This review by Rai et al., part of a focus collection on metabolism, comprehensively covers the role of metabolomics in plant biology: its history, its tools and techniques, and its impact. As the authors point out, metabolomics bridge the gap between genotype and phenotype by providing a direct readout of what is happening at the […]
Halophytes are plants that have evolved ways to adapt to high-salt environments that can be toxic to non-halophytes. Some halophytes prevent salt uptake, some sequester it in disposable bladders, and some extrude it from salt glands. In a new study, Mai et al. studied Nolana mollis, a salt-tolerant plant from the Atacama desert in Chile. […]
Lichens are complex assemblies that are composed of at least two organisms, a fungus (the mycobiont) and a photosynthetic partner, the photobiont. Lichen lifestyles have emerged several times, and the photobiont can be either prokaryotic cyanobacteria or eukaryotic algae. Recently, Tagirdzhanova et al. carried out a genomic analysis of the photobiont isolated from the widespread […]
I love learning about the many molecular adaptations that allowed plants to adapt to life on land, and particularly have enjoyed sharing the iconic micrograph from Remy et al (1994) that shows a 400 year old arbuscular mycorrhiza of the fungus Glomeromycotina inside a cell of Aglaophyton major. Now, in a new study, Strullu-Derrien et […]
Review: A complete guide to metabolomics This review by Rai et al., part of a focus collection on metabolism, comprehensively covers the role of metabolomics in plant biology: its history, its tools and techniques, and its impact. As the authors point out, metabolomics bridge the gap between genotype and phenotype by providing a direct readout […]
It’s not too difficult to envision how a plant recognizes something very different from itself, like a bacterium, oomycete, or fungus. It’s a bit less obvious how a plant recognizes another plant as different from itself. This self-recognition is important when you think about parasitic plants, which break into their hosts through structures called haustoria […]
Review.When the sun becomes too hot: Non-photochemical quenching in plants Plant photosynthetic machinery can easily be overwhelmed by strong sunlight. Therefore, plants developed a set of processes called Non-Photochemical Quenching, a safety valve that dissipates excess light energy as heat. In a recent review, van Amerongen and Croce synthesize decades of often contradictory research to […]
This is such an engaging and though-provoking review article. I’d love to ask a group of students to think about what makes a tree a tree, including such questions as: How do we define trees? Do woody plants share a single origin? How many angiosperms are woody? The answer to those questions and more can […]
I expect we’ve all been captivated by images of the beautiful spiral chloroplasts in the Spirogyra genus of filamentous algae, and who could forget that name? A new paper by Goldbecker et al. presents the genome of Spirogyra pratensis, uncovering not only some insights into this remarkable structure, but also many the unique and unexpected […]