The Ug99 strain of wheat stem rust pathogen Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) emerged in Uganda in 1999 and presents a significant threat to global wheat production. Genetic analysis indicates it is distinct from other Pgt races. Li et al. set out to understand its origins. Puccinia graminis are dikaryotic fungi meaning they carry […]
Like something from Jurassic Park, a tiny insect embedded in amber has provided new insights into life millions of years ago. But in this case, the 99 million year old insect shows us that, as Darwin surmised, insects really were important contributors to angiosperm pollination from their origins. In fact, this pollen-carrying insect (a tumbling […]
For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving next weekend, here’s an article full of fun facts to share over the salad. Gullino et al. describe the history of salad (mentioned by Virgil and Pliny) and the rapid growth in the prepared salad industry. They describe the challenge of growing and getting these fragile leaves to market. […]
Review: The role of peptides cleaved from protein precursors in eliciting plant stress reactions Although the first signaling peptide identified in plants, systemin, is involved in stress responses, developmentally important peptide signals have largely occupied the limelight. This Tansley Review by Chen et al. summarizes recent insights into peptides with a role in stress responses: […]
We’re excited to annouce the publication of The Plant Cell‘s latest Teaching Tool, “Computational Microscopy: Revealing Molecular Mechanisms in Plants Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations,” by Jiangyan Feng, Jiming Chen, Balaji Selvam, and Diwakar Shukla. Available without subscription at The Plant Cell (soon) and Plantae.org. DOWNLOAD THE RESOURCES HERE Virtually all processes in living organisms, from […]
Simply put, as food demand increases due to population growth and increased affluence, crop yields are likely to decrease due to the changing climate. Plant scientists will be familiar with many research avenues that aim to address this disconnect, ranging from increasing crop resilience to abiotic stresses, improving nutrient use efficiencies, and decreasing loss to […]
This study, from scientists at Corteva Agriscience, demonstrates a yield boost in transgenic maize overexpressing a gene encoding a transcription factor. Expression of zmm28, a maize MADS-box transcription factor gene, is elevated through fusion to a maize GOS2 promoter, which provides moderate, constitutive expression in all cell types (GOS2 encodes a translation-initiation factor). The authors […]
We all know the importance of staying upright, especially for our grass crops. Here, Zhang et al. identified a gene underlying a large-effect quantitative trait locus that confers stiff stalks, so prevents lodging. They show that the stiff-stock allele carries a large transposon that strongly represses expression of the encoded F-box protein. Lines carrying this […]
Review: Genetic strategies for improving crop yields Simply put, as food demand increases due to population growth and increased affluence, crop yields are likely to decrease due to the changing climate. Plant scientists will be familiar with many research avenues that aim to address this disconnect, ranging from increasing crop resilience to abiotic stresses, improving […]