A multidisciplinary approach has enabled researchers to quantitatively define the relative positioning and arrangement of the polymers in Populus wood and to create a computer model that details the findings. The research into solving this macromolecular puzzle may hold the key to efficiently disentangle and deconstruct biomass for conversion to fuels, chemicals, and materials.
Desiccation is typically fatal for plant vegetative tissues, but a small number of land plants have evolved vegetative desiccation tolerance (VDT), allowing them to dry without dying through a process called anhydrobiosis. Recently, a research group established a genome database, “Drying without Dying,” for desiccation-tolerant plants.
Barley seedlings grow on average 50% more when their root system is stimulated electrically through a new cultivation substrate. In a study researchers have developed an electrically conductive “soil” for soilless cultivation, known as hydroponics.
Plants have evolved fiendishly complicated metabolic networks. For years, scientists focused on how plants make secondary metabolites, the compounds that plants produce to enhance their defense and survival mechanisms.
Part of modern cancer therapy is the use of chemicals that kill the tumor. Unfortunately, these chemicals are often very complex, difficult to obtain and thus expensive. Researchers have unravelled the biosynthetic pathway of paclitaxel in Yew plants. This discovery might facilitate the production of this very complex molecule which is currently produced with great efforts and high costs.
Rice, vital for global food security, faces production challenges during the heading-flowering stage. Traditional phenotyping struggles for large-scale analysis, prompting a shift to advanced computer vision and deep learning. While methods like SIFT and neural networks enhance rice panicle analysis, capturing dynamic growth necessitates merging field cameras with deep learning for precise, real-time monitoring.
In a study conducted over five years from 2018, scientists discovered that a well-known protective hormone typically released by plants above ground during periods of stress – a volatile organic compound (VOC) known as methyl jasmonate (MeJA) – possessed a hitherto unknown function. They found that MeJa served as a shared language that allows the plant to communicate with the surrounding layers of microorganisms embedded in the soil.
Aquaporins, which move water through membranes of plant cells, were not thought to be able to permeate sugar molecules, but researchers have observed sucrose transport in plant aquaporins for the first time, challenging this theory.
Iron is an essential micronutrient for plants and is generally found in large quantities in the Earth’s crust. However, its availability to plants is highly dependent on the pH value of the soil. When suffering from iron deficiency, certain plant species release coumarins. Which type of these small secondary metabolites is mainly released depends on the pH value of the soil. Now, a research team has shown how different coumarins are used to maximize iron uptake under acidic and alkaline conditions.
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.
