Seed dormancy controls germination so that it occurs under the most suitable conditions. Different dormancy classes achieve this by allowing germination in response to distinct environmental cues. In fire-prone ecosystems, species with physically dormant (PY) seeds benefit from fire since it breaks their…

Review: Orphan crops and their wild relatives in the genomic era More than half of human calories come from rice, wheat, and corn, although many other cereals have been domesticated as food crops. Several of these “orphan” cereal crops and their wild relatives are being studied with the goal…

Tianhu Sun ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2513-1387 Plant Breeding and Genetics Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 [email protected]  Chloroplasts are semi-autonomous organelles that retain their own genomes derived from their cyanobacterial ancestors,…

Zhang, Zhu, Shen, Ji et al. discover a way to enhance nitrogen use efficiency and grain yield in rice. The Plant Cell (2020) https://bit.ly/3s3bLb3  Background: Nitrogen (N), an essential element for crop growth, is provided to plants by external fertilizer application. However, the excessive use…

Marcus Griffiths, first author of A multiple ion-uptake phenotyping platform reveals shared mechanisms affecting nutrient uptake by roots Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the Root Phenomics lab headed by Dr. Larry York, Noble Research Institute, USA Education: PhD in Plant & Crop Sciences…

Madeleine Seale Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RB, United Kingdom [email protected] ORCID: 0000-0002-8924-3943   In a world surrounded by a vast expanse of gaseous air, water is constantly evaporating from aqueous sources…

Rajeev Gupta, first author of The maize premature senesence2 encodes for PHYTOCHROME-DEPENDENT LATE-FLOWERING and its expression modulation improves agronomic traits under abiotic stresses Current Position: Principal Scientist and Theme Leader for Genomics and Trait Discovery, ICRISAT, INDIA, Falgship…

Konstantinos Koudounas, co-first author of Alternative splicing creates a pseudo-strictosidine β-D-glucosidase modulating alkaloid synthesis in Catharanthus roseus Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, EA2106 - Biomolecules and Plant Biotechnology, University of Tours, France Education: PhD…