Entries by Mary Williams

Tomato fruit weight controlled by Cell Size Regulator

Mu et al. mapped a QTL previously shown to control fruit weight in tomato, and named the responsible gene Cell Size Regulator (CSR). They found that CSR-D, the derived allele, increases cell size and is widespread in Solanum lycopersicum var. lycopersicum, but not in ancestral tomatoes with smaller fruit. The encoded protein is uncharacterized but […]

Genome re-sequencing reveals the history of apple and supports a two-stage model for fruit enlargement

Cultivated apples (Malus domestica) trace their roots to Kazakhstan 4000 – 10,000 years ago, and since then have been propagated, transported, hybridized to other Malus species, and domesticated. Duan et al. sequenced more than 100 diverse accessions to trace apple’s history and identify loci subjected to selection. “During the domestication process, cultivated apples retained the […]

Temperature increase reduces global yields of major crops in four independent estimates ($)

Although future negative impacts on crop yields expected from rising temperature are well known to plant scientists, there are still some members of the broader public that need to be made aware of this problem. Zhao et al. combined four different methods of assessing the impact of increasing temperatures on yields of wheat, rice, maize, […]

Publishing with objective charisma: Breaking science’s paradox ($)

Doublday and Connell ask whether scientific writing has to be so dull, and conclude that there is room for improvement. They are quick to argue that sensationalism and inaccuracy are not acceptable, but that it is possible for scientific writing to be both objective and charismatic. However, for the culture of scientific writing to change, […]

What We’re Reading: August 25th

Review: Auxin signaling Leyser summarizes our current understanding of the what, how and why of what auxin does (and doesn’t) do. For example, she points out that, “Auxin does not instruct cells to do anything in particular, but rather it influences the  behavior of cells according to their pre-existing identity.” She also observes that cells […]

Distinct phases of Polycomb silencing to hold epigenetic memory of cold in Arabidopsis ($)

Some plants can only flower after a cold period. This cold period has been shown to cause epigenetic gene silencing of an inhibitor of flowering, which in Arabidopsis is encoded by FLC. Yang and Berry et al. explore the mechanism by which FLC is epigenetically silenced in response to cold. Previous studies showed that the […]

Temporal and spatial transcriptomic and miRNA dynamics of CAM photosynthesis in pineapple ($)

CAM (crassulacean acid metabolism) is the form of photosynthesis in which carbon assimilation occurs at night. CAM allows plants, especially those growing in arid regions, to avoid excessive water loss. With the long-term goal of eventually engineering this water-conserving trait into crop plants, Wai and VanBuren et al. have mapped the patterns of gene expression […]

Mechanism of enzyme repair by the AAA+ chaperone Rubisco activase ($)

Rubisco is a fascinating enzyme, which in plants is a hexadecamer made up of eight large (RbcL) and eight small (RbcS) subunits. The catalytic sites are buried within the enzyme at the interfaces between pairs of RbcL subunits. Rubisco catalyzes the first step in the carbon-fixing photosynthetic reactions, but it does so inefficiently and with […]

Reviews: Conventional and unconventional protein secretion ($)

Two reviews in the Journal of Experimental Botany provide updates about protein secretion from plant cells. Wang et al. (10.1093/jxb/erx262) describe the conventional and unconventional pathways of protein secretion.  The conventional pathway for protein secretion starts with insertion of the nascent protein into the endoplasmic reticulum, followed by passage trough the Golgi en route to […]