Global Plant Council February E Bulletin

If you have news you would like us to share on our website, please contact lisa@globalplantcouncil.org 

In Journal of Experimental Botany: imaging technique widens our view on the inner worlds of plants and their guests
Scientists from the UK’s John Innes Centre have succeeded in improving an imaging technique that helps us to explore 3D gene activity in fixed or living plant structures as large as 6 cm in length.

In New Phytologist: where do flowers come from? Shedding light on Darwin’s “abominable mystery”
Reporting in New Phytologist, French and British scientists have partially solved the mystery that is the origin of flowering plants.

In Nature Plants: how to reduce the environmental impact of a loaf of bread?
In a groundbreaking study researchers have calculated the environmental impact of a loaf of bread and which part of its production contributes the most greenhouse gas.

Current Plant Biology call for papers: special issue on microRNA genes 
Current Plant Biology invites submissions for an upcoming Special Issue on MicroRNA genes – submit by 30 June 2017.

If you have a conference, meeting, workshop, training course or other event coming up, we can include it in our Events calendar! Please email lisa@globalplantcouncil.org

ASPB Plant Biology 2017
24–28 June 2017, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

GPC/SEB workshop: New Breeding Technologies in the Plant Sciences
07–08 July 2017, Gothenburg, Sweden. 

GPGR4: 4th International Symposium on Genomics of Plant Genetic Resources
03–07 September 2017, Giessen, Germany. 

Lots of new reports, and an archive of useful documents from the last few years, are available on our website. Head to the Resources page and click ‘Reports’.

Forests to play a major role in meeting Paris climate targets
Forests will be important for meeting the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement; however, a consistent, robust, transparent and credible approach to measuring the impact of forests on greenhouse gas emissions is needed.

Spotted a funding opportunity we’ve missed? Please tell us about it by emailing lisa@globalplantcouncil.org

• American Society of Plant Biologists internships
• Grants from The Royal Society
• Canadian Society of Plant Biologists travel bursaries
• Botanic Gardens Conservation International competition
• Society for Experimental Biology internships and prizes
• American Society of Agronomy/Crop Science Society of America/Soil Science Society of America scholarships

Would you like to contribute an article to the GPC’s blog? Please get in touch! Email lisa@globalplantcouncil.org

Mother grain genome: insights into quinoa
The GPC’s Sarah Jose delves into the recently published Quinoa genome and reveals some of the secrets of the ‘mother grain’. 

RNA clay offers green alternative to plant pesticides
In this SciDevNet repost, Neena Bhandari explains how a nano-sized bio-degradable clay-comprising double stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) could offer a cost-effective, clean and green alternative to chemical-based plant pesticides.

Chickpea innovation: Revisiting the origins of crops to solve the challenges of modern agriculture
Dr Doug Cook from the University of California, Davis, looks to chickpea’s origins to solve modern problems in agriculture.

Click here for details of the GPC Member Societies and Affiliates and their representatives. 

Please contact Ruth Bastow (ruth@globalplantcouncil.org) to find out how your organization can join the Global Plant Council.