Chris Martine is a Professor of Biology at Bucknell University. He is also an excellent communicator of plant science, through his YouTube series “Plants are Cool Too“. In 2016 he was awarded the New England Biolabs Passion in Science Award. You can see him talk about his science communication efforts in this short talk presented […]
Mike Blatt, Editor-in-Chief of Plant Physiology, was recently interviewed for the “People Behind the Science” podcast series. Read excerpts and hear the full interview here http://www.peoplebehindthescience.com/dr-mike-blatt/#more-5509.
Hydathodes are the sites of guttation, which is a process by which water and solutes are pushed out of leaves by the force of root pressure when the rate of transpiration is low (for example at night). Hydathodes have numerous stomata-like pores and are located near vascular ends. Like stomata, hydathodes provide infection opportunities for […]
Fultz and Slotkin explore the question of how transposable element (TE) silencing is initiated. As they describe, there are two recognized mechanisms, one based on TE identity (meaning that it can be silenced through siRNAs initiated from a related TE, and in which de novo silencing can occur in the absence of mRNA production), and […]
Familiar citrus fruits such as sweet orange, lemon, lime and grapefruit are hybrids of three species: Citrus reticulate (mandarin), C. medica (citron), and C. maxima (pummelo). Cultivated varieties are generally vegetatively propagated, with diversity arising from spontaneous or induced somatic mutations. Butelli et al. previously showed that anthocyanin accumulation in sweet orange is correlated with […]
Plant growth chambers are indispensable for most plant science researchers, but of course they do not replicate the outdoor environment. Vialet-Chabrand and Matthews et al. explore the effect of realistic, dynamic fluctuating light (for example as influenced by clouds and leaves) versus light provided in more static conditions (square wave). Plants grown under fluctuating light […]
It’s easy to visualize how a sheet of cells grows, but how does a sheet of cells form a complex, three-dimensional structure? Rebocho et al. describe how differential growth rates between cell layers and across the growing surface can produce a variety of complex shapes. As a model for shape complexity, the authors examine growth […]
There are about 50,000 fungal species that form mycorrhizal associations with about 250,000 plant species. These associations significantly increase plant productivity by increasing nutrient uptake, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, although with a considerable carbon cost to plants. Van der Heijden et al. review the ecology and evolution of mycorrhizal associations, focusing on their biodiversity and […]
Sixty years ago, the first report of isoprene (C5H8; 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene) emissions from plants was published. Isoprenes are the largest source of non-methane hydrocarbons in Earth’s atmosphere; furthermore, isoprene is reactive in atmospheric chemistry and can be converted into a variety of harmful compounds. Sharkey and Monson provide a historical overview of the development of our […]