Shengbin Liu, first author of "Brachypodium distachyon UNICULME4 and LAXATUM-A are redundantly required for development" Current Position: Research Associate – The third people’s hospital of Chengdu (China) Education : Bachelor of Biological Sciences, Dali University; Master：Biochemistry and…

Jia Yuan Ye,  first author of “STOP1 activates NRT1.1-mediated nitrate uptake to create a favorable rhizopheric pH for plant adaptation to acidity” Current position: PhD student, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University Education: BS, Zhejiang University, China Non-scientific…

Paolo Maria Triozzi, first author of "Spatiotemporal cytokinin response imaging and ISOPENTENYLTRANSFERASE 3 function in Medicago nodule development" Current Position: Post Doc in Prof. Matias Kirst’s Lab at the School of Forest, Fisheries and Geomatics Sciences, University of Florida. Education:…

Have you noticed that the quality and resolution of cell images has been getting better and better? Weiner et al. review the recent advances in 3D electron microscopy (EM) technologies that have provided these strikingly beautiful and informative images. Like “classic” transmission EM, EM tomography…

Calcium ions (Ca2+) are ubiquitous and essential signals, with a very steep concentration gradient from outside to inside the cell. Numerous studies from across the kingdoms have demonstrated that transient Ca2+ fluxes convey information of many types. Here, Grenzi et al. provide an Update on the tools…

This review by Wulff and Krattinger is a beautifully written “must read”. As the title suggests, it takes the reader on a journey of scientific progress, starting from the “first controlled cross between two wheat species” to the present, with a look into the future. Triticum aestivum (bread…

Unlike animal cells, plant cells cannot migrate due to the presence of interconnected rigid cell walls, thus plant development relies on a continuous supply of new cells, (fueled by the cell cycle) to form new organs throughout their life. This excellent review by Sablowski and Gutierrez focuses on the…

Assessing the viability of ungerminated seeds at the end of a trial is a common practice in seed germination experiments. By doing this, researchers aim to establish the number of viable seeds that were sown in an experiment and estimate germination parameters accordingly. Still, can we be sure that…