Culture tames the unruly strigolactones.

Abstract

In a recent study, Zhou et al. optimized microbial consortium biosynthesis of strigolactone (SL), producing milligram levels of hormone. This groundbreaking achievement allowed the dissection of specific pathways implicated in shoot branching inhibition, along with likely routes of evolution, thus facilitating the discovery of specific SLs involved in traits important for crop improvement.