• Markus Pauly, Energy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, mpauly69@berkeley.edu
• Kathleen L. Farquharson, American Society of Plant Biologists, kfarquharson@aspb.org, 206-324-2126

Sascha Gille (left) and Markus Pauly (right), researchers at Berkeley’s Energy Bioscience Institute, are part of the team that identified a gene responsible for O-acetylation of a hemicellulose in Arabidopsis.

A team of researchers at the Energy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley, set out to identify the enzymes that acetylate the polysaccharides that are present in lignocellulosic feedstocks. Their initial work focused on xyloglucan, a type of hemicellose that is abundant in plant cell walls. Using a mass spectrometric technique, the scientists isolated a mutant from amongst a mutagenized population of the model plant Arabidopsis (a member of the mustard and cabbage family) that exhibited a 20-45% reduction in xyloglucan O-acetylation. The researchers mapped the mutation to a physical location in the Arabidopsis genome, and named the gene locus ALTERED HEMICELLULOSE XYLOGLUCAN 4 (AXY4). Blocking the expression of AXY4 in Arabidopsis eliminates xyloglucan O-acetylation.

CONTACT: Adam Fagen, Public Affairs Director

afagen@aspb.org, (301) 296-0898 (office)

ASPB Supports Science Outreach by Grad Students and Postdocs

12 plant scientists to join PlantingScience Master Plant Science Team

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) has named 12 plant biology researchers as science education mentors for the PlantingScience Master Plant Science Team (MPST).

PlantingScience is an educational and research resource that brings together middle and high school students, plant scientists, and teachers in a virtual learning environment. Students engage in hands-on plant investigations while working with peers at their schools and online with scientist mentors to build collaborations and enhance their understanding of plant science.

Members of the MPST are graduate students and postdoctoral researchers active in all areas of plant science research with an interest in participating in K–12 outreach. MPST mentors help middle and high school students and their classroom teachers to develop practical, insightful research skills while investigating the plant themes and teaching modules provided by the PlantingScience program.

More than 9,000 middle and high school students, 2,500 research teams, and teachers in 34 states have experienced the brand of scientific inquiry offered by PlantingScience. Unlike the repetitive lab exercises with predicted outcomes common in many classrooms and textbooks, PlantingScience offers the real world of ambiguity, messy data, and scientific creativity. In its first five years, the website welcomed 1.6 million visitors.

Since becoming an official partner in the PlantingScience project in 2006, ASPB has supported more than 30 early career plant scientists as MPST mentors. In fact, the Society has recently expanded its support, enabling ASPB to support a larger number of MPST mentors.

Congratulations to these 2011–2012 MPST mentors:

• Veria Alvarado, Assistant Research Scientist, Texas A&M University
• Shajahan Anver, Graduate Student, University of California, Davis
• Elena J. Batista, Graduate Student, Louisiana State University
• Nathan Butler, Graduate Student, Iowa State University
• Erica A. Fishel, Graduate Student, Washington University in St. Louis
• Emily Merewitz, Graduate Student, Rutgers University
• Mona Monfared, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Berkeley / USDA Plant Gene Expression Center
• Christos Noutsos, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• Shayani Pieris, New Mexico Consortium
• Marites Sales, Program Associate, University of Arkansas
• Scott Schaeffer, Graduate Student, Washington State University
• Mon-Ray Shao, Graduate Student, Center for Plant Science Innovation, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

This past spring, the journal Science selected PlantingScience to receive a Science Prize for Online Resources in Education, also known as a SPORE Award. The program was also honored with a 2011 Power of A Silver Award from the American Society of Association Executives.

PlantingScience represents a collaboration of 14 scientific societies with an interest in plant science with additional educational, user, and industry partners. Support for PlantingScience has been provided to the Botanical Society of America by the National Science Foundation and the Monsanto Fund.

Additional information about PlantingScience is available at http://www.plantingscience.org/.

