The (apparently delicious) fruit called atemoya is produced from a hybrid of Annona squamosa (sugar apple) × Annona cherimola (cherimoya), native to the American tropics but now grown widely. The hybridization event led to plants with several ploidies; diploid, triploid and tetraploid, which serve as the experimental material for a study by Losada et al. […]
This is one of those “straight into the textbook” stories. Kellenberger et al. investigated the unusual petal pigmentation pattern of a South African daisy Gorteria diffusa, which has petals with odd lumpy irregular spots that mimic female flies and enhance pollination through sexual deception. The authors undertook an analysis of genes expressed in the spotted […]
Review: Proximity labeling in plants Genetic studies can suggest that two proteins function in the same pathway, but how can we figure out if they share the same space? In this review, Xu et al. provide an overview of proximity labeling, a method to identify proteins that co-localize in space. Proximity labeling uses a biotin […]
Don’t miss this excellent set of articles on the topic of crop diversity, organized by Susan McCouch, Loren Rieseberg, with Pamela Ronald. It includes five perspectives and six research articles, on topics such as breeding technologies and international policies. As the editors observe, having a very narrow range of crop diversity is both risky (more […]
This is a fun and interesting paper that combines two threads, a historical overview of the many contributions of Katherine Esau to plant anatomy (many of you have her book on your shelf) and the historical advancements in microscopy. Geitmann weaves these threads together by putting Esau’s drawings of plant structures side-by-side with contemporary images […]
In 2011, a group of scientists published an article called “One hundred important questions facing plant scientists”. Now, Armstrong et al. have provided an updated version of this, with an additional effort to draw on contributions from the global community, including non-specialists, to identify key questions. An interesting outcome is the notable increase in the […]
Short-format training (SFT) provides opportunities for people to acquire knowledge and skills outside of traditional degree-granting programs. Unfortunately, in spite of good intentions, there’s evidence to suggest that the SFTs aren’t always very effective, and that the knowledge gained doesn’t necessarily persist. A group of experts and practitioners of SFT have crafted a set of […]
Special feature: Harnessing crop diversity Don’t miss this excellent set of articles on the topic of crop diversity, organized by Susan McCouch, Loren Rieseberg, with Pamela Ronald. It includes five perspectives and six research articles, on topics such as breeding technologies and international policies. As the editors observe, having a very narrow range of crop […]
Plant Physiology Webinar: How Respiratory Energy Can Drive *Everything* Celebrating the April 2023 Focus Issue on Respiration Recorded Thursday April 6, 2023 About this webinar Respiration is central to plant metabolism and consumes roughly half the carbon fixed by photosynthesis. As the climate warms, rates of respiration will increase, which has implications for plant […]