Feature Channels: Plants

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The importance of the mycorrhizal symbiosis to plant growth has led to a large body of research into their formation and function, yet there are critical unanswered questions. Howard Berg, director of the Imaging and Microscopy Facility at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and his collaborators have discovered a previously unknown compartment within these symbiotic cortical root cells that could be important for nutrient exchange and molecular communication between the symbiotic partners.

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Artificial leaves mimic photosynthesis — the process whereby plants use water and carbon dioxide from the air to produce carbohydrates using energy from the sun. But even state-of-the-art artificial leaves, which hold promise in reducing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, only work in the laboratory because they use pure, pressurized carbon dioxide from tanks.

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Imagine using a robotic arm to grip and puncture the trunk of a citrus tree to deliver chemicals into the vascular parts of the plant, reducing its susceptibility to the citrus greening disease.

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Light pollution affects the skies over most of the world's key wildlife areas, new research shows.

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Nian Wang, a professor of microbiology and cell science with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, will help an investigation in which researchers take the best genes from one plant and transfer them into another. With that combination, Wang and the research team believe they’ll move closer to growers’ goal of citrus that copes better with greening.

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Two groups of sRNAs are abundant during development of pollen in the anthers. One of these pathways for sRNA production, previously believed present in grasses and related monocots, has now been demonstrated to be present widely in the flowering plants, evolved over 200 million years ago, and is arguably one of the evolutionary innovations that made them so successful.

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Gypsum, a source of calcium and sulfur, can benefit crops and soils. When recovered from power plant smokestacks, it brings the additional benefits of recycling.

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Prehistoric peasant farmers struggling to put more food on the table fueled the global spread of some of the world’s first and most important domesticated grain crops beginning as early as 7,000 years ago, according to an international study led by anthropologists at Washington University in St. Louis.

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Citizen scientists can contribute to an effort to enter thousands of preserved organism samples from the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory into an easily searchable database. An ISU scientist overseeing the project said there’s no telling what kind of discoveries may await among the various specimens of plants, insects and animals.

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A team of University of Utah engineers have received a $2.2-million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to design and build small chemical sensors that can “sniff” out when a plant is being attacked by insects or overwhelmed by weeds. The research is to benefit the production of biomass from corn, which is used to create ethanol for gasoline.

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A new study led by Danforth Center principal investigator Nigel Taylor and research scientist Narayanan Narayanan, shows that field-grown cassava plants overexpressing a combination of plant genes can accumulate significantly higher concentrations of iron and zinc.

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“For AB InBev, brewing quality beer starts with the best ingredients. That requires a healthy environment and thriving communities,” said Gary Hanning, Global Director of Barley Research at AB InBev. “Benson Hill’s powerful Breed application positions us at the forefront of innovation to develop more resilient and sustainable varieties of barley for growers and the best quality malt for our brewers.”

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The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and TechAccel are launching RNAissance Ag LLC, a new company that holds the exclusive license to RNA-interference technology developed at the Danforth Center. The new company will use the proprietary technology in the development of sprayable insect control measures.

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A new advanced line of rice, with higher yield, is ready for final field testing prior to release. On average, it has a protein content of 10.6%, a 53% increase from its original protein content. It also needs less heat, time, and usually less water to cook.

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A pioneering study undertaken at the Institute of Evolution has identified a new protein family, which is present in most of the cereal species and is responsible for fighting harmful diseases.

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Hotter temperatures may offset the negative effects of higher carbon dioxide levels on seed quality, according to a two-year soybean field study.

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Some farm fields this time of year look messier than others. The January 22nd Sustainable, Secure Food blog explains what drives a grower’s decision when it comes to managing their fields in the winter.

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How do plants space out their roots? A Japanese research team has identified a peptide and its receptor that help lateral roots to grow with the right spacing. The findings were published on December 20, 2018 in the online edition of Developmental Cell.

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Researchers found an efficient approach to managing nitrogen in agriculture and reducing its environmental impact. It's all about being green.

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For years, University of Florida scientists looked for a few characteristics in a more desirable strawberry. Among those traits was a higher yield in November and December -- the early part of the Florida season when prices are highest. They also sought better fruit for the consumer. That meant a longer shelf life, better flavor, improved shape and other traits, said Vance Whitaker, an associate professor of horticultural sciences at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.

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Winter soil freezes, heaves, and moves! The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) Jan. 15 Soils Matter blog looks at the freeze-thaw cycle, how it changes soil on a microscopic level, and the reaction of Alaska’s unique permafrost soils.

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Arbor Biosciences and the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) announce today a strategic partnership to produce a standardized exome panel for research and development.

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“The goal of AOCC is to improve the productivity and sustainability of highly nutritious crops that are critical to the health and livelihood of African farmers and consumers through the adoption of modern breeding methods,” Howard-Yana Shapiro, Chief Agricultural Officer, Mars, Incorporated.

