Plant trichomes are highly specialized structures that develop from the epidermal pavement cells of different plant tissues. They are known to defend plants from biotic and abiotic stresses such as water loss, insect-inflicted damage, pathogen attacks, deadly ultraviolet radiation, and leaf temperature reduction. A research team from China recently utilized computer vision, artificial intelligence, and deep learning techniques to develop an automatic algorithm to count and measure maize trichomes.
Botanists and paleontologists have identified a fossil chili pepper that may rewrite the geography and evolutionary timeline of the tomato plant family.
A four-year field experiment conducted on the shores of restored Lake Mustijärv in Viljandi, Estonia, has revealed that recycling phosphorus-rich lake sediments back to agriculture could have positive impacts on crop production.
Researchers have developed an electronic patch that can be applied to the leaves of plants to monitor crops for different pathogens – such as viral and fungal infections – and stresses such as drought or salinity. In testing, the researchers found the patch was able to detect a viral infection in tomatoes more than a week before growers would be able to detect any visible symptoms of disease.
A research group characterizes a new transcription factor that regulates, during the ripening of strawberries, the production of anthocyanins responsible for giving them their red hue.
Genomic surveillance could aid in tracking pathogen evolution and crop resistance, preventing crop failures, suggests a new study.
Now a global study has found mosses are not just good for the garden, but are just as vital for the health of the entire planet when they grow on topsoil. Not only do they lay the foundations for plants to flourish in ecosystems around the world, they may play an important role mitigating against climate change by capturing vast amounts of carbon.
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are toxic compounds generated by living systems through aerobic respiration and photosynthesis. Now, researchers have studied the mechanism to regulate the activity of ROS-producing enzymes and revealed that ROS is involved in the growth of spruce and synthesis of lignin, a key cell wall component. The findings could help develop technologies for producing valuable timber-based materials and boost the growth of coniferous trees.
Researchers got into the forests on the island of Dominica after 9 months of the Category 5 Hurricane Maria and examined the trees closely. They discovered that while 89% of the trees sustained damage — 76% of which had major damage —only 10% were immediately killed. Many of the trees had resprouted.
Did humans favor certain wild plants for domestication because they were more easily “tamed”? New research calls for a reappraisal of the process of plant domestication, based on almost a decade of observations and experiments. The behavior of erect knotweed, a buckwheat relative, has paleoethnobotanists completely reassessing our understanding of plant domestication.