Optogenetics has revolutionized mammalian biology by its ability to fine-tune gene expression in individual cells by pulses of light. However, its application in plants has been challenging because the white light required for plant growth misfires the system. Ochoa-Fernandez et al. solved this problem…

The leaf epidermis is composed primarily of undulated pavement cells arranged in a jigsaw puzzle-like architecture, with neighboring cells flawlessly interlacing with one another thanks to synchronized growth, thus making it an ideal model to study morphogenesis regulation. Seeking to better understand…

Widespread genome sequencing of individuals has revealed the high level of intraspecific variability in plant species. As such, constructing high-quality pan-genomes is a growing necessity to study dynamic plant genomes. Here, Liu et al. release the soybean pan-genome formed from sequencing 2,898 accessions,…

Under low N condition, plants form more lateral roots to facilitate N-uptake efficiency, and legumes such as Medicago truncatula develop more nodules to fulfill plant nitrogen requirements. Since both lateral root formation and nodulation are energy-consuming processes, plants balance these developmental…

Seed longevity (i.e., the inherent lifespan of a seed) is a polygenic feature that demands the coordination of multiple biological processes, and that shapes the persistence of seeds in the soil and the time they can be stored ex situ. Recent studies on this trait highlight the role of the antioxidant…

  Review: Banishing barberry: The history of Berberis vulgaris prevalence and wheat stem rust incidence across Britain Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici (Pgt) has a strange life strategy in that it requires two hosts to complete its sexual life cycle; wheat and barberry. In the absence…

Maxuel de Oliveira Andrade, first author of The MAF1 phosphoregulatory region controls MAF1 interaction with the RNA polymerase III C34 subunit and transcriptional repression in plants Current Position: Postdoctoral Research, Biochemistry, Brazilian Bioscience National Laboratory (LNBio) - CNPEM, Brazil Education:…

Ariel Hernán Tomassi, first author of The intrinsically disordered protein CARP9 bridges HYL1 to AGO1 in the nucleus to promote micro RNA activity Current Position: PhD fellow at Instituto de Agrobiotecnología del Litoral (CONICET-UNL), Santa Fe, Argentina   Education: Ph.D. in Biological Sciences    Non-scientific…