Early evolution of the land plant circadian clock
Plant Science Research Weekly, Research0 Comments
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Clocks in green algae have been described as simple two-gene loops, while clocks in angiosperms have evolved to complex interlocked loops. This striking jump in complexity led Linde et al. to investigate the clocks in bryophytes and charophytes to shed light on this transition. First, through the sequence…
Technical Report: The rapid A–Ci response: photosynthesis in the phenomic era ($)
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchLarge-scale phenotyping efforts depend on large numbers of measurements, so the time taken for any one measurement has a big effect on the number of samples that can be processed. Stinziano et al. describe a breakthrough in the method used to identify the photosynthetic parameters Vc,max (maximum rate…
Review: The genomic basis of adaptation in plants ($)
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchEvolution starts with molecular variation and phenotypic diversity, upon which selection acts. Flood and Hancock review the approaches used to detect adaptive evolution. The top down approach starts with the phenotype and works to identify its genomic basis; examples are quantitative trait locus (QTL)…
Review: Host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions for plant breeding ($)
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchThe idea that the microbes on and within an organism (the microbiota) influence an organism in positive, neutral and negative ways has been a hot topic in popular science, especially the role of the gut microbiota in human health and nutrition. Plants are similarly influenced by their microbiota, as…
Review: Synthetic botany
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchAs photosynthetic autotrophs, plants have the potential to convert sunlight into a vast array of useful products: to act as little green metabolic factories. Of course, they already provide us with everything from carbohydrates and vitamins to stimulants and medicinal compounds, but with a few small…
Review: Modifying bananas: From transgenics to organics?
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchDid you know that bananas are: one of the top ten world food crops, the world’s most popular fruit, eaten in nearly every country, and an important food security crop in regions where they are grown? Did you also know that most bananas are triploid and usually sterile, making conventional breeding…
The Science in Our Food - Jim Carrington
CSVL Research, Curated Webinars / Video Lectures, WebinarsJim speaks on the benefits science has allowed for in the advancements in growing food. He suggests that global changes will create a need for us to leave romantic visions of farming in our past. With exploding population growth and climate change, we are at an important cross roads.
Jim Carrington…
Field-based high throughput phenotyping identifies genes controlling yield in rice
Plant Science Research Weekly, Research, Research BlogThe classic art of plant breeding involves carefully examining a genetically segregating population for traits of interest. Increasingly, high-throughput, automated phenotyping systems are being used; for example, robots can carry plants to imaging chambers for data collection. However, growth-chamber…
Allelic diversity underlying flowering-time adaptation in maize landraces ($)
Plant Science Research Weekly, ResearchLandraces 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…