Category: Research

Light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) is a powerful imaging tool; unlike confocal microscopy, which illuminates a sample one small volume at a time, LSFM illuminates a complete optical section at a time, greatly speeding up the imaging process and lowering phototoxic effects. Candeo et al. use close-to-physiological…

The site at which transcription begins is traditionally thought to be determined in the proximal promoter by assembly of the pre-initiation complex just upstream of the transcription start site (TSS). New results from Gallegos and Rose challenge this assumption. Prior studies have shown that the presence…

Membrane proteins are some of the most interesting cellular proteins, serving as sensors and transducers of diverse signals, yet they also are the most challenging to investigate because they require lipid interactions for proper structure and function. Recently, cell-free expression systems for membrane…

Jasmonates are a family of compounds including jasmonic acid and its derivatives that regulate many plant processes from germination to defense. The Journal of Experimental Botany has a special issue on jasmonate research, which commemorates the advances in this field in the ten years since the JAZ proteins…

Fossils have been extremely useful in efforts to reconstruct the past, but recently the analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) has taken off.  Parducci et al. describe the value of lake sediments as sources of ancient DNA from which to gain insights into the plant populations of ancient times. Lakes are found…

Omics approaches have helped shed light on how plants relate to their environment and how they respond to changes in it. Although still relatively underutilized, comparative transcriptomics and proteomics approaches also can be applied to study mechanisms of plant adaptation. Voelckel et al. discuss…

Rice is a staple food for half of the world’s population, but it accumulates the toxic metalloid arsenic (As), which is present in soils and in plants in two forms, arsenate (AsV) and arsenite (AsIII). Chen et al. review the genetics and biochemistry of As uptake and sequestration into the rice grain,…

Both receptor-like protein kinase (RLK) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling have been shown to affect a plethora of plant processes, including growth, metabolism,  development, and environmental responses. To date, previous reviews have focused on mechanisms that govern either ROS or RLK signaling;…