Cells, Genes & Molecules
Cold stress tolerance genes of the wild cotton species Gossypium thurberi
Low temperatures at the start of the growing season can impair the productivity of crop species. Chilling (0 – 20°C) and freezing (< 0°C) both
Cells, Genes & Molecules
Wild tomatoes have the genes to partner with fungi
Foraging for nutrients is easier when something else does it for you, but how can tomatoes better attract a partner?
Close Encounters
Wild relatives of beans retain useful drought resistance
A new study of wild crop relatives of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) finds they retain useful adaptations to drought stress.
Taxonomy & Evolution
Identifying the biodiversity of the Mayan underworld
In the caves of Quintana Roo, there are not only stalactites hanging from the ceiling. There are tree roots too, but the roots of which trees?
Cells, Genes & Molecules
Root growth and plant height connected to an auxin-related gene
What makes a plant tall? Scientists think it may be connected to a gene involved in responding to the hormone Auxin.
Growth & Development
Stem and leaf growth rates define the leaf size vs. number trade-off
In trees, the trade-off between leaf number and individual leaf size on current year shoots (twigs) is crucial to light interception. This relationship has consequences
Growth & Development
The bzh root system reacts highly economically when N is scarce
In oilseed rape (Brassica napus) bzh dwarf plants have improved nitrogen (N) uptake, N-utilization and N-use efficiency compared to normal types. Is this due to their shoots, or do roots play a role?
Ecosystems
Drought tolerance strategies of conifer species in the northwestern US
As trees photosynthesize, using carbon from the atmosphere to grow and store energy, they also lose water to the air (transpire). During a drought, continuing to
Cells, Genes & Molecules
How important is meat to a curious carnivorous plant?
Drosophyllum lusitanicum, also known as the Portuguese sundew or dewy pine, is unusual even for carnivorous plants in that it lives in dry environments. Typically, carnivorous plants live in nutrient-poor wetlands, so does it really gain much from carnivory?
Taxonomy & Evolution
The future will be short
…as in not tall, rather than apocalyptic.
Cells, Genes & Molecules
A new molecular mechanism reveals how plants keep their cool
How do plants adjust their body plan to cope with high-temperature stress?
Growth & Development
Ovule and seed production patterns in relation to flower size and floral symmetry
Animal pollinated flowers show two types of floral symmetry, actinomorphy (radial symmetry) with several planes of symmetry or zygomorphy (bilateral symmetry) with just one symmetry plane.