Why plant diversity is the future of sustainable agriculture
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe interactions between different types of plants, pests, and the predators that hunt them shape the health of entire landscapes, but it has been hard to predict what happens when you mix more plant species into different environments. Here, Wan et al. analyzed massive amounts of data from field studies…
Viewpoint. Green life beyond Earth: Frontiers of space plant biology
Plant Science Research WeeklyPlants are the quiet architects of life on Earth, sustaining the ecosystem through their ability to capture energy, cycle nutrients, and adapt to extreme environments. Their remarkable plasticity allows plants to thrive on non-arable land such as mountains, deserts, and floodplains, but whether this…
Special report: State of the climate, a planet on the brink
Plant Science Research WeeklyThis is the last edition of PSRW before the new year. Although we have spent the past year celebrating the breakthroughs in plant science, I am going to end on a more sober note, which is succinctly captured in this important special report from Ripple et al. The authors pull together data from across…
Improving water use efficiency in maize
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellBlankenagel et al. discover a major link between variation in water use efficiency and carbon isotope discrimination
By Sonja Blankenagel, Stella Eggels, and Viktoriya Avramova
Plant Breeding, TUM School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich
Background: Growing crops with high…