This special issues of New Phytologist is full of Open Access articles, reviews and commentaries about mycorrhizas and a good resource for students who want to learn more about this important topic. A Supplemental Resource for TTPB “Plants and their microsymbionts”
An introduction to seven of the more serious biological threats to food security, including wheat stem rust, potato blight, black sigatoka, witchweed (Striga hermonthica), rice blast, Asian soybean rust, and cassava brown streak virus.
Nice Open Access overview of auxin history and signaling, good for teaching.
Enders, T.A. and Strader, L.C. (2015). Auxin activity: Past, present, and future. American Journal of Botany. 102: 180-196.
“Long before its chemical identity was known, the phytohormone auxin was postulated to regulate plant growth. In the late 1800s, Sachs hypothesized that plant growth regulators, present in small amounts, move differentially throughout the plant to regulate growth. Concurrently, Charles Darwin and Francis Darwin were discovering that light and gravity were perceived by the tips of shoots and roots and that the stimulus was transmitted to other tissues, which underwent a growth response. These ideas were improved upon by Boysen-Jensen and Paál and were later developed into the Cholodny–Went hypothesis that tropisms were caused by the asymmetric distribution of a growth-promoting substance.”
This April 2014 Special Issue on Water is freely accessible and includes reviews on all aspects of plant water use from guard cells to cavitation. Great resource for teaching undergraduate or graduate plant physiology.
A Supplement from Nature about how drought affects agriculture (Free Access).
“Climate change means the coming decades are likely to bring more frequent episodes of severe drought, with potentially devastating impact on the world’s ability to feed a growing population. We therefore need a sustainable agricultural system that makes the most efficient use of water and reduces expensive and environmentally challenging inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides.”
California’s current extreme drought must be a lesson for managing water in a warmer, more densely populated world, say Amir AghaKouchak and colleagues.
In 1935, Japanese scientist Gonjoro Inazuka crossed a semi-dwarf Japanese wheat landrace with two American varieties resulting in an improved variety, known as Norin 10. Norin 10 derived varieties eventually ended up in the hands of Norman Borlaug, beginning one of the most extraordinary agricultural revolutions in history. This international exchange of germplasm ultimately saved hundreds of millions of people from starvation and revolutionized the world of wheat.
Useful article for Plant Nutrition lessons – how P use has changed over the past 400 years in China.
“The biogeochemical cycle of phosphorus (P) has been massively altered in China, challenging its food security and causing eutrophication of freshwaters. This study shows, for the first time to our knowledge, how P cycling in China was intensified in the past four centuries to sustain the increasing population and its demand for animal protein. Our analysis also reveals the spatial disparity of its concomitant eutrophication impact. The findings advance the knowledge base needed for closing the P cycle to sustain future food production and maintain healthy rivers, lakes, and oceans.”
Source: PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
Useful article for Plant Pathology lessons – an in-depth look at our current understanding of plant-pathogen interactions, including interviews from leaders in the field.
“Just like animals, plants have to fight off pathogens looking for an unsuspecting cell to prey on. Unlike animals, however, plants don’t have mobile immune cells patrolling for invaders. “Every cell has to be an immune-competent cell,” says Jeff Dangl, who studies plant-microbe interactions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.”