Recent Posts

Plant Science Research Weekly: January 24

Review. Small RNAs and extracellular vesicles: New mechanisms of cross-species communication and innovative tools for disease control We have only recently begun to appreciate the phenomenon of cross-species or cross-kingdom small RNA transfer, and its applications. Using examples from plants and…

Plant Science Research Weekly: January 17

Guest Editor : Facundo Romani I am in an Argentinean PhD student at Universidad Nacional del Litoral (Santa Fe, Argentina) and current ASPB Plantae Fellow. I am about to finish my PhD program, during past years I worked with Javier Moreno as supervisor and spent a long stay at Monash University…

Plant Science Research Weekly: January 10

Review. Diatom molecular research comes of age:  Model species for studying phytoplankton biology and diversity Diatoms are photosynthetic eukaryotes and contribute substantially to global carbon fixation. They are distantly related to green plants, having shared the same primary endosymbiotic event,…

Plant Science Research Weekly: January 3rd

Review: The nanoscale organization of the plasma membrane and its importance in signaling – a proteolipid perspective Ample evidence shows that rather than being homogenous, plasma membrane lipids and proteins form distinct nanodomains. Jallais and Ott review plant plasma membrane nanodomains, and…

Plant Science Research Weekly: December 27

Special Current Opinion in Biotechnology issue Issue: Plant Biotechnology Since most of us will have a few days off this coming week as we welcome in 2020, I’d like to highlight some of the engrossing reviews in this special issue of Current Opinion in Biotechnology, edited by Ralf Reski, Gary…

Plant Science Research Weekly: December 20th

Review: Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change Reading this review by Diaz et al. feels a bit like reading a bad report card. Although we know we’re failing in our role as Earth’s stewards, we don’t always want to be reminded of this. But,…

Plant Science Research Weekly: December 13

This week we start with a short summary contributed by Charlotte Gommers hghlighting several papers published in 2019 that revealed new insights into an enigmatic plant gene, GUN1. Research update: GUN1 hit the mark in 2019 Chloroplasts are able to sense and respond to environmental signals. They…

Plant Science Research Weekly: December 6

Review. Dare to change, the dynamics behind plasmodesmata-mediated cell-to-cell communication A new review by Petit et al. skillfully highlights the role of plasmodesmata at the interface between cell biology and whole-plant physiology. These tiny channels that connect plant cells determine what…

Plant science research weekly: November 29

Review: Design and engineering of advanced plant optogenetics systems Optogenetics uses light-sensitive proteins to trigger specific outputs in the cell in response to particular wavelengths of light. Many optogenetic systems use chimeric proteins that contain different sensor and effector domains;…