Botany News

December 10, 2023

Top Headlines

Urbanization Increases Seasonal Differences in Plant-Pollinator Networks

Dec. 7, 2023 — Increasing urbanization worldwide is a growing threat to biodiversity. At the same time, flowering plants are often more diverse in cities than in the countryside. This is due to flowering plants and agricultural crops, which are increasingly being ...

Molecular Fossils Shed Light on Ancient Life

Dec. 7, 2023 — Paleontologists are getting a glimpse at life over a billion years in the past based on chemical traces in ancient rocks and the genetics of living animals. New research combines geology and genetics, showing how changes in the early Earth prompted ...

Plant Nurseries Are Exacerbating the Climate-Driven Spread of 80% of Invasive Species

Dec. 5, 2023 — Researchers have provided detailed maps of how 144 common invasive plants species will react to 2° Celsius of climate change in the eastern U.S., as well as the role that garden centers currently ...

From Infamy to Ingenuity: Bacterial Hijack Mechanisms as Advanced Genetic Tools

Dec. 5, 2023 — Researchers have uncovered the intricate molecular mechanism used by parasitic phytoplasma bacteria, known for inducing 'zombie-like' effects in ...

Latest Headlines

updated 4:09pm EST

It Turns Out, This Fossil 'Plant' Is Really a Fossil Baby Turtle

Dec. 7, 2023 — Researchers re-examined a plant fossil found decades ago in Colombia and realized that it wasn't a plant at all: it's a fossilized baby turtle. It's a rare find, because juvenile turtles' shells ...

Sugar Permeation Discovered in Plant Aquaporins

Dec. 4, 2023 — Aquaporins, which move water through membranes of plant cells, were not thought to be able to permeate sugar molecules, but researchers have observed sucrose transport in plant aquaporins for the ...

Decoding Flavonoid Metabolism: A Closer Look at Plant-Based Diets

Dec. 4, 2023 — An international team of researchers has elucidated the process by which the major flavonoids naringenin, apigenin, and genistein are metabolized in the body. These findings are fundamental in ...

The Waxy Surface Protecting Plants Might Hold the Key to Developing Stronger Crops

Nov. 30, 2023 — Researchers have discovered that the waxy protective barrier around plants might play a role in sending chemical signals to other plants and ...

Public Gardens Contribute to Invasives Problem

Dec. 1, 2023 — Some nonnative plants cultivated in public gardens or arboretums are escaping to become invasive in wild ...

Genomic Study Sheds Light on How Carnivorous Asian Pitcher Plants Acquired Signature Insect Trap

Nov. 30, 2023 — Scientists sequenced the genome of the East Asian pitcher plant, Nepenthes gracilis, a species of carnivorous plant related to Venus flytraps, as ...

How Far Can the Wind Can Carry a Plant's Seeds? New Model

Nov. 30, 2023 — Playing an essential foundational role in an ecosystem, plants contribute to the well-being of human health by helping create resources like food and medicine. Therefore, to better understand how ...

Money to Burn: Wealthy, White Neighborhoods Losing Their Heat Shields

Nov. 30, 2023 — White, wealthy neighborhoods in the LA area -- and likely around the world -- are about to start feeling the same heat that has plagued poorer, Hispanic neighborhoods for generations. A new study ...

Researchers Decipher Enzyme Scissors of Intestinal Microbes

Nov. 29, 2023 — Fruit and vegetables contain a variety of plant natural products such as flavonoids, which give fruits their colour and are said to have health-promoting properties. Most plant natural products occur ...

Flower Power on Indian Farms Helps Bees and Boosts Livelihoods

Nov. 29, 2023 — Planting flowers beside food crops on farms in India attracts bees, boosts pollination and improves crop yield and quality, researchers have ...

Earlier Headlines

Summaries
Headlines

Botany Must Feature More Prominently on the School Curriculum to Promote Awareness of Climate Change, Study Warns

Dec. 4, 2023 — Children must be taught more about the importance of plants if education about climate change and sustainability is to be effective, experts have ...

A Spectrum of Possibilities: Insights Into the Evolution of Far-Red Light Photosynthesis

Nov. 28, 2023 — Scientists have unraveled the evolutionary journey of a unique type of photosynthesis that allows some bacteria to harness far-red light, a region beyond the visible spectrum. This discovery could ...

Scientists Harness Flower 'Super Power' to Pave the Way for New Drug Treatments

Nov. 28, 2023 — Researchers have developed a way of joining up the head and tail of a protein, making it more stable and easier to get into ...

