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Plant Biology

showing 11-15 of 54 breaks

The flesh-eating Venus flytrap plant generates its own magnetic fields

In recent decades, more and more techniques from physics have been applied to biological systems, often with far-reaching consequences. For example, noninvasive techniques like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are now commonly used to study or diagnose the human brain and body. The successful transfer of... click to read more

  • Anne Fabricant | PhD student at Helmholtz Institute Mainz, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germany
  • Sönke Scherzer | Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Department of Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
  • Dmitry Budker | Professor at Helmholtz Institute Mainz; Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany; University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Views 2706
Reading time 4 min
published on Oct 19, 2022
Figuring out the evolved chemistry of fig trees

Furanocoumarins are small organic molecules produced by plants and known to play defense roles against pathogens and herbivores. Interestingly, some of them are also potential treatments for cancer or vitiligo. These compounds are found in specific but surprisingly distantly related plant families, such as in... click to read more

Views 3420
Reading time 3.5 min
published on May 20, 2022
The seed’s hidden defense arsenal: using bacteria to defend against disease

Stable cereal production plays an important role in maintaining a food supply for the world’s growing population. However, seed-borne bacterial diseases can limit crop production and quality. This has been aggravated in recent decades by changes in both the global climate and modern farming techniques.... click to read more

  • Haruna Matsumoto | PhD Student at Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Pesticide and Environmental Toxicology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
  • Tomislav Cernava | Professor at Institute of Environmental Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
  • Mengcen Wang | Principal Investigator at Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Pesticide and Environmental Toxicology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Views 4456
Reading time 3 min
published on Feb 10, 2022
Can forests survive climate change?

Many forests across the globe are experiencing tree mortality episodes as a consequence of long, intense drought periods, likely associated to anthropogenic – human-caused, as opposed to natural – climate change. To date, most research has focused on plant mortality processes during drought, and the... click to read more

  • Enric Batllori | Serra Húnter Fellow, Lecturer at Unitat de Botànica i Micologia, Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Universitat de Barcelona; Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF), Barcelona, Spain
  • Francisco Lloret | Professor at Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF); Unitat d’Ecologia, Departament de Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal i Ecologia, Universitat Autònoma Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Views 3210
Reading time 4 min
published on Jan 21, 2022
How roots help us fight against hard soils

Soil is a vital commodity for food security - more than 95% of global food production depends on soil. Modern intensive farming practices help us to meet the growing demand for food today. On the downside, they often compromise the health of agricultural soils. Increasingly heavy... click to read more

  • Bipin K. Pandey | BBSRC Discovery Fellow at Future Food Beacon and School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
  • Malcolm J. Bennett | Professor at Future Food Beacon and School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, UK
Views 5924
Reading time 3 min
published on Oct 8, 2021