Graduate student mentorship as a target for diversifying biology
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe quality of student-advisor relationships is one of the top predictors of research progress and sense of belonging in science, yet in most cases the mentoring relationship is simply left to chance. In this preprint, Debray et al. surveyed a cohort of PhD students to understand what mentoring practices…
Plant Science Research Weekly: December 1, 2023
WWR Full PostReview: Paternal imprinting in Marchantia polymorpha
Humans and flowering plants spend most of their lives in a diploid state with two copies of each chromosome in most cells, but to reproduce they produce haploid gametes through meiosis. By contrast, bryophytes (liverworts, hornworts, and mosses),…
Understanding secondary cell wall biosynthesis to improve fiber quality in cotton
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellWang et al. investigate cotton fiber secondary cell wall biosynthesis in Gossypium hirsutum. The Plant Cell (2023).
By Yao Wang and Xue-Bao Li
Background: Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) produces natural fibers (unicellular trichomes) on the seed, making it a valuable crop for the worldwide textile…
N6-methyladenosine mRNA modification dynamics in plant immunity
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellPrall et al. explore how post-transcriptional regulation of mRNA mediated by methylation at the N6 position of adenine affects plants preparedness and reactivity to pathogen stress.
Wil Prall and Brian Gregory, University of Pennsylvania Department of Biology
Background: To determine how plants…
Regulation of a calcium-dependent protein kinase in response to osmotic stress
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellFan et al. explore how ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis regulates the levels of active kinase in plant responses to osmotic stress.
https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad173
Wei Fan and Zixing Li
School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Background:…
The NLR receptor ZAR1 has been guarding receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases since the Jurassic
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellAdachi et al. explore the conservation of a nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat immune receptor.
Hiroaki Adachi1,2,3, Toshiyuki Sakai1,2, Jiorgos Kourelis1, Hsuan Pai1, Jose L. Gonzalez Hernandez4, Yoshinori Utsumi5, Motoaki Seki5,6,7, Abbas Maqbool1 and Sophien Kamoun1*
1The Sainsbury Laboratory,…
SKIPping over JAZs to improve seed maturation and viability
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellVishal Varshney and Manoj Majee, National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110067, India
https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad199
Vishal Varshney et al. investigate the F-box protein SKIP31 in Arabidopsis, revealing a role for this protein in seed maturation,…
A New Look at Virus Movement: An Unexpected Role of dsRNA-Induced Immunity
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellHuang et al. investigate the mechanisms of dsRNA-induced pattern-triggered immunity against viruses.
https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koad176
Manfred Heinlein (Institut de biologie moléculaire des plantes, CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, 67000 Strasbourg, France)
Background: Plants use different…
Guard Cell Walls: Who Calls the Shots?
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellZheng et al. demonstrate that polar stiffening of guard cell walls is essential for stomatal functioning.
By Lin Zheng and Hongzhi Wang
Beijing Key Laboratory of Agricultural Genetic Resources and Biotechnology, Institute of Biotechnology, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences,…