Tag: Ecophysiology

Alpine ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to climate change since they are experiencing swift temperature increases and rainfall reduction. These changes have been shown to affect different aspects of plant life history, such as phenology and germination. In this exciting research, White and colleagues…

Light comes largely from above, and plants have evolved strategies to efficiently capture this light even when competing with other potentially shading plants. However, at a field-level, such competition may (and does) prevent plants from collectively maximizing light use efficiency, hence yield. In…

Physiologically dormant seeds shift between dormancy (i.e., unable to germinate), conditional dormancy (i.e., germination restricted to a narrow set of conditions), and non-dormancy (i.e., germination under a wide range of conditions) in response to environmental changes. This mechanism –known as dormancy…

Trees will help us ensure our future, but they are also a valuable record of our past. This fascinating review article by Caetano-Andrade et al. describes how anthropologists are taking advantage of data recorded in trees to understand more about not only the atmospheric and geological events of the…

Many trees emit isoprene (C5H8, a small volatile carbon compound) during hot weather, and isoprenes have been shown to help trees tolerate short bursts of high temperatures (heat flecks). Isoprenes are not themselves harmful, but are reactive and can lead to the production of high levels of ground-level…

If you want a great plant, select for a strong, vigorous, high-yielding individual; this is also the outcome of natural selection. But if you want a great field of plants, these traits may not be as suitable, because the plants will expend energy competing between themselves. When seeds from many plants…

Deficit irrigation is water-conserving strategy in which a growing plant is given just enough but never too much water. Previous studies have shown myriad physiological changes caused by deficit irrigation including decreased growth rate and shoot:root ratio, and also a lower fruit water content. Here,…

In the 450 million(ish) years since plants acquired the ability to live on land, they have caused dramatic changes in the concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and O2 levels. As an example, due to tremendous increases in photosynthesis, CO2 levels dropped and O2 levels rose dramatically in the late Paleozoic…

Plant scientists know that when the air at the leaf surface is dry, the plant will tend to close its stomata, but we tend to think of this as a relatively localized effect. Yuan et al. have explored the global trends in vapor pressure deficit (VPD; difference between saturated and real water content…

Manganese (Mn) is an essential plant nutrient necessary for multiple plant process such as photosynthesis. Mn deficiency has a significant impact on crop production particularly in cereals including barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Chen et al. identified how Mn deficiency alters suberin deposition in the …

Climate change is expected to cause numerous negative impacts on plant populations. An under considered area that will be affected are the communities of soil organisms that rely on a delicate balance of environmental conditions, particularly in grasslands that receive moderate precipitation (mesic grasslands).…

Plants have a remarkable ability to coordinate cellular activities across huge distances, yet we have only a basic understanding of how these remote activities are coordinated. A review by Rodrigues et al. summarizes what we know about the relationship between source (e.g., photosynthetic tissues) and…

With the need to feed the growing population and the threat of global climate change, there is an imminent need to increase crop yields. One commonly accepted method of accomplishing this is by enhancing the photosynthetic capability of major crop plants, which may result in an increased yield. A recent…

Optogenetics is a biotechnique that uses light-sensitive molecules to regulate cell activity. In plants, stomatal aperture mediates both CO2 uptake for photosynthesis and water loss by transpiration. The carbon-water trade-off control affects water use efficiency (WUE). Here, Papanatsiou et al. studied…

Identifying methods to improve crop productivity is vital considering the devastating consequences of climate change (e.g., frequent droughts). Stomatal conductance influences photosynthesis and water use efficiency, which are two important indicators of crop yield. Here, Faralli et al. discuss advances…

The year 2019 kicks off with a special issue on root biology, with all articles free to access for six months. Topics include interactions of roots with parasites and symbionts, root branching, transport in the root system, and roots of woody species. (Summary by Mary Williams) Physiologia Plantarum…

High wind speeds may result in substantial damage to crop canopies, resulting in a loss of productivity.  Lower wind speeds affect crop canopies in different ways – while physical damage does not occur, the movement of plant tissues impacts photosynthetic capacity by altering the light environment,…

