Category: WWR Full Post

Review: 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),…

Review: Till death do us pair: Co-evolution of plant–necrotroph interactions This interesting and well-written review by Derbyshire and Raffaele takes a step back from the molecular interactions between plant and pathogen and discusses them in light of co-evolutionary processes. The review starts…

Review: Development of organs for nutrient uptake in parasitic plants and root nodule symbiosis This review by Cui et al. makes the interesting comparison between the developmental processes involved in root nodule formation and haustoria formation by roots of parasitic plants. As the authors observe,…

Review. Challenges facing sustainable protein production: Opportunities for cereals As the world’s population increases, protein production must increase. If not, levels of protein malnutrition leading to stunted growth, hair loss, and edema will rise. Here Safdar et al. propose that cereals could…

Review: Rapid auxin signaling: Unknowns old and new You might think you’ve read enough about auxin, but I recommend you take this opportunity to read one more article, this very interesting and enjoyable review by Fielder and Friml. Auxin has figured prominently in both the classical and molecular…

Review: Red macroalgae in the genomic era I highly recommend this excellent and accessible article by Borg et al. that provides an overview of the red macroalgae, which “may have been the first eukaryotic lineage to have evolved complex multicellularity”. It’s full of fascinating information:…

Perspective: How flower development genes were identified using forward genetic screens in Arabidopsis thaliana If you weren’t around in the '80s, you missed some great times; the music, the fashion, the flower genetics! This historical perspective article by David Smythe nicely sums up those heady…

Review: Strigolactones integrate metabolic and nutritional signals Strigolactones are a class of hormones first identified in the 1960s as components of root exudates that promote germination of parasitic Striga seeds, and later as a promoter of associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Strigolactones…