Happy New Year! Welcome to our latest edition of Plant Science Research Weekly, featuring contributions from several of our new cohort of Plantae Fellows, who will be helping us keep up with exciting developments in plant sciences. Enjoy! The evolutionary advantage of losing genes after endosymbiosis The…

Xu Liu, first author of "Stress response proteins NRP1 and NRP2 are pro-survival factors that inhibit cell death during ER stress" Current Position: Associate research fellow (South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences) Education: PhD at South China Normal University in 2012 Non-scientific…

Yuhua Yang, first author of "Stress response proteins NRP1 and NRP2 are pro-survival factors that inhibit cell death during ER stress" Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow (South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences) Education: PhD at University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences…

Jingjing Ma, first author of "MADS-box transcription factors MADS11 and DAL1 interact to mediate the vegetative-to-reproductive transition in pine" Current Position：PhD student in the College of Biological Sciences and Technology at Beijing Forestry University, China Education：PhD (2021) in…

Ma et al. investigate a VDAL protein from Verticillium dahliae that can enhance plant disease. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab221 By Aifang Ma, Zhizhong Gong and Junsheng Qi Background: Verticillium wilt, also called a plant cancer disease, causes massive losses in multiple crops…

Elena Andrea Pelech, first author of "Photosynthesis, yield, energy balance, and water-use of intercropped maize and soybean" Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher Education: PhD. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA; BSc University of Essex, UK Non-scientific Interests: Mythology,…

Yuan Huang, first author of the research article “Species-specific gene partial duplication in Arabidopsis thaliana evolved novel phenotypic effects on morphological traits under strong positive selection” Current Position: Professor at Yunnan Normal University, China Education: Ph.D, Kunming…

Muhammad Zaki Jawaid, first author of "A Biophysical Model for Plant Cell Plate Maturation Based on the Contribution of a Spreading Force" Current Position: Graduate Student Researcher Education: Ph.D Physics (Expected 2022), B.S. Physics 2015 Non-Scientific Interests: Fingerstyle/Lead Guitar,…