Delighted to announce the winning Research Topic from the 2021 Global Plant Council Prize: “Systematic Resistance and Defense Priming Against Pathogens”, led by Dr. Nicolás M. Cecchini (CONICET and National University of Córdoba, Argentina) and Dr. Ho Won Jung (Dong-A University, South Korea).
As a part of the global biodiversity hotspots, the Taita Hills forests, located in Taita Taveta County in southeastern Kenya, forms the northernmost tip of the Eastern Arc Mountains. They are highly fragmented forests embedded in a human settlements and farms on the slopes and hilltops, resulting in the loss of 98% of the original forest cover on those mountains. Despite several botanical explorations and extensive floristic studies in these mountainous areas, there is a clear lack of sufficient literature on the flora and vegetation of the area. Through a joint effort, several field expeditions were carried out between 2015 and 2019, with an effort put to expand geographical coverage to areas where plant collections were previously scarce.
New insights into the evolutionary origins of unique African high mountain botanical diversity.
Scientists have discovered a novel biochemical mechanism explaining how immune proteins defend plants against invading microorganisms.
An international team of researchers, has successfully unravelled the genomes of 418 unique samples of rapeseed from across the globe to identify traits that breeders can use to improve crop yield.
Warm temperatures strongly enhance the regeneration of thale cress shoots, plant scientists have found. They have also uncovered the molecular mechanism behind this effect, which will help optimize the regeneration of plant cuttings for both plant-science research and horticulture.
Hybrid agricultural and horticultural crops can play an important role in supporting global food security. They produce higher yields and are often more resistant than non-hybrid varieties to diseases and climate stress. But for many crops, no hybrid varieties are available. Why is that?
What will happen to the world’s forests in a warming world? Will increased atmospheric carbon dioxide help trees grow? Or will extremes in temperature and precipitation hold growth back? That all depends on whether tree growth is more limited by the amount of photosynthesis or by the environmental conditions that affect tree cell growth—a fundamental question in tree biology, and one for which the answer wasn’t well understood, until now.
Recent research opens up the prospect of breeding for aphid resistance by crossing cultivated and wild potatoes.
A new study has discovered the functions of hundreds of genes in algae, some of which are also present in plants. The achievement will help efforts to genetically engineer algae for biofuel production and develop strains of agricultural crops that can withstand climate change.
