Update: The role of trehalose 6-phosphate in crop yield and resilience
Blog, Plant Physiology, Plant Physiology: UpdatesBy Matthew J. Paul, Asier Gonzalez-Uriarte, Cara A. Griffiths, and Keywan Hassani-Pak
Significant increases in global food security require improving crop yields in favourable and poor conditions alike. However, it is challenging to increase both the crop yield potential and yield resilience simultaneously,…
Unleashing meiotic crossovers in hybrid plants ($) (PNAS)
Plant Science Research WeeklyTo generate new plant varieties with desirable traits, plant geneticists cross existing varieties that contain the characters they want to combine. The genetic variability is obtained thanks to events called crossovers, in which segments of homologous chromosomes are swapped during meiosis. The frequency…
A family of small, cyclic peptides buried in preproalbumin since the Eocene epoch (Plant Direct)
Plant Science Research WeeklySmall cyclic peptides are produced in many organisms; some are produced by ribosomes and others not. Fisher et al. explore a class of small cyclic peptides known as orbitides, which have been identified in plants of Asteroideae subfamily of the plant family Asteraceae. The fact that these are abundant…
Impact of genetically engineered maize on agronomic, environmental and toxicological traits (Sci. Rep.)
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe question of the relative risks and benefits of genetically engineered (GE) maize is still in the middle of a heated debate, despite the widespread cultivation of GE crops (12% of the global crop-land) and long standing commercialization (since 1996). Pellegrino et al. report a meta-analysis of…
REVIEW Cryobiotechnology of apple (Malus spp.) (Plant Cell Rep.) ($)
Plant Science Research WeeklyApple (Malus spp.) is an economically important tree that faces, like other crops cultured in temperate regions, remarkable challenges due to climate change such as abiotic (drought and salinity) and biotic (fungi, bacteria and aphids) stresses. For that, there is increasing need to preserve Malus…
Regeneration of different genotypes of cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) via somatic embryogenesis (Sci. Hortic.) ($)
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe global demand for cocoa (from Theobroma cacao) has been increasing, but production has not kept up with demand due to global climate change, pest and disease issues, and low productivity due to old cocoa trees. Currently, grafting and seeds (produced by cross-pollination) are used to propagate cocoa,…
Conservation of Genomic Imprinting during Wheat Polyploidization
Research, The Plant Cell, The Plant Cell: In a NutshellYang et al. discover conservation of genomic imprinting between closely related Triticum and Aegilops species. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00837
By Guanghui Yang and Mingming Xin
Background: Genomic imprinting causes genes to be differentially expressed depending on their parent-of-origin, which…
Gene duplication and aneuploidy trigger rapid evolution of herbicide resistance in common waterhemp
Blog, Plant Science Research Weekly, Research, Research BlogPlant Physiol. Herbicide resistance is a serious problem in contemporary agriculture. One of the most widely used herbicides, glyphosate, interferes with the activity of EPSPS (5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase). Koo et al. previously showed that glyphosate-resistant waterhemp (Amaranthus tuberculatus,…
Elevation of soybean seed oil content through selection for seed coat shininess
Blog, Plant Science Research Weekly, Research, Research BlogNat. Plants. Soybean is the world’s sixth most produced crop and is economically important as a source of protein and oil in animal and human food, as well as having industrial applications. Domestication of soybean has resulted in the absence of seed coat bloom, a powdery coating containing hazardous…