Non-invasive imaging technologies like computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have revolutionized medicine by improving diagnostics and guiding treatment. Due to its versatility, MRI also holds potential for plant sciences, where it can be used to visualize and quantify metabolites within organs, tissues, and cells. However, challenges specific to plant tissues have hindered its […]
Osmosis, driving water uptake and transport, is crucial for plants. It supports nutrient uptake, turgidity, and overall plant health. In hyperosmotic conditions, caused by drought, salinity, and cold stress, water loss triggers osmotic responses. A key question is: what sensors detect osmotic changes? While traditional sensors are ligand-receptor based or stretch-activated, internal cytoplasmic sensors are […]
In most land plants, carbon fixation into a three-carbon compound by the enzyme Rubisco takes place in the leaf mesophyll cells; these are called C3 plants. However, a different and more efficient pathway has evolved independently many times, in which a four-carbon metabolite is first produced in the mesophyll cells, followed by Rubisco activity in […]
What if plants could teach us about aging? Understanding how and why living organisms age is a fundamental question in biology and medicine. While most research focuses on humans, the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana offers unique insights into how organisms age. In a recent study, Dai et al. analyzed first true leaves at various ages […]
Albert Einstein once said, “The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.” Libraries house vast troves of information for readers to explore, analyze, and use. With the exponential increase in data, libraries have also evolved into digital databases and online platforms. For example, large-scale omics studies yield tremendous […]
Plants undergo a series of physiological processes when transitioning from the juvenile to the vegetative phase, and then vegetative to the reproductive phase. RNA-Seq offers substantial potential for uncovering the transcriptional landscape underlying these developmental transitions. However, developmental asynchrony among individual plants within a population creates variations in the spatiotemporal expression of genes. Redmond et […]
Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is a vital starchy crop essential for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia. A recent study on cassava by Rüscher et al. provides important insights into the plant’s sugar control mechanisms as the roots expand, produce large amounts of storage parenchyma, and accumulate sugars and starch, a process […]
The composition of plant-associated microbes is influenced by plant genetics, immune responses, environmental factors, and interactions between microbes. During disease development, the microbial community at infection sites changes due to tissue damage, altered immune responses, and manipulation via pathogen effector proteins. Mesny et al. argue that host-pathogen co-evolution involves not just the direct interaction between […]
A recent paper by Scheuring and colleagues investigates vacuole biogenesis in meristematic cells of Arabidopsis thaliana, challenging earlier models of vacuole formation. Vacuoles are crucial organelles responsible for various cellular functions, yet their formation has remained puzzling for quite some time. Historically, models have proposed that vacuoles are formed either by contributions from the endoplasmic […]