Director, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute | North Dakota State University, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
UncategorizedFargo, North Dakota, North Dakota State University (NDSU) invites applications and nominations for the position of Director of the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI). The university seeks an accomplished and visionary leader with a demonstrated record of national recognition and leadership…
Review: Tracing the evolution of plant cell types
Plant Science Research WeeklyPlants. When we read this word, what comes to mind might be a rose, a tomato plant, or an oak tree. But plants belong to a green lineage that is far more diverse than what we encounter in daily life. This lineage also includes unicellular green algae. The evolution of the green lineage spans over a billion…
Review: Shuffling genes for better breeds
Plant Science Research WeeklyDuring meiosis, the cell division process that generates four distinct gametes, chromosomes exchange genetic material during homologous recombination. Homologous recombination is a complex process that is tightly controlled in location and frequency – each chromosome must have at least one crossover…
GOOSE: A new tool to decipher the biological functions of intrinsically disordered regions
Plant Science Research WeeklyProtein domains lacking a rigid structure, known as Intrinsically Disordered Regions (IDRs), play important roles in many cellular processes, including protein quality control, protein-protein interactions, and subcellular localization. However, we know little about how the properties of IDRs are linked…
Generating giant starch granules in wheat
Plant Science Research WeeklyLarge, A-type starch granules are desirable for nutritional and industrial purposes due to their gelatinization properties. However, the average wheat starch granule is small (less than 30 µm) compared to other starchy crops like pea and potato. Natural wheat cultivars with large granules have not been…
Genetic and epigenetic divergence among Arabidopsis thaliana Col-0 laboratory lineages since the 1950s
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe Arabidopsis thaliana Columbia-0 (Col-0) accession is often treated as a standard reference genotype shared by plant researchers worldwide. However, a new study by Tadros et al. shows that decades of independent propagation in different laboratories have left distinct genetic and epigenetic signatures…
Beyond leaf color: YGRT shapes growth and reproduction in rice
Plant Science Research WeeklyGreen leaves are essential for photosynthesis and crop productivity, but the genes that maintain normal leaf development can also influence other aspects of plant growth. In this study, Wang et al. investigated a rice mutant called yellow-green leaf and reduced tillering (ygrt), which develops yellow-green…
A 450-million-year-old signaling system shapes sperm motility
Plant Science Research WeeklyFor successful fertilization, sperm must reach the egg. Most land plants deliver non-motile sperm through a pollen tube. However, the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha retains the ancestral form of fertilization, sperm that are motile and use flagella to swim towards the egg. This process offers a unique…