plant sciences
China’s Father Of Hybrid Rice, Yuan Longping, Passes At 90 (In Memoriam)
Yuan Longping’s seminal work on cultivating hybrid rice varieties helped feed millions in China and around the world.
Scientists Can Now Edit Mitochondrial DNA In Plants
Researchers in Japan have devised a tool to edit plant mitochondrial DNA and develop new strains of crop plants.
Scientists Discover New Shrub Species In Myanmar
The flowers of the Agapetes reflexiloba have a distinctive striped pattern and bloom in December.
Getting To The Root Of Water Flow In Plants
An international team of researchers has discovered how a single plant peptide hormone controls the development of two different cell types central to water flow through plants.
Why Refrigerated Bananas Smell Different
A research group in China has identified two transcription factors involved in odorous compound synthesis that are downregulated in refrigerated bananas.
A Peptide That Helps Plants Deal With Salt Stress
A research group in Japan has discovered a peptide that helps increase salt tolerance in plants.
How Plants Brace Themselves Against Infection
Scientists have discovered that plants create a special brace to ensure accurate detachment of flowers and leaves, covering the ‘wound’ left behind with cutin.
Genetic Insights Boost Malaria Drug Yield
Genetic engineering has helped researchers in China increase the levels of artemisinin in the leaves of the sweet wormwood plant.
Plants And Animals Fix DNA Differently
Unlike animals, the mechanism of DNA repair in plants is skewed towards homologous recombination and involved in their immune response to fungal infections.
Plants Conquered Land 500 Million Years Ago
Scientists in China and the UK have used fossil evidence and genomic data to demonstrate that land plants first appeared about 500 million years ago.