Assessing the effect of rising CO2 concentrations on plant growth and physiology traits is crucial in order to determine how ecosystems and crop production systems will perform in future climates.  Such assessments have been made with free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments, which have provided a…

Ecophysiology is the study of plant functioning as modulated by the environment (or, as described by one author, “outdoors physiology“). Flexas and Gago ask whether research (and training) in  ecophysiology has been left behind somewhat by successes in -omics approaches, and from a Web of Science…

Mixing different plant species in a single field increases productivity by exploiting species complementarities for capturing resources (i.e. water, nutrients, sunlight). Both competition avoidance responses and individual organ accommodations to the changing environment  contribute to this complementarity.…

Yang et al. investigate the evolution of flowering time in the young species Capsella rubella. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.18.00124 Background: Flowering time is an important adaptive life-history trait in plants. Capsella rubella, a close relative of Arabidopsis thaliana and—in evolutionary time—a…

During the course of evolution, the invasion of lands by  plants exposed plant tissues to air, 
which dramatically lowered the resistance for CO2 diffusion to chloroplasts by ~10,000-fold. The evolutionary development of the leaf intercellular airspace was a key innovation that allowed land plants…

The year 2016 marked a half-century since the discovery of C4 photosynthesis, yet we still seek to elucidate many of the mechanisms underpinning the C4 cycle. Although C4 and C3 plants share molecular units involved in photosynthesis (Miyao, 2003; Kellogg, 2013), C4 plants have unique morphological traits…

Under conditions of drought stress, the continuous column of water in the plant xylem experiences increasing tension caused by declining water potential at the sites of evaporation. Eventually, air is drawn into the water transport system, forming embolisms in the xylem conduits. Although plants have…

Rising atmospheric CO2 levels are causing wide-ranging climate abnormalities. Beerling et al. discuss ways to capture CO2 in soils through augmenting soils with crushed basalt, or silicate-rich wastes such as sugarcane mill ash. As the added rock weathers, it reacts with gaseous CO2 to release cations…

Germplasm collections are invaluable resources for plant science and the elemental content of the seeds is a strong indication of the plant’s response to its specific environment. In this study, Ziegler et al. have selected 1,653 soybean accessions from the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection and seeds…

Ecol. Lett. C4 photosynthesis represents a biochemical CO2-concentrating mechanism that increases Rubisco-mediated carboxylation of RuBP and reduces photorespiration. However, there is an energy cost associated with C4 photosynthesis, and so it is presumed to become advantageous over C3 photosynthesis…

Science. As our ecosystems are changing rapidly, more studies are needed to document them. One of these important events is “coral bleaching”, a phenomenon that occurs due to environmental stress and when coral hosts lose their algal symbionts or zooxanthellae (Symbiodinium spp.), showing the white…

Godfroy et al investigate basal cell fate determination in the brown alga Ectocarpus https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00440 BACKGROUND: Brown algae are multicellular photosynthetic marine organisms living on rocky shores across the globe and representing one of the most developmentally complex groups…

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. Flowering is a major determinant of crop adaptation to new environments. Starting from its tropical origins and requirement for short-day conditions to flower, natural selection and breeding have allowed maize to adapt to long-day environments and thus be grown over a wider…

Increasing photosynthetic conversion efficiency is an attractive target for improving crop yields.  One way of affecting this is to alter the way CO2 is delivered to Rubisco, the carbon-fixing enzyme of photosynthesis.  Lehmeier et al. aimed to change the pattern of air spaces within Arabidopsis leaves…

As a tree grows in height, increasing the length of the transport pathway, the hydraulic resistance of the vascular tissues should increase. It is not clear if trees only rely on passive transport mechanisms (no active loading of sugars) to move carbohydrates from shoots to roots. To answer this question,…

Root angle determines the rooting depth and was recently associated with the VERNALIZATION1 locus. Using hexaploid wheat, Voss-Fels et al. mapped the root angle to the locus encoding the MADS-box transcription factor, which was previously associated with flowering time. The group found that the lines…

