New research from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has found that a plant’s natural ability to store seeds in soil, a method for preserving seeds in unfavourable conditions, is not as useful as once thought.
Aloe vera is a well-known plant species from the genus Aloe used throughout the globe in wide range of products from creams and soaps to drinks and over-the-counter products. The genus Aloe has been used in traditional medicine for centuries, and approximately 20% of the species are used locally in the regions they grow.
Rice (Oryza sativa L) is the world’s most widely used cereal for human consumption and the second most produced in the world after maize. However, rice production is seriously threatened by rice blast, a fungal disease that has been reported in more than 80 countries on all continents, including the growing areas of almost all rice-producing regions in Spain (Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalonia, Valencia, etc.).
Governments are not using the latest mapping technology to report key environmental data about tropical forests to the UN, say researchers.
Tree roots commonly associate with fungi to exchange nutrients and improve their adaptation to changes in their environment. However, the biological processes at work in this mutually beneficial relationship (namely ectomycorrhizae) have not yet been fully explored. Now, researcher have demonstrated for the first time that the establishment of the symbiotic relationship between the model tree poplar and an ectomycorrhizal fungus is controlled by epigenetics.
Can the deathbed rally of a few dying cells save the rest of the body? New evidence from plants. The “deathbed rally,” the “last hurrah” — it’s not unheard of for living things to mysteriously perk up in the moments before death. It turns out that plants do it too, at least at the cellular level.
Researchers ahave recently discovered a new species of Fabaceae. The new species was named Astragalus bashanense.
The tropics hold most of the planet’s biodiversity. In order to preserve this fragile and valuable asset, many individuals and communities need to get involved and be well informed. However, tropical ecology and conservation sciences are still often affected by colonialistic and discriminatory practices, which can hamper nature conservation success. An international research team from leading universities in tropical research has now proposed how researchers from the Global South, which consists of nations historically damaged by colonialism, could better promote solutions for a sustainable development.
Most people own houseplants and eagerly grow them on windowsills and shelves only to be disappointed when they wilt or die – new research has shown that the problem could be that we’re feeding them all wrong and we need to pay attention to the roots outside the soil.
High-order chromatin structure is a prerequisite for the function of cis-regulatory elements in the genome, which plays an important role in gene regulation. In eukaryotes, the organization of three-dimensional (3D) genome presents a hierarchical pattern, where chromatin can be divided into different structural domains, such as chromosome territory, A/B compartment, topologically associated domain (TAD) and chromatin loop.
