Research

A Balanced Diet: Agricultural Productivity and Sustainable Nitrogen and Phosphorous Use

The first major symposium of Plant Biology 2017, organized by Michael Udvardi of The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, is titled “Away from the Brink – Towards the Sustainable Use of N and P in Agriculture”. Session attendees will be presented with a range of creative solutions for ensuring continued agricultural productivity while managing nitrogen and … Read moreA Balanced Diet: Agricultural Productivity and Sustainable Nitrogen and Phosphorous Use

New Competition! Teaching Tools in Plant Biology pre-proposals: 30 April 2017

Have you got a passion for plant science that you are eager to share? Do you have a favorite paper, experiment, topic, or method that you like to share with undergraduates? Have you found a clever way to engage students and stimulate their curiosity? We want to hear your ideas for new content for The … Read moreNew Competition! Teaching Tools in Plant Biology pre-proposals: 30 April 2017

What We’re Reading: February 24

Insight: Why we need more non-seed plant models There is much to be learned from comparing plant genomes, but as Rensing writes, currently available genomic data are skewed heavily towards angiosperms. He argues that a richer understanding of plant evolution depends upon gaining insights into the non-seed plants, including ferns, mosses and liverworts, but particularly … Read moreWhat We’re Reading: February 24

What We’re Reading: February 17

New Phytologist Tansley Medal finalists essays The New Phytologist Tansley Medal is awarded to an early career scientist for excellence in plant science. The essays submitted by each of the five finalists are published in the March 2017 issue of New Phytologist, and make good reading. We agree with the sentiments of the editors, “warmest … Read moreWhat We’re Reading: February 17

Recognizing featured Plant Cell first authors, January 2017

Recently, we’ve been profiling first authors of Plant Cell papers that are selected for In Brief summaries. Here are the first-author profiles from the December issue of The Plant Cell. Michael Sandmann, featured first author of Targeting of A. thaliana KNL2 to centromeres depends on the conserved CENPC-k motif in its C-terminus Current Position: PhD … Read moreRecognizing featured Plant Cell first authors, January 2017

What We’re Reading: February 10

Review: Plant diversity change across scales during the Anthropocene ($) We’re living in the Anthropocene, a term that reflects the profound impact of human activities on Earth’s geology and ecology. A hallmark of the Anthropocene is a decrease in biodiversity due to an increase in the rate of extinctions. Vellend et al. examined how plant … Read moreWhat We’re Reading: February 10

How can genomics help neglected crops fight disease?

Guest post by Kelsey Wood (@klsywd) a PhD student researching the genetics and genomics of plant-pathogen interactions at the University of California, Davis. I recently attended a Plant Pathology symposium on “Genomics Strategies for Developing Sustainable Disease Resistance for Neglected Crops in the Developing World“. The symposium was held at the University of California, Berkeley and … Read moreHow can genomics help neglected crops fight disease?

NSF INCLUDES Prospective Reviewer Survey for Design and Development Launch Pilot Preliminary Proposals

This is a survey to determine your interest in and availability for serving on a panel for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to review proposals for the new agency-wide initiative, NSF INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science). NSF INCLUDES is a comprehensive national initiative designed … Read moreNSF INCLUDES Prospective Reviewer Survey for Design and Development Launch Pilot Preliminary Proposals

What We’re Reading: January 27th

Review: The sexual advantage of looking, smelling and tasting good, the metabolic network that produces signals for pollinators ($) The interaction between angiosperms and their pollinators provides an excellent system to study co-evolution, and underpins the evolution of the biosynthesis of numerous interesting and useful specialized metabolites, from pigments to fragrances. Borghi et al. review … Read moreWhat We’re Reading: January 27th

Call for Nominations: FFAR New Innovator Award

The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) has released a call for nominations for the 2017 New Innovator in Food and Agriculture Research Award.  This is the second competition for this award, which aims to “support the next generation of food and agriculture scientists”.  While last year the award was limited to one nominee … Read moreCall for Nominations: FFAR New Innovator Award

