Volume 4 Issue 1, January 2018

Modern plant biology relies heavily on genetic sequence information from species with a diversity of origins. Could proposed changes to the terms of use of this digital sequence information threaten the development of new crop varieties and improvements in global agriculture?

It is hypothesized that morphological evolution occurs through a variety of molecular mechanisms. The position and patterning of petal spots in Clarkia evolved through changes to the regulatory region of a gene that encodes a transcriptional activator of pigment synthesis, prompting its control by novel positional cues.

New capabilities for assembling plant Rubisco in bacteria offer a revolution for enhancing photosynthesis. The technology provides a breakthrough to identify and test solutions for improving CO₂ fixation by crop Rubisco.

In Clarkia species, petals have spots at specific positions, an important ecological trait that affects pollination. The evolution of this trait is explained by mutations in a single promoter that rewire a developmental transcription factor network.

Fully enclosed, controlled-environment growth chambers can accelerate plant development. Such ‘speed breeding’ reduces generation times to accelerate crop breeding and research programmes, and can integrate with other modern crop breeding technologies.

The seed coat of many leguminous species has a powdery bloom containing hazardous allergens. In wild soybeans, the bloom is controlled by the BLOOM1 gene, a mutation in which abolishes bloom and elevates seed oil content in domesticated strains.

The function of MADS-box genes has been extensively studied in fungi, animals and flowering plants. Now, researchers report their role in non-flowering plants and further explore the evolution of this gene family in land plants.

Photorespiration was considered to be wasteful because it reduces photosynthetic efficiency. However, here a modified photosynthesis model, which incorporates photorespiratory nitrogen assimilation, suggests that photorespiration also has beneficial effects on carbon uptake.