Slash-and-Burn Agriculture Can Increase Forest Biodiversity, Researchers Find

Nov. 28, 2023 — The slash-and-burn agriculture practiced by many Indigenous societies across the world can actually have a positive impact on forests, according to a new study done in Belize. Researchers found that ...

The Fens of Eastern England Once Held Vast Woodlands

Nov. 26, 2023 — The Fens of eastern England, a low-lying, extremely flat landscape dominated by agricultural fields, was once a vast woodland filled with huge yew trees, according to new research. Scientists have ...

Researchers Puncture 100-Year-Old Theory of Odd Little 'Water Balloons'

Nov. 22, 2023 — Quinoa and many other extremely resilient plants are covered with strange balloon-like 'bladders' that for 127 years were believed to be responsible for protecting them from drought and ...

Looking for 'LUCA' and the Timing of Cellular Evolution

Nov. 21, 2023 — LUCA, the 'last universal common ancestor' of all living organisms, lived 4.32 to at most 4.52 billion years ago. What LUCA looked like is unknown, but it must have been a cell with among ...

Forest Modeling Shows Which Harvest Rotations Lead to Maximum Carbon Sequestration

Nov. 21, 2023 — Forest modeling shows that a site's productivity -- an indicator of how fast trees grow and how much biomass they accumulate -- is the main factor that determines which time period between ...

A Stronger Core for Better Plant Breeding

Nov. 21, 2023 — A new software tool with enhanced genome-sequencing powers has been developed, increasing the speed and accuracy at which researchers can improve plants through ...

Consumers, Florists Differ on Floral Arrangements

Nov. 20, 2023 — Consumers don't necessarily pay attention to florists' arrangement design elements. And consumer love roses -- a ...

New Research Suggests Plants Might Be Able to Absorb More CO2 from Human Activities Than Previously Expected

Nov. 17, 2023 — New research paints an uncharacteristically upbeat picture for the planet. This is because more realistic ecological modelling suggests the world's plants may be able to take up more ...

Plants That Survived Dinosaur Extinction Pulled Nitrogen from Air

Nov. 16, 2023 — Ancient cycad lineages that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs may have done so by relying on symbiotic bacteria in their roots to fix atmospheric nitrogen. The finding came from an effort to ...

Hemp Cannabinoids May Have Evolved to Deter Insect Pests

Nov. 15, 2023 — Cannabinoids, naturally occurring compounds found in hemp plants, may have evolved to deter pests from chewing on them, according to new research that showed higher cannabinoid concentrations in hemp ...

Genetic Discovery Promises High-Iron Vegetables and Cereals

Nov. 15, 2023 — A genetic breakthrough has opened new opportunities for iron-fortified vegetables and cereal crops to help address the global health issue of ...

Research Provides Crucial Insights Into Moss Growth Under Elevated CO2 Levels That May Benefit Climate Change Models

Nov. 14, 2023 — Approximately 12,000 species of mosses exist and cover close to four million square miles of earth, equivalent to the size of Canada, and are ecologically and evolutionarily important. Mosses play an ...

A Tale of Two Proteins: Fundamental Research Could Make Growing Better Crops Like Clockwork

Nov. 14, 2023 — Rhomboid-like protein 10, or RBL10, is thought to be an enzyme that degrades other proteins in the chloroplast membrane, but its function is largely unknown. Researchers are studying how RBL10 ...

New Discovery on How Green Algae Count Cell Divisions Illuminates Key Step Needed for the Evolution of Multicellular Life

Nov. 13, 2023 — An international research team has made an unexpected discovery of a biased counting mechanism used by the single-celled green alga Chlamydomonas to control cell ...

New Study Indicates C4 Crops Less Sensitive to Ozone Pollution Than C3 Crops

Nov. 13, 2023 — Researchers have studied the effects of elevated O3 on five C3 crops (chickpea, rice, snap bean, soybean, wheat) and four C4 crops (sorghum, maize, Miscanthus × giganteus, switchgrass). Their ...

Yeast Cells Can Produce Drugs for Treatment of Psychotic Disorders

Nov. 10, 2023 — An international team of researchers has demonstrated that genetically engineered yeast cells can produce the natural plant product alstonine, which has shown positive effects in treating ...

A Fifth of European Red List Flora and Fauna Species May Be at Risk of Extinction

Nov. 8, 2023 — A new analysis of 14,669 threatened species of plants and animals found in Europe reveals that about one fifth face the risk of extinction, and that agricultural land-use change poses a significant ...

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