Don’t miss this opinion article by Taiz et al, which tries to close the door on the eternal question of how to describe and label the ability of plants to perceive and respond to their environment. Are plants intelligent? Can they learn? Do they have consciousness? The article draws on recent studies of animal neuroscience […]
Scientists are often asked to engage in public discourse as a way to counteract science denialism, but it’s not always clear if their efforts can change minds. A new study by Schmid and Betsch suggests that efforts to rebut are worthwhile. They showed subjects videos with climate denial messages about climate change and vaccines, and […]
Carotenoids are diverse structures that contribute to photosynthetic light harvesting and serve as pigments, photoprotectants, and precursors for vitamin A and signalling molecules. Phytoene synthase is the first committed enzyme for carotenoid synthesis, and in tomato it is encoded by two genes, PSY1 and PSY2. When compared at similar protein levels, PSY1 expression results in […]
Critical residues for carotenoid biosynthesis by phytoene synthase Carotenoids are diverse structures that contribute to photosynthetic light harvesting and serve as pigments, photoprotectants, and precursors for vitamin A and signalling molecules. Phytoene synthase is the first committed enzyme for carotenoid synthesis, and in tomato it is encoded by two genes, PSY1 and PSY2. When compared […]
By Michael R. Blatt and Mary Williams Note: This call for applications is now closed. Check back in autumn 2020 for a new call for AFEs. At the beginning of 2018 Plant Physiology welcomed 23 new Assistant Features Editors to the editorial board. Over the past eighteen months these young scientists have brought their passion […]
Clamydomonas reinhardtii is the most thoroughly characterized unicellular alga. Like yeast, it is a single-celled eukaryotic organism that is easy to culture, and it lives predominantly in its haploid form but is readily mated for genetic studies. Additionally, it is light-responsive, photosynthetic, and a facultative photoautotroph (meaning that it can be grown in the absence […]
One of the things I like most about synthetic biology is the “why not” attitude. This article by Bernhardsgrütter et al. is intriguing because rather than taking the standard “let’s fix Rubisco approach,” the authors started with a non-CO2 fixing enzyme and engineered it towards having carboxylase activity. Why not? The authors used the Design-Build-Test […]
Opium poppies produce opiates including morphine and thebaine. Derivatives of these compounds can also have diverse beneficial properties. One of these, naloxone, is a competitive opioid receptor antagonist that can be administered to counteract the effects of opioid overdose. Because of the rise in opioid abuse and addiction (130 Americans die every day from an […]
Root hairs vastly increase the surface area of the root in contact with the soil substrate, and are crucial for efficient water and nutrient uptake. They are also an excellent system for studies of polar growth or tip growth in cells, a process that involves the cytoskeleton, defined membrane domains, and vesicle trafficking. Rho-type GTPases […]