Review: Celebrating 150 years of Arabidopsis genetics
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe first known report of an Arabidopsis thaliana mutant appeared approximately 150 years ago (1873). In the intervening years, Arabidopsis has become an essential model for plant genetic research, driving groundbreaking discoveries across multiple disciplines. In a recent review, Yaschenko et al. provide…
Review. Genetic switchboards: Rewiring plant traits with synthetic circuits
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe expression of a transgene in plants can impose a significant stress, sometimes referred to as metabolic burden. Synthetic gene circuits offer a precise approach to engineering plant traits by regulating gene expression through programmable operations. This review by Lloyd et al. examines the core…
Cells are larger than life when ExPOSEd
Plant Science Research WeeklyCells are as small as life gets, but can be much larger than they appear if given room for expansion. This is possible with expansion microscopy, a technique that enables three dimensional cell imaging by physically expanding cellular components for visualization. Although expansion microscopy has been…
Expanding the resolution limits of conventional microscopy in whole plant tissues
Plant Science Research WeeklyHow can we precisely image plant tissues in super-resolution when approaching the optical limits of conventional microscopes? One solution lies in expansion microscopy, a technique that embeds tissue samples in an expandable hydrogel that proportionally increases the distances between structures, allowing…
CA-nundrum: How a spontaneous mutation in carbonic anhydrase uncouples leaf δ13C, WUE and C4 photosynthesis
Plant Science Research WeeklyWith climate change, drought is expected to happen more frequently, making supplemental irrigation increasingly necessary to sustain crop productivity. One target trait to improve climate resilience is water use efficiency (WUE), defined by the ratio of carbon assimilation to water used by the plant.…
Lights, camera, pectin: Bringing hypocotyl elongation out of the dark
Plant Science Research WeeklyLight is a powerful signal, shaping plant development and growth. However, the cellular mechanisms that translate light signals into precise developmental responses are still being unravelled. The Arabidopsis hypocotyl (the embryonic stem, situated underneath the cotyledons in seedlings) rapidly restricts…
Brassinosteroids positively regulate growth through asymmetrical division
Plant Science Research WeeklyBrassinosteroids are plant hormones that play important roles in cell proliferation and expansion, but it is still unclear exactly what those roles are. Vukasinovic and colleagues show, in Arabidopsis thaliana root cells, that instrinsic brassinosteroid gradients signal anticlinal division. Single-cell…
SHUKR in the sporophytic tissue directs male gametophyte development in Arabidopsis
Plant Science Research WeeklyIn flowering plants, reproduction involves the alternation of two generations: the diploid sporophyte and the haploid gametophyte. Traditionally, the male gametophyte was thought to develop autonomously with minimal regulation by the sporophyte. However, recent research by Sivakumar, Pandey, and Ramesha…
Classic regulators, new functions: FT and TFL1 shape Arabidopsis seed traits
Plant Science Research WeeklyFLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1), two members of the phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein (PEBP) family, are well-known regulators of flowering time and inflorescence architecture in Arabidopsis thaliana. However, recent work by Bigas et al. uncovers their additional roles in regulating…