Reflections on Classics: Plant Cell‘s 30th anniversary

“The 1980s were an exciting and revolutionary time for biology, and plant molecular biology in particular,” begins an editorial by Bob Goldberg, Brian Larkins, and Ralph Quatrano, the three Founding Editors of The Plant Cell. They describe why the American Society of Plant Physiologists (ASPP; later, ASPB) felt that the time was right for a new journal that would feature this new discipline. For some of us, 1989 doesn’t seem that long ago; I still remember how our group eagerly gathered around for a first peek at this new journal when I was a PhD student. For others, it may seem incomprehensible that a single cDNA sequence was sufficient for a Plant Cell paper! Looking through the early issues illuminates the strides that have been made in the tools we use to ask “how plants work”. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Plant Cell, current and former editors have selected a few of their favorite papers from the journal’s archives and describe how the work has influenced our thinking. The reflections and the papers they highlight can be found here Reflections on Plant Cell Classics. This collection would be useful reading for students! (Summary by Mary Williams). Plant Cell (Editorials 10.1105/tpc.19.00313 and 10.1105/tpc.19.00347).