Research Blog

Cell. The tomato plant has been of keen interest to mankind for centuries, and its domestication led to delicious fruits much larger than their wild, bitter-tasting ancestors. Domestication of tomato had many intended outcomes (increased fruit size, less bitter taste), and several unintended consequences.…

eLife. Free air CO2 enrichment (FACE) has been used to surround plants with an elevated concentration of CO2 (eCO2) during growth, and has consistently conferred an increase in carbon assimilation and plant productivity.  However, the effect of eCO2 on nutrient status of the plant is unclear due to…

Plant Physiol. Heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding (G) proteins participate in numerous processes including the regulation of hormonal responses and environmental stress. G proteins are composed of three subunits: Gα, Gβ, and Gγ. AGB1, a Gβ protein, forms a non-covalent dimer with a Gγ subunit,…

Nature. Through the activity of hundreds of membrane receptors, plants can sense the extracellular environment and tune their growth and responses to abiotic and biotic stimuli in an elegant and complex way. Despite their pivotal role, only a dozen of receptors have been characterized in plants and very…

Plant Cell. Plants sense competitors through phytochromes. Phytochromes detect the reflection of far-red light from nearby plants, resulting in a reduced red:far-red (R:FR) ratio. The reduced ratio causes shade avoidance responses which modify shoot and root system architecture. This paper by van Gelderen…

Ann. Botany. Melatonin was first identified in plants in 1995. Since then, it has been found to be involved in many aspects of plant response to biotic and abiotic stress. Chen et al. investigate the effect of melatonin during lateral root (LR) development in alfalfa and Arabidopsis seedlings. Exogenous…

BioRxiv. Barley powdery mildew is an important asmocycete disease caused by the fungus Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei.  Previous literature in this field has investigated susceptibility genes as important targets to develop resistance. A well-known example of this, is the MLO gene, a negative regulator…

New. Phytol. Ustilago maydis causes corn smut disease on maize which is characterized by plant cancerous symptoms forming tumours on all aerial parts of host. The fungus deploys organ-specific effector proteins to re-program organ primordia to enormous tumours, however the cellular dissection of these…