Category: Plant Science Research Weekly

Light perception in plants generates a plethora of gene expression changes. Among them, it has been shown that light affects alternative splicing mediated by a chloroplast retrograde signal. Here, Godoy Herz et al. explore the different possible mechanisms possible involved in this regulation. Using…

For optimal photosynthetic performance, plants utilize multiple strategies to compete with their neighbors. Especially when light supply is limited in the canopy, plants promote their own elongation to overgrow neighboring plants. This occurs as a response to a low ratio of Red to Far-Red light (R/FR),…

The plant hormone auxin acts as a general coordinator of growth and development, transferring information over both long and short ranges. Among other roles, it promotes the formation of the founder cells in roots and it triggers the position of the lateral roots (LR). LR founder cells  are determined…

The shikimate pathway synthesizes aromatic amino acids in microorganisms and plants, and its absence in animals makes the shikimate pathway a common target for the development of herbicides. Brilisauer et al. 2019 isolated a novel compound from the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus—7-deoxy-sedoheptulose…

Regulation of flowering in time and space in perennials like Arabis alpina involves two systems. One uses orthologs to FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) from A. thaliana; in A. alpine is called PERPETUAL FLOWERING 1 (PEP1) and its repression enables flowering after vernalization. The other system uses microRNA156…

High-throughput plant phenotyping is growing rapidly and enables the collection of dozens or hundreds of traits of the same plant genotype efficiently. The development of this technology expands the diversity of plant phenotypes and brings an opportunity for reexamining the connections between genotype…

This is a great essay by David Asai, Senior Director for science education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. David describes his journey from feeling annoyed at having to attend a multicultural forum to embracing their merit. He describes exercises that promote empathy and encourage respectful…

There are more than 7 million crop accessions in gene banks around the world, however the information records for them are in multiple formats, making a comparison between and within collections difficult. Extrapolating from a new paper by Milner et al. (Nature Genetics 51: pages319–326) Langridge…