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advocate_title

Casting a critical eye on plant stress research

For the benefit of learning

 

O    Basic problem in the interpretation of plant water status in plants under stress – an example

O          ... and a letter to Plant Physiology –1996

O    Flawed evaluation of transgenic plants for drought resistance – an example

O          ... and a letter to Plant Physiology - 2002

O    Plant sterility under drought stress is caused by antioxidant inefficiency?

O    What proportion of declared QTL in plants are false?

O    Improper measurements of plant water status are still being used

O    A response to stress does not necessarily constitute adaptation to stress

O    Improper measurements of plant water status are still being used (#2 )

O    Drought resistant varieties as an experimental tool to prove a physiological hypothesis – a frequent pitfall

O    Irrelevant stress protocols used and reported in genomic research

O    Irrelevant stress protocols used and reported in genomic research-II

O    Need to understand cause and effect in analyzing drought resistance

O    Field plot size and drought stress phenotyping

O    Expression of stress resistance genes in the lab and the field – not necessarily the same

O    The greenhouse as a possible source of experimental error

O    Physiological and developmental problems encountered by in vitro cultured plants

O    In a genomics study drought stress was applied to leaf discs dried in air for 2 hours

O    And still unrealistic drought stress treatment in a genomics study – seedlings dried for 0.5 to 2h