Plantae Internships and conference updates from the PSRN

The Plant Science Research Network attends two conferences each fall to support undergraduate research and education: SACNAS and ABRCMS. Connecting undergraduate students to research opportunities in the plant sciences is a goal of the PSRN, which curates resources to support student research, careers, and connection to the plant science community. If you were not with … Read more

Press Release – Blake Meyers Appointed Next Editor of The Plant Cell

Rockville, Maryland, October 21, 2019 – The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) is pleased to announce the appointment of Blake C. Meyers to serve as editor-in-chief of The Plant Cell beginning January 1, 2020. The Plant Cell publishes novel research of particular significance in plant biology, especially in the areas of cellular biology, molecular … Read more

Press Release – Gene Responsible for Lutein Esterification in Bread Wheat Identified

The activity of this gene controls the timing of esterification in grain, which is related to storage and nutritional qualities of bread wheat and other grains. This work provides insight into the timing and control of esterification, related to storage and nutritional qualities of bread wheat and other grains. ASPB is pleased to announce the … Read more

ASPB and Open Peer Review

It’s Peer Review Week (#PeerRevWk19) ! What better time than now to blog about how two of ASPB’s journals (The Plant Cell and Plant Direct) have approached open peer review? In 2018, Nature published a Comment titled “Publish Peer Reviews” (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06032-w).  This Comment references an open letter (http://asapbio.org/letter) signed by two of ASPB’s own: the Editor-in-Chief of The Plant Cell, … Read more

PSRN Updates – Inclusivity in the Plant Sciences and Plant Summit 2019

In early 2019, the Plant Science Research Network (PSRN) held two strategic planning meetings. The PSRN is an NSF-supported Research Coordination Network whose members are research councils and scientific societies, including ASPB. Among the participants at both workshops were early career researchers and scientists from the public and private sectors across the plant science research … Read more

Funding Opportunity: NSF Releases HDR Institutes for Data-Intensive Research in Science and Engineering – Ideas Labs

On Thursday, December 13, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released a solicitation for its newest program under the Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) Big Idea, titled Institutes for Data Intensive Research in Science and Engineering – Ideas Labs (I-DIRSE-IL).  This solicitation is part of the first phase of creating new HDR Institutes, which are intended … Read more

CALL FOR PAPERS! The Plant Cell 30th Anniversary Collection: Rethinking the Past and Shaping the Future of Plant Biology

CALL FOR PAPERS! The Plant Cell 30th Anniversary Collection: Rethinking the Past and Shaping the Future of Plant Biology Deadline for submission: June 30, 2019 In celebration of 30 years of publishing the best research in plant molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, we encourage authors to submit their most exciting new results for consideration for a … Read more

Top altmetric scoring papers from The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology – 2017

The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) is a not-for-profit member society, and the publisher of two the top plant science journals, The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. ASPB is also a member of the Scientific Society Publisher Alliance (SSPA). Like other society-published journals, ASPB’s journals provide authors with the opportunity to have their work … Read more

Next Generation of Training for Arabidopsis Researchers: Bioinformatics and Quantitative Biology

In a new Commentary in Plant Physiology, Friesner et al. write a compelling vision for next-generation training for plant scientists. We asked three of the 39 authors, Joanna Friesner, Molly Megrew and Siobhan Brady, to tell us about their motivations and goals for writing this commentary. You and several other authors (see the full list … Read more

Agency Update: NSF Seeks Members for STEM Education Advisory Panel

Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC – November 10, 2017 On November 8, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it is accepting recommendations for members of a new STEM[1] Education Advisory Panel.  This panel will provide input to the interagency Committee on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education (CoSTEM), which is made up of agency leads for … Read more

NIFA Listens: Investing in Science to Transform Lives

USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture Needs Stakeholder Input on Food, Agriculture Priorities The National Institute of Food and Agriculture is accepting input from stakeholders regarding research, extension, and education priorities in food and agriculture. A series of four in-person listening sessions hosted in different regions across the country and submission of written comments … Read more

Recognizing featured Plant Cell first authors, July 2017

Elizabeth Henry, featured first author of Direct and Indirect Visualization of Bacterial Effector Delivery into Diverse Plant Cell Types During Infection Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Discovery and Project Support in Crop Efficiency and Seed Growth, Biologics R&D at Bayer Crop Science. Education: PhD (2016) Plant Pathology, University of California at Davis. BS (2008) Botany, University … Read more

Announcing the 2017 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF)

The ASPB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program funds promising undergraduate students so they can conduct research in plant biology during the early part of their college careers over the course of 10 consecutive weeks. This year’s SURF recipients will present their research at Plant Biology 2018. Congratulations to these 2017 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows … Read more

What We’re Reading: April 14

Note: Read Why We’re Writing “What We’re Reading” Review: Ion transport at the vacuole during stomatal movement Gas exchange and transpiration are regulated by the stomatal aperture, which is itself regulated by the changes in volume of the guard cells that overlie the stomatal pore. When triggered to open, solutes such as K+ and Cl– … Read more

What We’re Reading: March 31

Review: Wheat genomics comes of age Due to its highly repetitive, polyploid genome, wheat genomics has lagged behind that of other cereals, but new tools promise to begin closing that gap.  Uauy reviews these new tools, which include access to full genomes of several wheat varieties, gene expression data from hundreds of publicly available RNA-sequencing … Read more

Introducing Plant Direct

As the editor-in-chief, I am excited to introduce Plant Direct (plantdirectjournal.org), a new journal from Wiley and the societies behind Plant Physiology, The Plant Journal, and The Plant Cell. Although there is a crowded landscape of journals to choose from, we believe that Plant Direct fills an unserved role for the plant community. We seek to be the … Read more

Engineers, plant biologists, and data scientists assembled in Tucson for the inaugural Phenome 2017 conference

The inaugural Phenome 2017 conference was held February 10-14, 2017 in beautiful Tucson, AZ. The theme, “Connecting the Bioeconomy,” was developed as a direct outcome of the Plant Science Decadal Vision publication (2013) and was organized by the National Plant Science Council and the North American Plant Phenotyping Network, with meeting management provided by ASPB. … Read more