
Focus issue on AI for plant sciences
Plant Science Research WeeklyThere are numerous ways that AI can support research productivity through its ability to evaluate large datasets. Plant Communications has assembled a collection of articles that describe some of these new tools and approaches. As an example, Jang et al. describe the use of digital twins as tools to…

Rapid shifts in the patterns of gene expression shapes flowering plant diversity
Plant Science Research WeeklyFlowering plants are the most widespread group of plants, occupying almost every environment on our planet. They play important roles in maintaining the earth’s biodiversity and have a remarkably high rate of diversification. What’s always puzzled scientists is how they became so incredibly diverse.…

Review: Harnessing the power of gene regulatory networks for crop improvement
Plant Science Research WeeklyThe number of large molecular plant datasets seems to be growing exponentially. With this growth comes an urgent need for researchers to understand how these datasets should be analyzed and integrated to get accurate understandings of what they represent. This fine article by Leong et al. is a good place…

Smelly plant: What are they feeding you?
Plant Science Research WeeklyWhile flowers are typically associated with pleasant fragrances, every few years a certain part of the rainforests of Sumatra is filled with the pungent odor of rotting flesh. This smell emanates from the inflorescence of the titan arum, or corpse plant, which heats up during flowering in a process known…

Single-plant omics provides transcriptional insights into the transition from the vegetative to reproductive phases
Plant Science Research WeeklyPlants undergo a series of physiological processes when transitioning from the juvenile to the vegetative phase, and then vegetative to the reproductive phase. RNA-Seq offers substantial potential for uncovering the transcriptional landscape underlying these developmental transitions. However, developmental…

Single cell transcriptomics aids gene discovery of complex natural product biosynthesis
Plant Science Research WeeklyFrom an ancient Greek cure-all to a modern treatment for mild depression, Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s wort) is a fascinating weed. Its leaves and flowers produce hyperforin, a metabolite derived from the isoprenoid pathway, which acts as a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Despite partial genome and…

Phylogenomics of rubber trees sheds light on latex production
Plant Science Research WeeklyNatural rubber, primarily derived from Hevea brasiliensis, is an essential global resource, but its production threatened by environmental changes and pest pressures. Fang et al. examined genome assemblies from eight high-quality Hevea accessions comprising different species. The results show unexpected…

Review: The era of panomics-driven gene discovery in plants
Plant Science Research WeeklyPanomics, an approach integrating multiple ‘omics’ datasets such as genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and phenomics, has seen rapid advancement in recent years due to technological improvements, particularly in genomics. This review focuses on the recent developments in panomics-driven gene…

Transcriptional changes during barley grain development
Plant Science Research WeeklyBarley is a globally important cereal crop, so understanding barley grain development is of much interest. Here, Kovacik et al. investigated transcriptional changes in barley grains at five points across development, 4, 8, 16, 24 and 32 days after pollination. For each time point, grains were manually…
