Tag: Genomics

The Arabidopsis thaliana Columbia-0 (Col-0) accession is often treated as a standard reference genotype shared by plant researchers worldwide. However, a new study by Tadros et al. shows that decades of independent propagation in different laboratories have left distinct genetic and epigenetic signatures…

Despite the usefulness of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for linking DNA variation to agronomic traits, GWAS are focused on detecting common alleles and often fail to detect less-common, rare variants. Rare variants may account for a significant portion of the heritability behind complex traits…

Long overshadowed by protein-coding genes, the non-coding genome remains one of the most elusive frontiers in plant biology. Their sequence diversity and limited conservation have made functional annotation particularly challenging. Addressing this gap, Amundson and colleagues introduce “Conservatory”,…

Kalenchoe plants, sometimes called “Mother of Thousands” are instantly recognizable by the abundance of little plantlets that form on their leaf margins. Kalenchoe daigremontiana is probably the most recognizable species, in which plantlet formation is constitutive, but other species in this genus…

Soybean is one of the most important cash crops for global food and feed, valued for its high-quality plant oil and protein. Centuries of domestication and breeding have narrowed its genetic diversity, leaving current cultivars vulnerable to climate change. To address this, Zhu and colleagues generated…

Lichens are complex assemblies that are composed of at least two organisms, a fungus (the mycobiont) and a photosynthetic partner, the photobiont. Lichen lifestyles have emerged several times, and the photobiont can be either prokaryotic cyanobacteria or eukaryotic algae. Recently, Tagirdzhanova et al.…

Oat (Avena sativa) is a globally cultivated cereal for its rich dietary fiber and health-promoting benefits. Yet, despite its nutritional importance, oat genomics has long lagged behind other cereals due to its large, repeat-rich, and allohexaploid genome which does not generally recombine. In a recent…

This is such an engaging and though-provoking review article. I’d love to ask a group of students to think about what makes a tree a tree, including such questions as: How do we define trees? Do woody plants share a single origin? How many angiosperms are woody? The answer to those questions and more…