What We’re Reading: January 20th

Two Reviews: CRISPR/Cas for genome engineering in plants, and Genome editing in cereal crops ($) The gene-editing technology CRISPR/Cas, which introduces double-strand breaks that are repaired by non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), is best known for the promise it holds in modifying an organism’s DNA sequence without the introduction of exogenous genes. However, as Puchta describes … Read moreWhat We’re Reading: January 20th

In Brief: More than Window Dressing: Revealing 5-Methylcytocine Patterns that Decorate Arabidopsis RNA

IN BRIEF by Jennifer Lockhart jlockhart@aspb.org DNA is sculpted by several types of epigenetic modifications with profound effects on gene expression, development, and stress responses. Much less is known about the more than 100 chemical modifications shaping plant RNA, a topic explored in the newly emerging field of epitranscriptomics (reviewed in Burgess et al., 2016). … Read moreIn Brief: More than Window Dressing: Revealing 5-Methylcytocine Patterns that Decorate Arabidopsis RNA

What We’re Reading: January 13

Editorial: Rigorous Science: a How-To Guide Casadevall and Fang set out several proposals for research training to help ensure scientific “rigor”, which they define as promoting confidence in the truth or accuracy of the findings. The authors propose and elaborate on five foundations for scientific rigor: Redundancy in experimental design, recognition of error, intellectual honesty, … Read moreWhat We’re Reading: January 13

What We’re Reading: January 6th

Review: Transport and homeostasis of K and P ($) Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are the three macronutrients required in highest amounts for plant growth. N is abundant in the atmosphere, therefore plentiful if we overlook the energetic costs of converting N2 to usable form. By contrast, K and P are present in … Read moreWhat We’re Reading: January 6th

What We’re Reading: Dec 30th

For the past three months, we (Mary Williams and Plantae Fellows) have been profiling selected papers of broad interest to the plant science community. You can see all of our posts here: What We’re Reading. Early in 2017 we’ll be moving this feature to the new, soon-to-be unveiled public pages on Plantae (watch this space!). … Read moreWhat We’re Reading: Dec 30th

Recognizing featured Plant Cell first authors, December 2016

Recently, we’ve been profiling first authors of Plant Cell papers that are selected for In Brief summaries. Here are the first-author profiles from the December issue of The Plant Cell. Yao-Pin Lin, featured author of Identification of Chlorophyll Dephytylase Involved in Chlorophyll Turnover in Arabidopsis Current Position: Postdoctoral fellow in Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia … Read moreRecognizing featured Plant Cell first authors, December 2016

What We’re Reading: December 23

Short, accessible summaries of articles of broad interest to plant scientists, with links to the papers for more in-depth reading. Enjoy! Review: Physics of pollinator attraction Flowers use a variety of strategies to attract pollinators and ensure successful pollination, including color and scent. Moyroud and Glover review some of the less familiar strategies including physical … Read moreWhat We’re Reading: December 23

What We’re Reading: Dec 16

Previewing Pollen Biology special issue of Plant Physiology In Plant Physiology Preview you can get a head start on reading the excellent set of articles from a forthcoming special issue on Pollen Biology. Updates and research articles cover all aspects of this crucial part of reproductive biology, from the complex cell biology that underpins polar … Read moreWhat We’re Reading: Dec 16

Best of 2016: Top Topics in The Plant Cell journal

We’ve highlighted some of the Plant Cell papers that were widely shared, liked, blogged, retweeted and otherwise garnered high-levels of attention this year. Perhaps you can use some holiday-season quiet time to catch up on those you missed. Reviews and Perspectives Creating order from chaos: epigenome dynamics in plants with complex genomes http://www.plantcell.org/content/28/2/314 Advancing Crop … Read moreBest of 2016: Top Topics in The Plant Cell journal

Contribute to Plant Image Collection (PIC) Week

Plant image analysis is a growing field in the plant community. From the cell level to the canopy, many tools were developed in the last few years, most of which are referenced on the plant-image-analysis.org website. These tools helped analysing thousands of images, leading to many publications. However, these images were rarely made available to … Read moreContribute to Plant Image Collection (PIC) Week