Focus Issue: Biomolecular Condensates Although The Plant Cell Focus Issue on Biomolecular Condensates officially comes out in September, due to the idiosyncrasies of publishing many of the articles are already available online, and I’m highlighting them now because this topic is also the focus of a plenary session at the Plant Biology meeting in August […]
Plant Physiology Webinar: Fruit Crops (2) Celebrating the July 2023 Focus Issue on Fruit Crops Recorded Thursday, July 27, 2023 About This Webinar Fruits are major sources of nutrients for humans, and fruit growing is a significant driver for economic growth and development in rural areas and their communities worldwide. The fruit industry faces enormous […]
I’ll be honest, I was surprised to see “a decade after implementation” in this title, but indeed, the first publication describing CRISPR/Cas in plants was in 2013. We’ve learned a lot in the past 10 years and the technology provides many opportunities, but challenges remain, both of which are highlighted in this excellent review by […]
July brings delicious fruit harvests in the Northern Hemisphere, and a very special focus issue of Plant Physiology. I particularly like this issue because of the wide variety of species covered, starting with apple, banana, blueberry, cherry, citrus, and so on. It’s a nice departure from our usual “diet” of wheat, rice, and Arabidopsis. The […]
Organismal growth requires extensive coordination between cells and tissues with different identities, and this is particularly important for plants with their rigid cell walls and lack of cell motility. A key mechanism for tissue coordination involving brassinosteroids has been identified by Kelly-Bellow et al. They started by looking at a dwarf mutant (isolated from an […]
There are about ~17,500 plants species that can participate in nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbioses. The majority of these (~17,300) are in the order Fabales, which includes the legumes. The remainder fall into three orders (Rosales, Fagales, and Cucubitales), leading to the question of whether this ability in these outliers is derived from the same evolutionary […]
Some of the most fascinating discoveries in biology are found at the interface between hosts and pathogens, where each organism is endlessly fighting for its survival. Plant pathogens produce a wide array of effector proteins that promote their virulence, but we only understand how some of these effectors function. Here, Li et al. have uncovered […]
Review. CRISPR/Cas-mediated plant genome editing: Outstanding challenges a decade after implementation I’ll be honest, I was surprised to see “a decade after implementation” in this title, but indeed, the first publication describing CRISPR/Cas in plants was in 2013. We’ve learned a lot in the past 10 years and the technology provides many opportunities, but challenges […]
Plant Physiology Webinar: Fruit Crops (1) Celebrating the July 2023 Focus Issue on Fruit Crops Recorded Wednesday, July 12, 2023 About This Webinar Fruits are major sources of nutrients for humans, and fruit growing is a significant driver for economic growth and development in rural areas and their communities worldwide. The fruit industry faces enormous […]