Tag: "plants" at biology news

One species, many genomes

...week’s edition of Science magazine. Arabidopsis plants from different geographical origins differ in many.... In contrast to the genome of humans or many crop plants such as corn, that of Arabidopsis is very much streamlined, and its size is less than a twentieth of...

Research identifies protein that signals flowering in squash plants

...of flowering in many plant species. Short day (SD) plants require a short day length (or more precisely, a long night) in order to flower. These are plants that flower as the days grow shorter, such as in the fall in temperate regions. Long day (LD) plants...

Cells re-energize to come back from the brink of death

...Mitochondria are tiny structures that act as power plants to supply the cell with energy, but also hold the keys to the cells’ life and death. The process by which the membranes develop holes—mitochondrial outer membrane permeability (MOMP)—is often the “point of no return” for self-destruction, said ...

Soils offer new hope as carbon sink

...hoping the technology will take hold and pyrolysis plants will be built where there is a steady stream of gr...ative," Dr Van Zwieten said. "But until pyrolysis plants are up and running, the availability of agrichar for farmers will be scarce."...

A new plant-bacterial symbiotic mechanism promising for crop applications

The growth of most plants depends on the presence of sufficient amounts of n...ese interactions improve crop yields of leguminous plants that are crucial for human diet (soybean, peas, ground nuts and so on…) and as animal feed (alfalf...

Envisat captures first image of Sargassum from space

...hlorophyll is the green photosynthetic compound in plants that captures energy from sunlight necessary for photosynthesis. The amount of chlorophyll present in vegetation plays an important role in determining how healthy it is. Accurately monitoring chlorophyll from space, therefore, provides a valuable to...

Pesticides choke pathway for nature to produce nitrogen for crops

...own after legume rotations. __IMAGE_2 Legume plants secrete chemical signals that recruit the friendly bacteria, which work with the plants to convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia that, then, is used as fertilizer by the plants. "Ag...

Caribbean frogs started with a single, ancient voyage on a raft from South America

..., can be more than a mile across and could include plants that trap fresh water and insect food for frogs," Hedges said. It is not likely that the frog species dispersed simply by swimming because frogs dry easily and are not very tolerant of salt water. In addition to the study's discoveries about Cari...

Columbine flowers develop long nectar spurs in response to pollinators

... spurs in flowers, said Hodges. "In Darwin's race, plants with the longest spurs and pollinators with the lo...ts in a more one-sided fashion in many plants: the plants evolve nectar spurs to match the tongue-lengths of the pollinators. Then the process stops, and only...

New study finds genetically engineered crops could play a role in sustainable agriculture

...ents all over the world, involving corn and cotton plants with a Bt gene inserted for its insecticidal prope...hat reveal the actual effects genetically modified plants have on other non-modified species. In an analysis of 42 field experiments, scientists found that t...

Researchers examine carbon capture and storage to combat global warming

...ry facilities that burn fossil fuels-such as power plants or cement factories-would be candidates for the te... would be more difficult, Orr said. But with power plants comprising 40 percent of the world's fossil fuel-derived carbon emissions, he added, the potential f...

Plants recognize their siblings, biologists discover

...Researchers at McMaster University have found that plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share thei... at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. “When plants share their pots, they get competitive and start growing more roots, which allows them to grab water...

Plastic that grows on trees

... effective method yet to convert glucose, found in plants worldwide and nature’s most abundant sugar, to HFM, a chemical that can be broken into components for products now made from petroleum. It has been an elusive goal for the legion of chemists trying to pull it off: Replace crude oil as the root sourc...

Potato wart eyed as risk to potato production

...s is restricted. Spores released from infected plants can make soil unsuitable for potato production for decades. The long-term survival of fungal spores and the lack of suitable chemical controls for potato wart suppression make this disease especially problematic for any type of cultivated potato prod...

Researchers demonstrate way to control tree height

...re inhibited, the cells do not fully elongate, and plants remain short and stocky. “It’s really interesti...hers said in their report. Dwarf trees and crop plants created with traditional cross-breeding or horticultural techniques are already widely used in fruit...

Weizmann Institute scientists develop a general 'control switch' for protein activity

...ble, for example, to create genetically engineered plants in which the precise timing of fruit ripening would be controlled using a substance that increases the activity of proteins responsible for ripening. Moreover, numerous proteins are used in industrial processes, as biological sensors and in other app...

Endosome-mediated signaling in plants

...e studies aimed at unraveling the mechanics of how plants grow."...

Scientists close in on missing carbon sink

...a much better understanding of how trees and other plants respond to industrial emissions of carbon dioxide,...northern latitudes, especially in the summer, when plants take in more carbon. The aircraft samples show that northern forests absorb only 1.5 billion tons of...

Modified mushrooms may yield human drugs

...mushrooms than conventional technologies. Unlike plants that have long growth cycles, "with mushrooms, we can use commercial technology to convert the vegetative tissue from mushroom strains stored in the freezer into vegetative seed. A crop from which drugs may be extracted could be ready in weeks," Dr. ...

Detecting cold, feeling pain: Study reveals why menthol feels fresh

..., which constitute the pungent ingredients in such plants as wasabi and yellow mustard. In response to high temperatures, the receptor produces pain and irritation. "All of these studies use natural products to understand pain mechanisms in the periphery of the body, where they are first sensed," says Ju...

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