Climate change is causing increased flooding and prolonged waterlogging in northern Europe, but also in many other parts of the world. This can damage meadow grasses, field crops or other plants – their leaves die, the roots rot. he damage is caused by a lack of oxygen and the accumulation of acids. How do plants perceive this over-acidification, how do they react to it?
Almost twenty years ago, the process of RNA silencing was discovered in plants, whereby small fragments of RNA inactivate a portion of a gene during protein synthesis. These fragments–called microRNAs (abbreviated as miRNAs)–have since been shown to be essential at nearly every stage of growth and development in plants, from the production of flowers, stems, and roots to the ways plants interact with their environment and ward off infection.
Scientists have discovered how plants manage to live alongside each other in places that are dark and shady. Moderate shade or even the threat of shade – detected by phytochrome photoreceptors – causes plants to elongate to try to outgrow the competition.
The Musa genus, which includes over 70 species and around 1,000 cultivars of bananas, represents a globally important source of food and livelihoods. MusaNet collects and shares global resources on banana (Musa) across the whole value chain – from collecting germplasm to post-harvest qualities.
As well as bright colours and subtle scents, flowers possess many invisible ways of attracting their pollinators, and a new study shows that bumblebees may use the humidity of a flower to tell them about the presence of nectar, according to recent research.
The first plant embryo gene expression atlas at the single cell level was developed by a team of researchers. The work is a milestone on the way to uncovering the molecular mechanisms that determine how the most fundamental plant cell-types are established at the beginning of life.
Findings reveal how plants use a blend of genes, geography, demography and environmental conditions to evolve defense chemicals over time.
The mystery of the formation of one of the most peculiar plant forms – the Romanesco cauliflower – has been solved by a team of international and multidisciplinar scientists.
Plants are constantly exposed to microbes: pathogens that cause disease, commensals that cause no harm or benefit, and mutualists that promote plant growth or help fend off pathogens. For example, most land plants can form positive relationships with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to improve nutrient uptake. How plants fight off pathogens without also killing beneficial microbes or wasting energy on commensal microbes is a largely unanswered question.
To describe something as slow and boring we say it’s “like watching grass grow”, but scientists studying the early morning activity of plants have found they make a rapid start to their day – within minutes of dawn.
