Advancing crop transformation in the era of genome editing

You are probably familiar with the process of making a transgenic plant; gene identification, gene introduction into a plant cell via bombardment or Agrobacterium tumefaciens, selection of transformed tissue, and plant regeneration (as shown in the diagram from Teaching Tools in Plant Biology). Many of you have probably carried out the process, at least in … Read more

NSF to Update Merit Review Procedures – Impact on Broader Impacts?

NSF is offering a draft of a new Proposal and Award Policies Procedure Guide. The guide is expected to ‘go live’ in January 2017.  An active leader in the National Alliance for Broader Impacts recently noted that this proposed guide has some subtle yet rather interesting changes in the merit review wording. The biggest question … Read more

The Ethylene Receptor of a Cyanobacterium

This Research in Focus is written by science writer Peter Minorsky (ASPB and Mercy College) who writes the monthly On the Inside column for Plant Physiology. This summary describes a paper by Lacey and Binder, to be published in the  July 2016 issue. The authors examine a putative ethylene receptor in cyanobacteria; this protein had … Read more

Teaching Tools in Plant Biology articles and resources available on Plantae

Did you know that you can now access the Teaching Tools in Plant Biology articles on Plantae? Teaching Tools in Plant Biology is a popular feature of The Plant Cell, but it’s also a little different than the usual Plant Cell content. Because of the way it is hosted on the journal website, it sometimes … Read more