Paper highlight – Page 8

Delayed circadian clock in lettuce

There is a long-standing selection for leavy crops who flower later in the season. Now a new study “Breeding for delayed bolting decelerated the circadian clock in cultivated lettuce” shows that this has also made the circadian clock run slow.

Hijacking flower genes to make galls

You have likely come across them, galls, deformities on leaves or stems. The larvae of various insects induce galls, varying from simple tissue deformities to complex structures. A new paper shows how the larvae inside hijack the plant genes to make those structures.

Digesting your prey

Venus flytraps are one of the speediest plants around. But have you ever wondered what happens after a fly or cricket is trapped between those two big trap-leaves? This new study called “Venus flytraps’ metabolome analysis discloses the metabolic fate of prey animal foodstock” shows what happens next.

Regulation from a distance

Plant genomes in contrast to animal genomes don’t contain regulatory elements, or so was I led to believe. Now a new study “Two deeply conserved non-coding sequences control PLETHORA1/2 expression and coordinate embryo and root development” shows that plants also have those gene regulatory elements.