# # #

ASPB is a professional scientific society, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, devoted to the advancement of the plant sciences worldwide. With a membership of nearly 5,000 plant scientists from throughout the United States and more than 50 other nations, the Society publishes two of the most widely cited plant science journals: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. For more information about ASPB, please visit http://www.aspb.org/. Also follow ASPB on Facebook at facebook.com/myASPB and on Twitter @ASPB.

CONTACT: Adam Fagen, Public Affairs Director

afagen@aspb.org, (301) 296-0898 (office)

USDA makes $40 million award to ASPB member to
develop biofuels from sustainable lumber stocks

Washington State’s Norman Lewis leads Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has made two $40 million consortia grants to Washington State institutions to use sustainable woody biomass in the Pacific Northwest to produce biofuels for aviation and other petrochemical uses. One award, led by American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) member Norman Lewis (pictured) and Michael Wolcott of Washington State University, will support the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance (NARA). NARA is a collaborative effort among university, government, and industry scientists to seek to produce domestic aviation fuel using wood that is either developed for this purpose, typically burned in forests after harvest, removed during thinning to improve forest health, or ends up in landfills as waste from building demolitions and other sources.

At a press event announcing the grants at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport last week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said "I’d bet my life” on the growth of a tree-based biofuels industry. "This is an opportunity to create thousands of new jobs and drive economic development in rural communities across America by building the framework for a competitively priced, American-made biofuels industry,” he said. "Public–private partnerships like these will drive our nation to develop a national biofuels economy that continues to help us grow and out-compete the rest of the world while moving our nation toward a clean energy economy.”

One aspect of the award in support of NARA that has particular relevance to plant biology is the alliance’s intention to utilize the most recent technologies and scientific approaches to help overcome long-standing issues in using woody biomass for biofuels production. NARA’s approach, in part, will use the most advanced genomic technologies, as well as phenomics, to identify the most promising sources of biofuels from tree lines that are currently available (e.g., Douglas fir, western hemlock, poplar, and red alder). The five-year award has four main deliverable components: feedstock development, sustainable feedstock production, logistics, and conversion and refining to reach these goals.

In addition, a significant effort will be made to learn how to break down lignin more effectively. As one of the major components of wood, lignin acts as glue that holds together the components of plant cell walls and provides wood with its strength. However, lignin is difficult to break down and reduces the bioavailability of other cell wall components, resulting in a technical barrier to the use of woody materials in biofuel production.

"We believe we can begin to resolve the issues that have prevented wood-based biofuels and other petrochemical substitutes from being economically viable with some new strategies and the diversity of skills represented on the NARA team,” said Lewis. "If we are successful, the potential to begin to replace the natural resources jobs lost in the region over the past several years is very high.”

A second $40 million grant will go to the University of Washington to focus on utilizing poplar trees as a source material for sustainable biofuel production, since the trees are fast growing and can be harvested within a few years.

Lewis is Regents Professor and director of Washington State University’s Institute of Biological Chemistry and a member of Scotland’s National Academy of Science and Letters. He currently serves on ASPB’s Public Affairs Committee and formerly was a monitoring editor for Plant Physiology.

# # #

ASPB is a professional scientific society, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, devoted to the advancement of the plant sciences worldwide. With a membership of nearly 5,000 plant scientists from throughout the United States and more than 50 other nations, the Society publishes two of the most widely cited plant science journals: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. For more information about ASPB, please visit http://www.aspb.org/. Also follow ASPB on Facebook at facebook.com/myASPB and on Twitter @ASPB.

CONTACT: Adam Fagen, Public Affairs Director

afagen@aspb.org, (301) 296-0898 (office)

ASPB Convenes Leaders to Chart Future of Plant Science Research

Plant Science Research Summit brings plant science community together

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Later this week, the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) will convene more than 75 scientists from across plant science to chart the future of the field. The Plant Science Research Summit is designed to engage the broad plant science research community in a process that will develop a consensus plan to invigorate and guide plant science research over the next decade.

