roots

The secret to longevity in tubeworms

...es et al. to propose that L. luymesi also uses its roots to release sulfate back to the microbial consortia...sed return of sulfate to the sediments through the roots is only a hypothesis--albeit one with much to support it--that still awaits direct confirmation. By ...

Poplar trees redirect resources in response to simulated attack

...radiolabeled sugar and delivered more of it to the roots than plants untreated with the hormone. "This is p...ck, it partitions more of its carbohydrates to the roots for storage. ...

World's largest rainforest drying experiment completes first phase

...se? Have the vessels that conduct water from their roots to their leaves become clogged with water vapor bubbles, restricting their growth for years to come? These are just some of the questions that will be explored during the final two years of this experiment. Collaborating organizations in this effort...

World-first Living Donor Islet Cell Transplant A Success; Procedure Offers Promise For Diabetics

...in Japan, and living donation has very established roots in liver and kidney transplantation there. "Living donor islet transplants could allow many more desperate patients with type 1 diabetes to get successful islet transplants," says Dr. Shapiro. "The donor operation is relatively safe, but is not enti...

To control germs, scientists deploy tiny agents provocateurs

...d beneficial. In one role, biofilms can coat plant roots and symbiotically aid ecological processes such as nitrogen fixation. But at the darker end of the scale, biofilms can form infection-inducing layers on implanted medical devices and cause deadly lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients. Biofilms ...

At long last, scientists figure out how plants grow

...ses. For example, they are the hormones that cause roots to grow downward and flowers to track the moving sun. Auxins also stop the growth of lateral branches. Since auxins are produced in shoot tips, lopping off the tip can cause numerous side shoots to appear, giving a plant a denser, more sculpted look....

Roots Engage in Underground Chemical Warfare

...ng physical support and taking in nutrients, plant roots secrete a wide variety of compounds that affect ot...the journal Nature. The exudates from Arabidopsis roots kill a wide range of bacteria, confirming that roots are not always vulnerable, anchored targets. Th...

Genome study of beneficial microbe may help boost plant health

...Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf-5, naturally safeguards roots and seeds from infection by harmful microbes that cause plant diseases. The genome paper will be published in Nature Biotechnology and was scheduled to be posted online on June 26. "The genome sequence has helped us identify new chemical pathways th...

Scientists find microRNAs regulate plant development

...d that the ago1 mutant failed to form adventitious roots - a type of root that develops from aerial parts o...rmal Arabidopsis plants form multiple adventitious roots on the hypocotyl (stem just above the root) when treated with auxin but the ago1 mutants do not. Dr....

Woods Hole Research Center plans controlled burn in Amazon rainforest

...ermanently cutting off the flow of sap between the roots and the leaves. While most trees in this ecosystem...ee how those trees that have resprouted from their roots will fare in this second fire, as their profusions of dense, green, living branches are very close t...

Plant pathologists evaluate eco-friendly alternatives to methyl bromide

...h are beneficial soil bacteria that colonize plant roots and protect against disease. "An integrated approach that utilizes biologically-based pest management tactics, such as PGPRs, soil solarization, and biological control agents combined with crop rotations and cover crops will be a necessity in the fu...

The roots of civilization trace back to ... roots

...presence of fleshy underground storage organs like roots and tubers must have sustained our ancestors who l...the Journal of Human Evolution. "You can think of roots as a kind of 'conveyor belt' ... they were somewhat available in the forest, but abundant on the sav...

“Hitchhiking?Viruses as Cancer Drug Delivery System

...presence of fleshy underground storage organs like roots and tubers must have sustained our ancestors who l...the Journal of Human Evolution. "You can think of roots as a kind of 'conveyor belt' ... they were somewhat available in the forest, but abundant on the sav...

Plants discriminate between self and non self

...mine who is a competitor when competing with other roots for limited resources," says Dr. Omer Falik, postd...searcher in plant ecology. "There is no reason for roots to fight if they belong to the same plant." The question was, do plants recognize their own roots a...

Prozac for future Plants on Mars

...mine who is a competitor when competing with other roots for limited resources," says Dr. Omer Falik, postd...searcher in plant ecology. "There is no reason for roots to fight if they belong to the same plant." The question was, do plants recognize their own roots a...

