by Paula Elomaa Department of Agricultural Sciences, Viikki Plant Science Centre, University of Helsinki, Finland Since their discovery about 20 years ago, the TCP domain transcription factors have been shown to control diverse aspects of plant growth and development (reviewed … Continue reading
Beverley Glover Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK bjg26@cam.ac.uk The different shapes of plant epidermal cells are always fascinating. One of the first experiences many students have of scanning electron microscopy is the excitement of … Continue reading
by Robert G. Franks North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC., USA How organ size and shape are determined in developing organisms remains a key question of interest to developmental biologists. An understanding of the relationships between gene expression and the … Continue reading
by Jens Sundström Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Breeding cereal crops with reduced stem length, in so-called semi-dwarf varieties, greatly contributed to yield increases associated with the green revolution. However, the semi-dwarf genotype was also associated with reduced inflorescence size. … Continue reading
by Timo Hytönen Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Strawberry is one of the most economically-important berry crops in the world. It is a rosette plant that reproduces both generatively and vegetatively through stolons called runners. There is … Continue reading
Rainer Melzer School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin Developmental regulatory genes have played a pivotal role during the evolution and domestication of plants. From a molecular genetics perspective, our understanding of those regulators is largely driven by … Continue reading
by Leonie Verhage and Francois Parcy Institut de Biosciences et Biotechnologies de Grenoble (France) Ever since their discovery almost 30 years ago, the transcription factors LEAFY (LFY) and APETALA1 (AP1) (together with its paralog CAULIFLOWER (CAL)) have been extensively studied for … Continue reading
by Alt-Jan Van Dijk Plant Research International, Wageningen University Progress in sequencing technology has had a clear impact on flowering research. For example, ChIP-seq has been applied to study molecular aspects of transcriptional regulation of flowering. Also, RNA-seq data for … Continue reading
by Frank Wellmer Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland The specification of male and female reproductive organs in gymnosperms and angiosperms is thought to be remarkably similar and to depend on the activities of B and C class … Continue reading
by Timo Hytönen University of Helsinki, Finland FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT) and TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1) are small closely related proteins that have a great impact on the production of agricultural and horticultural crops and forest trees. FT functions as … Continue reading
