PLANT POPULATION BIOLOGY BEYOND THE CROSSROADS

Transplant Biology at a Crossroads

Feature M att Scott allows that he might not have been thinking too clearly that night in 1985 when the accident happened. After all, it was 2 A.M. when he and his friends returned home from a night of indulging in seasonal cheer, a few days before Christmas. That's when someone thought it might be fun to blow up the old firecracker that had been sitting around the house since midsummer. " I ha...

Evolutionary crossroads in developmental biology.

Integrative Cell Biology: Katanin at the Crossroads

A new study showing a functional and physical interaction between the ROP effector RIC1 and the microtubule severing enzyme katanin brings together auxin signaling and microtubule ordering in Arabidopsis pavement cells.

Evolutionary crossroads in developmental biology: sea urchins.

Embryos of the echinoderms, especially those of sea urchins and sea stars, have been studied as model organisms for over 100 years. The simplicity of their early development, and the ease of experimentally perturbing this development, provides an excellent platform for mechanistic studies of cell specification and morphogenesis. As a result, echinoderms have contributed significantly to our und...

Evolutionary crossroads in developmental biology: Dictyostelium discoideum.

Dictyostelium discoideum belongs to a group of multicellular life forms that can also exist for long periods as single cells. This ability to shift between uni- and multicellularity makes the group ideal for studying the genetic changes that occurred at the crossroads between uni- and multicellular life. In this Primer, I discuss the mechanisms that control multicellular development in Dictyost...