Techniques available to detect soil that inhibits destructive soybean pest

...rt, hypodermic needle-like mouth to pierce soybean roots and suck out the nutrients. As the adult female ag...ptoms of soybean cyst nematode damage, so soil and roots must be tested to reveal or confirm the pests' presence. Infestation gradually causes progressively ...

Research team receives $7.5 million to study cassava

...to grow in drought conditions. Fully grown cassava roots can stay in the ground for up to two years and needs relatively little water to survive. The roots are a key source of carbohydrates for subsistence farmers in Africa . The researchers will work on ...

Plant genes identified that can form basis for crops better adapted to environmental conditions

...tly which genes are involved in the development of roots was still a mystery. Scientists from the Flanders ...nd further development. The formation of capillary roots is vital to the root system and determines how much water and minerals a plant can absorb. As early ...

Protein behind autumn color splendor identified

...amino acids are stored in the trunk, branches, and roots until next year, when they are used as building blocks for new leaves. Other proteins, so-called proteases, have the task of degrading these proteins, and there is extensive research under way in this field. For example, the 2004 Nobel Prize went to ...

Brains response to visual stimuli helps us to focus on what we should see, rather than all there is to see

...of this complex design might, one day, uncover the roots of such neurological diseases as schizophrenia. "We know already that schizophrenia is a problem with organization of inhibitory circuits of neurons, and now we are uncovering how these specialized nerve cells work together and with other neurons," ...

Creeping crinoids! Sea lilies crawl to escape predators, new video shows

... stalk ends. He also hopes to learn more about the roots of the relationship between crinoids and their predators. "We think that perhaps the interaction between these slow-moving, bottom-dwelling predators and crinoids is a long one," he said, "and that it may have been connected in some way to pushing c...

U. of Colorado researcher identifies tracks of swimming dinosaur in Wyoming

... stalk ends. He also hopes to learn more about the roots of the relationship between crinoids and their predators. "We think that perhaps the interaction between these slow-moving, bottom-dwelling predators and crinoids is a long one," he said, "and that it may have been connected in some way to pushing c...

NJIT study shows nanoparticles could damage plant life

...s of alumina (aluminum oxide) slowed the growth of roots in five species of plants -- corn, cucumber, cabbage, carrot and soybean. Alumina nanoparticles are commonly used in scratch-resistant transparent coatings, sunscreen lotions that provide transparent-UV protection and environmental catalysts that red...

Storing carbon to combat global warming may cause other environmental problems, study suggests

...more moisture into a region's atmosphere, as trees roots removed water from the soils and discharged some portions as water vapor emanating through leaf pores. To predict whether this increased moisture might boost rainfall to counter tree water withdrawals, co-authors Bruce McCarl of Texas A&M Unive...

Bugs expose underground carbon traffic system 10 times more important than fossil fuel burning

... - arbulscar mycorrhizal (AM) fungi - found on the roots of 80% of all land plants had any role in the movement of atmospheric carbon to soil (fixed by plants in the form of CO2). AM fungi produce filaments that spread widely throughout the soil (sometimes referred to as the mycorrhizosphere) and they are ...

Anyway you slice it, tomatoes cut through drought with new gene

New tomato research has its roots in yielding more food to feed more people, accordi...stronger, larger root systems and that resulted in roots making better use of limited water, said Hirschi, a researcher at Texas A&M University's Vegetab...

GROWing the next generation of water recycling plants

... Trickling through the GROW framework, the plants' roots naturally take up the dissolved pollutants, leavin...e. One of the most successful is water mint, whose roots have disinfectant qualities," says Professor David Butler, who oversees the project at Imperial Coll...

Plants, too, have ways to manage freeloaders

...roots, UC Berkeley researchers have shown that the roots respond differently to bacteria that efficiently p...s legumes such as the lupine sprout, they send out roots that encounter nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil. The bacteria infect the roots and stimulate the...

Invasive species harms native hardwoods by killing soil fungus

...These fungi have long filaments that penetrate the roots of plants, forming an intricate interwoven network that effectively extends the plant's root system. AMF depend on plants for energy and plants depend on the fungi for nutrients. When tree seedlings, which depend strongly on AMF, began to decline in ...

CU, USDA team to curb two invasive, poisonous vines

...il fungi that help provide more nutrients to plant roots -- differ in species and abundance in areas surrounding swallow-worts. "It could be that swallow-worts release chemicals that make an optimal environment for certain mycorrhizal fungi," said DiTommaso. Through the altered soil, or possibly because ...

