Distinct growth patterns in seedling and tillering wheat plants suggests a developmentally restricted role of HYD2 in salt-stress response.

Mutants lacking functional HYD2 homoeologs showed improved seedling growth, but comparable or increased susceptibility to salt stress in tillering plants, suggesting a developmentally restricted role of HYD2 in salt response. Salinity stress threatens global food security by reducing the yield of staple crops such as wheat (Triticum ssp.).

Genetic dissection of the roles of β-hydroxylases in carotenoid metabolism, photosynthesis, and plant growth in tetraploid wheat (Triticum turgidum L.).

Functional redundancy and subfunctionalization of β-hydroxylases in tetraploid wheat tissues open up opportunities for manipulation of carotenoid metabolism for trait improvement. The genetic diversity provided by subgenome homoeologs in allopolyploid wheat can be leveraged for developing improved wheat varieties with modified chemical traits, including profiles of carotenoids, which play critical roles in photosynthesis, photoprotection, and growth regulation. Carotenoid profiles are greatly influenced by hydroxylation catalyzed by β-hydroxylases (HYDs).

Metabolic engineering in woody plants: challenges, advances, and opportunities.

Woody plant species represent an invaluable reserve of biochemical diversity to which metabolic engineering can be applied to satisfy the need for commodity and specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and renewable energy. Woody plants are particularly promising for this application due to their low input needs, high biomass, and immeasurable ecosystem services. However, existing challenges have hindered their widespread adoption in metabolic engineering efforts, such as long generation times, large and highly heterozygous genomes, and difficulties in transformation and regeneration.

Thinking Outside of the Cereal Box: Breeding Underutilized (Pseudo)Cereals for Improved Human Nutrition.

Cereal grains have historically played a critical role in sustaining the caloric needs of the human population. The major cereal crops, wheat, rice, and maize, are widely cultivated and have been subjected to biofortification to enhance the vitamin and mineral nutrient content of grains. In contrast, grains of several other cereals as well as non-grass pseudocereals are naturally rich in micronutrients, but have yet to be explored for broad-scale cultivation and consumption.

A Problem-Sorting Task Detects Changes in Undergraduate Biological Expertise over a Single Semester.

Calls for undergraduate biology reform share similar goals: to produce people who can organize, use, connect, and communicate about biological knowledge. Achieving these goals requires students to gain disciplinary expertise. Experts organize, access, and apply disciplinary knowledge differently than novices, and expertise is measurable.