Liam Elliott
Liam Elliott has never been good enough at Latin to be able to claim to be a botanist, but can legitimately claim to be a researcher in Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford. He did his undergraduate degree at Cambridge before moving to Oxford to do his PhD, focussing on control of membrane trafficking in plant cells (in a nutshell, how what gets where in a plant cell). His main interests are in how membrane trafficking contributes to growth and division of plant cells but he is broadly excited by most aspects of plant cell and molecular biology, which he will likely be talking about on Botany One.
The model bean? Computational modelling of Coffea growth
The model can reproduce the measured data, and so opens up avenues for applying this original procedure to other experimental data.
Understanding the connections between plant hormones and cellulose synthesis in plants: still a great unknown!
Wang and colleagues review the relationships between key phytohormone classes and cellulose deposition in plant systems.
Unravelling how a mysterious substance may boost plant growth
Capstaff and colleagues investigate how soil-derived fulvic acid may boost growth of alfalfa
Metalheads! Patterns of extreme mineral accumulation in plants
Examining patterns of mineral accumulation in plants gives clues as to how some plants can accumulate extreme amounts of some minerals
Move over Factor 50! Can increasing their number of chromosomes help protect plants against UV?
Increased chromosome number due to UV is known to occur in lab experiments, but does it happen in real environments?
What makes a good invasive species – genetics or plasticity? Insights from Impatiens glandulifera
Understanding what makes invasive plant species so good at invading may help us protect vulnerable plant biodiversity.
Plastic plants?! Nanoplastics may be bad news for plants too.
More evidence that the damaging potential of small plastics needs to extend to terrestrial environments.
Going below ground: how some of the diversity in plant root morphology arose
A major transition in plant growth habit may have driven evolution of certain root traits
From computer to field: can in silico modelling can help us to optimise rice for possible droughts?
Advances in computational models may allow us to quickly predict responses of important food crops to environmental stresses in the field, and to identify the genetic basis of these.
Is age just a number if you’re a plant? How plant responses to the environment change with age
Trait sensitivity to the environment is most visible during earlier stages of development, after which intraspecific trait variation and relationships may stabilize.
Feeding (or not feeding) a fungus: plants may not be so good to their fungal partners after all
Interactions between plants and fungal symbionts are not always balanced affairs.
Bulking up: do plants make gains in secondary metabolites through genome duplication?
Whole genome duplication is often associated with gains in plant developmental complexity. Does this include secondary metabolites?
