The Amazon rainforest stores 30% of land-based ecosystem carbon. How are carbon stores affected by selective tree removal and subsequent regrowth? Stored carbon continues to be lost for several years after logging due to damage-associated mortality of surviving trees. Piponoit et al. use data from more than one hundred Amazonian forest plots to examine how […]
Disease-causing organisms attack as a population of diverse individuals. Is it possible to reduce the virulence of this population by introducing less-virulent individuals? Some studies have shown such an effect; as an example, application of low-virulence strains of Aspergillus flavus can protect crops by competing with virulent, toxin-producing strains. Lindsay et al. explore this question […]
Two papers in Current Biology examine the genetics behind plant-pollinator interactions , focusing on genes controlling floral scent. Amrad et al. 10.1016/j.cub.2016.10.023 explore differences between bee, hawkmoth and hummingbird pollinated species of Petunia. They identify changes in expression in several genes including those encoding BSMT (benzoic acid/salicylic acid carboxyl methyltransferase) and BPBT (benzoyl-CoA:benzylalcohol/2-phenylethanol benzoyltransferase) and […]
The autophagosome, a cellular compartment involved in the turnover of macromolecules, contributes to nutrient homeostasis, stress resilience and defense. Although several proteins have been identified as contributing to autophagosome formation and function, the precise origins of the autophagosome have remained unclear. Using imaging, labeling and Arabidopsis mutants, Zhuang et al. show that the autophagosomal membrane […]
Plants perceive microbial pathogens though cell-surface receptors that recognize conserved microbial patterns such as flagellin. Previous studies have identified the WRKY family of transcription factors as contributors to Microbial-Associated Molecular Pattern (MAMP)-Triggered Immunity (MTI). Birkenbihl et al. use chromatin-immunoprecipitation to identify direct targets of three WRKY transcription factors following stimulation by the MAMP peptide flg-22. […]
When a plant species is introduced to a new region, it brings with it “hitchhikers” – other associated organisms. Sometimes, these hitchhikers negatively impact the environment into which they are introduced, for example by facilitating the host’s invasiveness, or through direct detrimental effects (such as pathogenicity) on native plants. Factors that determine whether a hitchhiker […]
Orphan legumes, which include cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), Bambara groundnut (V. subterranea), grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) and marama bean (Tylosema esculentum), are important food sources for many farmers, but have largely been ignored by breeders and industry. Cullis and Kunert argue that some of these species can provide traits such as drought tolerance to benefit major […]
Coffee is a hugely popular beverage and contributes immeasurably to human productivity, but demand has risen by 50% in the past 20 years while coffee production is vulnerable to disease and climate change. Mehrabi and Lashermes observe that the popular arabica coffee comes from the plant Coffea arabica, which arose in Ethiopia from a hybridization […]
Casadevall and Fang set out several proposals for research training to help ensure scientific “rigor”, which they define as promoting confidence in the truth or accuracy of the findings. The authors propose and elaborate on five foundations for scientific rigor: Redundancy in experimental design, recognition of error, intellectual honesty, sound statistical analysis, and avoidance of […]