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Just like land plants, algae use sunlight as an energy source. Many green algae actively move in the water; they can approach the light or move away from it. For this they use special sensors (photoreceptors) with which they perceive light.

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Identified genes involved in plant cell wall polysaccharide production and restructuring could aid in engineering bioenergy crops.

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Benson Hill has more than doubled its employee base since 2017 and continues its growth trajectory with career opportunities across technical, commercial and other functional roles.

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Years of drought have parched California’s vast agricultural lands, prompting farmers to drill deeper and deeper into aquifers to irrigate their fields. But this often means higher water costs for everyone – and inefficient use of a precious resource. Cornell researchers have a solution: Coordinate water use, taking into account all the farms drawing water from a particular aquifer. The approach offers the farms a significant payoff when crop prices are high.

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A confounding new disease is killing beech trees in Ohio and elsewhere, and plant scientists are sounding an alarm while looking for an explanation. In a study published in the journal Forest Pathology, researchers and naturalists from The Ohio State University and metroparks in northeastern Ohio report on the emerging “beech leaf disease” epidemic, calling for speedy work to find a culprit so that work can begin to stop its spread.

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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have discovered how grasses count the short days of winter to prepare for flowering. The new research provides valuable insight into how winter-adapted grasses gain the ability to flower in spring, which could be helpful for improving crops, like winter wheat, that rely on this process.

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University of Adelaide researchers have discovered a new complex carbohydrate in barley. The first of its kind to be discovered in over 30 years, the cereal polysaccharide has potential applications in food, medicine and cosmetics.

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Fresh food is so attractive to astronauts that they toasted with salad when they were able to cultivate a few lettuce heads on the International Space Station three years ago.

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A new study examines how the switch to conservation tillage has impacted a southwestern Ohio lake over the past decades. From 1994 to 2014, an unusually long timespan, the researchers measured concentrations of suspended sediment, nitrogen, and phosphorus in streams draining into Acton Lake.

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See climate research and experts in the Newswise Climate Channel

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The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, in partnership with other local St. Louis business and organizations, hosted a gene editing symposium to explore how cutting-edge gene editing technology will improve human health, grow the food we need with fewer resources, manage environmental changes titled, “Gene Editing: Innovation and Impact in Missouri.”

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Researchers at the University of Washington have genetically modified a common houseplant to remove chloroform and benzene from the air around it.

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Researchers are studying peanut varieties to find a ‘water conservation’ trait. It would help the plant maintain a high yield during a drought.

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Scientists explore how drought-tolerant plants communicate to nearby microorganisms, suggesting ways to engineer more resilient bioenergy crops.

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Scientists have described a fossil plant species that suggests flowers bloomed in the Early Jurassic, more than 174 million years ago, according to new research in the open-access journal eLife.

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This week at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting in Washington, D.C, a team of scientists from The Ohio State University shared early results from a trio of studies that aim to improve models designed to guide agricultural practices for reducing the risk of nitrogen and phosphorous farm runoff. Such runoff leads to the growth of toxic algae in waterways.

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A new Cornell University-led study shows that Midwest agriculture is increasingly vulnerable to climate change because of the region’s reliance on growing rain-fed crops.

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Researchers discover how certain bacteria may safeguard plant growth during a drought, making way for strategies to improve crop productivity.

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The new person will fill a vacancy created by the retirement of internationally recognized professor Ed Gilman. Among his contributions, Gilman conducted considerable research and Extension to help the public protect trees against wind damage.

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Chilling sub-zero temperatures. Astounding snowfalls. The weather outside is frightful. Yet under the snow and frost, life in soils carries on! Soils Matter, Soil Science Society of America’s science-based blog, provides insights to soils in winter and the organisms that live there.

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Among their many accomplishments, one may be best known for trying to grow plants in space; the other, for helping growers battle bacterial spot disease of tomato.

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Two new ESF studies on the environmental impact of transgenic American chestnut trees provide evidence that the trees have no harmful effects on germinating seeds, beneficial fungi, or larval frogs that are dependable indicators of environmental quality.

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Our future on Earth may also be our past. In a study published Monday (Dec. 10, 2018) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers show that humans are reversing a long-term cooling trend tracing back at least 50 million years. And it’s taken just two centuries.

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Plant breeders need to know there’s good genetics in the crops they are developing. The Dec. 7th Sustainable, Secure Food blog explains how crop scientists improve crops using data gathered from both the field and the lab.

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While it’s an important part of our diets, new research shows that rice plants can be used in a different way, too: to clean runoff from farms before it gets into rivers, lakes, and streams.

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A new approach co-developed at The Ohio State University uses data analytics and machine learning to predict the conservation status of more than 150,000 plants worldwide. Results suggest that more than 15,000 species likely qualify as near-threatened, vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.