The development of the 3D shape of an is complex, and the contributions of underlying pathways are difficult to untangle. Battu et al. decouple the organ size and organ shape by conducting a thorough quantification of organ geometry in 3D together with Principle Component Analysis (PCA), and using the…

Viruses spreading to crops via tiny insects is one of agriculture’s biggest problems. Liang et al. uncovered the two-part strategy used by the tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) to hijack the whitefly, Bemisia tabaci. It’s a double dose of manipulation designed to guarantee infection. The virus…

It’s not too difficult to envision how a plant recognizes something very different from itself, like a bacterium, oomycete, or fungus. It’s a bit less obvious how a plant recognizes another plant as different from itself. This self-recognition is important when you think about parasitic plants, which…

Review.When the sun becomes too hot: Non-photochemical quenching in plants Plant photosynthetic machinery can easily be overwhelmed by strong sunlight. Therefore, plants developed a set of processes called Non-Photochemical Quenching, a safety valve that dissipates excess light energy as heat. In…

Behind the manuscripts are researchers, professors, professionals and students dedicated to advancing the field of plant science. You’ve seen our First Authors on Bluesky, Twitter and Facebook— now, read more about why they chose to pursue plant sciences and click on the links to read their articles. Srinivas…

This is such an engaging and though-provoking review article. I’d love to ask a group of students to think about what makes a tree a tree, including such questions as: How do we define trees? Do woody plants share a single origin? How many angiosperms are woody? The answer to those questions and more…

Photosynthetic organisms were long believed to only use visible light for energy capture, until the discovery of far-red photosynthesis challenged this view. Far-red photosynthesis is thought to be enabled by the presence of the pigment chlorophyll f. Although previous studies have identified chlorophyll…

I expect we’ve all been captivated by images of the beautiful spiral chloroplasts in the Spirogyra genus of filamentous algae, and who could forget that name? A new paper by Goldbecker et al. presents the genome of Spirogyra pratensis, uncovering not only some insights into this remarkable structure,…