An International Journal for Plant Biology
Some 500 million years ago plant life on land started to flourish and diversify. This transformative event required the ability to resist to earth’s challenges—abilities hard-wired in extant plants today. Some prerequisites for terrestrial life already evolved in streptophyte algae, thus offering building blocks and networks that enabled adaptation to land; during evolution of the … Read more
We gladly present the winners of the SPPS Prizes of 2022 that are given during the 29th SPPS conference! Several prizes have been given: the Physiologia Plantarum prize, Early career prize, PhD prize, Innovation prize and SPPS prize. For some, the jury could not decide and 2 prizes were given! Physiologia Plantarum Prize The Physiologia … Read more
Yuling Jiao takes over our “Development, growth and differentiation” area after Ykä Helariutta. Yuling Jiao’s lab combines multidisciplinary approaches to study plant development, in particular shoot lateral appendage formation and patterning. In combination with mathematical simulation, they study the 3D form acquisition of leaves, the primary aerial organ. In addition, they study how a stem … Read more
Since January, Ykä Helariutta is the new Editor-in-chief of Physiologia Plantarum. He is currently sharing the position with Vaughan Hurry for a smooth transition. A word from Ykä Helariutta – PPL new Editor-in-Chief I initially trained as a plant molecular biologist and obtained my PhD at the University of Helsinki, Finland, under the guidance of … Read more
We are happy to announce the 2021 Reviewer award winners! Soichi Kojima Dr Soichi Kojima did his PhD at Tohoku University, Japan, under Prof. Tomoyuki Yamaya, studying the gene expression of glutamate synthase in rice. As a post-doc, he worked with Prof. Nicolaus von Wiren at the University of Hohenheim, Germany, on the transport of … Read more
Plant-specialized metabolites, including anthocyanin and carotenoids, and floral volatiles such as terpenoids, phenylpropanoids/benzenoids, and fatty acids play crucial roles in plants. Importantly, they are features of flowers’ colors and fragrance, which are essential traits in maintaining the ecological linkage between flowers and a diverse range of visitors, such as pollinators, florivores and pathogens, hence playing … Read more
The phrase “to be worth one’s salt” speaks to the importance with which this mineral was held by ancient peoples, as—in addition to its flavour-enhancing properties—it was the crucial factor allowing food preservation in the absence of refrigeration or canning technologies. However, the same microbe-killing properties that make it so useful in food preservation also … Read more
Physiologia Plantarum has the custom to publish Special Issues, gathering reviews and original research articles on a specific topic. Those issues are usually organised by our Editor-in-Chief or Subject Editors as a follow-up of conferences and represent a snap-shot of the current research in a particular area. “Usually” does not mean that it has to … Read more
Without sunlight, the earth would be a lifeless ball of ice; as life on earth depends on sunlight for warmth, weather, and energy for plants. Plants in turn provide the oxygen we breathe and the food we eat. The sunlight reaching our planet consists of a range of wavelengths, from ultraviolet (UV), through visible light, … Read more
The Federation of European Societies of Plant Biology (FESPB) organises a large international Plant Biology Congress every two years. The Plant Biology Europe Congress 2021 was organized together with EPSO (European Plant Science Organization) and it has been an online event. The FESPB Young Plant Scientist Award 2021 was rewarded to Sara Izquierdo Zandalinas and … Read more
EDITORIAL Parvaiz Ahmad1,2, Javaid Akhter Bhat3, Luisa María Sandalio4, Muhammad Ashraf5 1Botany and Microbiology Department, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2Department of Botany, Degree College Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir, India; parvaizbot@yahoo.com 3State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China javid.akhter69@gmail.com 4Bioquímica, Biología Celular y Molecular de Plantas, … Read more
General Introduction to ‘drought’ Water availability is a limiting factor for the growth and development of plants, ultimately affecting fitness and seed set. When water availability is seriously limited during a drought, the effect can be very harmful to plants: leaf senescence accelerates, photosynthesis becomes limited as chlorophyll degrades, and nutrients are less efficiently used … Read more
Rupesh Deshmukh1, Durgesh Kumar Tripathi2, Henry Nguyen3 and Humira Sonah1 1National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI), Mohali, India 2Amity Institute of Organic Agriculture (AIOA), Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, India 3Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA e-mails: rupesh@nabi.res.in; dktripathiau@gmail.com; nguyenhenry@missouri.edu; humira@nabi.res.in Intra-and intercellular traffickings are crucial aspects for the growth and survival … Read more
Miquel Nadal Miquel is one of our three Reviewer awardees and we are very happy to support him with a travel grant to a conference of choice! He has recently finished his PhD at the University of Balearic Islands (UIB) in Spain, where he investigated the relationship between photosynthesis and water stress tolerance at … Read more
Photosynthesis holds the key to life; it is the process by which green plants use the light of the sun to synthesize nutrients from carbon dioxide and water and generate oxygen as a by-product. Without it, life on our planet would be all but impossible and to fully understand how photosynthesis works means to understand … Read more
Sugars are the main source of carbon and energy in all living organisms. While sugar metabolism, transport and signaling are key processes involved in biomass production, yield and quality, sugars also play a crucial role in the adaptation of plants to the environment. Over the past decades, these fields have seen major advances but the … Read more
This Special Issue will focus on the genes, proteins and pathways which have been manipulated through genetic engineering and gene editing approaches for the development of drought and salinity tolerant crops. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, total agricultural production should increase by 70% to feed a world population of 9.7 billion by 2050. … Read more
After 72 years on the market, Physiologia Plantarum is, once again, changing its look and feel, this time to emphasize the many digital advances we have made in recent years in order to secure the continuing success of our journal in an evolving publishing landscape. Three years ago, we jumped on the social media train … Read more
With our next interview, we would like to express our immense gratitude to Dr. Anirban Baral for his great contributions to our Spotlight series. His engagement, motivation and dedication not only showed his care about science, scientific communication and making science available for everybody, but also made it highly enjoyable to work together. Thank you … Read more
High concentration of soluble salts in agricultural soils, termed as soil salinity, is a key abiotic stress causing substantial losses worldwide, both in terms of yield and quality of the crop produced. Recent years have witnessed a rapid conversion of large proportions of fertile arable lands into saline patches and consequently soil salinity is seen … Read more