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Why roots don’t grow in the shade

By | News, Plant Science

Plants need sunlight to survive. Researchers have discovered that when plants are grown in the shade, they turn on hundreds of stress-related genes. The researchers found that a specific group of proteins called WRKYs are responsible for stunting root growth so the plant can focus on growing taller. They hope that their findings will help other researchers design plants that can still thrive without sunlight, which may help farmers grow more crops in denser fields.

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The introduction of perennial plants among rainfed almond trees helps to mitigate climate change

By | Agriculture, News

The potential of intercropping with perennial plants in woody systems to mitigate climate change through soil carbon sequestration could increase in the long term, once the new crops are fully developed and stabilised. The ongoing nature of the research would enable to confirm if this type of diversification would be a long-term solution to convert these systems into carbon sinks, thereby contributing to mitigating climate change.

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Fleshy Fruits Are More Common in Tropics: Phylogenic Analysis

By | Fruits and Vegetables, News, Plant Science

Fruits can be dichotomously classified as fleshy or dry. Although many factors have been proposed to explain the pattern that the fleshy-fruited species occur with deceasing latitude and altitude, the relative importance of these factors has not yet been resolved. Researchers have investigated in a recent study factors affecting fruit type (fleshy vs. dry): plant growth form, environmental constraints (summarized by climate region), and phylogenetic conservatism. 

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“Ray guns” let scientists use light instead of DNA to tell plant populations apart

By | News, Plant Science

Researchers have used a handheld device that looks a little like a ray gun to record how plant leaves on different Alaskan mountains reflect light. And, it turns out, different populations of plants of the same species—for instance, plants living on neighboring mountaintops—reflect light differently, in ways that echo their genetic variation from each other.

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