Recent Posts

An Alternative Route for Astaxanthin Biosynthesis in Green Algae

Tianhu Sun ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2513-1387 Plant Breeding and Genetics Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 ts753@cornell.edu Astaxanthin is the reddish carotenoid pigment that gives color to shrimp, salmon, and flamingo. However, these animals…

Tomatoes turn pale in the heat: high temperature reduces red and green pigmentation via phytochromes

The gardeners among us know that direct sunlight is a prerequisite to obtain full-sized, bright red tomato  (Solanum lycopersicum) fruits. Indeed, light increases the accumulation of yellow and red carotenoid pigments, particularly lycopene, in ripe tomato fruits while it also boosts chlorophyll levels…

SPLICEd in the Seeds: Integration of ABA and Light Signaling in Arabidopsis

Dhineshkumar Thiruppathi 1,2  ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2018-3356 Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Saint Louis, Missouri 63132 1Author for contact: dthiruppathi@danforthcenter.org 2Lead author Plant development and adjustment to the environment require not only tight regulation of core…

Trapped In the Rhizosheath: Root-Bacterial Interactions Modulate Ethylene Signaling

Author: Sjon Hartman 1,2 ORCID: 0000-0002-6709-6436 1 Plant Ecophysiology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands 2 Corresponding author contact: j.g.w.hartman@uu.nl Even moderate droughts can greatly limit plant performance…

The rhythm of the light: how light and the clock drive cycling of transcript levels in barley

Circadian rhythms are ubiquitous among living things. A core set of so-called clock genes and their products assemble an oscillatory network that provides a rhythm to anticipate dawn and dusk (Hsu and Harmer, 2014). The circadian clock regulates the day/night rhythms of plants and light itself has many…

Sweet or Sour? Important Link between Nitrate Signalling and Malate Accumulation Identified in Apple

Author: Stefanie Wege stefanie.wege@adelaide.edu.au ORCID: 0000-0002-7232-5889 Affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, Plant Research Centre, School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, Waite Research Institute, University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, Glen Osmond 5064, South…

To grow or defend? More on the plant cornelian dilemma

Author Anne-Sophie Fiorucci anne-sophie.fiorucci@unil.ch Affiliation Centre for Integrative Genomics, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, Génopode Building, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. ORCID number 0000-0002-3254-5967 Growth and defense are usually opposed…

Remorins: essential regulators in plant–microbe interaction and cell death induction

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a genetically controlled process triggered by developmental or environmental cues. Plant–microbe interactions often lead to PCD in plant host cells, triggered by the hypersensitive response. Plants may recognize microbes through receptor-like kinases in the plasma membrane,…

Gearing Up the Clock of Hypocotyl Growth!

To anticipate daily changes imposed by Earth's rotation, organisms from all domains of life have evolved an endogenous 24-h timer with daily rhythmic functions: the circadian clock. In plants, the first organisms where circadian dynamics were observed, the circadian clock processes daylength information…