In this interesting paper, Stritzer et al. asked a simple question, which required a very sophisticated approach to answer. Do transposable elements (TEs) affect fitness in maize? This is a particularly interesting question as 85% of the maize genome is composed of TEs or TE fragments, including over 350,000 TEs. Previous studies have shown a […]
Witchweeds (Striga spp.) are parasitic plants. Like other weeds, they compete with food crops, but they do so very efficiently by penetrating host tissues and forming vascular connections. Through this effective extraction of nutrients and photosynthate from their hosts, Striga can literally wipe out yields in infected fields. Striga are most abundant in tropical regions […]
Is it possible to summarize objectively the recent history of plant science? Shiu and Lehti-Shiu have used a combination of machine learning and language modeling to track terms used in plant science articles from the 1950s to now, as a strategy to understand how research topics and tools have evolved. The records were clustered into […]
Review. Challenges facing sustainable protein production: Opportunities for cereals As the world’s population increases, protein production must increase. If not, levels of protein malnutrition leading to stunted growth, hair loss, and edema will rise. Here Safdar et al. propose that cereals could be bred to be major protein sources. They argue that cereals already make […]
You might think you’ve read enough about auxin, but I recommend you take this opportunity to read one more article, this very interesting and enjoyable review by Fielder and Friml. Auxin has figured prominently in both the classical and molecular eras of plant biology. However, the exciting findings of auxin’s transcriptional responses through the TIR1 […]
The German physician Paul Ehrlich (not to be confused with the American scientist of the same name) coined the term “magic bullet” (zauberkugel) to describe something that is perfectly and accurately effective. As much as we dream of magic bullets, they are rarely found, but the idea of using spray-on RNA as an agent of […]
A year ago, graduate student Merritt Khaipho-Burch Tweeted a reaction to an article about a gene described as enhancing yield, which led to lively on-line and in-the-lunchroom discussions about how to realistically measure yield, and, maybe more importantly, where to draw the line between potential and promise. Now, Khaipho-Burch and colleagues have published a set […]
When we speak about rice, we’re often referring to one of two domesticated species, Oryza japonica or Oryza indica. However, there are an additional 25 species in the genus Oryza. These so-called wild relatives harbor substantial genetic diversity that holds promise for crop improvement. Here, Prakash et al. surveyed 22 Oryza species for drought tolerance […]
What do you do when you’ve identified a gene that you know is important, but you don’t know how it functions? Usually, you can get hints from homology searches, overexpression studies, or the identification of protein domains, but sometimes those approaches don’t work. That’s where the story of the pathogen virulence protein AvrE from Psueodomonas […]