Category: WWR Full Post

Review: Chloroplast ion homeostasis Healthy plants require access to several mineral nutrients, which are usually taken up in ionic form. The details of nutrient uptake, distribution, and function have been painstakingly revealed over several decades. In this excellent new Tansley Review, Kunz et…

Review. Chloroplast ATP synthase: From structure to engineering I remember how amazed I was the first time I saw an animation of ATP synthase doing its job. This fantastic engine is largely conserved across the domains of life, with some variation as highlighted in this review of the chloroplast…

Review: Synthetic algal genomes As photosynthetic organisms, algae can harness solar energy to do useful things, from environmental cleanup to producing fuels and other beneficial molecules. This review by Goold et al. provides an overview of how algae can be valuable platforms for synthetic biology…

Review: SynBio takes on roots and the rhizosphere This is an excellent introduction to how synthetic biology can be used to program plants for climate resilience by engineering them to respond predictably and in ways beyond those that evolution has explored, through the use of controllable synthetic…

Review: Integrating cellular electron microscopy with multimodal data to explore biology across space and time Fifty years ago (1974), Albert Claude, Christian de Duve, and George Palade were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discoveries on the structural and functional organization of the cell, which…

Review: A century of studying plant secondary metabolism—From “what?” to “where, how, and why?”  Phytochemicals, also known as plant secondary metabolites, play primary roles in plant development, structure, and response to the environment. Their metabolism has been studied for over a century.…

Review. Milestones in understanding phosphorus uptake, transport, sensing, use, and signaling Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient and critical component of nucleic acids, phospholipids, and other molecules. Yang et al. provide a historical (since 1996) overview of the processes controlling its…

Special issue: Human-machine collaboration in plant biology This is an excellent article to wrap up this year and lead us into the future. Introducing a special issue of Plant Cell Physiology, Nakajima et al. summarize an exciting collection of papers that look at diverse ways that plant biology can…