Recent Posts

CYCLOIDEA3 is targeted by disparate transcription factors in patterning flowers in Gerbera

Yunqing Yu Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Kellogg Lab SAINT LOUIS, MO 63132 United States of America yyu@danforthcenter.org Flowering plants have evolved enormous diversity and complexity of inflorescence architecture. One great model for studying complex inflorescence development and…

Fine Tuning Floral Morphology: MADS-Box Protein Complex Formation in Maize

Plant floral organ development is orchestrated by master regulatory genes that control the differentiation of meristem tissue. According to the ABC(DE) model of flower development (Bowman et al., 1989; nicely summarized by Irish, 2017), different floral organs form in concentric whorls (verticils) in…

MYB30 links the ROS wave to systemic acclimation

Amna Mhamdi Ghent University, Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, and VIB Center for Plant Systems Biology, 9052 Ghent, Belgium Address correspondence to amna.mhamdi@psb.ugent.be Stress signals trigger systemic signaling and acclimation. The propagation of reactive oxygen species…

Unexpected Role of a TCP Transcription Factor in Seed Oil Biosynthesis

Tianhu Sun ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2513-1387 Plant Breeding and Genetics Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 ts753@cornell.edu Plant seed oils (such as canola oil, sunflower oil, and soybean oil) are important for the human diet and store energy…

Maize RNA Polymerase III Subunit NRPC2: New Kid on the Kernel Development Block

Dhineshkumar Thiruppathi 1,2  ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2018-3356 Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Saint Louis, Missouri 63132 1Senior author 2Author for contact: dthiruppathi@danforthcenter.org Seed (kernel) size affects evolutionary fitness and crop yield. In angiosperms, seed size…

The photobiology paradox resolved: photoreceptors drive photosynthesis and vice-versa

Charlotte Gommers, Assistant Features Editor charlotte.gommers@wur.nl For a long time, the study of light fueled two independent fields of plant sciences. On the one hand, light energy is absorbed in the chloroplasts, to drive sugar production via photosynthesis. On the other hand, light is an…

True Blue: How Cry1 Inhibits Phototropism in Green Seedlings

Kasper van Gelderen Plant Ecophysiology, Dept. of Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8 3584CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands. The study of plant movement towards light, also called phototropism, has a venerable history with giants such as Charles Darwin and Frits Went involved in its study, which…

Sugars Inform the Circadian Clock How to Shape Rice Shoots via the Strigolactone Pathway

Circadian clocks act as universal timekeepers to harmonize internal processes with external day-night rhythms. Genetic feedback loops gear these inner clocks by approximating time in response to dawn-dusk cycles. In plants, development, growth, hormone action, metabolism and other downstream events are…