Entries by Mary Williams

Review: Host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions for plant breeding ($)

The idea that the microbes on and within an organism (the microbiota) influence an organism in positive, neutral and negative ways has been a hot topic in popular science, especially the role of the gut microbiota in human health and nutrition. Plants are similarly influenced by their microbiota, as reviewed by Kroll et al. Although […]

Review: Signaling in early maize kernel development

The formation of a maize kernel requires growth coordination between embryo, endosperm, and surrounding maternal tissues. Key molecular actors in this coordination are hormones, sugars, peptides and transcription factors. Doll et al. review recent advances in our understanding of maize kernel development, drawing on genetic and –omics data. The authors also point out similarities and […]

Review: Synthetic botany

As photosynthetic autotrophs, plants have the potential to convert sunlight into a vast array of useful products: to act as little green metabolic factories. Of course, they already provide us with everything from carbohydrates and vitamins to stimulants and medicinal compounds, but with a few small tweaks they can do so much more. Boehm et […]

Review: The increasing impact of activity-based protein profiling in plant science

Activity-based protein profiling is a proteomics approach that involves covalently labeling reporter tags to subsets of proteins based on their active sites. Morimoto and van der Hoorn define different types of probes and the types of proteins that they bind to. Activity profiling can reveal different activity levels of closely related protein-family members, and their […]

Trees’ ability to store carbon in doubt after groundbreaking Australian study

The ability of trees to offset carbon emissions has been questioned after a Western Sydney University study found common Australian trees are unable to store as much carbon as previously thought. Published in the Nature Climate Change journal, the research found that Australia’s iconic Eucalyptus forests are likely to need additional soil nutrients in order […]