The excellent review by Moses et al. starts by defining the oft-confused terms metabolite engineering and systems biology. Although systems biology can contribute to the former, it is distinguished by the use of “defined ‘parts’ that are easily combined and exchanged, using standardized workflows and often combined with modelling and computational methods.” The authors go […]
Many insights about hormone function have come from “spray and pray” studies, but generally the precision of application of the hormone limits their value. Poxson et al. describe an adaption of an organic electronic ionic pump (OEIP; developed originally for studies of mammalian cells) for introducing small quantities of the hormone auxin to a precise […]
During germination, the rice shoot is protected by the coleoptile, which is a highly light and hormone-sensitive tissue. While searching for genes involved in ethylene responses, Xiong et al. identified a mutant with an elongated coleoptile, in which the subtending mesocotyl is also elongated; they named this mutant gaoyao1 (gy1), a Chinese name meaning “high […]
Review: Synthetic biology approaches for the production of plant metabolites in unicellular organisms ($) This excellent review by Moses et al. starts by defining the oft-confused terms metabolite engineering and systems biology. Although systems biology can contribute to the former, it is distinguished by the use of “defined ‘parts’ that are easily combined and exchanged, […]
Abstract Scientific integrity is at the forefront of the scientific research enterprise. This paper provides an overview of key existing efforts on scientific integrity by federal agencies, foundations, nonprofit organizations, professional societies, and academia from 1989 to April 2016. It serves as a resource for the scientific community on scientific integrity work and helps to […]
Volume 95 Issue 20 | p. 30 Issue Date: May 15, 2017 | Web Date: May 9, 2017 By Chemjobber The best science happens when all hypotheses are considered and all voices are heard. Not only that: If important safety information isn’t communicated among all lab members, someone could get hurt. How can we promote […]
Areas of expertise Chlamydomonas, chloroplast biology, metabolic regulation, transcriptomics, proteomics, micronutrients. Sabeeha Merchant is a Professor of Biochemistry and a member of the Molecular Biology Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. She completed BS and PhD degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a Post-doctoral Scholar at Harvard University. She has […]
Areas of expertise Genomics, microRNAs, bioinformatics, epigenetics. Blake Meyers is a member at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, and a Professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He completed his BA degree at the University of Chicago and his MS and PhD degrees at the University of California, Davis. Previously, he […]
Areas of expertise Metabolic regulation, secondary metabolism/natural products, statistical genetics, transcriptome and metabolome analysis, plant–biotic interactions. Dan Kliebenstein is a Professor of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis. He completed a BS degree at Iowa State University and a PhD degree at Cornell University and was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Max Planck […]