Amazon rainforest greens up in the dry season

...nd environmental science. Huete suggests the deep roots of trees in the undisturbed forest can reach water even in the dry season, allowing the trees to flourish during the sunnier, drier part of the year. In contrast, plants in areas that have been logged or converted to other uses cannot reach deep wate...

Alternatives to the use of nitrate as a fertiliser

...ter regulation of the absorption of ammonia at the roots and control of the ammonium levels, above all in t...n metabolic modifications, these take place in the roots in the case of the pea and in the leaves in the case of spinach. Moreover, in the roots of the pea, ...

Basic research leads to a novel cancer therapy

...991. SUGEN is the first biotechnology company with roots in the Max Planck Society. The firm developed chemical substances which block Flk-1/VEGFR2 in endothelial cells. At the end of the 1990s SUGEN was taken over by Pharmacia, which itself was bought by Pfizer in 2003. Development of the project continue...

Deep-rooted plants have much greater impact on climate than experts thought

...rees use water in a much more complex way: The tap roots transfer rainwater from the surface to reservoirs ...wise would be limited. "This shifting of water by roots has a physiological effect on the plants, letting them pull more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere ...

Two NIH initiatives launch intensive efforts to find roots of common diseases

...ate genome association studies to find the genetic roots of widespread sicknesses. The genetic analysis component of the two initiatives is highly complementary.Genes and Environment Initiative HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced on Monday that the President's budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2007 in...

Researchers discover way to transport environmental arsenic to plant leaves in new clean-up strategy

...enic sequestered from soil remained largely in the roots of the plant, making it difficult to harvest for s...her, has discovered a way to move the arsenic from roots to shoots. The payoff could be a new and effective tool in cleaning up thousands of sites where arse...

Plants used to detect gas leaks, from outer space!

...g potential about 8 times that of CO2. When plant roots are starved of oxygen the stress caused to the pla...ng a gas leak the escaping methane means the plant roots cannot get enough oxygen and so aerial parts of the plant appear stressed in satellite images detect...

The critical importance of mangroves to ocean life

...ee reports that mangrove plants, whose finger-like roots are known to protect coastal wetlands against the ocean and as important fish habitats, cover less than 0.1 percent of the global land surface yet account for a tenth of the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) that flows from land to the ocean. Dittmar an...

Traditional Chinese medicine for diabetes has scientific backing

...aluable new treatment. Berberine is found in the roots and bark of a number of plants used for medicinal purposes including woundhealing and treatment of diarrhoea. It has also been documented in Chinese literature as having a glucose lowering effect when administered to people with diabetes; yet, until ...

Ultrasound may help regrow teeth

...PUS power is reaching the target area of the teeth roots within the bone. TEC Edmonton, the U of A's exclusive tech transfer service provider, filed the first patent recently in the U.S. Currently, the research team is finishing the system-on-a-chip and hopes to complete the miniaturized device by next yea...

UF scientists discover evolutionary origin of fins, limbs

...s us our own arms and legs have their evolutionary roots in the dorsal, caudal and anal fins of our fishy ancestors." Many of these genetic mechanisms are involved in human birth defects, which provide insight into the evolutionary history of genes and their functions. "Knowing that many of these genes...

Super-sized cassava plants may help fight hunger in Africa

...tudy, genetically modified cassava plants produced roots that were more than two-and-a-half times the size ...plants, which were grown in a greenhouse, produced roots that were an average of 2.6 times larger than those produced by regular cassava plants. "Not only d...

Genetic snooze button governs timing of spring flowers

... rapidly dividing cells differentiate into shoots, roots and flowers - is rendered competent to flower. In a series of studies of Arabidopsis, a small mustard plant commonly used to study plant genetics, Amasino and his colleagues have found there are certain critical genes that repress flowering. "The...

Loosen up, DNA: Leukemia gene changes genetic packaging

...AK/STAT focused on complex questions involving the roots of cancer, the answers the researchers got came very simply and clearly ?in red and white. By looking at the eye color of a variety of mutant flies, the team at the University of Rochester Medical Center made a surprising finding about a known cancer...

