Cell walls are complex mixtures of cellulose microfibrils, proteins and other materials. Their mechanical properties can be measured and modeled, but it is not always simple to translate these measurements to changes at the molecular level. Zhang et al. used atomic force microscopy to provide an unprecedented view of how cellulose microfibrils respond to stress […]
Cell size is determined by growth rate and frequency of division. Studies in yeast revealed mechanisms that coordinate these processes, as well as the crucial checkpoint controls that ensure the cell is “ready” to divide, but can models from single-celled organisms be applied to multicellular ones that have intrinsic differences including mechanical constraints? Jones et […]
Cereal grasses are of course economically important, but they also have large repetitive genomes with large pericentromeric regions that have been difficult to map and sequence. Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is used for human and animal food and fermented to produce beer and whisky. A barley sequence assembly was published in 2012, but now Mascher […]
We all learned the series milli-, micro-, nano-, pico-, femto-, but I didn’t learn atto- (10-18), as it’s rarely used in biology, representing such a tiny number (FYI, atto- is followed by zepto- and yocto-). Li et al provide a method for quantifying gibberellin (GA) hormones at “near attomole” amounts from a single Arabidopsis flower. […]
A pair of Breakthrough Technology papers in Plant Physiology discusses new tools to identify hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins and insights into their evolution. Hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins (HRGPs) are repeat-rich cell wall proteins that have been described as falling into three large families: arabinogalactan-proteins (AGPs), extensins (EXTs), and proline-rich proteins (PRPs). In the first paper (10.1104/pp.17.00294), Johnson et al. […]
Phytochromes were first characterized in classic studies of plants, in which their contributions to seed germination and initiation of flowering were described. Subsequently, phytochromes were identified in cyanobacteria and in non-photosynthetic organisms including fungi. Rockwell and Lagarias review the structure and function of phytochromes in diverse organisms, describe current models for the origin of plant phytochromes, […]
The ancestors of land plants were aquatic. Myriad changes accompanied the transition from aquatic to terrestrial life, including changes necessitated by the difference in light intensity and quality. Bryophytes, the earliest diverging land plants, have some characteristics that reveal how plants transitioned from aquatic algae. The moss Physcomitrella patens has become a model for the […]
Nature has published an Outlook feature on the topic of Food Security with the following overview articles, all useful for teaching: Food security, Nutrition: A world of insecurity, Agrobiodiversity: The living library, Bioengineering: Solar upgrade, Egypt: Space to grow, Perspective: Look beyond production, Sustainability: A meaty issue, and Technology: The future of agriculture
Correspondence: Discussion about the US National Academies GE crop report ($) A series of letters has been published in Nature Biotechnology on the topic of the US National Academies report Genetically Engineered Crops: Experiences and Prospects. From Dec 2016, US National Academies report misses the mark. In the April 2017 issue, authors of the report […]