Feature Channels: Plants

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A first-ever dataset bridging molecular information about the poplar tree microbiome to ecosystem-level processes has been released by a team of Department of Energy scientists led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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For millions of years, underground fungi have lived in symbiosis with plant roots. Researchers have been able to study both sides of this interaction up close, using RNA sequencing to understand gene expression: one of the first cross-kingdom spatially-resolved transcriptomics studies to date.

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Acidic soil caused by changing climate patterns threatens agriculture sustainability across the globe. But the problem goes far beyond rising temperatures. One major cause for concern is more acidic soil, a product of increasing rainfall.

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Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis), renowned for its nutritional richness and aromatic fruits, is widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions.

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Leaf aging is a complex biological phenomenon influenced by growth stages, plant hormones, and various environmental conditions.

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Chrysanthemum, celebrated for its ornamental, medicinal, and beverage value, faces significant threats from bacterial and fungal infections, particularly black spot disease caused by Alternaria alternate, which leads to severe economic losses.

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Zinnia elegans is an annual herbaceous ornamental flower, widely cultivated in domestic and foreign gardens due to its diversity in flower types, color and landscaping versatility .

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In China, a country hosting over 1,700 of the world’s roughly 30,000 orchid species, the orchid industry has witnessed substantial growth fueled by advancements in science and technology.

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In the field of environmental and climate science, researchers have developed the Comprehensive Mechanistic Light Response (CMLR) gross primary production (GPP) dataset.

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In natural environments, plants encounter biotic and abiotic stresses that can significantly affect their productivity and health.

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Understanding the structure of crop canopies is essential for optimizing crop production as it significantly influences resource utilization efficiency, yield and stress resistance.

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Soybeans, valued for their use as both oilseeds and grains, encounter yield limitations compared to crops like maize and rice, emphasizing the necessity for developing higher-yielding varieties .

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Amidst challenges like a booming global population and diminishing arable land, plant phenotyping offers a way to automate agriculture and improve crop diagnostics.

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Researchers from the University of Arizona and the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy user facility, discovered that that plants can maintain specific microbe partnerships during times of drought, revealing a new level of resilience.

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A recent study has highlighted the insignificant health hazards posed by the emissions from waste-to-energy (WtE) facilities in China's Bohai Rim. This investigation brings to light the negligible impact of WtE plant emissions on public health, grounded in sophisticated regression analysis techniques.

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A Chula researcher has been successful in adding value to agricultural waste generated by industrial factories by transforming cassava waste and sewage sludge into organic fertilizer to replace the use of chemical fertilizers. He has also come up with a special formula of microbial inoculum that increases nutrients needed by plants.

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Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Oklahoma State University have identified key genes and the mechanism by which they control flowering in sorghum, an important bioenergy crop.

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The International Alliance for Phytobiomes Research is pleased to announce that Mosaic Biosciences™ has joined the organization as a sponsoring partner.

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An international collaboration of scientists with the participation of an ecologist from RUDN University conducted the first global analysis of leaf type. In addition, the authors described the current state of forests and said what will happen to them by the end of the century due to climate change.

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An international collaboration of scientists with the participation of a RUDN ecologist has for the first time assessed the natural potential of the world's forests to retain carbon. The results can be called hopeful - those regions where forests can still be restored have great potential and will help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases.

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RUDN engineers found how internal combustion engine performance changes with rapeseed oil instead of regular diesel fuel. This data will help regulate engine operation and, in the future, switch to plant biofuel.

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A greater understanding of how plants and microbes work together to store vast amounts of atmospheric carbon in the soil will help in the design of better bioenergy crops for the fight against climate change. Deciphering the mechanics of this mutually beneficial relationship is, however, challenging as conditions in nature are extremely difficult for scientists to replicate in the laboratory. To address this challenge, researchers created fabricated ecosystems or EcoFABs.

