Plant Science Research Weekly

A weekly plant science research roundup curated and summarized by our Plantae Editors and Fellows

RECENT SUMMARIES

October 30, 2020/by Benjamin Jin

Identification of a unique ZIP transporter involved in zinc uptake via the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal pathway (bioRxiv)

Last week, PSRW presented two review papers regarding host plant interactions with microbial populations, particularly for plant nutrient intake. Watt-Williams et al. utilize such knowledge for their paper, performing an RNA-seq dataset to identify a novel zinc transporter in Medicago truncatula. Zinc…

October 30, 2020/by Roxana Khoshravesh

Transpiration from tomato fruit occurs primarily via trichome-associated transcuticular polar pores (Plant Physiol.)

Post harvest water loss is one of the major challenges in handling fresh agricultural products, yet its…

October 30, 2020/by Arun Shanker

The structure of a triple complex of plant photosystem I with ferredoxin and plastocyanin (Nature Plants)

Photosystem I (PSI) is a membrane-bound protein complex that plays a central role in the conversion of…

October 30, 2020/by Michela Osnato

TERMINAL FLOWER 1-FD complex target genes and competition with FLOWERING LOCUS T (Nat. Commun.)

The onset of reproductive development is tightly regulated in response to environmental cues as early…

October 30, 2020/by Carlos A. Ordóñez-Parra

Coleorhiza‐enforced seed dormancy: a novel mechanism to control germination in grasses (New Phytol.)

The germination process is completed when the radicle emerges from the seed. In eudicots, radicle growth…

October 23, 2020/by Mary Williams

Perspective: Multiplying the efficiency and impact of biofortification through metabolic engineering (Nature Comms.)

As heterotrophs, we are what we eat. One of the UN Sustainable Development Goals is to end all forms…

October 23, 2020/by Benjamin Jin

Review. The soil-borne identity and microbiome-assisted agriculture: Looking back to the future (Molecular Plant)

Bakker et al. begin their review of plant-soil microbiome concepts with a Lorentz Hiltner quote from…

October 23, 2020/by Mary Williams

Perspective. Plant awareness disparity: A case for renaming plant blindness (Plants People Planet)

If there is one thing we agree on, it is that plants are underappreciated, leading to consequences…

October 23, 2020/by Benjamin Jin

Review: Coumarin communication along the microbiome-root-shoot axis (Trends Plant Sci.)

As the realm of microbiology expands, we see increasing ways in which eukaryotes depend on their microbiomes.…

October 23, 2020/by Michela Osnato

A cis-regulatory atlas in maize at single-cell resolution (bioRxiv)

Cis-regulatory elements (CREs) are DNA sequences found near or within genic regions that drive proper…

October 23, 2020/by Frej Tulin

How to go quiet: CHT7 regulates cell cycle exit in Chlamydomonas (Plant Cell)

Many microbes enter a state of low metabolic activity, called quiescence, when the conditions for growth…

October 23, 2020/by Pavithran Narayanan

Go polar: Regulation of Rho GTPases by ARO proteins (Nature Plants)

Polar cell growth is a key feature in plant organs like root hairs, trichomes and pollen tubes. Kulich…

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Each week, the Plantae editors select new plant science research articles to highlight. The short summaries describe the question addressed and key findings, with links to the article. Suggestions? Join/Sign-in to the community to participate in the discussion.

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Mary Williams, Editor

As Plantae Editor, Mary works tirelessly to ensure that our team is creating interesting and valuable content for the community. Mary pursued a traditional academic path (BS in Biochemistry at Berkeley, Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology at Rockefeller, Postdoc in Plant Science at Berkeley); her research focused on transcriptional regulation, root development, and phosphoinositide signaling.

Ideas? Sign-in to Plantae, then you can connect with Mary and send her a direct message.