Rising Seas, Dead Trees

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln entomologist wants to help pave the way for creating environmentally friendly tools to replace insecticides to control agricultural pests.

Not only can studying the growth patterns obscured within tree trunks tell us about the past, the field can also help us plan for the future.

An analysis of the En Tibi herbarium’s plants and handwriting has given clues to the identity of its maker.

About one-quarter of the hundreds of genes on the inactivated X chromosome in XX cells manage to escape that silencing, at least some of the time.

The accumulation of zombie-like cells seems to accelerate aging and promote aging-related disease. Researchers are trying to figure out how.

Trigger hairs on the lobes of the trap are tuned to respond to wriggling prey.

Rising sea levels are pushing salty tides and storm surges farther inland, leading to the forest death and a shift from forested habitats to marsh.

New TALEN-based tools enable the organelle’s genome to be targeted and modified.

The plant geneticist has revolutionized researchers’ understanding of how light affects plant growth and development, and is engineering plants to combat climate change.

The antimicrobial compounds ants excrete to defend themselves from pathogens may protect plants as well.

Defects in the response to fire-generated karrikins turn out to be responsible for root anomalies that were previously ascribed to other plant hormones.

To avoid wasting digestive energy, the plant only seals shut after sensing certain prey movements.

The ChoanoVirus genome codes for rhodopsin, perhaps giving its choanoflagellate host extra energy-harvesting capabilities.

Goldenrods that evolved in the presence of herbivores release volatile chemicals that trigger defenses in neighboring plants of their species, even those that are genetically unrelated.

A museum sample of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian crop plant yields genomic information that helps researchers track the plant’s domestication and migration.

Hand weeding of fields spurred an interloper to evolve a rice-like appearance, researchers conclude.

Modified gene editing machinery enables targeted disruptions of mitochondrial genes in rice and rapeseed plants.

Meet some of the people featured in the March 2020 issue of The Scientist.

I have taken plants for granted. I pledge to change.

The US lacks standardized methods to assess products for potency and safety. That’s a big problem for the labs tasked with doing the testing.

The plant awareness revolution will be led by poets, philosophers, and hipsters; not just scientists.

Take a break from the bench to puzzle and peruse.