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Overview of New Paradigms in the Field of Plant Sciences

Dhia Bouktila

Paradigm shifts are the core of scientific revolutions. They change how we view the world, the questions that scientists consider worth asking and the manner of doing science. There is often talk of paradigm shifts in reference to a global change of theory, such as the eclipsing of the geocentric by the heliocentric world vision (Copernican theory), the discovery of plate tectonics, the particular theory of heredity (Mendelian theory), or the discovery that DNA is the physical carrier of inheritance. Furthermore, paradigm shifts are used to refer to drastic changes occurring at a narrower scale, and triggering a number of backbone modifications in conceptional systems within the concerned disciplines. Recent biology is passing through a critical cross-road from reductionist concepts and methodologies towards the postgenomic, holistic, systems-based analyses of integrated and communicative networks of life processes. As a fundamental part of biology, plant sciences have been witnessing a number of paradigm shifts that have become evident since the dawn of this 21st century, which I treat here after.