Scientists have sequenced the oldest plant genome using 6,000-year-old seeds from a watermelon relative collected at an archaeological site in the Sahara Desert in Libya.
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Hidden beneath the delicate, red skin and juicy flesh of a tomato is a wealth of nutrients and genetic makeup. With recent research on the first genome of a species in the tomatillo tribe (part of the tomato family), we now have a better idea of how this vital plant family came to be.
After a comprehensive study of plants across the United States, researchers have arrived at the unexpected conclusion that plants able to fix atmospheric nitrogen are most diverse in arid regions of the country. This finding runs counter to the prevailing assumption that nitrogen-fixers should be comparatively most diverse in environments where nitrogen in the soil is in limited supply.
The maximum summer temperature and the amount of rainfall in summer are the two climate factors that determine the type of native grass that grows in a region, Australian researchers have found in a recent study.
Mt. Timolan Protected Landscape is one of the declared protected areas of the Philippines and is characterized by a variety of habitats. The presence of various microhabitats is reflected in the diversity of flora and fauna found there. However, limited information on its flora and fauna is available and biodiversity studies are scarce up until at present.
When we think of plants, the phrase “stressed out” doesn’t typically come to mind. They are, after all, exempt from paying bills and tackling existential questions. However, environmental changes—both living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic)—generate significant stressors for plants. New methods to improve plant tolerance and immunity amid climate change are therefore critical.
Agriculture drives more than 90 percent of tropical deforestation. Halting deforestation will require a step-change in approach and to be effective measures must address underlying and indirect roles of agriculture, says a new study.
Plants lengthen and bend to secure access to sunlight. Despite observing this phenomenon for centuries, scientists do not fully understand it. Now, scientists have discovered that two plant factors — the protein PIF7 and the growth hormone auxin — are the triggers that accelerate growth when plants are shaded by canopy and exposed to warm temperatures at the same time.
Researchers have developed a novel value chain for production of textile and bio-fuel from fast-growing poplars. By applying sustainable catalysis on these poplars grown on marginal land in Nordic climates, the demand for cotton can be reduced. Consequently, considerable areas of productive agricultural land can be converted from cotton to food production.
For years, scientists and online databases presumed the presence of clubroot—one of the main diseases on cruciferous crops (such as broccoli, cabbage, and kale)—in Mexico. However, no evidence to support this supposition existed until a team of researchers donned their detective caps to pinpoint the clubroot pathogen.
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