Recent Posts

Review: A century of studying plant secondary metabolism—From “what?” to “where, how, and why?” 

Phytochemicals, also known as plant secondary metabolites, play primary roles in plant development, structure, and response to the environment. Their metabolism has been studied for over a century. In a new review, Dixon and Dickinson discuss past and recent advances in understanding the identity, localization,…

Bacterial tolerance to host-exuded specialized metabolites structures the maize root microbiome

Benzoxazinoids (BXs) are alkaloid specialized metabolites produced by important crops like maize. Their role in shaping the root and rhizosphere microbiomes and in plant defense against pest and pathogens is well known, although the mechanism remains unknown. One of the major BXs produced by maize is…

The genetic basis of nitrogen responses in Arabidopsis thaliana

Ella Katz1 and Dan J. Kliebenstein1,2. 1Department of Plant Sciences, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA 2DynaMo Center of Excellence, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Background: Nitrogen is an essential element for plant growth and development. Nitrogen availability and form…