Plants activate autophagy, a cellular recycling process, to recycle useful nutrients or remove harmful items, helping them to withstand harsh conditions. Recently, Yang et al. found that HY5 is a hub connecting the light signaling and autophagy pathways. Under replete conditions (e.g., light and nitrogen-sufficient),…

Plants are surrounded by diverse microbes and must avoid mounting an immune response against innocuous microbes, while properly activating defense against invading pathogens. As the initial plant-microbe contacts happen in a limited number of cells, understanding spatially-resolved plant immune responses…

For many years, the Arabidopsis transgenic allele ice1-1 was used to demonstrate the role of the transcription factor ICE1 in freezing and cold tolerance. This gene was first identified in a screening strategy using a luciferase reporter for DREB1A expression, another TF involved in downstream signaling.…

Review: Crop phenomics and high-throughput phenotyping Crop phenomics has lagged behind crop genomics because traditional methods are time-consuming, expensive, invasive and subjective. Recently, high-throughput, automated, sensor and machine-vision methods have been developed, as reviewed by Yang…

Nicolas Doll, first author of Transcriptomics at Maize Embryo/Endosperm Interfaces Identifies a Transcriptionally Distinct Endosperm Sub-domain Adjacent to the Embryo Scutellum Current Position: Postdoctoral scientist at VIB, Gent (starting April 2020) Education: 2020- : Post-doc at VIB, Gent,…

Cun-Ying Duan, co-first author of Arabidopsis KETCH1 is critical for the nuclear accumulation of ribosomal proteins and gametogenesis Current Position: State Key laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, Master degree Education: Master in…

Feng Xiong, co-first author of Arabidopsis KETCH1 is critical for the nuclear accumulation of ribosomal proteins and gametogenesis Current Position: Ph.D. candidate in State Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, College of Life Sciences, Shandong Agricultural University, China Education: M.S. in State…

Root hairs are tubular outgrowths of a subset of root epidermal cells serving multiple roles, including plant anchorage in the soil, water and nutrient absorption, and symbiotic interactions with nitrogen fixing bacteria in legumes (Salazar-Henao et al., 2016). Root hairs form an interface between the…