Light intensity varies seasonally, with time of day, with cloudiness, and as overlying leaves move in the wind.  A sudden change in light intensity alters photosynthetic responses, but not all responses change at the same rate. For example, upon an increase in light intensity, photosynthetic electron…

All gases in the N cycle, including nitric oxide (NO), are present in oceans, either because of gas exchanges at the air-water interface or because they are produced within oceans themselves. NO, a physiologically important gaseous transmitter, is generated in seawater by nonbiological photochemical…

Xylem embolisms are induced by drought stress and/or freezing stress by means of “air-seeding,” that is the aspiration of gaseous bubbles into xylem conduits from adjacent gas-filled compartments via the pits. At water potentials less negative than the threshold for air seeding, the air-water interface…

How does the cost of nitrogen acquisition affect how an ecosystem responds to elevated CO2? Terrer et al. have addressed this question in a comprehensive review of findings from elevated CO2 experiments, using a plant economics framework. The authors describe ecosystem responses, particularly those of…

While much is known about the processes involved in stomatal movement and the processes involved in the transpiration of leaves, there has been no framework to bridge this micro-macro divide. Wang and colleagues bridge this divide through OnGuard2, a quantitative systems platform that uses the molecular…

The effect of reducing leaf chlorophyll content on canopy CO2 assimilation (Acan) is somewhat contentious.  Walker et al. obtained data from 67 soybean accessions to parameterise a canopy-root-soil model (MLCan) in order to simulate the effect of altering chlorophyll levels on Acan.  There was no increase…

Boxall et al. investigate CAM photosynthesis in Kalanchoë fedtschenkoi The Plant Cell (2017). https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00301 Background: During photosynthesis, most plants use the enzyme Rubisco to capture CO2 during the day. Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) plants such as prickly pears,…

Liu et al. used models to predict the effects of climate change on tree mortality in 13 temperate and tropical forest biomes across the globe. When only increased temperature and changes in precipitation are considered, mortality increases in most biomes, with higher emissions models leading to increased…

Carbon exist in two stable isotopic forms; 99% as 12C and 1% as 13C. The carbon-fixing enzyme Rubisco preferentially fixes 12C, so fossil fuels are enriched for 12C, and since the industrial revolution the atmospheric 13C / 12C ratio has been increasing as the 12C-enriched fossil fuels are reconverted…

With changing climate, crops may need to be relocated to new regions for optimal growth temperatures or precipitation, but temperature and rainfall are not the sole influencers of productivity. Many crops, including coffee, depend on pollinators, which may or may not be available in other regions. Imbach…

Climate change is certain to affect our ability to produce food crops and feed a growing global population in the twenty-first century.  Free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments have shown that elevated CO2 (eCO2) levels, a major driver of climate change, have a consistently positive effect on the…

The transition from vegetative growth to a flower-producing reproductive state is highly regulated by environmental cues. The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana has a wide distribution throughout different habitats, so each accession has different adaptations strategies. One of the major factors that varies…

Flower development, unlike flowering timing, is a robust process not much affected by seasonal variation, such that the number of floral organs in each flower can be predicted quite precisely for different plant families. Most Brasiccaceae family species have flowers with fours petals, however, Cardamine…

Global change forecasts include projections of severe droughts that could affect many forested biomes, largely influencing future energy and element fluxes. There are two physiological mechanisms associated with tree mortality in response to drought: hydraulic failure (inhibition of water transport)…

Many plants living in arid environments conserve water by taking up CO2 at night through the action of the enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PPC); this process, which is widespread in the Crassulaceae family, is known as Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). The nocturnal activity of PPC is regulated…

Zhang et al. showed that POSITIVE REGULATOR OF IRON HOMEOSTASIS 1 (OsPRI1), a bHLH transcription factor, is an interacting partner of the iron-binding sensor OsHRZ1. A loss-of-function mutation of OsPRI1 is responsible for a hypersensitive response to Fe deficiency. OsPRI1 works downstream of OsHRZ1…

Plants with thicker leaves are better able to retain water and deal with water-limiting conditions. Coneva et al. explored the genetic basis for leaf thickness by comparing introgression lines of cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and a species adapted to the desert (Solanum pennillii). They found…

