Tag: Evolution

Mu et al. mapped a QTL previously shown to control fruit weight in tomato, and named the responsible gene Cell Size Regulator (CSR). They found that CSR-D, the derived allele, increases cell size and is widespread in Solanum lycopersicum var. lycopersicum, but not in ancestral tomatoes with smaller fruit.…

Cultivated apples (Malus domestica) trace their roots to Kazakhstan 4000 – 10,000 years ago, and since then have been propagated, transported, hybridized to other Malus species, and domesticated. Duan et al. sequenced more than 100 diverse accessions to trace apple's history and identify loci subjected…

Plants, green algae and cyanobacteria carry out oxygenic photosynthesis through the coordination of two photosystems, PSI and PSII. Many other photosynthetic prokaryotes use a single reaction center to carry out anoxygenic photosynthesis. Gisriel et al. describe the structure of a photosynthetic reaction…

Maize (corn), an important staple of the diet in ancient and modern times, was cultivated at higher altitudes in the southwestern United States, around 2,000 years after its introduction to the lowland US regions. In order to better understand how maize later adapted to high altitudes, authors sequenced…

There are only ten organisms known  to have genomes larger than 100 Gb in size and six of those are plants. Both Numbers 1 and 2 on the list are plants with genomes that are nearly 50x the size of the human genome (which is 3 Gb), and over 1000x that of Arabidopsis: the 148.8 Gb-genome Paris japonica…

Diversification in plants is driven by many factors, but one trait, plant size, has been systematically overlooked, in contrast with the zoological field where the influence of body size on diversification has long been recognized. In this Viewpoint paper, Boucher et al. try to convince us why we…

Mark your calendars for the first Plantae.org live online chat discussion with featured community member Anne Sternberger! Support your peers  |  Discuss plant science topics  |  Learn about how others work Tuesday, June 27th at 5pm EST / 11am HST |  Join: www.plantae.org/annes Anne is…

Light is an essential environmental factor for photosynthetic organisms, serving as a source of energy and signal information. To precisely perceive and respond to different wavelengths of the light spectrum, eukaryotic photosynthetic microorganisms and higher plants have developed different classes…