Ajwal Dsouza
@DsouzaAjwal
PhD candidate @uofg | I write about cutting-edge plant science discoveries
Drowning in scientific papers? 📚 I've got you! Plant science PhD student here, sharing daily threads on cutting-edge plant science. Join the growing community of plant scientists and enthusiasts! @AbioticStress @sci_plant x.com/DsouzaAjwal/st…
Plants emit ultrasonic sounds when stressed to communicate their condition. @CellCellPress 🧵 1/7
Low glycemic index rice for countering diabetes in Asia Type 2 diabetes is rising, especially in Asia where rice is a staple food. Developing low-glycemic index (GI) rice can have outsized benefits in controlling diabetes. Tiozon et al review the potential of low GI and high…
"Currently, developing a new crop variety in the UK can take up to eight years. However, with the creation of this new programmable plant technology, the development timeline could be drastically reduced to a year or even less." openaccessgovernment.org/cambridge-rese…
Roots like it electric: wheat roots are attracted to electric fields @ThePlantJournal doi.org/10.1111/tpj.70…
Starting a fresh lab notebook is such a joy! Here are my conventions for good lab notebook practices.
How plants turned predator--the evolution of carnivorous plants knowablemagazine.org/content/articl… Magazine
Plants facing the heat A special issue of @ScienceMagazine diving into how heat affects plants—the present and future. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
Herbivore-triggered leaf volatiles improve plant performance through jasmonate-mediated plant-soil interactions When herbivores attack plants, they trigger the release of green leaf volatiles (HAL, HOL, and HAC). These compounds activate jasmonate production both at the attack…
Genomic and genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes Feng et al show the specific genes behind Mendel’s seven famous pea traits pea that laid the foundation for modern genetics @Nature 🧵 1/8
The future is the future of "vibes". Vibes will be highly sought after; the force that drives the free market of written content. Vibes make us human, and only humans can make vibes. AI-written text, therefore, can stand up to truly human vibe-rich writing.
I wrote an essay about the types of writing that I don't think AIs can easily replace. Thank you very much to @RuxandraTeslo, @owl_posting, @eryney_ok and others for speaking to me for this one. TL;DR: Double down on original reporting, missing context, and deep reflections.
Older and Stronger: Auxin-Salicylic Acid seesaw controls the age-related balance between plant growth and herbivore defence. Younger, more vigorous plants tend to be more susceptible to herbivores compared to older, mature plants. Han et al show why. Young plants have high…
Research studies should be judged by the - relevance of the question, - the rigor of the execution, and - the scope of the interpretation. As such, these are the goals one should strive for in their research. Everything else is inconsequential.
Drought rewires the wheat microbiome, enriching soil with helpful bacteria improves drought tolerance. @Prof_Braj_Singh @cellhostmicrobe Li et al mapped soil, root, and rhizosphere communities in wheat under drought with genomics and culturing. Drought boosted total…
Most statistical results in research papers highlight differences that are only statistically significant. But most statistically significant differences are differences that don’t make a difference.
UV radiation decreases transpiration without improving water use efficiency. A Global Meta-Analysis of WUE Proxies doi.org/10.1111/pce.15…
Artificial Photosynthesis: A Step Towards Synthetic Plant Cells Plant chloroplasts perform two main photosynthetic processes: 1) Light reactions, creating ATP and NADPH. 2) Dark reactions, uses ATP/NADPH to convert CO2 into plant material. Miller et al tried building a…
The further a scientist moves away from the topic of their previous work, the fewer citations their new work will receive, according to an analysis of millions of scientific papers and patents published in @Nature. go.nature.com/3HdyflX