Auxin shapes the plant body and drives the formation of lateral organs such as roots and ovules. In the current model, AUXIN RESPONSE FACTORs (ARFs) are transcription factors that regulate plant growth by activating signaling in an auxin dose-dependent manner, regulated by Aux/IAA proteins. Here,…

Photosynthesis, in addition to generating ‘food’ for plants, is also known to control root growth, although the mechanism has been unknown. Duan and co-workers identified CYCLOPHILIN38 (CYP38) as necessary for photosynthesis-mediated lateral root (LR) emergence. The chloroplast-localized CYP38 is…

Three-dimensional (3D) growth was an essential evolutionary innovation that allowed the radiation and diversification of land plants. In most land plants the transition from two-dimensional (2D) to 3D growth takes place during embryo development and its disruption results in lethality, however, the…

Mountains are extraordinary natural laboratories. They encompass a wide range of environments in a relatively small space, making them ideal for assessing how different environmental variables shape plant traits and communities. Here, Wang and colleagues evaluate how seed functional traits vary along…

Inceptins are degraded fragments of host chloroplast ATP synthase subunit (cATPC) that are an important class of herbivore-associated molecular patterns (HAMPs). These peptides are abundant in herbivore oral secretions (OS). Using Vu-In, a conserved inceptin from cowpea, Steinbrenner and colleagues have…

Review: Thriving under stress: How plants balance growth and stress response What exactly is the growth/defense tradeoff? This review is an excellent place to ask. Zhang et al. review evidence that shows that it is much more than a competition for limiting resources – the plant actively responds…

Ananya Mukherjee ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1802-1806 University of Nebraska Lincoln Genetic screens are a remarkable way of identifying mutations affecting various aspects of plant growth and development. Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) (T)-DNA insertion lines enable rapid identification of mutant…

Yang and colleagues set out to untangle the network of transcription factors controlling O2 expression during maize seed development By Tao Yang and Yongrui Wu, National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology…