Healthy plants require access to several mineral nutrients, which are usually taken up in ionic form. The details of nutrient uptake, distribution, and function have been painstakingly revealed over several decades. In this excellent new Tansley Review, Kunz et al. provide an overview of ion homeostasis with a focus on the chloroplast and the roles […]
Coale et al. provide an exciting peek into the evolution of a nitrogen-fixing organelle (called a nitroplast) in their studies of a tiny marine alga, Braarudosphaera bigelowii and its endosymbiont cyanobacterium, Candidatus Atelocyanobacterium thalassa (UCYN-A). Plant biologists are familiar with other nitrogen-fixing endosymbionts, such as the rhizobia that reside in plant nodules. And of course, […]
Review: Chloroplast ion homeostasis Healthy plants require access to several mineral nutrients, which are usually taken up in ionic form. The details of nutrient uptake, distribution, and function have been painstakingly revealed over several decades. In this excellent new Tansley Review, Kunz et al. provide an overview of ion homeostasis with a focus on the […]
I remember how amazed I was the first time I saw an animation of ATP synthase doing its job. This fantastic engine is largely conserved across the domains of life, with some variation as highlighted in this review of the chloroplast ATP synthase by Rühle et al. The plastid form is a rotary form, written […]
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are agents of damage but also potent signals. Here, Singh et al. review the cellular targets that support ROS signaling across the green kingdom. Many of the signaling roles for ROS have been uncovered in Arabidopsis and other angiosperms, so it is interesting to look at their presence in other plant […]
For many reasons, the voices of researchers from the Global South often go unheard. Many of these reasons are financial; big international conferences are frequently held at places that require distant travel, and registration and travel fees can be beyond the reach of modestly-funded scientists. Visa challenges and systemic biases also contribute. In 2023, Auge […]
Type-IV glandular trichomes, which produce acylsugars, are effective deterrents against herbivory in Solanum, but they only persist in the juvenile stage of the cultivated tomato (S. lycopersicum). Therefore, these trichomes serve as a marker for the transition from juvenile to adult phases in developmental studies, as previously discovered by Vendemiatti et al. (2017). Now, Vendemiatti […]
Review. Chloroplast ATP synthase: From structure to engineering I remember how amazed I was the first time I saw an animation of ATP synthase doing its job. This fantastic engine is largely conserved across the domains of life, with some variation as highlighted in this review of the chloroplast ATP synthase by Rühle et al. […]
As photosynthetic organisms, algae can harness solar energy to do useful things, from environmental cleanup to producing fuels and other beneficial molecules. This review by Goold et al. provides an overview of how algae can be valuable platforms for synthetic biology and metabolic engineering through the incorporation of synthetic genomes. The authors build on the […]