By Anna Schulten and Ute Krämer, Department of Molecular Genetics and Physiology of Plants, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany  Schulten and colleagues explore the reasons behind the growth defects seen in the spl7 mutants, and discover that they cannot utilize the plentiful sugars they accumulate. Background:…

Cao et al. found that SnoR28.1 (a conserved box C/D snoRNA cluster) regulates plant growth and development by directing rRNA maturation. The Plant Cell (2022).  https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koac265 By Yuxin Cao and Weiqiang Qian Background: Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are a class of abundantly…

In 2020, just 26% of professors in the Netherlands were women. This low percentage represents a battle for equality that started more than 100 years ago with one of the most influential female scientists and professors in the Netherlands: Johanna Westerdijk.    Gender Gap  The first female…

Managing your career is an essential skill for graduate students. However, it is often neglected in favor of research responsibilities. Proper management of personal development is paramount to achieving one’s own professional goals and part of the responsibilities of a good researcher. The following…

Journalists in Ghana have visited the country’s first genetically modified crop under confined field trial. The journalists, numbering about forty, from different parts of the country, got educated on the technology used to develop the pod-borer resistant (PBR) cowpea, and, its potential benefits to…

While many people are enjoying what feels like “life as usual” following the global COVID-19 pandemic, there is one truth we cannot deny: life has irrevocably altered. The technology enabling virtual communication and digital media has advanced extraordinarily over the past several years, during…

Nigeria – a country in Africa – is blessed with an arable land of 34 million hectares with 70% of its workforce employed in agriculture. However, insufficient food production in Nigeria has been a perennial problem. The 2021 Global Hunger Index placed Nigeria 103 out of 116 countries while the 2020…

Many members of the plant science community came from interesting and unexpected backgrounds. Guest contributor, Dorcas Olufunke Alade, Graduate Student at the University of Florida, interviewed Christopher I. Vincent, assistant professor of horticultural sciences at University of Florida’s Citrus…