Progress and challenges in sorghum biotechnology, a multipurpose feedstock for the bioeconomy.

Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is the fifth most important cereal crop globally by harvested area and production. Its drought and heat tolerance allow high yields with minimal input.

Nanotechnology to advance CRISPR-Cas genetic engineering of plants.

CRISPR-Cas genetic engineering of plants holds tremendous potential for providing food security, battling biotic and abiotic crop stresses caused by climate change, and for environmental remediation and sustainability. Since the discovery of CRISPR-Cas technology, its usefulness has been demonstrated widely, including for genome editing in plants. Despite the revolutionary nature of genome-editing tools and the notable progress that these tools have enabled in plant genetic engineering, there remain many challenges for CRISPR applications in plant biotechnology.

The pennycress (Thlaspi arvense L.) nectary: structural and transcriptomic characterization.

Background: Pennycress [Thlaspi arvense L (Brassicaceae)] is being domesticated as a renewable biodiesel feedstock that also provides crucial ecosystems services, including as a nutritional resource for pollinators. However, its flowers produce significantly less nectar than other crop relatives in the Brassicaceae. This study was undertaken to understand the basic biology of the pennycress nectary as an initial step toward the possibility of enhancing nectar output from its flowers.

Review: Nectar biology: From molecules to ecosystems.

Plants attract mutualistic animals by offering a reward of nectar. Specifically, floral nectar (FN) is produced to attract pollinators, whereas extrafloral nectar (EFN) mediates indirect defenses through the attraction of mutualist predatory insects to limit herbivory. Nearly 90% of all plant species, including 75% of domesticated crops, benefit from animal-mediated pollination, which is largely facilitated by FN.