Fungal invasion exploits plant cell membrane trafficking components. For instance, plant immunity against fungi such as Vlumeria graminis f.sp. hordei (Bgh) is defined through two stages: pre- and post-invasive immunity. Nielsen et al. found that Vacuolar Protein Sorting 9a (VPS9a) acts as a guanine…

ARMADILLO-REPEAT KINESIN 1 (ARK1) promotes microtubule disassembly and NIMA-RELATED KINASE 6 (NEK6) organizes microtubule arrays. Previous studies showed that NEK6 interacts with ARK1 through Armadillo-repeat (ARM) cargo domain. Eng et al. looked at two constructs: one which lacks ARM (ARK1▲ARM-GFP)…

Chickpea is a highly cultivated member of the legume family, mostly in India, Australia, Pakistan, Turkey, Burma, Iran, Canada and the US. The detrimental threat for chickpea is the invasion of Ascochyta blight, which is caused by the fungal pathogen Ascochyta rabiei (formerly known as Phoma rabiei).  The…

Nuclear accidents in recent years such as the Fukushima incident during the tsunami in 2011 revealed the detrimental effects of leaked radioactive cesium (Cs) in environmental soil and water. Due to Cs's chemical similarity with potassium, an essential macronutrient for plants, cesium is taken up by…

DNA sequencing was slow before the development of high throughput sequencing. Portable DNA sequencing, which would make sequencing on-site a reality, was impossible until recently. Parker et al. report on the on-site use of MinION from Oxford Nanopore Technologies for DNA barcoding, which yields data…

This week's issue of What We're Reading is guest edited by Arif Ashraf, a PhD student at Iwate University, Japan, and Graduate Student Ambassador of ASPB. His research interest is understanding the hormonal interplay in primary root development of Arabidopsis thaliana. He blogs about plant science at…

Really useful post about whether or not graduate school is right for you. "If you’re unsure about whether you should pursue a Ph.D., taking some time away from academia to explore your career interests and professional goals can help crystallize whether further training makes sense. For chemical…

By Sneha Kulkarni.  This post How socio-cultural factors influence publication practices in China was originally published on Editage Insights. The recent mass retraction case in which the journal Tumor Biology retracted about 107 papers authored by Chinese researchers sparked discussions about several…