The very earliest step in lateral root formation is “priming”, a still-elusive process that establishes a subset of cells as competent to form lateral roots. In this Perspective, ten Tusscher and Laskowski review  evidence for priming, which involves oscillations of auxin level or responsiveness…

There is much to be learned from comparing plant genomes, but as Rensing writes, currently available genomic data are skewed heavily towards angiosperms. He argues that a richer understanding of plant evolution depends upon gaining insights into the non-seed plants, including ferns, mosses and liverworts,…

Hydathodes are the sites of guttation, which is a process by which water and solutes are pushed out of leaves by the force of root pressure when the rate of transpiration is low (for example at night).  Hydathodes have numerous stomata-like pores and are located near vascular ends. Like stomata, hydathodes…

Fultz and Slotkin explore the question of how transposable element (TE) silencing is initiated. As they describe, there are two recognized mechanisms, one based on TE identity (meaning that it can be silenced through siRNAs initiated from a related TE, and in which de novo silencing can occur in the…

Familiar citrus fruits such as sweet orange, lemon, lime and grapefruit are hybrids of three species: Citrus reticulate (mandarin), C. medica (citron), and C. maxima (pummelo). Cultivated varieties are generally vegetatively propagated, with diversity arising from spontaneous or induced somatic mutations.…

Plant growth chambers are indispensable for most plant science researchers, but of course they do not replicate the outdoor environment. Vialet-Chabrand and Matthews et al. explore the effect of realistic, dynamic fluctuating light (for example as influenced by clouds and leaves) versus light provided…

It’s easy to visualize how a sheet of cells grows, but how does a sheet of cells form a complex, three-dimensional structure? Rebocho et al. describe how differential growth rates between cell layers and across the growing surface can produce a variety of complex shapes. As a model for shape complexity,…