Jinpeng Wang, first author of Recursive paleohexaploidization shapes the durian genome Current Position: Associate Professor, Center for Genomics and Computational Biology, and School of Life Sciences, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, China Education: B.S. in Applied Mathematics, Tangshan Normal University, and M.S. in Genomics and Bioinformatics, North China University of Science and […]
(Translated from the Chinese original http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2018/1101/52991.shtml) Nanhu News Network (Correspondent Sheng Ke) On October 30th, the research group of Professor Tian Xingming from the Rice Science Team of the National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement of our School of Life Science and Technology, published in the Plant Cell, “Genetic basis of rice ionomic variation […]
Why do people persist in thinking that climate change is not happening, or that vaccines cause autism? Scientists need to find better ways to communicate about what we do. In this editorial from Nature Cell Biology, the authors point to the low achievement level of US high school students (and those in many other countries) […]
Plants produce hundreds of carotenoids with functions ranging from photoprotection to signalling, and with important roles in human health as well. Wurtzel describes opportunities arising from applying the tools of synthetic biology to carotenoids. The regulation of carotenoid biosynthesis is complex, and one key challenge is to identify switches to modulate the flow of intermediates […]
Desiccation tolerance is the property of being able to survive and recover from extreme dehydration. Although there are many desiccation-tolerant plant species, efforts to identify the genetic basis of desiccation tolerance have been limited by a lack of closely-related desiccation sensitive species. VanBuren et al. compared two species of Lindernia, one of which is desiccation […]
Closely related species that have different numbers of chromosomes (e.g., 2n versus 4n) are reproductively isolated, and this can arise as a consequence of an unbalancing in the expression levels of maternally- and paternally-imprinted genes. Wang et al. have identified a fascinating mechanism that explains why the seeds of different-ploidy hybrids frequently abort. The authors […]
FLS2 is a well-known cell-surface receptor that triggers plant immune response. Zou et al. asked whether its expression level is age-dependent, and found that FLS2 is expressed at very low levels in newly-emerged seedlings. They identified two closely related transcription factors TOE1 and TOE2 that negatively regulate FLS2 expression and FLS2-mediated immunity in very young […]
Jasmonates promote defense reponses but at the expense of growth. JAZ proteins repress jasmonate responses. Guo et al. examined the consequences of knocking out 10 of the 13 JAZ genes in Arabidopsis, by producing a jaz decuple, or jazD mutant. They compared jazD mutant to previously described jazQ mutants that have five JAZ genes knocked […]
Enhancing root growth can aid plant survival in challenging environments such as salty soils. Dickinson et al. built upon a previous study that identified D15, an inhibitor of lateral root development. They treated roots with D15 and also components of a small-molecule library to search for suppressors of the suppressor: plants with restored root growth. […]