Credit: Michael Sussman, Miyoshi Haruta
A photomicrograph of the elongated root cells of Arabidopsis thaliana, a model plant. A team of Wisconsin scientists led by biochemist Michael Sussman and writing in the journal Science reports the discovery of a signaling pathway that controls the growth of the root cells. The discovery is important because the newfound pathway and others yet to be discovered could have an impact on the plants humans use to produce food, fiber, fuel and medicines.