Image: Kyle Swentowsky, a graduate student in the lab of Kelly Dawe, won the PBIO Grad Student 2020 Paper of the Year Award for his recently published work in the journal Genes & Development. Kyle’s article addressed the question why a large portion of plant genomes consist of seemingly redundant DNA (tandem repeats). Kyle identified the gene (TR-1 kinesin) that serves as a motor to activate these tandem repeats (TR-1) in maize to become neocentromeres, which have been linked to meiotic drive. You can read Kyle's News and Views article here. Congratulations also to Vivian Tran, a graduate student in the lab of Lisa Donovan, who received an honorable mention for the Paper of the Year Award for her publication on salinity tolerance in wild and cultivated sunflower in the journal Agronomy! You can read Vivian's News and Views article here. Papers: Swentowsky, K.W., Gent, J.I., Lowry, E.G., Schubert, V., Ran, X., Tseng, K.F., Harkess, A.E., Qiu, W. and Dawe, R.K., 2020. Distinct kinesin motors drive two types of maize neocentromeres. Genes & Development, 34(17-18), pp.1239-1251. Tran, V.H., A.A. Temme, L.A. Donovan. 2020. Wild and cultivated sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) do not differ in salinity tolerance when taking vigor into account. Agronomy 10:1013.
