ABOVE: Tomato plants watered with a high-salt solution. The water of the plant on the right was supplemented with TMAO, while that of the plant on the left was not.
RAFAEL CATALÁ
A molecule made famous by its association with human heart disease and marine animals’ ability to survive high-pressure conditions turns out to be made by plants too, researchers report this week (May 19) in Science Advances. As it does in animals, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) helps plants cope with stressful conditions, according to the study. The authors have already licensed the discovery to a company that is working to commercialize TMAO as a way to boost yields in agriculture.
“Nobody has published before that plants have TMAO in the tissues,” says study coauthor Rafael Catalá of the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB) Margarita Salas in Madrid.
The new study grew out of earlier work in which Catalá and his colleagues ...
