The AraGWAS Catalog: a curated and standardized Arabidopsis thaliana GWAS catalog
Blog, Plant Science Research Weekly, Research, Research BlogAraGWAS (aragwas.1001genomes.org) is a new useful tool developed within the 1001 Genome project that fully integrates and complements GWAP, EasyGWAS, AraPheno and AraGeno. With the availability of the 1001 genomes of Arabidopsis, the number of association studies is dramatically increasing but a way…
Review: Balancing immunity and yield in crop plants
Blog, Plant Science Research Weekly, Research, Research BlogDuring pathogen invasion, plant resources are diverted from further growth to activation of plant immune response. This review focuses on the recent advances in understanding the complex relationship between immunity regulation and yield production in the model monocot crop rice (Oryza sativa). Many…
Base-editing in RNA and DNA
Blog, Plant Science Research Weekly, Research, Research BlogThe ability to engineer precise changes in nucleic acid sequences has advanced rapidly over the last few years. Since the development of genome editing technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9, a modified version known as base editing has sought to reliably convert individual nucleotides. All known base…
What We're Reading: November 3rd
Blog, WWR Full PostReview: Plant hormone transporters: what we know and what we would like to know
Hormones are signaling molecules, and in most (but not all) cases part of their function is to convey information from one cell or tissue to another, sometimes from cell-to-cell and sometimes through vascular tissues.…
Find a New Career Opportunity Today - November 1, 2017
Blog, Careers, Careers - Blog
ASPB and Plantae have already set a tone of collaboration and constant improvement by and for plant scientists. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best recruitment resources for our members, we are excited to announce the launch of our new and expanded online employment resource: the…
Review: Outer, inner and planar polarity in the Arabidopsis root
Blog, Plant Science Research Weekly, Research, Research BlogDespite vast differences across all living organisms, most eukaryotes display some form of cellular polarity which enables them to carry out specialized functions. The coordination of cell polarity within a single tissue layer is known as planar polarity. Nakamura and Grebe highlight the unique execution…
Review: The responses of root system architecture to nutrients
Blog, Plant Science Research Weekly, Research, Research BlogThe arrangement of a plant’s root system in the soil (root system architecture, RSA) changes in response to nutrients through different signaling pathways. It is assumed that RSA adapts to optimize the uptake of nutrients from the environment, but strong evidence is still lacking. This review by Shahzad…
PLETHORA transcription factors orchestrate de novo organ patterning during Arabidopsis lateral root outgrowth
Blog, Plant Science Research Weekly, Research, Research BlogLateral root development in plants is a complex process that involves co-ordination of several molecular components to initiate the formation of meristematic cells. Uncovering the details of these processes is confounded by functional redundancy and tight cyclic regulation of different components in…
Light sheet microscopy imaging of light absorption and photosynthesis distribution in plant tissue
Blog, Plant Science Research Weekly, Research, Research BlogChlorophyll fluorescence is a common tool to investigate the behavior of the photosynthetic appratus, therefore photosynthetic capacity, at any physiological state. However, the different optical density of the samples can lead to light-dependent over- or underestimation of effective PSII quantum yields.…