Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Archive
    • Preview Papers
  • About
    • Editorial Board and Staff
    • About the Journal
    • Terms & Privacy
  • More
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us
  • Submit a Manuscript
    • Instructions for Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
  • Other Publications
    • Plant Physiology
    • The Plant Cell
    • Plant Direct
    • The Arabidopsis Book
    • Teaching Tools in Plant Biology
    • ASPB
    • Plantae

User menu

  • My alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Plant Cell
  • Other Publications
    • Plant Physiology
    • The Plant Cell
    • Plant Direct
    • The Arabidopsis Book
    • Teaching Tools in Plant Biology
    • ASPB
    • Plantae
  • My alerts
  • Log in
Plant Cell

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Archive
    • Preview Papers
  • About
    • Editorial Board and Staff
    • About the Journal
    • Terms & Privacy
  • More
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us
  • Submit a Manuscript
    • Instructions for Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
  • Follow PlantCell on Twitter
  • Visit PlantCell on Facebook
  • Visit Plantae
EditorialEditorial
You have accessRestricted Access

The Plant Cell Introduces Breakthrough Reports: A New Forum for Cutting-Edge Plant Research

Sabeeha Merchant, Sebastian Y. Bednarek, James A. Birchler, George Coupland, Nancy A. Eckardt, Pascal Genschik, Jean Greenberg, Joseph J. Kieber, Daniel J. Kliebenstein, Barry J. Pogson, David Smyth
Sabeeha Merchant
Editor in Chief
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Sabeeha Merchant
Sebastian Y. Bednarek
Senior Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Sebastian Y. Bednarek
James A. Birchler
Senior Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for James A. Birchler
George Coupland
Senior Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for George Coupland
Nancy A. Eckardt
Senior Editor/Senior Features Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Nancy A. Eckardt
Pascal Genschik
Senior Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Pascal Genschik
Jean Greenberg
Senior Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Jean Greenberg
Joseph J. Kieber
Senior Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Joseph J. Kieber
Daniel J. Kliebenstein
Senior Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Daniel J. Kliebenstein
Barry J. Pogson
Senior Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Barry J. Pogson
David Smyth
Senior Editor
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for David Smyth

Published October 2015. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.15.00862

  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading
  • © 2015 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved.

The Plant Cell is introducing a new category of research article, which we call Breakthrough Reports, to provide a home for exploratory articles on mechanistic and conceptual aspects of plant biology. Breakthrough Reports will showcase studies with conceptual novelty, whether in pointing the way to a deeper understanding of natural phenomena, opening new areas of research, bringing together disparate fields of study, identifying new biological processes, discovering new mechanisms and pathways, or overturning dogma.

In its first decade, The Plant Cell published research emphasizing classical genetic studies leading to the discovery of key components in fundamental metabolic, sensing, and signaling pathways in plants (e.g., Bowman et al., 1989, genes directing flower development; Feys et al., 1994, coi1 mutants and methyl jasmonate perception; Lincoln et al., 1990, axr1 mutants and auxin signaling; Wei and Deng, 1992, cop9 and light-regulated development). With these components in hand, the door to a mechanistic understanding underlying biological function in plants was opened; the articles published in The Plant Cell in its second decade evolved to present “complete stories” with substantial molecular insight into individual pathways. In the journal’s third decade, we are seeing within its pages the impact of technological developments, whether metabolic profiling, proteomics, next-generation sequencing, high-resolution microscopy, or high-throughput screening, presenting us with a whole organism or systems view of plant biology. Yet, still we do not know the specific function of the vast majority of genes in any genome.

To ensure that The Plant Cell remains a vital resource in the coming decades, we are committed to publishing the most significant advances and interesting articles that stimulate our thinking about how plants grow, reproduce, function, and interact with their environment and with other organisms. What types of articles should we be publishing? We certainly want to encourage articles in which “complete story” mechanistic research is integrated with physiological, developmental, and ecological concepts that illuminate how plants live in the real world. Nevertheless, we also want to publish work in which new concepts in plant biology are developed or where dogmas are challenged. This may include areas that have been underrepresented, such as functional analyses that use comparative studies, non-model organisms, or environments other than those typically found in a laboratory.

We ask you to think about some of the classic articles published in The Plant Cell that may not fit today’s mold of the complete story (e.g., Farmer and Ryan, 1992, lipid-based signaling in response to insect and pathogen attack; McQueen-Mason et al., 1992, discovery of expansins; Napoli et al., 1990, cosuppression in petunia—pioneering work leading to the discovery of RNA interference; Ward et al., 1991, a model for the induction of systemic acquired resistance). These articles opened up new avenues of investigation, and we welcome such advances today.

From the earliest years of the journal, a major criterion for acceptance has been “exciting science, irrespective of the subspecialty” (Goldberg, 1990). We couldn’t agree more, and our aim is for Breakthrough Reports to help ensure that The Plant Cell continues to publish the most exciting research in the plant sciences. We ask you—authors, reviewers, and readers—to evaluate these manuscripts for their excitement and potential for opening new areas of investigation without the expectation that every question will be answered. Scientific rigor will remain paramount, but research that pushes the conceptual bounds of a field often is developing models or ideas that are so new that mechanistic explanation may be extraordinarily difficult to obtain to any measure of completeness. Rather than force such studies to sit for years on the experimental bench to develop a complete molecular story, we propose to publish exciting shorter articles that may not yet provide a full answer but will stimulate more research, leading eventually to increased understanding and a more complete story. As for regular research articles, we will not impose strict limitations on length, but our aim is to publish shorter articles that include little to no supplemental data (see the Instructions for Authors for more details).

