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Cultivation of high-tannin sorghum in Africa is associated with herbivore threat from red-billed quelea, but also with reduced sensation of bitterness in humans.
This Perspective assesses the opportunities and challenges for synthetic biology in revolutionizing agriculture, and highlights the resources and approaches we need to remove the barriers and propel another Green Revolution.
The 26S proteasome is conventionally viewed as a destroyer of proteins. However, it is now shown to help stabilize RNAs and thus fine-tune a plant’s anti-viral defences.
The One Thousand Plant Initiative analysed an unprecedented collection of >1,000 plant vegetative transcriptomes from species spanning the green tree of life, resolved controversial phylogenetic placements and highlighted gene family expansions and whole genome duplications that occurred during different stages of evolution.
Cellular homeostasis requires a defined concentration of free amphiphilic phytosterols in membranes. A novel regulatory component controlling the metabolism of these compounds has been identified.
Heat-shock protein 90 (HSP90) chaperones play an essential role in plant defence by assisting the folding of client proteins needed for immunity. A newly identified bacterial effector promotes disease by mimicking a HSP90 client, functioning as a minimal kinase that phosphorylates and inactivates the chaperone.
Radial growth of plants is one of the most prominent processes for generating biomass and the long-term sequestration of carbon dioxide on Earth. Now, the concerted action of a large set of transcription factors on the regulation of the process has been investigated.
The ancient genome of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian emmer wheat sheds light on the domestication and dispersal history of emmer wheat as well as the unique diversity that the historical species contained.
Much of the perception of the Green Revolution focuses on the broad techniques and resulting yields, but the socio-political dimensions of the project reflect a nuanced set of intentions and beneficiaries.
Grape genomes show extensive structural variation. This apparent consequence of decades and centuries of clonal propagation underlies several domestication traits.
This short Review summarizes recent findings on plasma membrane and cell wall integrity signalling, particularly during development and stress responses. It also introduces several technological advances to analyse mechanical properties of cell walls.
A Review presents current understanding of the developmental mechanisms underlying flower diversification by summarizing up-to-date knowledge on the initiation, identity determination, morphogenesis and maturation of floral organs.
Phosphatidic acid (PA) is a simple phospholipid of crucial importance in cell biology. Now, a new ratiometric, PA-specific, optogenetic biosensor has been developed to track PA concentration and dynamics at the plant plasma membrane. Using this tool, scientists have revealed a remarkable stress-specific temporal complexity of PA accumulation.
A quantitative phylogenetic association mapping approach links genic mutational spectra to the evolution of DNA methylation in the Brassicaceae family of flowering plants. The method has wider applications and may usher in a new era in our understanding of species diversity.
Jasmonic acid biosynthesis starts in chloroplasts and is finalized in peroxisomes. The required export of a crucial intermediate out of the chloroplast is now shown to be mediated by a protein from the outer envelope called JASSY.
A Review informatively summaries the recent development and breakthroughs of CRISPR technology, with a focus on progresses, challenges and potential utility in plant science.
Herbacious grain annuals in the mid-Holocene period were typically so hard to forage and eat that their use by humans was seen as a ‘last resort’, but this Perspective argues that a switch from animal to human dispersal allowed for domestication into the crops that became the foundation for societies around the world.
The gametophyte phase is extremely reduced in angiosperms, reduced to a few haploid cells in flowers. This Perspective discusses recent studies in Marchantia polymorpha that have identified conserved components of gametogenesis.
