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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Here’s a great collection of articles that consider various approaches to increase crop productivity through enhancements to photosynthesis. The authors of the papers in this collection include many of the leading photosynthesis researchers, and the topics include structural and architectural improvements at the subcellular level, hacking the thylakoid proton-motive force, photoprotection, models to identify targets […]
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 don’t go from […]
Making Science Make Sense (MSMS) has entered its 22nd year of making a positive STEM education impact on students across the United States. Since the program’s nascent year in 1995, Bayer’s MSMS has brought educational experiments to the classrooms that are kid-friendly and designed to intrigue and push curiosity in the field of STEM education. […]
Plant geneticist Dame Ottoline Leyser talks to Alison Woollard about the difference between working with animal and plant genomes, and her work to make science more inclusive The Biologist 64(4) p16-19 Dame Ottoline Leyser is a professor of plant development at the University of Cambridge. She directs the Sainsbury Laboratory, which aims to better understand […]
The October issue of Current Opinion in Plant Biology includes several articles that review various topics on the subject of plant nutrition. These span the spectrum of nutrients from trace and metal nutrients to macronutrients. The reviews also span topics such as membrane and tissue-level transport, regulatory signals, nutrient sensors, interactions with microbial symbionts, and […]
Insects compete directly with people for the energy and nutrients contained in plant matter, so it’s crucial for future food security to develop safe, effective and inexpensive means to control insect pests on crop plants. Zhang et al. review progress in using plant-mediated RNA interference (RNAi) for insect control. Challenges include differential sensitivities across insect […]