Phloem sap-feeding aphids inflict plant damage by direct feeding and by acting as a vector for plant disease transmission. Their highly specialized stylets reach the phloem sieve elements, allowing aphids to extract plant photoassimilates without consuming structural tissues. Probing and feeding by aphids…

Poor grain filling by hybrid japonica rice (Oryza sativa) is a major agricultural problem. It has previously been reported that the rice accession Ludao, a wild-type japonica rice grown naturally in the Liangyungang region of China, exhibited a high grain-filling rate and could be selected as a parent…

The evolution of photosynthesis and, at a later point, the emergence of land plants resulted in substantial changes in the composition of Earth’s atmosphere.  Plant colonization of the land in the early Paleozoic (more than 450 million years ago [mya]) was followed by a rapid drop in atmospheric [CO2],…

During leaf growth and development, chloroplast numbers increase to maximize photosynthetic capacity. In mesophyll cells, chloroplast division takes place primarily during cell expansion and increases plastid numbers from; 10 to 20 in leaf primordia to; 100 or more in  mature mesophyll cells. Chloroplasts…

By Sabyasachi Mandal Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA  Background: Acylsugars are specialized metabolites secreted through the trichomes (plant hairs) of many plants in the nightshade family (Solanaceae). These compounds provide protection against herbivores…

Western cultivated carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus L) is broadly known for its orange pigmentation and accumulation of carotenoids, known as the carotene group (var. sativus). However, the eastern wild carrot (subsp. carota) originating from southwestern Asia over a century ago provides purple pigmentation…

Xiang et al. elucidate transcriptome dynamics and gene activities during embryogenesis and grain development in modern wheat and its progenitors. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00397. By Daoquan Xiang, Teagen D. Quilichini, Peng Gao, and Raju Datla Aquatic and Crop Resource Development,…

Minoru Ueda, first author of Histone modifications form epigenetic regulatory networks to regulate abiotic stress response Current Position: Researcher Education: B.A. in Genetic Engineering, faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, and Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Genetics, Graduate School of Agricultural…