The summit will bring together representatives of the full spectrum of plant science research, from basic to applied and from academia, government, and industry, to identify critical gaps in our understanding of plant biology that must be filled over the next 10 years or more in order to address the grand challenges facing our nation. Invited scientists will be joined by representatives of scientific societies, government agencies, private sponsors of research, growers’ associations, and other stakeholders. Summit participants—and those engaging in the conversation on the summit website (http://www.aspb.org/plantsummit)—will identify research priorities in plant science that can positively impact grand challenges in areas such as health, energy, food, and environmental sustainability. The consensus plan that will be developed will help the nation coordinate research objectives across different public and private funding agencies, sectors, and corporations.

The primary product of the Plant Science Research Summit will be a written report that will articulate a decadal plan for investments in plant science research, describing the contributions of plant science to addressing important scientific priorities and vital societal challenges. The report is expected to be completed in early 2012.

The summit is being organized by a volunteer steering committee of plant science leaders which is chaired by Gary Stacey, a professor of plant science at the University of Missouri and an expert on soybeans, host–microbe interactions, and bioenergy. A number of plant-related organizations, growers’ associations, and companies with an interest in plant science have also signed on as supporters of the effort; a complete list of supporters is available on the summit website.

The invitation list for the summit was developed to include as many perspectives as possible, including researchers who span all of plant science—from biochemistry to ecology, from the model plant Arabidopsis to the commodity crop wheat. Although the number of those participating in person is necessarily limited, the steering committee encourages the entire community to join in the discussions remotely through the project website (http://www.aspb.org/plantsummit) and by submitting comments via e-mail to PlantSummit@aspb.org. To stimulate discussion and offer ideas to be discussed before, during, and after the summit, members of the steering committee and others have prepared a set of ten background "green papers,” which can be downloaded from the summit website.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) will host the summit at its Chevy Chase, Maryland, headquarters, underscoring HHMI’s commitment to plant science. The institute, in partnership with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF), recently named 15 new HHMI-GBMF Investigators, each of whom focuses their research on plant science.

Additional support for the summit is provided by ASPB and by grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

# # #

ASPB is a professional scientific society, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, devoted to the advancement of the plant sciences worldwide. With a membership of nearly 5,000 plant scientists from throughout the United States and more than 50 other nations, the Society publishes two of the most widely cited plant science journals: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. For more information about ASPB, please visit http://www.aspb.org/. Also follow ASPB on Facebook at facebook.com/myASPB and on Twitter @ASPB.

CONTACT: Adam Fagen, Public Affairs Director, afagen@aspb.org
301-296-0898 (office), 240-515-4057 (cell)

Plant Biology 2011 Will Bring 1,500 Plant Scientists to Minneapolis

Scientific meeting will discuss how plants can produce biofuels, among many topics

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Many of the world’s top plant scientists will convene in Minneapolis this month to discuss new scientific developments using plants in research. Nearly 1,500 researchers from at least 39 countries are expected to attend Plant Biology 2011, the annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB), which will be held August 6–10 at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

This year’s meeting includes a number of presentations on the importance of plants and plant biology in developing renewable energy sources and on the impact of a changing environment on plants.

The meeting’s final session—the ASPB President’s symposium on plants and bioenergy—will begin with a presentation from one of the nation’s chief advocates for renewable energy research—Steven Koonin, who is Under Secretary for Science at the Department of Energy. Dr. Koonin will be followed by the leaders of several innovative research projects trying to harness photosynthesis and plant biomass to produce renewable fuels.

The many hundreds of speakers and posters will also highlight advances in the role of plants in improving human health and nutrition, securing sufficient food for a growing human population, and enhancing understanding of the fundamental biology of plants and how they work. Speakers and posters will cover the full complement of plant biology from root to shoot, from cells and genes to plants’ interaction with their environment.

