In order to address the knowledge gap in the mechanisms of photoperiodic induction of flowering by phytochrome, Pearce et al. studied flowering behavior in wheat grown under short days, with the interruption of the long nights by short pluses of light (night breaks). Their study showed that night breaks accelerate flowering, and also demonstrated that […]
This study by Ramamoorthy et al. showed that survival of plants under drought conditions is not a sufficient goal for breeding. Rather, yield for biomass and food production under water deficit is a better target. Chickpea genotypes having better root growth and higher root density showed better grain filling, and produced good yields in these studies. […]
Podlaski et al. conducted experiments with energy crops like miscanthus, prairie cordgrass, willow, etc, and report that water use efficiency (WUE) is no longer a valid trait for selecting energy crops for drought tolerance. They could not find any significant relationship between WUE and biomass yield. However, they found a positive correlation between soil water […]
An experimental study by Tomeo and Rosenthal with soybean cultivars demonstrated that there exists genotypic differences in mesophyll conductance (gm), and that the potential exploitation of this trait may increase crop productivity. It was found that there exists a proper coordination mechanism between gm and the physiology of leaf photosynthesis. The gm which alters the CO2 […]
Plants undergo photosynthesis in leaves to produce carbohydrates sucrose and starch. The sucrose is transported to other parts of the plants via sugar transporters called SWEET proteins. In addition, certain plant pathogens activate SWEET genes to invade their host. As shown in this paper, during bacterial blight of cotton (BBC) disease, in cotton GhSWEET10 is […]
The effects of climate change on agriculture to human health have been well discussed in both scientific and public domains. In plants, changes in climate might affect interactions between the plants and their insect pollinators due to variable availability of pollinators in severe weather conditions, thus affecting reproductive success of plants and crop yield. In […]
Animals and plants have divergent sets of blue light receptors, called Cryptochromes. However, green alga Chlamydomonas has both animal-like and plant cryptochrome (pCRY). The presence of multiple cryptochrome suggests specific roles in different pathways in respective organisms. In this paper, Müller et al explore the biological functions of pCRY using a mutant with reduced pCRY […]
Gene expression is regulated at multiple levels such as genome, transcription, RNA processing and nuclear export, translation, and post-translation. Functional mRNA levels are regulated at transcription stage where RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) controls initiation and elongation of mRNA. In particular, the C-terminal domain of RNAPII defines the elongation phase along with Transcript Elongation Factors (TEFs). […]
Throughout plant life cycle, from germination till reproduction, every event is regulated by a highly complex network of hormones. Unlike animals where hormones are synthesized in specific glands, each plant cell is able to produce hormones. However, hormones are synthesized in specific organs in plants. Recent advancements in tools have enabled plant scientists to study […]