Improving photosynthetic efficiency is a major target for increasing crop biomass production and yield potential. The canopy photosynthetic efficiency, which is determined by leaf area index, canopy architecture, and leaf photosynthetic properties, plays an important role in determining biomass accumulation.…

Land plants lose vast quantities of water to the atmosphere during photosynthetic gas exchange. To supply this high demand for water an internal transport system comprised of xylem conduits irrigates the leaf. Selection for greater rates of photosynthesis and increased productivity is believed to have…

Soils exhibiting high mechanical impedance as a result of soil compaction or drying, limit root elongation and adversely affect soil exploration and resource uptake. When soil mechanical impedance is increased, root elongation rate decreases within hours and may entirely cease, leading to significant…

Root cortical senescence (RCS) is a type of programmed cell death found in the Triticeae tribe. RCS is unrelated to the formation of root cortical aerenchyma or the loss of the root cortex due to secondary growth in dicots. Conceivably RCS may benefit the plant by reducing maintenance respiration in…

By Fulton E. Rockwell, and N. Michele Holbrook The structure of leaf vasculature viewed over a broad phylogenetic scale from lycophytes to eudicots correlates with stomatal conductance (gs), providing the basis for the hypothesis that increasing vein density drove the evolution of high fluxes in angiosperms.…

Water deficit (WD) is one of the main environmental stress factors affecting crops and global food security. Acclimation to WD, however, enables plants to maintain growth under unfavorable environmental conditions. To shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying WD acclimation, Rymaszewski et al.…

The waxy cuticle, a key barrier to desiccation and pathogen entry, is a dynamic structure, the composition, area, permeability and thickness of which can change in response to environmental conditions.  For example, water deficit in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) triggers an increase in the accumulation…

Podlaski et al. conducted experiments with energy crops like miscanthus, prairie cordgrass, willow, etc, and report that  water use efficiency (WUE) is no longer a valid trait for selecting energy crops for drought tolerance. They could not find any significant relationship  between  WUE  and  biomass …

An experimental study by Tomeo and Rosenthal with soybean cultivars  demonstrated that there exists genotypic differences in mesophyll conductance (gm),  and that the potential exploitation of this trait may increase crop productivity. It was found that there exists a proper coordination mechanism…

The effects of climate change on agriculture to human health have been well discussed in both scientific and public domains. In plants, changes in climate might affect interactions between the plants and their insect pollinators due to variable availability of pollinators in severe weather conditions,…

Pathogen perception leads to local and systemic immune responses including systemic acquired resistance (SAR). The nature of the mobile signals and their movements remain uncertain. Riedlmeier et al. demonstrated that certain monoterpenes including α- and β-pinene accumulate in SAR-inducing conditions…

Phosphate is both really important (think of its abundance in DNA, RNA, ATP, and membrane lipids), and really difficult to assimilate due to its insolubility and immobility in soil. Phosphate is frequently limiting for growth, meaning that it is widely applied as fertilizer, but global supplies of phosphate…

Salinity is a growing problem for food production. Progress has been made in understanding how plants tolerate salinity, mostly focused on strategies for tolerance at the plasma membrane and cytosol. Bose et al. review studies that focus on how the chloroplast is affected by salinity. The authors review…

Many agricultural lands are becoming saltier as a consequence of irrigation and sea water incursion, yet most crops are very sensitive to salt. Salt glands that accumulate and secrete salt have evolved independently at least 12 times in plants. Dassanayake and Larkin review the structure, function and…

This week we spoke to Professor Henk Hilhorst (Wageningen University and Research) about his research on desiccation tolerance in seeds and plants.   Could you begin by telling us a little about your research? I am a plant physiologist specializing in seed biology. I have a long research…

By Peter J Franks, Joseph A Berry, Danica L. Lombardozzi, and Gordon B Bonan The colonization of land by plants and their interaction with biogeochemical and atmospheric processes transformed continental climate and hydrology. Stomata, which evolved to optimize the biological economics of plant carbon…

