CropLife International has a series called “Food Heroes” – recently they profiled plant scientist Sophien Kamoun. Why did you want to be a plant scientist? I became a scientist because I grew up being extremely curious about the natural world. I wanted to know how living organisms function. How they became the way they are. […]
Jenna Gallagos is a talented writer and a scientist, and she’s spending this summer as a writing fellow at the Washington Post. Here’s her latest, “10 mega myths about farming to remember on your next grocery run” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/07/24/10-mega-myths-about-farming-to-remember-on-your-next-grocery-run/#
By 2050, the planet’s population is predicted to have reached 9.6 billion and pressure on our food sources will have intensified. Eminent plant scientist and molecular biologist Professor Sir David Baulcombe believes science and technology must provide the answers to this challenge. “I think it’s quite clear that modern agricultural methods are not sustainable,” says […]
Current Biology interviews Jane Langdale, Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford University. Jane Langdale received a PhD in human genetics from the University of London. For her postdoc, she switched to plant genetics, working with Tim Nelson at Yale University on maize leaf development. In 1990, she returned to the UK to […]
Young Wha Lee, Data Scientist at Monsanto, talks about searching for a career that bridges interests and gives joy, and how to approach industry jobs. In the Decoding Life series, we talk to geneticists with diverse career paths, tracing the many directions possible after research training. This series is brought to you by the GSA […]
The transparency and simplicity of the Arabidopsis root apex has made it an excellent model through which to understand the processes that lead from undifferentiated meristem cells to mature root tissues. Drapek et al. review the gene regulatory networks (GRNs) that underlie the development of the endodermis in Arabidopsis root tips. They first summarize the […]
Blue light regulates diverse functions including phototropism and chloroplast movements. Christie et al. summarize recent updates in understanding the signalling pathway between light perception by phototropins and downstream responses. They describe the central roles for the 33 members (in Arabidopsis) of the NRL protein family, named for the founding members NON-PHOTOTROPIC HYPOCOTYL (NPH3) and ROOT […]
Calcium signalling is a ubiquitous process in plants and other organisms. Transporters at the plasma and vacuolar (tonoplast) membranes control entry and exit of calcium ion into the cytoplasm, and it is the cytoplasmic calcium level ([Ca2+]cyt) that affects cellular responses, as calcium-binding proteins alter their activities or binding properties in response to changing calcium […]
Review: The evolution of calcium-based signalling in plants Calcium signalling is a ubiquitous process in plants and other organisms. Transporters at the plasma and vacuolar (tonoplast) membranes control entry and exit of calcium ion into the cytoplasm, and it is the cytoplasmic calcium level ([Ca2+]cyt) that affects cellular responses, as calcium-binding proteins alter their activities […]