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How do alien pathogens make inroads into native plant networks?
Plant-pathogen networks tend to be modular, with pathogens specialising on specific hosts. What happens when a pathogen arrives from elsewhere?
News in Brief
Damage above the ground baffles a plant’s roots
It’s common to see pictures of plants as mirror images above and below the ground, but research in AmJBot shows that leaf vein damage harms root foraging.
News in Brief
A rare orchid might not need a rare fungus to germinate
Orchids need fungi to germinate, but do they need to be precisely the right sort of fungi?
annals-of-botany
Does flower height matter to bats?
Is the best way for a plant to attract bats as pollinators to hoist their flowers up high?
News in Brief
Ants use botanical knowledge when foraging
A recently published experiment that ants don’t merely react to plant scents. They learn which scents are associated with food.
News in Brief
The Ribosome can act as a Metabolite Multi-sensor
How can plants react to so many chemicals? Do they need a vast array of sensors? New research says not.
annals-of-botany
A new study reveals how the cuticle protects maize leaves
The cuticle is a waxy covering of a leaf that helps prevent water-loss. A new study of adult maize leaves shows it’s not a simple structure.
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How do stories get chosen for The Week in Botany?
I sometimes get complaints “Why have you shared this instead of that that?”
annals-of-botany
Trees fight infections by building barricades, but how?
Trees fight infections by trapping pathogens in one part of the tree. Hugh Morris and colleagues have been reviewing how trees use secondary metabolites in order to control the process.
annals-of-botany
X-ray CT scanning can boost tree-ring research
A new technique to scan tree rings offers to yield precious new data on past climates.
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Plant Conservation – PPP2019
EDIT: This post was written at the symposium as it happened. It has now been edited to correct some errors made while working rapidly, fix links,
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Plant genomic applications – PPP2019
EDIT: This post was written at the symposium as it happened. It has now been edited to correct some errors made while working rapidly, fix links,