Recent Posts

Flip the light switch for protein production

Protein synthesis, modification, and degradation are not only crucial for responding to environmental change, but they also represent significant energy costs for a plant. Energy homeostasis is highly affected by the presence of light. In young seedlings, light enhances translation during the dark-to-light…

Alone or together: BRI1 signaling controls root growth in a cell-autonomous manner

Root growth is controlled by a dense network of hormone signals working in shared and distinct root zones and cell types. Brassinosteroids (BR) control root growth through activated signaling in vascular and epidermal tissues, but it is unclear how BR signals in each tissue contribute and whether there…

Review: Long noncoding RNAs and the art of being influential without protein

Advances in sequencing technologies have led to a tremendous growth in the number of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) being identified in plants, but identifying their function lags behind. Here, Ramirez Gonzales and Blom et al. draw on lessons from studies in mammalian systems and highlight several known…

The Marchantia transcription factor atlas

Marchantia’s power as a model organism continues to grow! Here, Ramoni et al. have investigated the expression pattern of the proximal promoters of most of its 450 transcription factor (TF)-encoding genes. The promoter elements were fused to nuclear-localized fluorescent reporters and introduced into…

RNA hairpins underlie preferential use of translation start codons

Gene expression regulation facilitates environmental adaptation and survival. This recent paper by Xiang et al. focuses on the regulation of translation, in particular on the mechanism underlying the generation of different translation products in different conditions. In addition to the main start codon…

Review: Rapid auxin signaling: Unknowns old and new

You might think you’ve read enough about auxin, but I recommend you take this opportunity to read one more article, this very interesting and enjoyable review by Fielder and Friml. Auxin has figured prominently in both the classical and molecular eras of plant biology. However, the exciting findings…

From friend to threat: the mutualist-pathogen transition of plant-fungal interaction is determined by a small gene cluster

The infection modes of microbes in hosts can be reversible and can range from pathogenic to mutualistic, depending on the environmental conditions. The plant-associated fungus Colletotrichum tofieldiae (Ct) has been shown to promote primary root growth and increase shoot fresh weight of Arabidopsis in…

The Plant Cell Focus Issue: Biomolecular Condensates

The September issue of The Plant Cell includes a focus on biomolecular condensates. Although the term “biomolecular condensates” is relatively new, it actually reflects a convergence and synthesis of several distinct threads of research. Biomolecular condensates span from “classic” membraneless…

Focus Issue: Biomolecular Condensates

Although The Plant Cell Focus Issue on Biomolecular Condensates officially comes out in September, due to the idiosyncrasies of publishing many of the articles are already available online, and I’m highlighting them now because this topic is also the focus of a plenary session at the Plant Biology…