Gene expression is primarily controlled by transcriptional regulatory proteins able to recognize and bind short DNA sequences in downstream targets. Understanding how DNA-binding proteins achieve high precision and switch on/off the transcription of selected genes at a specific developmental stage or…

Transgenerational memory can occur through epigenetic regulation of gene expression (for example through DNA methylation) when plants have been exposed to abiotic stresses. Transferring a specific biochemical adaption to the next generation of plants can help the plant counter stress. Here Xu et al.…

BLAST (basic local alignment search tool) is more than 30 years old, and most readers have probably had the opportunity to BLAST a sequence. BLAST takes an input sequence and searches databases for closely related sequences. However, this tool uses only sequence information to find close matches. Hypothetically,…

Review: Root plasticity under abiotic stress For millennia, humans have selected desirable traits in the above-ground part of plants, but below-ground traits have been only indirectly selected. Thus, roots are ripe for optimization, and hold particular promise in efforts to make crops more resilient…

Sylvia Rodrigues da Silveira, first author of "Live-imaging provides an atlas of cellular growth dynamics in the stamen" Current position: Postdoctoral researcher at the Institut de recherche en biologie végétale, University of Montreal, QC, Canada Education: PhD and MSc in Biology in Agriculture…

Stanislas Thiriet-Rupert, first author of "Long term acclimation to cadmium exposure reveals extensive phenotypic plasticity in Chlamydomonas" Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate in UGB (Genetics of Biofilms Unit) at the Pasteur Institute, Paris. Education: B.Sc., M.Sc. in Biology…

Bonnot and Nagel explore how heat stress affects the circadian-regulated translatome at different times of day. Titouan Bonnot1 and Dawn H. Nagel1 1Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, California, USA Background: The plant circadian clock synchronizes…

Vivek Shrestha, first author of "Multi-omics approach reveals a role of translational machinery in shaping maize kernel amino acid composition" Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Plant Sciences in the research group of Dr. C. Neal Stewart Jr., The University of Tennessee,…