Plant Biology 2011 will also feature a number of sessions and events to help members become better educators and to more effectively engage the public in plant science.

A list of sessions of general interest is included below. The complete program is available at http://www.aspb.org/plantbiology2011.

Meeting details:

• Dates: Saturday, August 6 – Wednesday, August 10, 2011
• Location: Minneapolis Convention Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Website: http://www.aspb.org/plantbiology2011
• Press: http://my.aspb.org/?Meeting_PressReg

# # #

ASPB is a professional scientific society, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, devoted to the advancement of the plant sciences worldwide. With a membership of nearly 5,000 plant scientists from throughout the United States and more than 50 other nations, the Society publishes two of the most widely cited plant science journals: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. For more information about ASPB, please visit http://www.aspb.org/. Also follow ASPB on Facebook at facebook.com/myASPB and on Twitter @ASPB.

CONTACT: Adam Fagen, Public Affairs Director

afagen@aspb.org, (301) 296-0898 (office)

HHMI and GBMF Name 15 ASPB Members as Investigators

Recipients will share $75 million in flexible support for plant science research

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Two of the nation’s largest private sponsors of research have taken a giant leap into plant science. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF) have named 15 of the country’s most innovative plant scientists as HHMI-GBMF Investigators. These 15 plant scientists—all of whom are members of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB)—will share $75 million in flexible support from HHMI and GBMF over the next five years.

The two organizations formed their collaboration because of concerns that basic plant science research has been historically underfunded in the United States. HHMI President Robert Tjian explained that "we think the creation of our joint program underscores the importance of investing in fundamental plant science, and we hope it will encourage others in the United States to make analogous commitments.”

Vicki L. Chandler, a former ASPB president who is GBMF chief program officer for science, said that the sponsors "believe the research will generate high-impact discoveries with implications for a range of intertwined concerns facing society: food production, human health, protection of the environment, and identification of renewable energy resources.” With plant science at the center of so many contemporary national and international priorities, HHMI and GBMF felt that the time was right to make strategic investments to fuel discoveries that have a major impact.

The new HHMI-GBMF Investigators were selected on the basis of individual scientific excellence from a group of 239 applicants. HHMI is known for supporting "people, not projects,” investing in visionary researchers rather than specific projects. Each HHMI-GBMF Investigator will receive an initial five-year appointment to HHMI, beginning in September 2011, and the support to develop their research in creative, new directions. Investigators will continue to be based at their host institution and retain their faculty position, but HHMI will provide full salary and benefits to the investigators with research support coming from both HHMI and GBMF.

These plant scientists recognize the freedom this award gives them to follow the science wherever it leads. "It gives me the opportunity to think broadly in what needs to be done in my field and go after it,” said Jorge Dubcovsky of the University of California, Davis, "rather than spending my time trying to write proposals…The HHMI and GBMF long-term support gives me a lot of flexibility to address important questions.”

Dominique Bergmann of Stanford University, who will deliver the Shull Award lecture at ASPB’s Plant Biology 2011 meeting in Minneapolis this August, emphasized that she can do experiments that her lab has only discussed informally, "but none of us thought we’d get the chance to do.” Krishna Niyogi of the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said he appreciates that "HHMI and GBMF are recognizing the importance of plant science and enabling research that would likely be considered too ‘high-risk’ by most grant panels.”

The investigators are committed to demonstrating the value of this investment in plant science. Jeff Dangl of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explained that "to whom much is given, much is expected. We have a responsibility to make the most of this wonderful opportunity and to leverage our success across our community.” Bergmann added that the "effect of the [HHMI-GBMF Investigator] positions will go far beyond the 15 who got them.”

Joe Ecker of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies said that the HHMI-GBMF Investigator program "sends a strong message that plants are a really great system of study and that knowledge of plant functions have in the past—and will continue to—contribute to fundamental knowledge on many levels.”

