Rachel M. McCoy, first author of "Allelopathy as an evolutionary game" Current Position: Postdoc in Dr. Ying Li’s lab at Purdue University Education: Ph.D. in Horticulture (Purdue University); B.S. in Biology (University of Evansville) Non-scientific Interests: cats, gardening, baking, traveling,…

Yang Gao, first author of "Chloroplast translational regulation uncovers nonessential photosynthesis genes as key players in plant cold acclimation" Current Position: Postdoctoral researcher in the research group of Translational Regulation in Plants headed by Dr. Reimo Zoschke at the Max Planck Institute…

Jiaqi Hou, first author of "The Histone Deacetylase 1/ GSK3/SHAGGY-Like Kinase 2/ BRASSINAZOLE RESISTANT 1 Module Controls Lateral Root Formation in Rice" Current Position: PhD Student, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University Education: B.S., School of Life Science and Technology, Wuhan Polytechnic…

Min-Yao Jhu, first author of "Heinz resistant tomato cultivars exhibit a lignin-based resistance to field dodder (Cuscuta campestris) parasitism" Current Position: Postdoctoral research associate at Crop Science Centre, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. Education: Ph.D.…

Photosynthesis is an attractive target for improving crop yields, and tailoring downstream photosynthesis-associated metabolism is a relatively unexplored path for achieving this. Chlorella ohadii is the fastest growing photosynthetic organism identified, has high photosynthetic rates, and can survive…

Rice grain is mainly composed of starch, which provides the necessary energy and sugars for successful germination and seedling development. Since rice is the most widely consumed crop, studying the regulators that control starch synthesis is crucial to ensure food security for more than half the world‘s…

If you work with grasses, you are probably familiar with the scutellum –the shield-like cotyledon typical of seeds from these plants. This structure has a renowned role in transferring nutrients to the growing embryo. However, Murphy and colleagues show us that not only does this structure look like…

Despite a large variation in leaf morphology, laminar leaf anatomy is largely conserved, comprising two developmentally distinct mesophyll tissues, the palisade and spongy mesophyll. Spongy mesophyll cells along with intercellular spaces form an interconnected network to maximize the surface area for…