Photosynthetic capacity varies hugely within an individual over time, between individuals in different environments, and between species. Demming-Adams et al. review the processes that affect intrinsic photosynthetic capacity. Plants modulate their intrinsic photosynthetic capacity according to input…

Stomatal control of transpiration is critical for maintaining important processes, such as plant water status, leaf temperature, as well as permitting sufficient CO2 diffusion into the leaf to maintain photosynthetic rates (A). Stomatal conductance (gs) often closely correlates with A and is thought…

Crowdsourcing leverages the inputs, ideas and talents of many people in parallel to achieve a goal. Crowdsourcing or “citizen science” can also be an effective approach for science outreach that engages the public by enabling them to collect and analyze data. Willis et al. have developed and assessed…

Fossils have been extremely useful in efforts to reconstruct the past, but recently the analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) has taken off.  Parducci et al. describe the value of lake sediments as sources of ancient DNA from which to gain insights into the plant populations of ancient times. Lakes are found…

All organisms including plants share the tetrapyrrole biosynthesis pathway that is critical for the production of compounds such as heme and chlorophyll. During tetrapyrrole biosynthesis, coproporphyrinogen III oxidase (CPO) catalyzes the conversion of coproporphyrinogen III into protoporphyrinogen IX.…

Many food-producing regions rely on the withdrawal of water from non-renewable underground sources, a condition called groundwater depletion for irrigation (GWD). Globally, GWD increased by 22% between 2000 and 2010. When food produced with GWD is exported, the exporting country is essentially exporting…

“Succulence is a phenomenon that has long eluded a decisive consensus definition,” begins Males in his review of the physiology and evolutionary developmental biology of succulence. Succulence can broadly be defined as the storage of water such that the plant can maintain physiological activity in…

Ice formation within plants influences their physiology mechanically, hydraulically, and at a cellular level. Mechanical strain occurs as water expands during freezing and tension is induced in the remaining liquid-phase sap. Xylem cavitation is initiated upon freezing due to the low (i.e. negative)…

Trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) is a disaccharide formed from two glucose sugars, and more importantly is a signal of glucose availability and regulator of energy homeostasis. Acting via the protein kinase SnRK1, T6P controls the allocation of carbon, leading the plant down a “feast” (growth) or “famine”…

The “Law of the Minimum” put forth by Justus von Liebig states that the most limiting nutrient governs plant growth. Although there is evidence in some conditions that increasing atmospheric CO2 levels can enhance plant growth, this only holds true under conditions in which CO2 is limiting growth.…

FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) is a flowering repressor that is highly conserved in the Brassicaceae family. This family contains species that show an annual life history (plants that flower and senesce, giving one generation per year), as well as perennials (plants that flower several times in their life cycle…

One parameter that defines a plant’s architecture is the angle at which its branches and lateral roots lie with respect to gravity, known as the gravitropic set point angle (GSA). Like all aspects of plant architecture, GSA is a highly plastic trait that is sensitive to light and nutrient availability.…

Current available evidence suggests that the location of the sites of evaporation is important for many questions across plant physiology, including patterns of leaf isotopic enrichment, maintenance of mesophyll water status, stomatal regulation, and interpretation of measured stomatal and leaf hydraulic…

Some bees are generalist pollinators that gather pollen from a wide range of species, whereas others are specialists that visit only one or a few species. Vanderplanck et al. examined floral traits of the host plants of two different groups of generalist bees. There was no significant correlation between…

Plants produce a huge variety of specialized metabolites, many with roles in defense. Metabolic profiles rarely follow phylogenetic lines; in fact, closely related species often produce dramatically different suites of metabolites. When it comes to defense chemistry, it is advantageous to be different…

Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) plants open their stomata at night, decreasing water loss and increasing water-use efficiency as well as drought tolerance. Males and Griffiths review the stomatal biology of CAM plants as compared to C3 plants. For example, CAM stomata are relatively insensitive to…