These new HHMI-GBMF Investigators will join nearly 340 existing HHMI Investigators, of whom 13 have received Nobel Prizes and more than 140 have been elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. The HHMI-GBMF Investigators will be eligible for additional five-year terms after a successful scientific review.

Those selected as HHMI-GBMF Investigators are Philip Benfey (Duke University), Dominique Bergmann (Stanford University), Simon Chan (University of California, Davis), Xuemei Chen (University of California, Riverside), Jeff Dangl (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Xinnian Dong (Duke University), Jorge Dubcovsky (University of California, Davis), Joseph Ecker (Salk Institute for Biological Studies), Mark Estelle (University of California, San Diego), Sheng Yang He (Michigan State University), Robert Martienssen (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Elliot Meyerowitz (California Institute of Technology), Krishna Niyogi (University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Craig Pikaard (Indiana University Bloomington), and Keiko Torii (University of Washington).

Three other plant scientists—each of whom is an ASPB member—currently serve as HHMI Investigators: Joanne Chory (Salk Institute for Biological Studies), Joseph P. Noel (Salk Institute), and Steve Jacobsen (University of California, Los Angeles).

A full list of the HHMI-GBMF Investigators and a description of their research areas is available at http://bit.ly/HHMI-GBMF_bios.

# # #

ASPB is a professional scientific society, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, devoted to the advancement of the plant sciences worldwide. With a membership of nearly 5,000 plant scientists from throughout the United States and more than 50 other nations, the Society publishes two of the most widely cited plant science journals: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. For more information about ASPB, please visit http://www.aspb.org/. Also follow ASPB on Facebook at facebook.com/myASPB and on Twitter @ASPB.

CONTACT: Adam Fagen, Public Affairs Director

afagen@aspb.org, (301) 296-0898 (office)

ASPB Awards 15 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships

Five others named as honorable mentions

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) has named the recipients of its 2011 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) awards. The SURF program assists promising undergraduate students so they can conduct meaningful plant biology research early in their college careers. Mentoring is a key element of the program, and a solid mentoring plan is an important part of proposal; SURF students must work with a mentor who is an ASPB member.

In honoring the recipients, ASPB President Nicholas Carpita said, "As we start our second decade of ASPB’s hugely successful SURF awards program, I congratulate not only the awardees but also the drive and dedication of its great mentors.”

In addition to promoting undergraduate research in plant science, the fellowships support each SURF student’s presentation of a poster at ASPB’s annual meeting in the year following the research project. As such, the students listed below will conduct their research this summer and present their findings at Plant Biology 2012, which will be held July 20–24, 2012, in Austin, Texas.

Amy Clore, who cochairs the SURF program with Kenneth Helm, explained that, "by funding these students, all of whom have incredible potential, ASPB hopes to directly contribute to the next generation of plant biologists.”

SURF proposals are reviewed in two separate categories, research universities and primarily undergraduate institutions. Of the 115 undergraduate applicants, fifteen undergraduates were selected as SURF recipients and five received honorable mentions.

Last year’s SURF recipients will present posters at Plant Biology 2011, August 6–10, 2011, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Applications for next year’s SURF competition will open in late 2011.

A list of the awardees, their mentors, and project titles follow.

CATEGORY A – RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES

Matthew Bedewitz, Michigan State University (East Lansing, Michigan)

Mentor: Cornelius Barry, Assistant Professor of Horticulture, Michigan State University

"Development of a functional genomics platform for exploring tropane alkaloid biosynthesis in Atropa belladonna”

Kristina Chun, University of California, San Diego (La Jolla, California)

Mentor: Joseph P. Noel, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Professor and Director, The Jack H. Skirball Center for Chemical Biology and Proteomics, Salk Institute for Biology Studies; Adjunct Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego

"Identification of functional protein ‘sectors’: Statistical coupling analysis of the terpene synthase family”

