Recent Posts

Plant Direct Q&A with Alexis Maizel

What does your lab work on? My lab studies the mechanisms of lateral root morphogenesis  in Arabidopsis. We combine molecular genetics, cell biology and microscopy to understand how these new roots are robustly formed. Tell us about the key findings from your recent article in Plant Direct. This…

Plant Direct Q&A with Elizabeth Haswell

What does your lab work on? My group studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which plants sense and response to mechanical stimuli. In particular, we focus on a class of molecular mechanoreceptors called mechanosensitive ion channels. Tell us about the key findings from your recent article…

Plant Direct Q&A with Joshua Windhalm

What does your lab work on? We combine functional genomics with synthetic biology approaches to study the metabolism of redox-active plant natural products that can harnessed for applications relevant to agriculture and human health.  We are particularly interested in specialized quinones like…

Plant Science Research Weekly: July 12th

Review: Synthetic biology in photosynthetic microbes: present and future Photosynthetic microbes are emerging models for synthetic biology applications since they possess relatively simple physiology and cellular organization, fast growth in liquid culture, and facile genetic manipulation. In this…

Call for Mentors!

We are all thankful for the mentors in our life, pay it forward and become a mentor yourself.    The American Society of Plant Biologists is launching a mentoring platform through the Plantae Job Center. This platform will allow plant science professionals the opportunity to find mentors based on…

Announcing the Career Fair at Plant Biology 2019

This year at Plant Biology 2019, we will have several Career Fair activities for you to participate in. On the Plantae Job Center, both employees and job seekers will be able to mark on their jobs or profiles that they will be attending Plant Biology 2019. Employers will also be able to purchase…

12 inquiry-based labs to explore the 12 principles of plant biology

The 12 Principles of Plant Biology are a framework to support understanding of the critical roles of plants to create, improve and sustain life These 12 inquiry-based activities were developed to support the teaching of plant biology, and are developed for use by students in middle school (approximately…

Salicylic acid, senescence, and heterosis

For a number of crops agricultural yields have been boosted by the phenomenon of heterosis or hybrid vigour, where a hybrid outperforms either parent. Understanding the various mechanisms by which heterosis arises may facilitate the breeding of hybrids with increased vigour for further crop varieties…

Plant Science Research Weekly: May 24th

Default activation and nuclear translocation of the plant cellular energy sensor SnRK1 ($) When I’m using my laptop without it being plugged in, at some point it enters battery saving mode as it senses that the battery charge is getting low. Organisms also sense their low energy reserves and activate…