New method confirms importance of fungi in Arctic nitrogen cycle

...g light on how fungi living symbiotically on plant roots transfer vital nutrients to their hosts. The analy...corrhizal fungi (those living symbiotically on the roots of plants) transfer nutrients to their host plants in exchange for plant sugars derived from photosy...

Acid rain causing decline in sugar maples, say researchers

...il fungi that help provide more nutrients to plant roots -- were substantially greater around the roots of both seedlings and mature sugar maples in the treated plot. Future research will explore the rela...

Gene therapy prevents the onset of diabetic symptoms in mice

...il fungi that help provide more nutrients to plant roots -- were substantially greater around the roots of both seedlings and mature sugar maples in the treated plot. Future research will explore the rela...

Tamed 11,400 years ago, figs were likely first domesticated crop

...d: A piece of stem stuck in the ground will sprout roots and grow into a plant. No grafting or seeds are necessary. Bar-Yosef, Kislev, and Hartmann suggest that this ease of planting, along with improved taste resulting from minor mutations, may explain why figs were domesticated some five millennia before...

Parasitic plants sniff out hosts

...our inches before they die. "These plants have no roots and barely have leaves and the flowers are very tiny," says Mark C. Mescher, assistant professor of entomology. First the researchers placed dodder seedlings in a water vial at the center of a filter paper disk. A tomato plant was placed near the ...

UGA scientists engineer root-knot nematode resistance

...and by feeding on the roots' cells, they cause the roots to grow large galls, or knots, damaging the crop and reducing its yields. Working with assistant research scientist Guozhong Huang and research technician Rex Allen, Hussey discovered how to make plants resistant to root-knot nematode infection. Er...

International team analyzes human genetic variation in key immune region

...for future efforts aimed at uncovering the genetic roots of immune-related diseases. The findings of this international team, which includes scientists from the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI), the Université de Montréal (UdeM), the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and several other research institutions,...

Circadian gene helps the brain predict mealtime

...rapies for counteracting disorders that have their roots in a disturbed circadian system, such as sleep problems, eating disorders, obesity, and depression. ...

History-hunting geneticists can still follow familiar trail

... of well-publicized efforts to track the ancestral roots of Oprah Winfrey and other personalities. Located within the hundreds of energy-producing mitochondria that lie outside the nucleus of our cells, mtDNA is unlike the DNA inside the nucleus of a cell that contains genes from both of our parents -- ...

Otherworldly bacteria discovered two miles down

...emoautotrophs"--a word chained together from Greek roots meaning "chemical self-nourishment"--have been found in exotic places such as aquifers, petroleum reservoirs, and vents linked to deep-sea volcanoes. Yet these communities all depend at least in part on nutrients that can be traced back to photosynth...

New dyslexia theory blames 'noise'

...he deficit in noise exclusion may have biochemical roots in abnormal levels of GABA, a neurotransmitter that helps the brain to filter out irrelevant information. "This may become interesting for drug development," said Lu, who is testing this hypothesis with functional magnetic resonance imaging trial...

The first tree genome is published: Poplar holds promise as renewable bioenergy resource

...huttle and store more carbon below ground in their roots and the soil. Moreover, bioenergy crops re-absorb carbon dioxide emitted when biofuels are consumed, creating a cycle that is essentially carbon neutral." Poplar's extraordinarily rapid growth, and its relatively compact genome size of 480 million n...

Regulating the nuclear architecture of the cell

... question. Even epigenetics ultimately has its roots in the genes; the researchers' first step was to identify which genes affect organization of the heterochromatin, then to identify the proteins expressed by these genes, and finally to learn how they act on the chromosomal material. Steps along t...

A buffet for early human relatives

...include potato-like tubers, grasses, and seeds and roots from grasses. If the early hominids ate meat from ...ly found on the African savanna, such as seeds and roots from grasses, and grass-like plants called sedges, which include tubers. They also may have eaten an...

Scientists show drug can counteract muscular dystrophy in mice

...rugs can be tested in people. The finding has its roots in several of the group's earlier advances, the first of which was reported in 2002 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . The scientists found that treating muscle cells with deacetylase inhibitors caused the cells to grow larger a...

New brain-chemistry differences found in depressed women

...tudy adds further evidence that depression has its roots in specific alterations within the brain -- specifically in the endogenous opioid system that is a central part of the brain's natural pain and stress-reduction system. The findings also show significant variation between individuals with depression ...