There are many accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana beyond the ecotypes predominantly used in research laboratories.  In this article, The 1001 Genomes Consortium describe a resource based on whole-genome sequencing of 1,135 A. thaliana genomes from Europe, North Africa, and North America.  This data…

Landraces are native varieties that have been selected for adaptation to their native environment, and as such they provide a wealth of largely unexplored genetic potential. Romero Navarro et al. used a new approach called F-one association mapping (FOAM) in combination with genome-wide association strategy…

Dormancy (growth arrest) is a state by which seeds and plants can survive harsh conditions. Seasonal dormancy is a strategy to survive seasonally unfavorable conditions. Plants can display winter and summer dormancy. Although woody species are the main study systems for winter dormancy, herbaceous species…

There are about 50,000 fungal species that form mycorrhizal associations with about 250,000 plant species. These associations significantly increase plant productivity by increasing nutrient uptake, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, although with a considerable carbon cost to plants. Van der Heijden…

Sixty years ago, the first report of isoprene (C5H8; 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene) emissions from plants was published. Isoprenes are the largest source of non-methane hydrocarbons in Earth’s atmosphere; furthermore, isoprene is reactive in atmospheric chemistry and can be converted into a variety of harmful…

Shade avoidance syndrome (SAS) is a growth pattern in which stem and petiole elongation is stimulated in plants exposed to vegetative shade, as revealed through a low ratio of red to far-red light perceived by phytochrome; red light is absorbed by chlorophyll, leading to a far-red enrichment in light…

To meet the Sustainable Development Goal 2, Zero hunger, degraded ecosystems should be brought under cultivation with quality seeds that have good germination and produce healthy seedling for vigorous plant population establishment. Seed technologies like seed coating with inoculants, germination promoters,…

Climate change could affect agricultural productivity by increasing the number of days with temperatures above 30°C that staple crops like soybean, maize and wheat will experience during a given growing season. Schauberger et al. used nine statistical models to assess future threats to US crops. They…

Phosphorus (P) is a non-renewable soil nutrient essential for plant growth. The vacuole serves as a crucial dynamic store of P that helps maintain cytosolic homeostasis. Yang et al. review vacuolar P stores, comparing P storage species and membrane proteins in yeast, algae and plants. In yeast, polyphosphate…

Filmed at the Gatsby Summer School, University of Cambridge 2015 Western agricultural systems are reliant on the application of inorganic nitrogen fertilisers to greatly enhance yield. However, production and application of nitrogen fertilisers account for a significant proportion of fossil fuel usage…

Cultivation of Tulipa gesneriana (tulip), an economically important species due to its ornamental value, can be affected by warming winters, leading to low quality flowers produced out of season. Leeggangers et al. have sequenced RNA and used top-down and bottom-up approaches in tulips grown in two contrasting…

The Casparian strip is a permeability barrier that seals the spaces between root endodermis cells and so prevents bulk-flow uptake of solutes. Previously, a leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase called SCHENGEN3 or GASSHO1 (GSO1/SGN3) was identified as necessary for normal Casparian strip formation. Now,…

Plants use light as a source of energy and information; however, they are also sensitive and respond to  light/dark diurnal cycling, with many processes happening during the dark phase of the diurnal cycle. In this review, Seluzicki et al. emphasize the importance of studying and understanding what…

Root architecture and anatomy contribute to water uptake efficiency and plant performance under water-limitation. Prince et al. explored root anatomy in a panel of soybean, and identified metaxylem number as a key trait influencing performance under water-limiting conditions. Increases in metaxylem number…

Phosphorus (P) is an important macronutrient for crop productivity.  In cereal crops like rice, about 60-85% of total plant P is allocated to grains and therefore removed from fields at harvest. Furthermore, the major form of P in the grains is phytate (C6H18O24P6), which cannot be digested by humans…

It has been argued that rising atmospheric CO2 levels might benefit plants by providing them more substrate for photosynthetic carbon-fixation. However, numerous studies have indicated that other factors interfere with a so-called CO2-fertilization benefit. Girardin et al. explore recent tree growth…

