Amey Redkar, first author of  “Conserved Secreted Effectors Contribute to Endophytic Growth and Multi-Host Plant Compatibility in a Vascular Wilt Fungus”  Current Position:   Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellow, Department of Botany, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Ganeshkhind, Pune, India Education:  Ph.D. in Natural Sciences, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany;... Read more

By José Manuel Ugalde, PhD, Plant Physiology Assistant Features Editor, and Elisa Dell’Aglio, PhD Prof. Pierdomenico Perata is an Italian plant physologist and professor at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa. He completed his PhD in agricultural biology at the University of Pisa, Italy, and a post-doctoral fellowship at Nagoya University... Read more

Hans van Veen, co-first author of “Ethylene augments root hypoxia tolerance via growth cessation and reactive oxygen species amelioration” Current Position: Post-Doctoral Researcher, Utrecht University Education: MSc Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (University of Groningen); PhD Plant Sciences (Utrecht University) Non-scientific Interests: Outdoors, Swimming, Jazz Brief bio: My main research interest... Read more

Chenyang Wang, co-first author of “T-LOC: a comprehensive tool to localize and characterize the T-DNA integration sites” Current position: Undergraduate in the College of Biological Science, China Agriculture University (CBS, CAU) Intern at Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IPP, CAAS) Non-scientific Interests: Art, fiction, and cooking... Read more

Zeeshan Z. Banday, first author of “Friend or Foe: Hybrid proline-rich proteins determine how plants respond to beneficial and pathogenic microbes” Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, The University of Chicago, USA Education: Ph.D. Life Sciences Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi M.Sc. Biochemistry Aligarh Muslim... Read more

In rice, the circadian clock component gene Circadian Clock Associated 1 (OsCCA1) regulates flowering and nitrogen use efficiency. CCA1 is a MYB family transcription factor that follows a rhythmic expression pattern. Wei et al. confirmed the role of CCA1as a key hub in coordinating plant growth and abiotic stress adaptation.... Read more

Secondary dormancy (SD) of seeds is a natural strategy that allows survival of the plant in environments with unfavourable climatic conditions. However, in Arabidopsis, a variance of dormancy depth in between identical seeds can be explained by population-based threshold models. This single-seed variability relies on the differences in oxygen consumption,... Read more

The ABA INSENSITIVE (ABI) transcription factors (TFs) (ABI3, ABI4, ABI5) regulate DT and play essential roles during seed germination. Therefore, these TFs must be functionally protected during seed desiccation. Recalcitrant seeds are sensitive to desiccation, while orthodox seeds possess a remarkable ability to tolerate desiccation. However, the mechanism that makes... Read more

Palms are a taxonomically and ecologically diverse group. This wide variety is also reflected in their seeds, with their species showing all combinations of dormancy and desiccation tolerance behaviors. Yet, comparative studies of their germination physiology are relatively scarce. In this paper, Santos and colleagues evaluate i) the temperature requirements... Read more

Plants’ interaction with microbes in the rhizosphere affects their health and productivity. Plant-arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi symbiosis is associated with almost 80% of land plants. The fungi provide phosphate, stress tolerance, and firmness to the soil in exchange for carbon. While low phosphate promotes AM symbiosis, the mechanistic basis of... Read more

Restoration ecologists seek to repair damaged environments, and as Toone et al. write, “the same principles that shape ecosystem restoration also provide a blueprint for cultivating inclusion in science”. Here, a group of mostly early-career restoration ecologists use their professional lenses and provide ten recommendations to support LGBTQ+ researchers (these... Read more

Circadian clock component CCA1 is a transcriptional regulator of ABA-mediated abiotic stress tolerance in rice In rice, the circadian clock component gene Circadian Clock Associated 1 (OsCCA1) regulates flowering and nitrogen use efficiency. CCA1 is a MYB family transcription factor that follows a rhythmic expression pattern. Wei et al. confirmed... Read more

XinMeng Gui, first author of “Phytophthora effector hijacks the host pre-mRNA splicing machinery to modulate small RNA and plant immunity” Current Position: Ph.D. candidate at Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China. Education: Ph.D. in College of life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University. Non-scientific Interests: Travelling, Cooking. Brief bio: I started my PhD... Read more

Yongyao Zhao, first author of “The evolution of stomatal traits along the trajectory towards C4 photosynthesis” Current position: Doctoral student Education: Doctoral student in CAS center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Science, Shanghai, China Non-scientific interests: listening to music Brief bio: I am studying photosynthesis in CAS center for Excellence... Read more

Kitazawa et al. identified a unique proteasome-utilizing mechanism of phyllogen, a bacterial effector protein produced by pathogenic phytoplasmas. Plant Cell. (2022) https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koac062 By Yugo Kitazawa and Kensaku Maejima, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Biology, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo Background: Phyllogens are a protein... Read more

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) released a request for applications (RFA) for the fiscal year (FY) 2022 Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative (AG2PI). AG2PI aims to advance scientific understanding of genomes and phenomes of plants and animals of significance to American agriculture.... Read more

On April 19, 2022, the Ag Biotech Alliance, of which ASPB is a member, sent a letter to key members of Congress to include in the Fiscal Year 2023 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies (Agriculture) Appropriations bill to provide the U.S. Food and Drug Administration... Read more

ASPB is pleased to sign a letter urging U.S. House and Senate Democratic leadership to prioritize and protect the vital investments in agricultural climate research, agricultural innovation, and agricultural research infrastructure within the Build Back Better human and climate infrastructure package.  These proposed investments are a generational down payment to... Read more

ASPB is pleased to sign a letter urging U.S. House and Senate Democratic leadership to prioritize and protect the vital investments in agricultural climate research, agricultural innovation, and agricultural research infrastructure within the Build Back Better human and climate infrastructure package.  These proposed investments are a generational down payment to... Read more

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it is accepting proposals for the 2022 DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program to support the research of outstanding scientists early in their careers. The program will support over 60 early career researchers for five years at U.S. academic institutions... Read more