Recent Posts

Plant Science Research Weekly: September 6th

Review: Metabolite control of translation by conserved peptide uORFs: The ribosome as a metabolite multi-sensor Not all mRNAs are translated equally. Between 25–50% of eukaryotic mRNAs have an upstream open reading frame (uORF) that affects translation of the main ORF (mORF). Usually the presence…

Plant Science Research Weekly: August 30th

A modular cloning toolkit for genome editing in plants Genome editing with the CRISPR/Cas system is now widely used in functional studies across biological sciences including plant biology. Typically, this system involves a DNA nuclease and a guide RNA that directs the nuclease to a specific location…

Plant Science Research Weekly: August 23rd

Review: Developmental thermal responses in Arabidopsis Plants can modify their growth in response to environmental challenges. In a recent review, Vu et al. summarize the molecular mechanisms underlying high temperature responses during the Arabidopsis life cycle. At early stages, high temperature…

Plant Science Research Weekly: August 16th

Review: Structural biology of cell surface receptor–ligand interactions In recent months, a flurry of papers have come out that reveal new insights into the structural interactions of cell-surface receptors with each other and with their ligands. This timely review by Moussu and Santiago captures…

Plant Science Research Weekly: August 9th

Physcomitrella STEMIN transcription factor induces stem cell formation with epigenetic reprogramming Insights into transcription factors (TFs) in non-flowering plants are increading thanks to the establishment of new bryophyte model organisms. In new work, Ishikawa et al. present STEMIN1, a Physcomitrella…

Plant Science Research Weekly: August 2nd

Review: Methods to quantify primary plant cell wall mechanics Plant growth and morphogenesis are linked to cell wall properties, so a deep understanding of cell wall biochemistry and mechanics is essential for studying plant development. In a recent review, Bidhendi and Geitmann describe current and…

Plant Science Research Weekly: July 26th

Review: Sulfated plant peptide hormones It’s hard to believe that when I was a student we were taught that “plants don’t have peptide hormones”. Since then we’ve discovered many diverse families of plant peptide hormones (see the Teaching Tool on peptide hormones for an excellent overview).…

Plant Science Research Weekly: July 19th

Review: Formal description of plant morphogenesis ($) In recent years, a number of tools have been developed to describe and model plant morphogenesis, and these approaches have greatly informed our understanding of the molecular processes that underpin the control of growth. This excellent review…

Plant Science Research Weekly: July 12th

Review: Synthetic biology in photosynthetic microbes: present and future Photosynthetic microbes are emerging models for synthetic biology applications since they possess relatively simple physiology and cellular organization, fast growth in liquid culture, and facile genetic manipulation. In this…