Plants and Pipettes

we talk about plants and (used to) use pipettes

Archives: Episodes

  • PPR-protein-expression-system-plant: very good ☁☂

    Despite a MASSIVE thunderstorm we came together and recorded episode 10 for you guys. Aren’t we great? Yes, we are.

    Tegan’s paper: Engineered PPR proteins as inducible switches to activate the expression of chloroplast transgenes, Margarita Rojas, Qiguo Yu, Rosalind Williams-Carrier, Pal Maliga & Alice Barkan, Nature Plants, volume 5, pages505–511 (2019) 

    Joram’s favourite plant has the biggest leaves. This palm is a total cheat so let’s praise giant rhubarb instead.

    Joram and the giant rhubarb
    Tegan and the medium sized rhubarb

    Our listener question of the day: do you think we can eat everything that dinosaurs could eat?… Read more

  • Harry Bittercress and the suspicious petals

    This week, we’re trying something new! Instead of doing a longer episode with two papers, we’re doing just one paper and instead release weekly! All thanks to us benevolent researchers listening to the voices of you, the common people of instagram.

    This week, Joram is nerding out about Harry Bittercress, the newest star on the firmament of young adult research articles. Tegan’s favourite plant is super slick and super endangered and then we have an app for you and some feline fun facts.… Read more

  • Pennycress for your thoughts

    Heyyy it’s another episode of the plants and pipettes podcast! This week, we have something special for you: we talked to Ratan Chopra, researcher at the University of Minnesota about his work domesticating pennycress. Sounds familiar? Yes! We presented his research on the blog and now had the chance to talk to him directly.

    Ratan works in the lab of David Marks who is pioneering and driving forward the work on pennycress. Using its close family relationship to Arabidopsis, he and his group were able to quickly advance the knowledge and domestication of pennycress, turning it from a weed into a soon-to-be crop plant.… Read more

  • Crouching Dragon Hidden Protein

    Welcome again to another episode of our little podcast. This week, we’re talking about the intricacies of Saffron and

    Tegan’s paper: Schmidt, T. , Heitkam, T. , Liedtke, S. , Schubert, V. and Menzel, G. (2019), Adding color to a century‐old enigma: multi‐color chromosome identification unravels the autotriploid nature of saffron (Crocus sativus) as a hybrid of wild Crocus cartwrightianus cytotypes. New Phytol, 222: 1965-1980. doi:10.1111/nph.15715

    Joram’s paper: The Role of Plastidic Trigger Factor Serving Protein Biogenesis in Green Algae and Land Plants, Marina Rohr, Fabian Ries, Claudia Herkt, Vincent Leon Gotsmann, Lisa Désirée Westrich, Karin Gries, Raphael Trösch, Jens Christmann, Frederic Chaux-Jukic, Martin Jung, David Zimmer, Timo Mühlhaus, Frederik Sommer, Michael Schroda, Sandro Keller, Torsten Möhlmann, Felix Willmund, Plant Physiology Mar 2019, 179 (3) 1093-1110; DOI: 10.1104/pp.18.01252

    The “crouching dragon” protein structure from the paper.… Read more

  • Seven Dish

    Hello again! Do you want to know about a potentially organic alternative to glyphosate and the recycling system of organelle DNA? You came to the right place podcast! We also have a new favourite plant and some fun stuff for you!

    Joram’s paper: Brilisauer, K., Rapp, J., Rath, P., Schöllhorn, A., Bleul, L., Weiß, E., … Forchhammer, K. (2019). Cyanobacterial antimetabolite 7-deoxy-sedoheptulose blocks the shikimate pathway to inhibit the growth of prototrophic organisms. Nature Communications10(1), 545.

    Tegan’s paper: Takami, T.,… Read more

  • What’s the deal with ferns and their epidermis?

    New Friday, new Podcast! In this episode, we jump right into the study of fern stomata and resurrection plants in the desert. And we have a #plantsound today!

    As always, let us know in the comments if you have any questions or thoughts on the topics we discuss. Have fun!

    Joram’s paper: Hydraulics Regulate Stomatal Responses to Changes in Leaf Water Status in the Fern Athyrium filixfemina, Amanda A. Cardoso, Joshua M. Randall, Scott A. M. McAdam, Plant Physiology Feb 2019, 179 (2) 533-543; DOI: 10.1104/pp.18.01412

    Message us if you know what the deal is with ferns and their epidermis!… Read more

  • Hot Junk

    All good things come in fours: the number of legs on a cat, how often you should brush your teeth per day and the number of weeks in a month in February on a non-leap year. Oh, and this podcasts current episode count until the next episode comes.… Read more

  • Throwing Shade

    Dingdingdingding it’s a new episode of the plants and pipettes podcast! This week, Tegan brought you a paper about how plants recognise their family growing left and right of them. Joram looked at vernalisation and how it is triggered after winter when plants bolt and produce flowers. Enjoy!… Read more

  • Pee-rigation

    Another fortnight, another episode! In episode 2 of the Plant and Pipettes Podcast we explore again two journals from the past months. Joram brought up his favourite topic: urine irrigation of meadows by cows and the resulting nitrogen cycles. Tegan on the other hand talked about research on photorespiration and how scientists found a shortcut that could result in massive increases in crop yield.

    Paper 1: Tonn B, Porath I, Lattanzi FA, Isselstein J (2019) Urine effects on grass and legume nitrogen isotopic composition: Pronounced short-term dynamics of δ15N.Read more

  • No Touchy the Planty

    It is done. We recorded our first episode of the Plants and Pipettes Podcast.
    Read more