As days grow colder and shorter, and many of us find ourselves entrenched in winter, you wouldn’t be mistaken for feeling a noticeable reduction in activity around you. However, in certain crops such as winter wheat and barley, this cold…
How we love chocolate! The big downside of this love is that more chocolate consumption directly implies more cocoa plantations, which has led to significant loss of forests especially in West Africa. In the coming decades is expected both an…
In multicellular organisms, distinct cell types are produced and maintained through the coordination of several progenitor lineages. How is this information stored in the transcriptome? Do these cells' behaviors reflect their lineage history or their current biological surroundings?
Phenotypic plasticity in plants occurs at all biological scales in every organism. Phenotypic plasticity is defined as the physical and/or metabolic responses of organisms to their environment. Some plastic responses may be strategies that enhance fitness in specific environments. In…
Pruning is the art and science of cutting parts of a plant to increase production and ease harvest and spraying activities. In cocoa cultivation, pruning is recommended to farmers, although its effect on cocoa tree growth and cocoa bean production…
Two years ago, in 2020, the entire world was engulfed in the COVID19 pandemic, which is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus SARSCoV2. As everyone knows by now, the most common symptoms of this disease are fever, dry…
Respiration in plants is a process that consumes sugars (e.g., glucose) and oxygen, produces carbon dioxide (CO2) and water, and releases energy to maintain the primary metabolic and physiological functions during growth. It determines the net carbon gain for plants…
Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) is a devastating insect, which is known for its polyphagous nature. That is, its ability to feed on various kinds of food sources. This insect can migrate up to 100 km in a single…
A tremendous amount of research has been done to explore Si action in plants against drought, waterlogging, salinity, heavy metals, ultra-violet, as well as pathogenic and entomological attacks. While most studies address Si role in abiotic and biotic stress conditions,…