Planting flowers beside food crops on farms in India attracts bees, boosts pollination and improves crop yield and quality, researchers have found.
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A new study unveils the intricate organization and regulation of ribosomal RNA genes within the complete nucleolus organizer regions (NORs) of Arabidopsis, the first plant with a fully sequenced genome. The research identifies over 70 gene subtypes distributed between NOR2 and NOR4, shedding light on their activation and silencing patterns. The findings, crucial for comprehending NOR epigenetic control, hold broad biomedical relevance and offer a platform for future investigations into NOR evolution.
The slash-and-burn agriculture practiced by many Indigenous societies across the world can actually have a positive impact on forests, according to a new study done in Belize.
With land clearance, bushfires, weeds and climate change, small pockets of native vegetation are important for future plant and animal conservation – but do plants in small reserves struggle with reduced habitat for both plants and their pollinators?
An international team of scientists has created a tool that can aid in increasing climate awareness and climate action globally by highlighting messaging themes shown to be effective through experimental research.
A research team has tested six psychological interventions to combat climate misinformation. It shows how difficult it is to combat these messages, which are resistant to scientific information.
Satellite data reveals a significant cooling impact of vegetation on land surface temperature in the Arabian Peninsula. The study underscores the potential of greening dry areas to mitigate heat stress. The balance between increased evapotranspiration and reduced albedo determines outcomes, emphasizing the need for sustainable water management in climate change adaptation.
Plants avoid mutational damage buildup by leveraging randomness in a process called segregation. Unlike passing on the same mutation to all offspring, plants distribute inherited damage randomly, with some offspring inheriting more mutations than others. This segregation process, faster in plants than in humans, holds agricultural promise. Understanding how plants handle mutational variations in their DNA could aid crop breeders in introducing beneficial mutations for enhanced yield. The study’s findings advance knowledge crucial for crop breeding and yield enhancement.
New research could help breed plants that are more productive as days grow shorter. The research found that when days are shorter, plants have less time to photosynthesize, so they need to be more efficient with the sunlight they do receive. Plants store more sugar as starch during the day so that they have energy to use during the longer night. These findings could help to develop new crop varieties that can grow in a wider range of climates.
Sphagnum divinum, a resilient type of peat moss, is actively evolving in response to hot, dry conditions, defying climate threats. Researchers developed a database with S. divinum’s proteins and a method to determine their functions, shedding light on its adaptive mechanisms. As environmental stressors deplete peatland carbon reserves, understanding genetic resilience becomes crucial. Using high-performance computing and AI, the team predicted structures for S. divinum’s 25,134 proteins, revealing insights into their functions. The findings advance climate resilience understanding and support future research on Sphagnum moss compounds.