Karina Friman, University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida)

Mentor: Alisa Huffaker, Research Molecular Biologist, Center for Medical, Agricultural & Veterinary Entomology, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

"Role of AtPep6 as a signal in Arabidopsis thaliana”

Laura Gates, University of Massachusetts Amherst (Amherst, Massachusetts)

Mentor: Alice Y. Cheung, Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst

"Developmental regulation of pollen tube reception in Arabidopsis”

Jonathan Hermann, Washington University in St. Louis (St. Louis, Missouri)

Mentor: Joseph M. Jez, Associate Professor of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis

"Biochemical and structure analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana GH3.10/DFL2: Defining its role in jasmonate or auxin regulation”

David Higgins, North Carolina State University (Raleigh, North Carolina)

Mentor: Robert G. Franks, Assistant Professor of Genetics and Associate Member of Plant Biology, North Carolina State University

"Investigation of carpel margin meristem (CMM) development in Arabidopsis thaliana”

Hung-Hsueh (Helen) Lai, University of Washington (Seattle, Washington)

Mentor: Keiko Torii, Professor of Biology and Affiliate Faculty, Institute of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, University of Washington

"Functional analysis of EPFL family as signaling ligands in Arabidopsis”

Taylor Lloyd, University of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky)

Mentor: A. Bruce Downie, Associate Professor of Horticulture, University of Kentucky

"Using phage display and biopanning to examine the diversity of seed proteins associating with a LEA protein at supraoptimal germination temperatures”

Amanda Miller, University of Wisconsin–Madison (Madison, Wisconsin)

Mentor: Simon Gilroy, Professor of Botany, University of Wisconsin–Madison

"Role of calcium signaling in the adaptation to low-oxygen stress in Arabidopsis”

Jesse Pyle, Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas)

Mentor: Karen-Beth G. Scholthof, Professor of Plant Pathology & Microbiology, Texas A&M University

"Analysis of the phosphorylated SPMV capsid protein and its biological significance”

James Thierer, University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, Maryland)

Mentors: Caren Chang, Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park and Charles Delwiche, Professor of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park

"Search for ancestral plant hormone pathways in Charophyte algae”

Katherine Walsh, University of Massachusetts Amherst (Amherst, Massachusetts)

Mentor: Magdalena Bezanilla, Associate Professor of Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst

"The Role of GAPs, GEFs, and GDIs in regulating tip growth”

CATEGORY B – PRIMARILY UNDERGRADUATE INSTITUTIONS

Timothy Godfrey, Grand Valley State University (Allendale, Michigan)

Mentor: Sheila Blackman, Associate Professor of Biology, Grand Valley State University

"Identification and surveillance of the LEA proteins in Orchidaceae”

Josef Jareczek, Bellarmine University (Louisville, Kentucky)

Mentor: David Lowell Robinson, Professor of Biology, Bellarmine University

"Nitrogen-fixing endophyte population in local plant species and re-infection effects in non-natural hosts”

Tyler Wernecke, Elmhurst College (Elmhurst, Illinois)

Mentor: Eve M. Mellgren, Assistant Professor of Biology, Elmhurst College

"Identifying the role of phoP and phoQ in virulence of DC3000”

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Hannah De Jong, Cornell University (Ithaca, New York)

Anders Hokinson, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, Massachusetts)

Katie Leonardo, The King’s University College (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)

Tyree Ratcliff, William Carey University (Hattiesburg, Mississippi)

Jamie Werenka, University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada)

# # #

ASPB is a professional scientific society, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, devoted to the advancement of the plant sciences worldwide. With a membership of nearly 5,000 plant scientists from throughout the United States and more than 50 other nations, the Society publishes two of the most widely cited plant science journals: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. For more information about ASPB, please visit http://www.aspb.org/. Also follow ASPB on Facebook at facebook.com/myASPB and on Twitter @ASPB.