The vascular cambium contains bifacial stem cells producing secondary phloem in one and secondary xylem to the opposite direction. In Arabidopsis r...

We would like to invite you to join the PhD Summer School that has an attractive program with many expert speakers in the field of environmental signaling in plants. In addition to the invited speaker...

NWO has granted a maximum of 850.000 euros to 149 scientists from the domain Science (ENW), Applied and Engineering Sciences (AES) and Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) domains, as well as Health, Research and Development (ZonMw). With the help of the Vidi grant, the talented scientists can start their own line of research and further develop their talent.

We learn early on how to tell trees apart from other plants. However, it has proved hard to distinguish trees from other plants at the genetic level, and it is believed that there are no unique ‘tree genes’. With the rapid increase in available tree genomes, we can perform new comparative and evolutionary analyses of plant life histories and growth forms. Here we provide a fresh perspective on the genetic foundation for woodiness and perenniality in angiosperms by analyzing selection pressures and gene family evolution in the rosids using genomic data. We examine genes distinguishing trees from herbs and discuss future directions for uncovering the genetic factors that define a tree in this new era of tree genomics.

Parasitic plants rarely attack themselves, suggesting the existence of a kin-avoidance mechanism. In the root parasitic plant Phtheirospermum japonicum, prehaustorium formation is triggered by host-se...

A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

A drawn diagram of a root cross-section divided in eight segments, one showing the cell type names, and rest highlighting the cortical modifications and their morphologies.

Parasite-adaptive manipulation of behavior is a widespread natural phenomenon. While Ophiocordyceps zombie fungi are well-known for hijacking ant behavior to increase their fitness, functionally chara...

In roots, cell-type-specific differentiation enables specialized responses to environmental stress. The cortex, located between the vasculature and epidermis, is a key site for stress-responsive modi....