Elisabeth Grund, first author of Plant NLRs with integrated domains: Unity makes strength Current Position: Postdoctoral researcher at the LIPM, INRA Occitanie-Toulouse, France Education: PhD in Phytopathology (specialization: Fungal genetics) from Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, France; MSc in Applied and Molecular Botany, University of Hamburg, Germany; BSc in Biosciences / Life Sciences, University of […]
Anna Newman-Griffis, first author of Medicago LINC complexes function in nuclear morphology, nuclear movement, and root nodule symbiosis Current Position: Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University Center for Life Sciences Education Education: BA, Biology, Carleton College; PhD, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, The Ohio State University Non-scientific interests: Baking, sewing, hiking, gaming, singing Brief bio: […]
By Amna Mhamdi and Scott Hayes They say you can get too much of a good thing, and for plants that is certainly true. Light is essential for growth, but excessive light causes an overloading of the plant’s photosynthetic machinery. This excess energy can spill out and, through formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), damage […]
Plants use diverse strategies for salt tolerance, including regulated transport of several different ions and production of compatible organic solutes. In April 2018, a workshop was held to discuss strategies for breeding salt tolerance in plants, with a focus on the energy requirements of various strategies. Some specific approaches for improving salinity tolerance in crops […]
We often think about how the soil environment influences plants, but two new papers focus on how plants influence the soil environment (through abiotic and biotic effects), in turn affecting other plants. These plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) can be negative (resource depletion, natural enemy accumulation) or positive (resource deposition, mutualist accumulation). Bennett et al. summarize these […]
Plant cells have polarity, with the distribution of the auxin transporter protein PIN2 being a well-described example. Glanc et al. investigated how polarity is re-established following cell division. The authors showed that during cytokinesis, protein trafficking is directed towards the central cell plate (site of the new cell wall), but afterwards PIN2 relocalizes to its […]
Vegetative shade affects the ratio of red (R) and far-red (FR) light; relative to sunlight, the R/FR ratio is decreased due to absorbance of photosynthetically-active R light by other leaves. Low R/FR ratios cause increased elongation of shaded plant stems and petioles, as the plants strive to raise their photosynthetic tissues above those of their […]
This paper is kind of fun because it explores plant leaf and petal shape from an engineering perspective, identifying “fundamental mechanistic insights into how nature invokes mechanics in the evolution of commonly found shapes in plant organs by differential growth.” For each organ, the authors empirically determine growth strain profiles and the parameters β and […]
I think most scientists are occasionally exasperated when confronted with statements that clearly contradict what we know to be true, whether the topic is climate change, vaccine safety or biotechnology. Iyengar and Massey argue that the persistence of these flawed ideas is not due to a lack of positive communication, but rather “from the widespread dissemination […]