The gene FLC (FLOWERING LOCUS C) is a repressor of flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana. It needs to be silenced after exposure to prolonged cold for plants to be able to flower. The memory of winter leads to changes in the methylation state of Histone 3 associated with FLC in two steps: first by recruiting H3K27m3 […]
Choose a program, have a life By Samantha H. Jones (Published in Science) As I formally accepted the offer to join my Ph.D. program, the massive weight on my chest began to dissolve, my shoulders relaxed, and my headache subsided. Choosing a program had been quite the roller coaster ride, filled with uncertainty and sleepless […]
Browsing the table of contents of the “The Making of a Plant” special issue of Current Biology feels like a birthday celebration; there are so many exciting goodies it’s hard to know which to open first. The issue consists of well-written and well-illustrated short reviews (and Quick Guides and Primers, as well as a Feature […]
Ion channels are proteins that regulate the passage of ions across membranes. Ion channels are regulated in diverse ways – some are calcium-regulated, some are pH sensitive, some are charge sensitive, and some are sensitive to mechanical stimulation i.e., membrane tension. Basu and Haswell review mechanosensitive ion channels in plants, which have been implicated in […]
Leaf size varies by over 100,000-fold across the plant kingdom. Leaf area has a direct impact on tissue temperature and thus directly affects photosynthetic efficiency. Empirical observations by 19th century plant geographers described that larger leaves are usually restricted to plants growing in wet tropics; nevertheless environmental factors driving leaf size haven’t been studied at […]
During our holidays, many of us plant scientists love to go to re-energize in remote places, ideally with no technology. Have you ever imagined how our “advanced” way of living is changing our environment? In a recent paper, Knop et al. show evidence that nocturnal pollinators are negatively affected by Artificial Light At Night and […]
The transition from vegetative growth to a flower-producing reproductive state is highly regulated by environmental cues. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana has a wide distribution throughout different habitats, so each accession has different adaptations strategies. One of the major factors that varies between accessions is the requirement and response to long periods of cold before […]
Thanks for all the contributed paper summaries! If you’d like to summarize a paper for this series, contact Mary Williams ([email protected]). Special Issue of Current Biology “The Making of a Plant” Browsing the table of contents of the “The Making of a Plant” special issue of Current Biology feels like a birthday celebration; there are […]
It becomes more and more clear that regulation of complex traits and processes, such as root growth and lateral root growth, involves not only gene expression quality (which genes are expressed), quantity (how much transcript is present) and space (in which cell-type transcripts are accumulating) but also time plays an important role. Walker et al. […]