We are pleased to announce the publication of Dwarfism of high‐monolignol Arabidopsis plants is rescued by ectopic LACCASE overexpression in Plant Direct. Co-first authors Mendel Perkins and Mathias Schuetz and our many co-authors have used biochemistry, microscopy and transcriptomics to understand how laccases are able to alleviate the dwarfism caused by overexpression of MYB63 and MYB58 transcriptional regulators of the monolignol biosynthesis pathway. This work advances our understanding of the relationship between lignin monomer synthesis, lignin polymerization and impacts on growth which has been a pernicious problem that comes about when alterations are made with the goal of improving bioenergy production.
