A cascade of bHLH-regulated pathways program maize anther development

This longstanding collaboration between the Walbot (Stanford Univ.) and Meyers labs has yielded numerous insights into how plants make pollen. The research here identified the intricate series or cascade of gene expression programs that are activated to enable pollen production, and showed where regulatory RNAs (phasiRNAs) function in that sequence. Despite the paper’s title, which leans toward the esoteric, this work has practical importance for increasing yield and producing new hybrid crops.