Rice is a globally important crop, with most of its calorific component coming from starch. Despite its importance, we do not fully understand the mechanism of starch formation in the rice endosperm. To discover novel factors involved in this process, Yan et al. performed a forward genetics screen and…

Plants use a suite of cell-surface receptors as signal transducers in both development and immunity. In this study, Ngou et al. utilized computational and functional approaches to examine the evolutionary origin of a subclass of plant cell-surface receptors called pattern recognition receptors (PRRs),…

One of the first lessons a plant biologist learns is that many plants coordinate their seasonal flowering through measuring daylength, and that this process involves both photoreceptors and the biological clock that functions inside of cells. Of course, daylength also affects plant metabolism, in part…

In the interesting world of plant defenses, plants have secret weapons called defense metabolites that stay quiet until a pathogen comes knocking. Plants have evolved two-component chemical defence systems to protect against pathogens while striking a balance between growth promotion and defence mechanisms.…

Healthy plants possess a functional immune system, and their leaves harbor a structured microbial community, including opportunistic pathogens. These opportunistic pathogens can trigger plant diseases under conducive conditions, such as when plant immunity is compromised, and the microbial community…

Review: Integrating cellular electron microscopy with multimodal data to explore biology across space and time Fifty years ago (1974), Albert Claude, Christian de Duve, and George Palade were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discoveries on the structural and functional organization of the cell, which…

Jian Liu, Xuecui Wang, Zeyuan Guan, Junjie Yan and colleagues reveal how the glucan phosphatase LSF1 acts as a scaffold to bring together the necessary enzymes for starch degradation. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad259 Background: Starch is a glucan-polymer that accumulates in chloroplasts…

Shen et al. explore how female reproductive development is maintained in at high ambient temperatures in barley and rice, and whether members of the SEPALLATA subfamily of floral organ regulators contribute. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad246 Chaoqun Shena,b and Matthew R. Tuckerb a Joint…