At its core, the introduction of Breakthrough Reports is The Plant Cell’s effort to push innovation, originality, new ways of looking at things, and, ultimately, a new and deeper understanding of mechanisms in plant biology. We want you, the author, reviewer, and reader, to tell us what the next quarter-century of plant research will be about. Go to tpc.msubmit.net to submit your latest breakthroughs.

Footnotes

  • www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.15.00862

References

  1. ↵
    1. Bowman, J.L.,
    2. Smyth, D.R., and
    3. Meyerowitz, E.M.
    (1989). Genes directing flower development in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 1: 37–52.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  2. ↵
    1. Farmer, E.E., and
    2. Ryan, C.A.
    (1992). Octadecanoid precursors of jasmonic acid activate the synthesis of wound-inducible proteinase-inhibitors. Plant Cell 4: 129–134.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  3. ↵
    1. Feys, B.,
    2. Benedetti, C.E.,
    3. Penfold, C.N., and
    4. Turner, J.G.
    (1994). Arabidopsis mutants selected for resistance to the phytotoxin coronatine are male sterile, insensitive to methyl jasmonate, and resistant to a bacterial pathogen. Plant Cell 6: 751–759.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  4. ↵
    1. Goldberg, R.B.
    (1990). From the editor. Plant Cell 2: 1129–1130.
    OpenUrlFREE Full Text
  5. ↵
    1. Lincoln, C.,
    2. Britton, J.H., and
    3. Estelle, M.
    (1990). Growth and development of the axr1 mutants of Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 2: 1071–1080.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  6. ↵
    1. McQueen-Mason, S.,
    2. Durachko, D.M., and
    3. Cosgrove, D.J.
    (1992). Two endogenous proteins that induce cell wall extension in plants. Plant Cell 4: 1425–1433.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  7. ↵
    1. Napoli, C.,
    2. Lemieux, C., and
    3. Jorgensen, R.
    (1990). Introduction of a chimeric chalcone synthase gene into petunia results in reversible co-suppression of homologous genes in trans. Plant Cell 2: 279–289.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  8. ↵
    1. Ward, E.R.,
    2. Uknes, S.J.,
    3. Williams, S.C.,
    4. Dincher, S.S.,
    5. Wiederhold, D.L.,
    6. Alexander, D.C.,
    7. Ahl-Goy, P.,
    8. Metraux, J.P., and
    9. Ryals, J.A.
    (1991). Coordinate gene activity in response to agents that induce systemic acquired resistance. Plant Cell 3: 1085–1094.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  9. ↵
    1. Wei, N., and
    2. Deng, X.W.
    (1992). COP9: a new genetic locus involved in light-regulated development and gene expression in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 4: 1507–1518.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

Table of Contents

Print
Download PDF
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Plant Cell.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The Plant Cell Introduces Breakthrough Reports: A New Forum for Cutting-Edge Plant Research
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Plant Cell
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Plant Cell web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
The Plant Cell Introduces Breakthrough Reports: A New Forum for Cutting-Edge Plant Research
Sabeeha Merchant, Sebastian Y. Bednarek, James A. Birchler, George Coupland, Nancy A. Eckardt, Pascal Genschik, Jean Greenberg, Joseph J. Kieber, Daniel J. Kliebenstein, Barry J. Pogson, David Smyth
The Plant Cell Oct 2015, 27 (10) 2667-2668; DOI: 10.1105/tpc.15.00862

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
The Plant Cell Introduces Breakthrough Reports: A New Forum for Cutting-Edge Plant Research
Sabeeha Merchant, Sebastian Y. Bednarek, James A. Birchler, George Coupland, Nancy A. Eckardt, Pascal Genschik, Jean Greenberg, Joseph J. Kieber, Daniel J. Kliebenstein, Barry J. Pogson, David Smyth
The Plant Cell Oct 2015, 27 (10) 2667-2668; DOI: 10.1105/tpc.15.00862
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

In this issue

The Plant Cell: 27 (10)
The Plant Cell
Vol. 27, Issue 10
Oct 2015
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Front Matter (PDF)
View this article with LENS

More in this TOC Section

  • Thank You, Editors and Reviewers of The Plant Cell
  • Sowing the Seeds of Equity and Diversity in Academia and STEM Disciplines
  • Editor Profile: Pascal Genschik
Show more EDITORIAL

Similar Articles

Our Content

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Plant Cell Preview
  • Archive
  • Teaching Tools in Plant Biology
  • Plant Physiology
  • Plant Direct
  • Plantae
  • ASPB

For Authors

  • Instructions
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Editorial Board and Staff
  • Policies
  • Recognizing our Authors

For Reviewers

  • Instructions
  • Peer Review Reports
  • Journal Miles
  • Transfer of reviews to Plant Direct
  • Policies

Other Services

  • Permissions
  • Librarian resources
  • Advertise in our journals
  • Alerts
  • RSS Feeds
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2021 by The American Society of Plant Biologists

Powered by HighWire