Heat stress is one of the main abiotic stresses plants encounter. Jiang et al. used combined transcriptomic and proteomic data to explore the responses of grape leaves to elevated temperatures (35, 40, 45°C). Using high-throughput sequencing and the iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation)…

Legume nodules fix N, but their function has a high requirement for P, making nitrogen-fixation highly sensitive to P deficiency. Valentine et al. review how P limitation affects nodule function and also how nodules respond and adapt to P deficiency, drawing largely on studies of Virgilia divaricata,…

Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are the three macronutrients required in highest amounts for plant growth. N is abundant in the atmosphere, therefore plentiful if we overlook the energetic costs of converting N2 to usable form. By contrast, K and P are present in limited amounts in the…

As a consequence of their ability to fix nitrogen in symbiosis with bacteria, legumes make key contributions to ecosystems and provide protein-rich foods for humans and other animals. Recent years have uncovered the nature of the signals involved in the cross-kingdom dialogues that occur between plant…

It is widely stated that domestication has contributed to a decrease in plant resistance to herbivory, but to what extent is this true? In a contribution to a special issue on “Human influences on evolution”, Whitehead et al. describe results of their meta-analysis. Although their data show a consistent…

Cadmium (Cd) is among the most toxic heavy metal to humans. Contamination of Cd in soils poses a serious threat to both crop productivity and human health in many parts of the world. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of Cd transport process will help in developing plants for soil remediation and…

Soil saline-alkalization is a major abiotic stress to agriculture worldwide, causing considerable damage to crop growth and loss of crop productivity. In alkaline soil, iron availability to plants also becomes very limiting. This paper explores the physiological and molecular mechanisms of rice plant’s…

Light is good, too much light is bad. Photosynthetic organisms can dissipate excess light through a variety of means including non-photochemical quenching. Czechowski et al. show that in Chlamydomonas perception of UV-B light via the nuclear/cytosolic receptor UVR8 induces accumulation of proteins that…

A pair of reviews in J. Exp. Bot. covers aspects of seed dormancy and germination. Steinbrecher and Leubner-Metzger (10.1093/jxb/erw428) provide an excellent introduction to materials science including stress-strain curves and Young’s Modulus, which they then apply to an understanding of the biophysics…

Terrestrial plants are hosts to diverse types of microbes, predominantly bacteria, that affect plant health and growth in numerous ways. The major types of plant microbiota include plant pathogens, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, endophytes (residing within plant tissues), epiphytes (residing on plant…

We’ve highlighted some of the Plant Cell papers that were widely shared, liked, blogged, retweeted and otherwise garnered high-levels of attention this year. Perhaps you can use some holiday-season quiet time to catch up on those you missed. Reviews and Perspectives Creating order from chaos: epigenome…

We’ve highlighted some of the Plant Physiology papers that were widely shared, liked, blogged, retweeted and otherwise garnered high-levels of attention this year. Perhaps you can use some of that holiday-season quiet time to catch up on those you missed. The breakaway attention-getter from Plant…

Rubisco (Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase / oxygenase) is the enzyme responsible for fixing almost all inorganic carbon into organic form, but it is not optimized for current conditions. As temperature and CO2 levels increase, there is an opportunity to increase photosynthetic efficiency by engineering…

Earth colonization by life happened billions of years ago. Weathering of soils by microbial mats leave a characteristic signal that can be used to shed light on the mechanisms involved in colonization. In this review, Lenton and Daines discuss the growing mass of evidence that points to the biogeochemical…

Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a specialized form of photosynthesis that greatly increases water-use efficiency by taking up CO2 through stomata that are open at night (when evapotranspiration is low). Engineering plants that can switch to CAM during periods of drought is a key goal towards…

The wavelenghts of light perceived by a plant are information-rich, and plants integrate information from photoreceptors tuned to different wavelenghts to optimize their growth and development. Because plants absorb red light but not far-red light, a low ratio of red to far-red light indicates vegetative…

Unravelling the mechanism and signals originating from roots and able to contribute to stomatal control has been the subject of research for decades. In this commentary, Tardieu summarizes and discusses many studies and models on root-shoot signals, including work in the same issue by Visentin et…