A weekly plant science research roundup curated and summarized by our Plantae Editors and Fellows
Cycads are an ancient lineage of gymnosperms with fascinating ecological interactions. In a recent review, Salzman et al. examine the various adaptations of cycads, from attracting pollinators to repelling…
Hybrid crops are key to modern agriculture, offering higher yields, improved stress resilience, and greater uniformity through heterosis (“hybrid vigor”), where offspring from two different inbred…
Rice feeds nearly half of the world population. Rice grains are rich in starch but low in micronutrients and bioactive compounds such as flavonoids. By contrast, tea leaves are rich in antioxidants such…
The Casparian strip (CS), a lignin-rich apoplastic barrier in the root endodermis, forms early in development and regulates solute flow between the soil and the vasculature. It allows plants to control…
Eukaryotic genomes contain many endogenous viral elements (EVEs), which are genetic footprints of past viral infections. With the discovery of Nucleocytoplasmic Large DNA Viruses (NCLDVs), or giant viruses,…
Plants coexist and interact with various microorganisms in the soil environment, including fungi. These associated fungi can not only cause diseases but also establish symbiotic interactions that boost…
Citrus greening disease (also known as Huanglongbing) has had a huge impact on citrus fruit production worldwide, with Florida particularly hard hit. The disease is caused by insect-vector-spread bacteria,…
While the existence of vampires is up for debate, their botanical counterparts are very real – and much easier to find. Parasitic plants, such as Cuscuta campestris, wrap around their hosts, draining them…
The first known report of an Arabidopsis thaliana mutant appeared approximately 150 years ago (1873). In the intervening years, Arabidopsis has become an essential model for plant genetic research, driving…
The expression of a transgene in plants can impose a significant stress, sometimes referred to as metabolic burden. Synthetic gene circuits offer a precise approach to engineering plant traits by regulating…
Cells are as small as life gets, but can be much larger than they appear if given room for expansion. This is possible with expansion microscopy, a technique that enables three dimensional cell imaging…
How can we precisely image plant tissues in super-resolution when approaching the optical limits of conventional microscopes? One solution lies in expansion microscopy, a technique that embeds tissue samples…
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.
