Entries by Mary Williams

Review: Bryophytes as model systems for studying evolutionary cell and developmental biology (Plant Cell)

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The development of Arabidopsis as a model system greatly advanced the field of plant cell biology by bringing in molecular approaches, so much of our conceptual foundation rests on studies from angiosperms. More recently, model bryophytes, particularly Marchantia polymorpha (liverworts) and Physcomitrium patens (mosses) have provided additional insights, as discussed in this review by Naramoto […]

Plant Science Research Weekly: September 24, 2021

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Review: Fifteen compelling open questions in plant cell biology As part of The Plant Cell’s upcoming celebration of plant cell biology, Roeder et al. write about fifteen of the “open questions” in the field. This, and the other reviews that make up the focus issue, provide valuable insights into the leading edge of the discipline. […]

Help us to curate an equity, diversity, and inclusion calendar

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We are a diverse community and celebrate many culturally significant dates, some with religious roots, and others that recognize our different heritages and identities. As part of our ongoing equity, diversity and inclusion efforts, we are curating an “equity, diversity, and inclusion calendar”. The purpose of an equity calendar is to raise awareness of and […]

Review: Root plasticity under abiotic stress (Plant Physiol.)

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For millennia, humans have selected desirable traits in the above-ground part of plants, but below-ground traits have been only indirectly selected for. Thus, roots are ripe for optimization, and hold particular promise in efforts to make crops more resilient and efficient. This Update, by Karlova et al., describe our current understanding of the molecular basis […]

Review: Evolutionary innovations driving abiotic stress tolerance in C4 grasses and cereals (Plant Cell)

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Grasses fall into two clades, the more temperate BOP clade of C3 grasses (Bambusoideae, Oryzoideae, and Pooideae subfamilies), and the more tropical PACMAD clade of C3 and C4 grasses (Panicoideae, Arundinoideae, Chloridoideae, Micrairoideae, Aristidoideae, and Danthonioideae subfamilies). This review, by Pardo and VanBuren, explores the origins of abiotic stress tolerance in the PACMAD clade, which […]

SHOOT: Phylogenetic gene search and ortholog inference (bioRxiv)

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BLAST (basic local alignment search tool) is more than 30 years old, and most readers have probably had the opportunity to BLAST a sequence. BLAST takes an input sequence and searches databases for closely related sequences. However, this tool uses only sequence information to find close matches. Hypothetically, two sequences that have very different origins […]

Plant Science Research Weekly: September 10, 2021

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Review: Root plasticity under abiotic stress For millennia, humans have selected desirable traits in the above-ground part of plants, but below-ground traits have been only indirectly selected. Thus, roots are ripe for optimization, and hold particular promise in efforts to make crops more resilient and efficient. This Update, by Karlova et al., describes our current […]