A Short History of Plant Science

Following discussions I had with students (from undergrad to PhD-student level), I noticed that most young researchers were never taught anything about the historical context of our work. Context, however, still matters today. For example, many students are not aware of what the difference between the Arabidopsis lines Col-0, Col-1 and Landsberg is. Or why we are using the CaMV 35s promoter all the time, even though it is actually quite problematic to work with. For this reason, I have started to write ‘Short History’ articles on such aspects of plant science. To date, four chapters have been published:

Chapter 1 (2018): A short history of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. Columbia-0
PeerJ Prepr.: 1–7. http://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26931

Chapter 2 (2018): A short history of the CaMV 35S Promoter
PeerJ Prepr.: 1–16. http://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27096

Chapter 3 (2019): A short history of Plant Transformation
PeerJ Prepr.: 1–28. https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27556

-> A compilation of chapters 1 – 3 has now been peer-reviewed and published as
Somssich, M. (2022). The Dawn of Plant Molecular Biology: How Three Key Methodologies Paved the Way
Current Protocols: 417. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpz1.417

Chapter 4 (2020): A short history of Vernalization
Zenodo: 1–29 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3660691

Chapter 5 (2021): A short history of Plant Light Microscopy
Zenodo: 1-40 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4682572

-> Chapter 5 has now been peer-reviewed and published as
Somssich, M. (2022). A Short History of Plant Light Microscopy
Current Protocols: 577. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpz1.577

Some Online Feedback on the Short History articles (click to enlarge):