Plant Science Research Weekly

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

RECENT SUMMARIES

May 29, 2020/by Arun Shanker

Ligand-induced monoubiquitination of BIK1 regulates plant immunity (Nature)

The plant immune system has been a keenly researched area in plant sciences in the past decade. Elicitors present in microbes are compounds that induce response from plants when under attack. These elicitors are conserved in many pathogens and are called microbe associated molecular patterns (MAMPs).…

May 29, 2020/by Sunita Pathak

Review: The bHLH network underlying plant shade-avoidance (Physiol. Plant.)

Shade avoidance is a complex phenomenon in which plants avoid shade by altering their developmental program…

May 29, 2020/by Toluwase Olukayode

Nutrient dose-responsive transcriptome changes driven by Michaelis–Menten kinetics underlie plant growth rates (PNAS)

Plants can increase their growth and biomass proportionately to an increase in nutrient dose and, conversely,…

May 29, 2020/by Vijaya Batthula

How do auxin temporal dynamics regulate patterning? (eLIFE)

Auxin forms spatial gradients that are implicated in organ morphogenesis. However, it is not known how…

May 29, 2020/by Jesus Leon

Design principles of a minimal auxin response system (Nature Plants)

Auxin controls virtually all facets of growth and development. This plant hormone is sensed by TIR1/AFB…

May 29, 2020/by Katy Dunning

Plant synthetic promoters to fine tune expression of engineered genes (bioRxiv)

Synthetic genetic circuits allow the reconstruction of metabolic pathways in plant systems for production…

May 29, 2020/by Caroline Dowling

Genomic history and ecology of the geographic spread of rice (Nature Plants)

Originating in China’s Yangtze Valley ~9,000 years ago, rice (Oryza sativa) is a staple food for over…

May 29, 2020/by Elisandra Pradella

ARGONAUTE2 enhances grain length and salt tolerance by activating BIG GRAIN3 to modulate cytokinin distribution in rice (Plant Cell)

Is it possible to simultaneously increase two incompatible features like grain yield and stress tolerance?…

May 29, 2020/by Carlos A. Ordóñez-Parra

How does fire affect germination of grasses in the Cerrado? ($) (Seed Sci. Research)

Fire shapes tropical savannas through direct (i.e., heat and smoke) and indirect (i.e., opening gaps)…

May 29, 2020/by Pavithran Narayanan

Shedding light on plant immunity: Light-regulated defense against P. infestans (PNAS)

While infection by pathogens and the reciprocal immune responses are well studied in plants, the influence…

May 29, 2020/by Tatsuya Nobori

Hungry bumblebees bite plants to accelerate flowering (Science)

Bumblebees receive nutrition from flowers in exchange for aiding plant fertilization. This mutualistic…

May 29, 2020/by Mary Williams

Horizontal gene transfer of Fhb7 from fungus underlies Fusarium head blight resistance in wheat (Science)

Mycotoxins are fungal toxins with harmful health effects on humans and other animals. Fusarium head blight…

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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.