By Shin-ichiro Inoue, and Toshinori Kinoshita Light-induced stomatal responses were first reported 23 by Francis Darwin (1898). Stomata open in response to light, including blue and red light (Shimazaki et al., 2007).  Red light induces stomatal opening via photosynthesis in the mesophyll and guard…

Areas of expertise Chromosome biology, epigenetics, dosage compensation, polyploidy, heterosis, gene silencing, synthetic chromosomes, genomic balance. James Birchler is Curators’ Professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He completed his BS degree at Eastern Illinois University and his…

Areas of expertise Intracellular protein trafficking, clathrin-dependent trafficking, membrane biogenesis, microtubules, polar growth, the phragmoplast, the cell wall. Sebastian Bednarek is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his PhD from…

Once seen as potential sequencing artifacts, long, non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs, >200 nucleotides) have gained recognition as important regulatory factors. LncRNAs are transcribed from a variety of genomic locations (introns, intergenic spaces, and coding regions) from the sense or antisense strand (reviewed…

Why we're writing What We're Reading and how you can contribute.... (more)   Nature Outlook Supplement: Food Security (OA) Nature has published an Outlook feature on the topic of Food Security with the following overview articles, all useful for teaching: Food security,   Nutrition:…

Kassis asked biology, biomedical engineering and bioengineering faculty how important they considered several criteria for recognition as an author and rank on authorship list. A key finding is that, “Overall, there seemed to be a consensus that the time spent conducting experiments, coming up with…

Aircraft engines release CO2 into the atmosphere, but particles produced from aircraft emissions can also affect climate through aerosol production that leads to cloud formation. Moore et al. examined how incorporating plant-based biofuels (Camelina oil) affected the production of aerosols. They found…

Parasitic plants draw nutrients from their hosts. Spallek et al. explored the molecular interaction between the parasitic plant Phtheirospermum japonicum (in the Orobranchaceae family) and the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. They demonstrated movement of tracers from the host to the parasite through…