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…
Unraveling cold tolerance in maize
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellLi et al. discover a cold-tolerance allele that was not selected during maize domestication.
Background: Cold stress is an important environmental factor that limits plant growth, development, and geographical distribution. Maize originated in Mexico and is sensitive to low temperatures. Cold stress…
Unraveling bHLH transcription factor-mediated maize anther development
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellNan, Teng et al. uncover bHLH-regulated genetic networks that sequentially control maize anther development.
By Chong Teng (DDPSC, MO), Guo-Ling Nan (Stanford University, CA), Blake Meyers (DDPSC and University of Missouri–Columbia, MO), and Virginia Walbot (Stanford University, CA)
Background:…
Accuracy matters: What happens when phenotyping errors are non-random?
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellZhou, Kusmec, Mirnezami et al. reveal how genetically determined measurement bias affects the accuracy of high-throughput phenotyping and genetic analysis. The Plant Cell (2021) https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab134
By Yan Zhou
Iowa State University
Background: The accuracy of trait measurement…
How drought affects the asynchrony between anthesis and silking
The Plant Cell: In a NutshellLiu et al. demonstrate how manipulating ZmEXPA4 gene expression in developing maize ears alleviates the prolonged anthesis and silking interval in response to drought. The Plant Cell (2021) https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab083
By Boxin Liu and Feng Qin
Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of…