C4 photosynthesis involves the compartmentalization of the photosynthetic reactions across bundle sheath and mesophyll cells, which requires cell-specific gene expression; however, we do not fully understand how this occurs or how photoperiod impacts it. Here maize (Zea mays) was grown in constant light/temperature…

Plant secondary metabolites like benzoxazinoid can alter biotic and abiotic soil properties to shape plant performance through plant-soil feedback, but how this feedback affects agricultural productivity and food quality in the field context is unknown. Here, the authors used large-scale agricultural…

In many biology textbook, plant pathology is introduced through the historical context of the 1840s great potato famine, caused by colonial ideologies and a virulent pathogen. This causal agent, Phytophthora infestans, is an oomycete that is still present in the environment and causing outbreaks of late…

Functional genomic studies across plants are incomplete without deciphering the putative gene functions in model as well as non-model plants. With an aim to facilitate gene function identification and cross-species expression analysis, Sreedasyam et al. describe the Joint Genome Institute (JGI) Plant…

Perspective: How flower development genes were identified using forward genetic screens in Arabidopsis thaliana If you weren’t around in the '80s, you missed some great times; the music, the fashion, the flower genetics! This historical perspective article by David Smythe nicely sums up those heady…

Huang and Krishnan et al. investigate photoassimilate export in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii By Weichao Huang1 and Arthur Grossman2 1Current position: Faculty of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Shenzhen, China 1Previous position: Department of Plant Biology, Carnegie…

Lu et al. explore the roles of a Mediator complex subunit and a WRKY transcription factor in regulating the salt-responsive gene SOS1. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad105 Background: Soil salinization is a major environmental hazard that severely affects plant growth and development. Plants…

Zhao, Wang, Li, et al. explore how the photosynthetic apparatus evolved in the cryptophyte Chroomonas placoidea, which is related to red algae. Long-Sheng Zhao1 and Lu-Ning Liu2. 1State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Qingdao, China. 2Institute of Systems, Molecular…