A weekly plant science research roundup curated and summarized by our Plantae Editors and Fellows
Phytohormones such salicylic acid (SA), ethylene (ET), and jasmonic acid (JA) are known to regulate plant immunity, but their spatial dynamics has remained unclear. Using a set of fluorescent reporters…
This exciting paper by Chen, Qi, Zou et al. adds a new twist to the story of auxin. Until this work, the current model for how auxin mediates transcriptional changes has been that auxin (IAA) binds to…
A pan-genome has been assembled for the Solanum genus, which contains many diverse and economically important crops including potato, tomato, and African eggplant. Genomes were assembled for 22 species,…
Soybean, originally domesticated in China, is widely recognized for its high protein and oil content, making it a crucial crop for human consumption, animal feed, and biofuel production. Despite its economic…
Microbial pesticides are widely applied to improve crop production, but the active molecules are largely unexplored. In a recent study, Mohamed et al., identified an antimicrobial peptide (AMP) from crop-associated…
Kernel dehydration rate (KDR) is a critical factor affecting mechanized maize harvesting and kernel quality. Despite its agricultural importance, the molecular mechanisms regulating KDR remain unclear.…
FERONIA (FER), a member of the Catharanthus roseus receptor-like kinase 1–like (CrRLK1-like) receptor kinase family, was initially identified as a key regulator of female fertility in Arabidopsis. Later…
Field-based technologies are essential for understanding plant mechanical behavior in field-relevant contexts. This behavior can be elastic, with temporary deformation measured as stiffness, or plastic,…
Up to 40% of harvested broccoli never reaches consumers due to quality losses during senescence, including yellowing and nutrient degradation. Reactive oxygen species cause oxidative stress within the…
C4 photosynthesis, an adaptive mechanism to spatially concentrate CO2 around Rubisco to enhance carbon fixation, has evolved independently at least 60 times in plants. This process spatially separates…
The transition of plants from aquatic to terrestrial environments occurred approximately 400 million years ago, leading to the diversification of two major lineages: tracheophytes (vascular plants) and…
Plants have several types of light receptors that control various responses to light, such as leaf expansion, time-of-flowering, and hypocotyl elongation. When seeds are germinated in the dark, their hypocotyl…
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.
