If you weren’t around in the ’80s, you missed some great times; the music, the fashion, the flower genetics! This historical perspective article by David Smythe nicely sums up those heady days with an account of how Arabidopsis thaliana blasted into the ranks of a top model organism, in part through the uncovering of genes […]
The PIN-FORMED family of auxin transporters were first identified through genetic screens of Arabidopsis thaliana in the 1980s. Recessive pin mutants form a flowerless, pin-like inflorescence. Subsequent work showed that the encoded genes are membrane-localized auxin transporters and contribute to the export of auxin from the cell. In this review, Ung et al. build on […]
In many biology textbook, plant pathology is introduced through the historical context of the 1840s great potato famine, caused by colonial ideologies and a virulent pathogen. This causal agent, Phytophthora infestans, is an oomycete that is still present in the environment and causing outbreaks of late blight in solanaceous plants. Here, new insights into the […]
Perspective: How flower development genes were identified using forward genetic screens in Arabidopsis thaliana If you weren’t around in the ’80s, you missed some great times; the music, the fashion, the flower genetics! This historical perspective article by David Smythe nicely sums up those heady days with an account of how Arabidopsis thaliana blasted into […]
Strigolactones are a class of hormones first identified in the 1960s as components of root exudates that promote germination of parasitic Striga seeds, and later as a promoter of associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Strigolactones also have endogenous roles within plants, for example as regulators of shoot branching. More recently, they have been shown to […]
Phosphoinositides (membrane lipids with cytosolic inositol headgroups carrying phosphate residues at various positions) serve as road markings for membrane and membrane/cytoskeleton dynamics. Here, Lebeco et al. add further detail to the map. Previously the authors showed that the plant-specific enzyme phosphoinositide phosphatase SAC9 participates in the restriction of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate [PI(4,5)P2] at the plasma membrane […]
It’s a well-established fact that some proteins are highly variable across species, and others such as histones hardly vary at all. Highly conserved proteins such as histones have very little wiggle room in their structure; small changes can lead to a loss of function. However, for some other proteins variation in sequence and structure is […]
In this fantastic, engaging paper, Hu et al. carries the reader from the origins of life on land through the dramatic uplift of the Tibetan plateau and into the modern age of climate change, all through the lens of the “enigmatic” Takakia moss. It’s enigmatic because it has features that are more similar to liverworts, […]
What do mentees want and need from their mentors, and are they getting it? How do factors such as gender identity and internationalism affect the quality of mentor/mentee interactions? Results from a survey of more than 2000 mentees (mostly postdocs and graduate students) are reported, along with a thorough analysis and concrete recommendations. The typical […]