Entries by Mary Williams

Review: Quantitative monitoring and control of plant signalling through novel theoretical–experimental approaches

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Samodelov and Zurbriggen describe approaches to exquisitely fine-tune protein and metabolite expression levels through a variety of synthetic and semi-synthetic biology approaches. For example, optigenetics tools enable gene expression to be activated precisely via a light beam; when combined with downstream regulators including miRNAs and inducible protein degradation tags, the gene product can be reliably […]

Review: Exploiting induced and natural epigenetic variation for crop improvement

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Variation provides the raw material for selection and improvement. Springer and Schmitz describe how natural and induced epigenetic variation supplements genetic variation. This review starts with a description of epigenetics, epigenomics (the genome-wide distribution of epigenetic information), and the origin and maintenance of epigenetic marks. Epigenetic variation can arise spontaneously but also from chemical treatments […]

What We’re Reading: July 14

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Review: Exploiting induced and natural epigenetic variation for crop improvement Variation provides the raw material for selection and improvement. Springer and Schmitz describe how natural and induced epigenetic variation supplements genetic variation. This review starts with a description of epigenetics, epigenomics (the genome-wide distribution of epigenetic information), and the origin and maintenance of epigenetic marks. […]

Speed breeding: a powerful tool to accelerate crop research and breeding

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Watson and Ghosh et al. describe protocols to accelerate the lifecycle of several crop species using “speed breeding”, which essentially involves extending the daylength to 22 hours with supplemental lighting. They describe methods and results from glasshouse and growth chamber speed breeding. In spite of greatly shortened generation times, seed production was similar for the […]

A lipid-anchored NAC transcription factor translocates into nucleus to activate GlyI gene expression involved in drought stress

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Regulation of transcription factor (TF) localization is a common strategy for gene expression regulation. Wang et al. identified  a membrane-anchored TF, MfNACsa, as contributing to drought stress responses. In unstressed plants, MfNACsa is anchored to the plasma membrane through covalent-attachment of a palmitic group (a fatty acid) to a cysteine (known as S-palmitoylation). Upon drought stress, […]

Profile of Plant Cell Editor Keiko Sugimoto

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Keiko Sugimoto, an Editor of The Plant Cell, was recently profiled by her undergraduate institution. Read more about The Plant Cell Editorial Board here. “At the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, the research team I lead as a Principal Investigator (PI) focuses on the two themes of “development” and “regeneration.” “Development” focuses on the […]

What We’re Reading: July 7

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This week’s edition of What We’re Reading is guest edited by K.K. Sabu. Sabu is educated in the field of Plant Sciences and has working experience in plant genetics and genomics since 1995. His research interests include response of plants against environmental changes, natural variations in plant genetic resources and incorporation of genomics tools for […]

What We’re Reading: June 30th

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This edition of What We’re Reading is guest edited by Mather A Khan, a Postdoc Fellow in the Mendoza Lab at Bond Life Sciences Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA. He is very much concerned about hunger, poverty, and global food security. His research is always been motivated by these factors. “Plant Science research always […]

iBiology – Magdalena Bezanilla: Understanding Cell Shape

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Magdalena is a Reviewing Editor for The Plant Cell and a Professor at UMass Amherst. Here she describes her research interests in a series of videos published by iBiology.  A set of three video lectures, published by iBiology on May 2, 2017 Part 1: Understanding cell shape: Big insights from little plants: Polarized cell growth […]