Recent Posts

What We're Reading: June 29th

Auxin methylation is required for differential growth in Arabidopsis Plants need to navigate and adjust their growth according to the environmental clues, such as light or gravity. Asymmetric distribution of auxin is necessary for organ bending. Abbas and colleagues show that conversion of indole-3-acetic…

What We're Reading: June 21

This week we have some guest contributions from undergraduate student interns working with Professor Maria Julissa Ek-Ramos from the Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon. Julissa helped the students select and read the papers, and worked with them on writing and editing the summaries, with additional editing…

What We're Reading: June 15th Edition

Plant Vitamins and Cofactors Special Issue This week’s “What We’re Reading” summarizes recent findings on plant vitamin and cofactor biosynthesis and their role in plant defense responses. This selection includes two reviews and nine research papers. The first review focuses on biofortification…

What We're Reading: June 8th

Guest editor: Danielle Roodt Prinsloo Danielle is a PhD candidate in the Forest Molecular Genetics (FMG) Programme at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She has been a Plantae Fellow since September 2017, having joined after attending her first ASPB Plant Biology meeting. Danielle is a plant…

What We're Reading: June 1st

Review: Beyond fossil fuel–driven nitrogen transformations ($) Obtaining the high yields needed to feed the human population depends on the application of nitrogen-containing fertilizers to non-leguminous crops, yet the production of these compounds consumes 1 – 2% of global energy output. Plant…

What We're Reading: May 25th

Review: A guide to sequence your favorite plant genomes Every year, genome assembly gets faster and cheaper. Li and Harkness provide a practical guide to today’s methods, with caveats and precautions that need to be considered at each step, even questions to ask before embarking on a sequencing…

What We're Reading: May 18th

Review: Same tune, different song — cytokinins as virulence factors in plant–pathogen interactions? Many pathogens produce virulence factors that improve their pathogenicity, including in some cases compounds produced by the host, such as the hormone cytokinin. Spallek et al. review the various…

What We're Reading: May 11th

Photosynthesis Special Issue This week's 'What We're Reading' summarizes the latest papers from the field of photosynthesis research.  This includes three reviews: the first focuses on the effect of elevated CO2 on secondary metabolism, the second looks at ways to improve carbon fixation, and the…

What We're Reading: May 4th

Review: A newly proposed plastid: the xyloplast ($) In its simplest definition, a plastid is an organelle that manufactures and stores essential chemical compounds used by its host cell. Numerous plastids exist beyond the familiar chloroplast. Chromoplasts synthesise and store carotenoid pigments,…