Feature Channels: Plants

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The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative awarded a two-year grant for Advancing Imaging Through Collaborative Projects to Kirk Czymmek, PhD, director of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center’s Advanced Bioimaging Laboratory, Michele Darrow of Rosalind Franklin Institute, and Paul Verkade of the University of Bristol, along with an international team of eight additional scientists.

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The North American Plant Phenotyping Network (NAPPN), a partner of the International Plant Phenotyping Network (IPPN), will host its annual conference at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center February 13–17.

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Recent experiments have shown that the loss of species from a plant community can reduce ecosystem functions and services such as productivity, carbon storage and soil health.

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It's often assumed that island plant and animal populations are just the simple, fragile cousins of those on the mainland.

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Tropical forests are crucial for sucking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But they’re also subject to intense storms that can cause “windthrow” – the uprooting or breaking of trees. A new study finds that more extreme thunderstorms from climate change will likely cause a greater number of large windthrow events in the Amazon, which could impact the rainforest's ability to serve as a carbon sink.

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RUDN University biologists have discovered a new type of pathogenic fungus that infects potatoes and leads to massive crop loss. Fungi in this genus were previously known to be harmful to potatoes and other plants, but this species was considered harmless.

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Plant biochemists at Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered a new level of regulation in the biochemical “machinery” that plants use to convert organic carbon derived from photosynthesis into a range of ring-shaped aromatic molecules. The research suggests new strategies for controlling plant biochemistry for agricultural and industrial applications.

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Lignin, the complex polymer that gives plants their structural integrity, makes them difficult to break down and creates challenges for the creation of biochemicals and bioproducts. Building blocks that are present in small amounts in the lignin of the bioenergy crop poplar are valuable platform chemicals that are easy to “clip-off” during plant deconstruction. Scientists engineered a new type of poplar to have more of a specific building block in its lignin and less lignin overall. This results in wood that is easier to deconstruct and more valuable as a bioproduct raw material.

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In the Arctic, plant community type strongly impacts how energy is exchanged between the land and atmosphere.

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Despite recent, torrential rains, most of Southern California remains in a drought.

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Josee Guindon, DVM, Ph.D., has been named the 2023 William A Devane Young Investigator Award honoree by the International Cannabinoid Research Society.

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Research shows redwoods have varying sensitivity to drought, and that rising temperatures may affect tree performance in unexpected ways—results that are both concerning and hopeful.

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In many ways, Madagascar is a biologist’s dream, a real-life experiment in how isolation on an island can spark evolution.

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RUDN University agronomists have studied the thermodynamics of hydrogels, which must absorb water from the air and hold it in the ground to prevent evaporation. It turned out that this approach is unlikely to help save agriculture from drought - hydrogels retain water too well and give it poorly.

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A new study identifies the genetic underpinnings for why broccoli heads become abnormal when it’s hot, providing insight into effects of climate-induced warming for all crops and pointing the way for breeding heat-resistant new varieties.

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Despite some hesitation about gene-edited foods, taste trumps everything, according to a Washington State University-led survey of U.S. consumers.