Table Of ContentApplications in Plant Sciences 2013 1 ( 1 ): 1200008
EDITORIAL
C
HANGING TECHNOLOGIES OFFER NEW OPPORTUNITIES
1
IN THE PLANT SCIENCES
THERESA M. CULLEY 2
Editor-in-Chief, A pplications in Plant Sciences
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, 614 Rieveschl Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0006 USA
The plant sciences are now facing an unprecedented time in our history in which technology is advancing at a rapid pace, creating
a wide variety of novel opportunities for our fi eld. Applications in Plant Sciences is a new source for sharing exciting and innovative
applications of new technologies that have the potential to propel plant research forward into the future.
Key words: Applications in Plant Sciences ; Botanical Society of America; open-access; plant sciences; protocols; technology.
Welcome to the inaugural issue of A pplications in Plant Sci- information encompassing all areas of the plant sciences, including
ences ( APPS ), a premier source for sharing exciting and inno- but not limited to genetics, structure, development, evolution,
vative information with the potential to facilitate and transform systematics, and ecology. The journal already has a strong re-
research across the plant sciences. More so than at any other cord for publishing molecular markers, refl ecting its origin in
time in the history of our fi eld, we are in the midst of a techno- 2009 as an online-only section of the American Journal of Bot-
logical revolution, spurred in part by rapid advances in comput- any , AJB Primer Notes and Protocols in the Plant Sciences.
erization and online networking. For example, the growth of Now expanding to address all areas of the plant sciences as an
relatively new research areas and tools such as bioinformatics independent journal, APPS is positioned to cover a wide variety
and geographic information systems (GIS) have become possi- of research needs by publishing novel protocols and primers,
ble in part because of substantial advancements in computing software notes, reviews, and application and genomic resource
power and storage capability. In addition, handheld devices articles.
such as smart phones and tablets now enable instantaneous Authors and readers can expect the same high level of scien-
communication among scientists—something unheard of 200 tifi c and editorial expertise in APPS as they have consistently
years ago when handwritten letters were the only means of cor- seen in the A merican Journal of Botany , which celebrates 100
respondence. We can only expect these technological advance- years of publication in 2014. Like the American Journal of Bot-
ments and their applications to continue at a growing pace in any , APPS is a publication of the Botanical Society of America,
our increasingly connected world. As plant scientists, we must a not-for-profi t membership society that is driven by the mis-
harness these technologies and discover new ways they can en- sion of promoting botany. A PPS will help further that mission
rich our own research activities and those of our fi eld. Just by fostering communication within the botanical community,
as the invention of the microscope and the development of and by encouraging the forward movement of the plant sciences
PCR revolutionized science, so too may some of the technical through the sharing of newly developed tools and protocols.
achievements being created today. For example, this issue includes articles by Samarakoon et al.
We must now work together to share new developments (2013) featuring a new method for PCR amplifi cation of recal-
based on these advances that have the potential to propel our citrant DNA, a paper by Morawetz (2013) that presents a tech-
fi eld forward. Scientifi c progress does not occur in a vacuum nique to effectively clear plant tissue for subsequent examination,
but rather is built upon the past historical achievements of oth- and an article by Roschanski et al. (2013) that introduces a pro-
ers with a splash of our own ingenuity and input from experi- tocol for the annotation of transcriptome sequence data and the
enced colleagues. The opportunity for such dialogue has never identifi cation of candidate genes. We anticipate the research in
been greater than at the present time, given today’s rapid expan- this new journal to have great infl uence over the current and
sion of online communication resources. To this end, APPS has future direction of the fi eld.
been designed as an open-access journal with continuous publi- As technology continues to advance and change over time,
cation in which articles will be published online as they are ac- so must our approach to publishing and sharing our research.
cepted. This will facilitate accessibility for researchers around As an online-only journal supported by a team of highly dedi-
the world and will expedite the dissemination of innovative cated editors and staff, APPS has the fl exibility to quickly re-
spond to the changing needs of the scientifi c community and
address new advancements as they occur. For example, we en-
1 Manuscript received 2 December 2012; manuscript accepted 5 December
courage authors to include multimedia content, such as short
2012.
videos demonstrating diffi cult techniques, within their articles.
2 Email: [email protected]
Readers will also be able to directly access all data on which
doi:10.3732/apps.1200008 articles in A PPS are based, either as supplementary materials
Applications in Plant Sciences 2013 1 ( 1 ): 1200008; http://www.bioone.org/loi/apps © 2013 Culley . Published by the Botanical Society of America.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY-NC-SA).
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Applications in Plant Sciences 2013 1 ( 1 ): 1200008 Culley—Editorial
doi:10.3732/apps.1200008
made available with the article or as deposits to data reposito- LITERATURE CITED
ries such as GenBank, Dryad, and NCBI. These are just a few
examples of exciting opportunities for plant scientists to share MORAWETZ , J. 2013 . A clearing protocol for whole tissues: An example us-
ing haustoria of Orobanchaceae. A pplications in Plant Sciences 1 ( 1 ):
their innovations in new ways to spur progress and ingenuity in
1200361 .
the fi eld. Just as the technological revolution is transforming
ROSCHANSKI , A. M. , B . F ADY , B. ZIEGENHAGEN , AND S . LIEPELT . 2013 . Anno-
our society today, we are now part of a new generation of ex-
tation and re-sequencing of genes from de novo transcriptome assembly of
pansion and growth in the plant sciences. As we move forward,
Abies alba (Pinaceae). A pplications in Plant Sciences 1 ( 1 ): 1200179 .
we will only benefi t by discovering ways to incorporate new SAMARAKOON , T. , S. Y. WANG , AND M. H. ALFORD . 2013 . Enhancing PCR
technology into our research activities and sharing those dis- amplifi cation of DNA from recalcitrant plant specimens using a treha-
coveries with others in our fi eld. lose-based additive. A pplications in Plant Sciences 1 ( 1 ): 1200236 .
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