In plants and algae, excessive light can damage the photosystem and lead to a decrease in photosynthetic capacity, a process called photoinhibition (PI). Levin et al. showed that Chlorella ohadii isolated from the Negev desert in Israel lacks or has limited capability of the usual photoprotection mechanisms seen in plants and model microalgae species including […]
Insect sex pheromones, volatile molecules used to attract mates, are used commercially to disrupt breeding behavior of insect pests and can be a good alternative to harmful pesticides. These pheromones have been produced in plants at a low amount and shown to be released as volatiles, but their production levels can be improved and refined. […]
Regulatory components called upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are commonly found in eukaryotic mRNA molecules. These uORFs regulate the translation rate of downstream coding sequences. Xue et al. edited uORFs added or edited uORFs in several genes to investigate the effects of adding or extending uORFs. Using dual-luciferase assays, they showed that protein expression is […]
It has always been of interest to the plant community to understand the mechanisms behind the evolution of diverse floral carotenoid pigmentation within a genus. In this paper, Liang et al. investigated the mechanism behind monkeyflowers (Mimulus spp.) speciation driven by the flower color locus, YELLOW UPPER (YUP). YUP has been shown to control the […]
Bitter gourds (or bitter melon) have been a childhood nightmare of mine. I remember that as a child, my grandparents used to force me to consume these really bitter gourds (Momordica charantia) telling me that they had ‘many benefits’. In addition to being a rich source of antioxidants, M. charantia seeds and fruit contain a […]