An RNA world Annual Reviews editions typically start with a brief autobiographical essay by a noted scientist. The 2023 edition of Annual Reviews in Plant Biology includes a profile of David Baulcombe, the well-known scientist whose work was foundational in revealing the roles of small RNAs in gene regulation and viral suppression. Baulcombe started his […]
Annual Reviews editions typically start with a brief autobiographical essay by a noted scientist. The 2023 edition of Annual Reviews in Plant Biology includes a profile of David Baulcombe, the well-known scientist whose work was foundational in revealing the roles of small RNAs in gene regulation and viral suppression. Baulcombe started his PhD in 1973, […]
What a wonderful review! As the title indicates, this review by Liu et al. looks at transposons, considering their “life cycle” – from introduction into a naïve genome, through amplification, diversification, silencing, reactivation, and ultimately domestication or loss-of-function. Besides this thorough-but-readable walk through the transposon life cycle, the review also takes a pan-organismal look at […]
The May 2023 issue of The Plant Cell has a focus on RNA biology, and some of the articles for this issue are online now. I particularly enjoyed this multi-author perspective review by Manavella et al., in which 12 RNA biology groups from across the globe share the questions that they find most compelling in […]
This is an interesting paper that grabbed my attention from the very first line: “Tomatoes are the second most valuable crop in the USA”. Of course, a key trait in these important fruits is their flavor, something the Harry Klee team at the University of Florida have been studying for years. Here, Frick et al. […]
Root system architecture (RSA) is a complex trait that directly or indirectly influences most aspects of plant survival, largely through its effects on nutrient and water uptake as well as support and anchoring. Its hidden nature has made it harder to study than the architecture of the shoot, and led to many innovative methods. Here, […]
Review: The epigenetic control of the transposable element life cycle in plant genomes and beyond What a wonderful review! As the title indicates, this review by Liu et al. looks at transposons, considering their “life cycle” – from introduction into a naïve genome, through amplification, diversification, silencing, reactivation, and ultimately domestication or loss-of-function. Besides this […]
I’m excited by the ways that knowledge about plant developmental and metabolic programs is being used to make new varieties of plants. This excellent review describes some of these applications such as changes in fruit size or seed number. De novo domestication is a specific type of application that allows the introduction of some of […]
In an evolutionary plot twist, most of the proteins needed inside the chloroplast are encoded in the nucleus and translated in the cytosol as preproteins. The preproteins are imported into the chloroplast through two membranes (outer and inner). Genetic and biochemical approaches have revealed many of the components of the multi-protein complexes that allow this […]