsis genetics has identified numerous genes required for pathogen perception and defense response activation. Some of these genes are functionally conserved across plants and others are not. Toll-Interleukin1-Receptor (TIR)-domain NLRs (TNLs) are immune receptors that function upstream of EDS1…

Plant phosphorus homeostasis is important to understand as humans seek to increase food production while also reducing the amount of agricultural inputs and environmental pollution. In their recent paper, Osorio and colleagues expand our current understanding of phosphorus homeostasis in Arabidopsis…

Plants have robust NLR (nucleotide-binding, leucine-rich repeat proteins) immune signaling networks consisting of sensor NLRs and helper NLRs that counteract diverse plant pathogens by inducing cell death at sites of pathogen infection. A recent preprint by Adachi et al. has defined an N terminal motif…

Calcium ions mediate calcium-based defense responses in pattern triggered immunity (PTI) upon detection of pathogen patterns by plant surface receptors. A new study by Tian et al. has elucidated the molecular events that activate the calcium response. The authors show that adequeate calcium nutrient…

Understanding plant-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions is challening. Both kinds of interactions have significant impacts on plant health and nutritional uptake. Finkel et al. address how microbe-microbe interactions shape plant phenotypes by using the synthetic microbial community (SynCom) consisting…

In Southeast Asian countries, rice accounts for two-thirds of the caloric intake for many people. This narrow dietary base is often correlated with vitamin A deficiency, which can cause blindness, anemia and weakened immunity. In an effort to enhance vitamin A consumption, rice has been engineered to…

Review: Sulfated plant peptide hormones It’s hard to believe that when I was a student we were taught that “plants don’t have peptide hormones”. Since then we’ve discovered many diverse families of plant peptide hormones (see the Teaching Tool on peptide hormones for an excellent overview).…

Kaisa Kajala, first author of Real‐time whole‐plant dynamics of heavy metal transport in Arabidopsis halleri and Arabidopsis thaliana by gamma‐ray imaging Current Position: Assistant Professor, Plant Ecophysiology, Utrecht University Education: University of Cambridge (BA, MA, PhD), postdoctoral…