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Imagine: You find the dried-up remains of a once green and lush philodendron on your bookshelf and realize you can’t remember the last time you watered your houseplants.

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Irvine, Calif., Feb. 28, 2024 — In a study recently published in the journal Ecology, University of California, Irvine scientists uncover the intricate dance between drought, wildfires and invasive species in Southern California’s coastal sage scrub ecosystems. Titled “Long-term drought promotes invasive species by reducing wildfire severity,” the research, led by Sarah Kimball, Ph.

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RUDN University ecologists have discovered that eucalyptus leaves can cure apples from fungal diseases. They can be a natural alternative to toxic fungicides.

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RUDN University agronomists have discovered a bacteriophage that destroys bacteria dangerous to cabbage and other plants.

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The critical role of gardeners in identifying 'future invaders' - ornamental plants that could become invasive species – has been revealed by researchers from the University of Reading and the Royal Horticultural Society.

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Imagine if we could inhale scents that delay the onset of cancer, inflammation, or neurodegenerative disease. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, are poised to bring this futuristic technology closer to reality.

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This study uses forest inventory data from over 25,000 plots to show that the prevalence of tree pests is jointly controlled by the diversity and phylogenetic composition of forests.

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The enigmatic Philistine culture, which flourished during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-604 BCE), profoundly affected the southern Levant's cultural history, agronomy, and dietary customs.

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In 1934, American entomologist Elwood Zimmerman, then an undergraduate student at Berkeley, participated in the ‘Mangarevan expedition’ to Polynesia.

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Iron is a micronutrient for plants. Biologists from the Institute of Botany at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) describe in a study, which has now been published in the Journal of Cell Biology, that regulatory proteins for iron uptake behave particularly dynamically in the cell nucleus when the cells are exposed to blue light – an important signal for plant growth.

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Weedy rice is an agricultural pest with a global economic impact. It is an aggressive weed that outcompetes cultivated rice and causes billions of dollars in yield losses worldwide. A study from Washington University in St. Louis offers new insights into genetic changes that give weedy rice its edge over cultivated rice in tropical regions of the world.

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To meet the rising demand for renewable diesel fuel, the U.S. soybean market is rapidly changing. A group of Iowa State University students recently spent a week studying soybean supply chains in person, a trip that stretched from Midwestern processing plants to Pacific Northwest ports.

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In a group of plants that is famous for luring its pollinators into a death trap, one species offers its flowers as a nursery in exchange.

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Lead contaminates fertile soils. RUDN University agronomists have proven that phytohormones mitigate the consequences of soil contamination with lead. These phytohormones are produced by the plants themselves, but additional soil treatment helps to better cope with the toxic effects of the metal.

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You’d think the complex flavor in a quality cup of tea would depend mainly on the tea varieties used to make it.

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From lab-grown chicken to cricket-derived protein, these innovative alternatives offer hope for a planet struggling with the environmental and ethical impacts of industrial agriculture.

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A West Virginia University urban forester is developing a method — with the help of artificial intelligence — to identify trees at risk of falling on power lines and causing blackouts.

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For millions of years, a variety of large herbivores, or megafauna, influenced terrestrial ecosystems.

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Biologists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have demonstrated a new way to boost the oil content of plant leaves and seeds.

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Nitrate radicals (NO3) from air pollution degrade the scent chemicals released by a common wildflower, drastically reducing the scent-based cues that its chief pollinators rely on to locate the flower.

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Tiny external structures in the wax coating of blueberries give them their blue colour, researchers at the University of Bristol can reveal.

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In a changing climate, corn growers need to be ready for anything, including new and shifting disease dynamics. Because it’s impossible to predict which damaging disease will pop up in a given year, corn with resistance to multiple diseases would be a huge win for growers.

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When it comes to making fuel from plants, the first step has always been the hardest — breaking down the plant matter

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Researchers have discovered two new freshwater hyphomycete (mould) species, Acrogenospora alangii and Conioscypha yunnanensis, in southwestern China.