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 […]
One of the challenges of future food security is to feed a growing population without further impinging on undisturbed ecosystems, which is a primary goal of efforts to increase yields. At the other end of the equation, Tripathi et al. address opportunities to recover degraded lands for sustainable development. They describe methods for removing metals […]
De la Parra and Quave describe the fascinating intersection of ethnobotany and biotechnology, which they define as ethnophytotechnology: “the use of plant biotechnology to improve or enhance the inherent economic or culturally valuable traits of plants as described and influenced by ethnobotany”. They observe that by applying modern tools to “thousands of years of indigenous […]
Electricity-generating power plant produce CO2, and industrial and household waste water contains inorganic nutrients that can pollute waterways. What if both of these pollutants could be put to good use, for example in a growth medium for biofuel-producing algae? Ghosh and Kirin describe the feasibility of such a scheme, and point to opportunities for improving […]
Two of the key players in the plant-pathogen interaction are the effectors produced by pathogens (that “modulate plant physiology to favor host infection and colonization”) and the plant immune receptors (including NLR proteins: nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeatcontaining) that are instrumental in eliciting host responses. This particularly nice review by Białas and Zess et al. focuses […]
The fungal pathogen Hymenoscyphus fraxineus that infects European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) has caused a huge epidemic and cost millions of trees their lives. Downie describes the employment of molecular techniques to trace the origin of the fungus in Europe, and describes how the fungal life cycle contributes to pathogen diversity. He also describes the associative […]
Plants with thicker leaves are better able to retain water and deal with water-limiting conditions. Coneva et al. explored the genetic basis for leaf thickness by comparing introgression lines of cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and a species adapted to the desert (Solanum pennillii). They found that thicker leaves often had elongated palisade mesophyll cells and […]
Guard cells are crucial gatekeepers that control entry and exit of gases, water vapor, and pathogens. Rapid stomatal pore closure in response to pathogen perception or the hormone abscisic acid (ABA) is supported by activation of the aquaporin (water channel) PIP2;1. Rodrigues et al. investigated the contribution of PIP2;1 in guard cell responses to the […]
Sugars produced in photosynthetically active mesophyll cells move into the phloem through a process known as phloem loading, but not all plants phloem load the same way. Some use a passive process in which sugars move down a concentration gradient into the phloem, but others use active transport processes. Some species use a “polymer trap” […]