Category: Research

Arsenic (As) contamination in soil influences the physio-chemical properties of plants. Majumdar et al. propose the use of rice biochar (RBC) doped with iron oxide (IO) nanoparticles, an eco-friendly composite, to minimize As toxicity in plants. Rice plants grown on As-contaminated soil with the composite…

Increasing plant resistance to specific pathogens through genome editing is a very active branch of crop engineering. In a recent paper, Veley et al. propose to edit the epigenome to boost resistance to cassava bacterial blight by increasing the levels of DNA methylation at specific sites, while leaving…

Striga, commonly known as witchweed, compromises the yield of maize (Zea mays) especially in Africa. The seeds of Striga species remain dormant in the soil and are stimulated to germinate by a class of hormones called strigolactones (SL) exuded by the maize roots. Strigolactones are plant hormones with…

Running a research group in the next generation: Combining sustainable and reproducible research with values-driven leadership This is a fantastic article to help new, future, and even current lab heads think about their postures, priorities, and practices. It was developed through a workshop held…

Kenya Tanaka, first author of “Dark accumulation of downstream glycolytic intermediates initiates robust photosynthesis in cyanobacteria” Current Position: Assistant professor Education: Ph.D. in science, Osaka University, Japan Non-scientific interests: Anime, Alcohol, Mah-jongg, Baseball Brief…

Fichman et al. identify a key player linking reactive oxygen species and calcium signals (but not electric signals) during responses to light stress. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koac241 Yosef Fichman and Ron Mittler Division of Plant Sciences and Technology, College of Agriculture Food and Natural…

Plant Cell Webinar: Plant Responses to Abiotic Stress Celebrating the January 2023 Focus Issue on Climate Change and Plant Abiotic Stress Recorded Tuesday, February 7, 2023, About This Webinar In many regions of the world, climate change is leading to increased exposure to abiotic stresses for…

Hong Liao, co-first author of “Delphinieae flowers originated from the rewiring of interactions between duplicated and diversified floral organ identity and symmetry genes” Current Position: Associate Professor, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, China Education:…