“Grassy biomes—from the steppes of Mongolia to the savannas of Tanzania— are predicted to be the ecosystems hardest hit by the ongoing climate and land use crises,” begins a Perspective by Strömberg and Staver in the August 4, 2022 Science special issue on Grasses that raises awareness of the unrecognized value of grasses and grasslands. […]
The plasma membrane (PM) is a critical interface between the cell and its environment and serves crucial sensing and transducing roles. This timely review by Medina-Puche and Lozano-Durán updates exciting new developments in understanding communication between the PM and intracellular organelles, focusing on abiotic and biotic stresses. The review sorts these interactions into three types: […]
C4 and CAM are both photosynthetic strategies that concentrate CO2 upstream of RuBisCO, somewhat uncoupling photosynthetic carbon fixation from transpirational water loss. Both strategies use the enzyme PEP-carboxylase to produce an organic acid, which can then be decarboxylated to provide CO2 to RuBisCO. In the C4 system, PEP-carboxylase operates in mesophyll cells and RuBisCO in […]
Science special issue on Grasses “Grassy biomes—from the steppes of Mongolia to the savannas of Tanzania— are predicted to be the ecosystems hardest hit by the ongoing climate and land use crises,” begins a Perspective by Strömberg and Staver in the August 4, 2022 Science special issue on Grasses that raises awareness of the unrecognized […]
By Jathish Ponnu, PhD, Plant Physiology Assistant Features Editor Prof. Christian Fankhauser is an eminent photobiologist passionate about phototropism and shade avoidance in plants. He works at the Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland and has served as a Monitoring Editor for Plant Physiology since 2018. Talking with Jathish Ponnu, an Assistant Features […]
The observation that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” (attributed to philosopher George Santayana) is quite relevant for our efforts to comprehend the impacts of climate change. As we observe temperature and rainfall records being broken with increasing frequency, it remains difficult to know where things are headed, but at […]
A robust mechanism for resetting juvenility during each generation in Arabidopsis Proper development requires an aging program that is regulated throughout the entire lifespan of an organism as well as across generations. In plants, reproductive cells are derived from differentiated cells, and thus the aging program encoded in these reproductive cells must be rejuvenated per […]
We’re excited to announce the publication of The Plant Cell’s latest Teaching Tool, “Plants and Python,” by Robert VanBuren, Alejandra Rougon-Cardoso, Erik J. Amézquita, Evelia L. Coss-Navarrete, Aarón Espinosa-Jaime, Omar Andres Gonzalez-Iturbe, Alicia C. Luckie-Duque, Eddy Mendoza-Galindo, Jeremy Pardo, Guillermo Rodríguez-Guerrero, Pablo Y. Rosiles-Loeza, Marilyn Vásquez-Cruz, Selene L. Fernandez-Valverde, Tania Hernández-Hernández, Sourabh Palande, and Daniel […]
Kawa and Brady review the contributions and responses of individual cell types and cell identities in plant biotic interactions, both pathogenic and commensal. The first step in these interactions is the perception of the microbes by root cells, which involves highly conserved microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) such as flagellin. MAMPs can trigger plant defense responses, […]