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Spurge purge: Plant fossils reveal ancient South America-to-Asia ‘escape route’

By | News, Plant Science

Anyone who has taken a long road trip or bike ride has used a product of the spurge plant family — rubber. The spurge family, or Euphorbiaceae, includes economically valuable plants like the rubber tree, castor oil plant, poinsettia and cassava. Newly identified fossils found in Argentina suggest that a group of spurges took a trip of their own tens of millions of years ago. Driven by climatic changes and land movements over millennia, a group of spurges relocated thousands of miles from ancient South America to Australia, Asia and parts of Africa.

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Image: Agricultural landscape dominated by exotic species of European origin (La Honda Creek Preserve, California, U.S.A.). Credit: Dr Javier Galán Díaz

Can we predict if a plant species will become exotic?

By | News, Plant Science

Plant species become exotic after being accidentally or deliberately transported by humans to a new region outside their native range, where they establish self-perpetuating populations that quickly reproduce and spread. This is a complex process mediated by many factors, such as plant traits and genetics, which challenges the creation of general guidelines to predict or manage plant invasions.

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Research highlights benefits of wild plants in fallow land and other ecosystems in Madagascar

By | News

Many landscapes in the tropics consist of a mosaic of different types of land use. How people make use of these different ecosystems, with their particular plant communities, was unclear until now. When considering biodiversity, forests often get the most attention. But this research shows that rural households use a wide range of plant species and services provided by many nearby ecosystem types.

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Roots are capable of measuring heat on their own, new study shows

By | News, Plant Science

Plant roots have their own thermometer to measure the temperature of the soil around them and they adjust their growth accordingly. Through extensive experiments, researchers were able to demonstrate that roots have their own temperature sensing and response system. In a new study theyalso provide a new explanation for how roots themselves detect and react to higher temperatures. The results could help develop new approaches for plant breeding.

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Image: tomato plant. credit: 1195798 / Pixabay

Researchers create double-haploid watermelon plants via in vivo, seed-based haploid induction system

By | Agriculture, Fruits and Vegetables, News

Generating haploid plants for the purpose of obtaining pure double haploid lines is widely recognized as one of the most efficient breeding strategies in modern agriculture. Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), an important fruit crop known for its nutritional value and flavor, has undergone long-term artificial selection resulting in genetic narrowing. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a haploid induction system to enhance traditional breeding methods and facilitate the development of valuable lines.

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