Some plants can only flower after a cold period. This cold period has been shown to cause epigenetic gene silencing of an inhibitor of flowering, which in Arabidopsis is encoded by FLC. Yang and Berry et al. explore the mechanism by which FLC is epigenetically silenced in response to cold. Previous studies…

CAM (crassulacean acid metabolism) is the form of photosynthesis in which carbon assimilation occurs at night. CAM allows plants, especially those growing in arid regions, to avoid excessive water loss. With the long-term goal of eventually engineering this water-conserving trait into crop plants, Wai…

Rubisco is a fascinating enzyme, which in plants is a hexadecamer made up of eight large (RbcL) and eight small (RbcS) subunits. The catalytic sites are buried within the enzyme at the interfaces between pairs of RbcL subunits. Rubisco catalyzes the first step in the carbon-fixing photosynthetic reactions,…

Two reviews in the Journal of Experimental Botany provide updates about protein secretion from plant cells. Wang et al. (10.1093/jxb/erx262) describe the conventional and unconventional pathways of protein secretion.  The conventional pathway for protein secretion starts with insertion of the nascent…

Here’s a great collection of articles that consider various approaches to increase crop productivity through enhancements to photosynthesis. The authors of the papers in this collection include many of  the leading photosynthesis researchers, and the topics include structural and architectural improvements…

Leyser summarizes our current understanding of the what, how and why of what auxin does (and doesn’t) do. For example, she points out that, “Auxin does not instruct cells to do anything in particular, but rather it influences the  behavior of cells according to their pre-existing identity.” She…

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…

In this episode Ivan and Liz talk with Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences and a faculty member of the Center for Population Biology and the Genome Center at the University of California-Davis. Jeffrey is an evolutionary geneticist and erstwhile ethnobotanist studying…