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Plant Biology

showing 1-5 of 45 breaks

Plant genetic engineering makes treasure from trash

Cultivated plants are the core of human nutrition. To ensure our food supply, plant breeders are in an ongoing race with newly emerging pests and diseases. Deterioration of growing conditions due to climate change and ever-increasing demand provide further challenges. Traditionally, plant breeders wait an... click to read more

  • Dennis Kleinschmidt | Technical Assistant at Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie
  • Joachim Forner | Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Pflanzenphysiologie
Views 746
Reading time 3.5 min
published on Feb 27, 2023
The flesh-eating Venus flytrap plant generates its own magnetic fields

In recent decades, more and more techniques from physics have been applied to biological systems, often with far-reaching consequences. For example, noninvasive techniques like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are now commonly used to study or diagnose the human brain and body. The successful transfer of... click to read more

  • Anne Fabricant | PhD student at Helmholtz Institute Mainz, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germany
  • Sönke Scherzer | Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Department of Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
  • Dmitry Budker | Professor at Helmholtz Institute Mainz; Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany; University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Views 1418
Reading time 4 min
published on Oct 19, 2022
Figuring out the evolved chemistry of fig trees

Furanocoumarins are small organic molecules produced by plants and known to play defense roles against pathogens and herbivores. Interestingly, some of them are also potential treatments for cancer or vitiligo. These compounds are found in specific but surprisingly distantly related plant families, such as in... click to read more

Views 2300
Reading time 3.5 min
published on May 20, 2022
The seed’s hidden defense arsenal: using bacteria to defend against disease

Stable cereal production plays an important role in maintaining a food supply for the world’s growing population. However, seed-borne bacterial diseases can limit crop production and quality. This has been aggravated in recent decades by changes in both the global climate and modern farming techniques.... click to read more

  • Haruna Matsumoto | PhD Student at Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Pesticide and Environmental Toxicology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
  • Tomislav Cernava | Professor at Institute of Environmental Biotechnology, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria
  • Mengcen Wang | Principal Investigator at Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Pesticide and Environmental Toxicology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Views 3303
Reading time 3 min
published on Feb 10, 2022
Can forests survive climate change?

Many forests across the globe are experiencing tree mortality episodes as a consequence of long, intense drought periods, likely associated to anthropogenic – human-caused, as opposed to natural – climate change. To date, most research has focused on plant mortality processes during drought, and the... click to read more

  • Enric Batllori | Serra Húnter Fellow, Lecturer at Unitat de Botànica i Micologia, Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Universitat de Barcelona; Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF), Barcelona, Spain
  • Francisco Lloret | Professor at Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF); Unitat d’Ecologia, Departament de Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal i Ecologia, Universitat Autònoma Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Views 2319
Reading time 4 min
published on Jan 21, 2022