Research

What We’re Reading: Oct 28

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Featured Review: Evolution of ROS signaling ($) Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are partially reduced or excited forms of oxygen (for example, O2·−) that are reactive and damaging towards cellular components. Because ROS are produced as byproducts of metabolism, cells have evolved ROS detoxification pathways; more than 150 Arabidopsis genes contribute to ROS detoxification. Inupakutika et … Read more

EDITORIAL: The Plant Cell Begins Opt-in Publishing of Peer Review Reports

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As of January 2017, The Plant Cell will offer authors the option of associating a Peer Review Report with each research article. Reviewer anonymity will be strictly maintained. The reports will include the major comments from reviewers and the editors’ decision letters along with the authors’ response to reviewers for each submission of the manuscript … Read more

Funding Opportunity: NSF Releases Solicitation for Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science (TRIPODS)

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Last week, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released a solicitation for a new program, Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science (TRIPODS). This program aims to bring together the statistics, mathematics, and theoretical computer science communities to develop the theoretical foundations of data science through integrated research and training activities.  TRIPODS builds off existing investments … Read more

In Brief: A Breakthrough in Monocot Transformation Methods

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This week’s Research in Focus is reprinted from an In Brief by Science Editor Nancy Hofmann in The Plant Cell, which summarizes a new article by  Lowe et al. This study uncovers a new way to transform and regenerate plants in culture, greatly increasing the efficiency. The method involves expressing genes that promote developmental transitions, … Read more

ARPA-E Releases RFI on Waste Heat Recovery and Announces Workshop on Anaerobic Digestion

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has released a request for information (RFI) seeking input to inform future programs in waste heat recovery.  In addition, ARPA-E is hosting a workshop on anaerobic digestion in October 2016 in the Washington, D.C. area.  Those interested in working with ARPA-E on these issues … Read more

Keeping up with the literature: Your suggestions

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Last month we asked “How do you keep up with the literature?” (cross-posted on the ASPB blog and Plantae). Several of you shared your tips, thanks! Here we’ve compiled the replies we received from you. Follow specific journals One tip is to follow the Twitter or Facebook pages of your favorite journals (in case you … Read more

How do you keep up with the literature?

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In the Plant Physiology publishing workshop held at Plant Biology 2016, the question arose of how people keep up with the huge number of papers being published. Mike Blatt shared the strategy used by his lab, which I’m familiar with as an honorary member.  The lab group meets weekly, and two of every four meetings … Read more

PlantBio16: Summary of President’s Symposium on Specialized Metabolism

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The final major symposium of the Plant Biology 2016 conference was organized by ASPB President Richard Dixon and covered various aspects of specialized metabolism in plants (note that the term specialized metabolism has largely supplanted the older term secondary metabolism, which carries with it an implication that it is not as important as primary metabolism; … Read more

Plant Biologists Pitch their Science

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We spent all four days of Plant Biology 2016 recording “Plant Science: How I Work” interviews and fantastic elevator pitches following the Communication Workshop: How to Create a Winning Elevator Pitch facilitated by Teresa Evans and Geoff Hunt. Here are a few to inspire you!  We’ll share more in Plantae.org along with the How I Work … Read more

Your Meeting Checklist: 21 ways to get the most out of Plant Biology 2016

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Plant Biology 2016 is turning out to be our best meeting yet and we want to make sure that you get the most out of your time. To help you do this, our team at ASPB put together this handy list of 21 ways to maximize your experience. Plan your schedule Making the best use of your time … Read more

Tell your story at #PlantBio16

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Tell the world why you do what you do and how you do it on video at Plant Biology 2016. The Plant Science Today blog and podcast series, How Plant Scientists Work will be hosting a video edition at the Plant Biology 2016 meeting in Austin, TX. Tell your story This is an opportunity for you to … Read more

ICAR_2016 begins!

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Today was the first day of the 27th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research, also known as ICAR. If you follow Twitter, we’re using #ICAR_2016 (apparently there is an “Animal Reproduction” conference using #ICAR2016 so we’ve added the underscore; as Twitter becomes more and more popular we’re running into more of these “bandwidth” issues). The conference … Read more

4 Ways To Supercharge Your Career at #PlantBio16

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Looking for career resources and workshops to help navigate your career path?   Look no further. Here are 4 ways to supercharge your career at Plant Biology 2016.   1. Improve your skills Choose any of these career-related workshops: Re-imagining Postgraduate Training for the Plant Sciences (Saturday, 10-12) Writing Science: Inspire careful thinking and useful discourse (Sunday, … Read more

Insight from Dr. Todd Anderson about his Plenary Session at the 5th Pan-American Congress On Plants and BioEnergy

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Dr. Todd Anderson, US Department of Energy will give the plenary talk at this year’s 5th Pan-American Congress On Plants and BioEnergy which is taking place August 4-7, 2016 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dr. Anderson recently shared some of his insight into the bioenergy industry and what to expect from his session. What’s the … Read more

Recognizing featured Plant Cell first authors, June 2016

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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 June issue of The Plant Cell. Yuki Kondo, featured first author of Vascular Cell Induction Culture System Using Arabidopsis Leaves (VISUAL) Reveals the Sequential Differentiation of Sieve Element-like Cells Current Position: … Read more

Plant Cell and Plant Physiology publishing workshops at Plant Biology 2016

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Did you know that ASPB is the publisher of two top plant science research journals? Publishing has always been a core part of ASPB’s mission. At Plant Biology 2016 (July 9 – 13 in Austin, Texas), you can meet, learn from and share you thoughts with the Editors-in-Chief of the ASPB journals. Publishing in and … Read more

Grad Students & Postdocs – The Masters of Plant Science Team Needs You!

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Interested in mentoring young scientists (via a robust online platform) as they devise and conduct authentic research? Apply now to be one of 12 Masters of Plant Science Team members for the 2016-17 academic year. One year as a member of the Master Plant Science Team has the potential to positively affect the rest of … Read more

Getting the most out of RNA-seq data with expVIP (Expression Visualization and Integration Platform)

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Transcriptomic data reveal how an organism or tissue expresses its genes (through transcription into mRNA) at any moment in time, and these data are extremely valuable when trying to describe plant growth, development and environmental response. For example, roots can be starved for the nutrient phosphate and the time course and pattern of gene expression … Read more

SURF’s Up! 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows

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The ASPB SURF program funds undergraduate students to conduct 10 consecutive weeks of plant biology research with a mentor during the early part of their college career.  This year’s SURF recipients will present their research during the undergraduate and regular poster sessions at Plant Biology 2017. Congratulations to these 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows and … Read more