Developmental constraint underlies the replicated evolution of grass awns.

Replicated trait evolution can provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the evolution of biodiversity. One example of replicated evolution is the awn, an organ elaboration in grass inflorescences. Awns are likely homologous to leaf blades.

Growth directions and stiffness across cell layers determine whether tissues stay smooth or buckle.

From smooth to buckled, nature exhibits organs of various shapes and forms. How cellular growth patterns produce smooth organ shapes such as leaves and sepals remains unclear. Here we show that unidirectional growth and comparable stiffness across both epidermal layers of Arabidopsis sepals are essential for smoothness.

The mRNA mobileome: challenges and opportunities for deciphering signals from the noise.

Organismal communication entails encoding a message that is sent over space or time to a recipient cell, where that message is decoded to activate a downstream response. Defining what qualifies as a functional signal is essential for understanding intercellular communication. In this review, we delve into what is known and unknown in the field of long-distance messenger RNA (mRNA) movement and draw inspiration from the field of information theory to provide a perspective on what defines a functional signaling molecule.

Recruitment of an ancient branching program to suppress carpel development in maize flowers.

Carpels in maize undergo programmed cell death in half of the flowers initiated in ears and in all flowers in tassels. The HD-ZIP I transcription factor gene () is one of only a few genes known to regulate this process. To identify additional regulators of carpel suppression, we performed a enhancer screen and found a genetic interaction between and ().