Computer Helps MSU Researchers Unravel Plants’ Secrets to Survival
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Recent research by Michigan State University scientists has shed more light on how plants are able to cope with extreme environments. (more…)
Tag Archives: plants
Spurring Sweet Success
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Thanks to Michigan State University, a sweet partnership has helped resurrect Michigan’s $444 million sugar beet industry.
In 1996 the industry was in peril. Yields hit an all-time low due to pest, disease and production issues that greatly reduced crop health. Farmers were looking to get out of sugar beet farming and switch to more profitable crops. Industry representatives reached out to MSU to help solve the problem. (more…)
It Takes a Community of Soil Microbes to Protect Plants From Disease
*Berkeley Lab scientists decipher immune system for plants beneath our feet*
Those vegetables you had for dinner may have once been protected by an immune system akin to the one that helps you fight disease. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Netherland’s Wageningen University found that plants rely on a complex community of soil microbes to defend themselves against pathogens, much the way mammals harbor a raft of microbes to avoid infections.
The scientists deciphered, for the first time, the group of microbes that enables a patch of soil to suppress a plant-killing pathogen. Previous research on the phenomenon of disease-suppressive soil had identified one or two pathogen-fighting microbes at work. (more…)
‘Wicked Weed of The West’ Waning With Effect of Weevils, Other Nontoxic Remedies, Cu Finds
It’s not often that plants are described as diabolical, but spotted knapweed has that rare distinction. A 2004 issue of Smithsonian magazine, for instance, dubbed it the “wicked weed of the West,” a “national menace” and a “weed of mass destruction.”
Such reports were overstated and incorrect, but the press wasn’t making this stuff up. It was summarizing research results published in leading academic journals. (more…)
Online Access to the Plants of the World Is Available
*The Global Plants Initiative Meets at the Smithsonian in Panama Jan. 11-13*
For centuries, jungle explorers from Europe and North America have created art of the plants they discover—pressing bright flowers and green tendrils onto herbarium sheets for prestigious museums and plant collections. But scientists in the most biodiverse countries lack easy access to this basic information needed to identify plants. The Global Plants Initiative, meeting Jan. 11-13 at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, catapults biodiversity research to a new level, sharing plant collections in a massive online database of high-resolution scans. (more…)
Change in Temperature Uncovers Genetic Cross Talk in Plant Immunity
*University of Missouri investigators’ discovery sheds light on how plants fight off bacterial infections*
Columbia, MO — Like us, plants rely on an immune system to fight off disease. Proteins that scout out malicious bacterial invaders in the cell and communicate their presence to the nucleus are important weapons in the plant’s disease resistance strategy. Researchers at the University of Missouri recently “tapped” into two proteins’ communications with the nucleus and discovered a previously unknown level of cross talk. The discovery adds important new information about how plant proteins mediate resistance to bacteria that cause disease and may ultimately lead to novel strategies for boosting a plant’s immune system.
Special proteins in the plant, called resistance proteins, can recognize highly specific features of proteins from pathogen, called effector proteins. When a pathogen is detected, a resistance protein triggers an “alarm” that communicates the danger to the cell’s nucleus. The communication between the resistance protein and nucleus occurs through a mechanism called a signaling pathway. (more…)
Climate Change May Create Tipping Points for Populations, Not Just Species
*Researchers measure survival, reproduction of thousands of arctic and alpine plants over six years*
As Earth’s climate warms, species are expected to shift their geographical ranges away from the equator or to higher elevations.
While scientists have documented such shifts for many plants and animals, the ranges of others seem stable. (more…)
Plant’s role in global warming
Plants remain an effective way of tackling global warming despite emitting small amounts of an important greenhouse gas, a study has shown.