Nature’s Number 6 (CC BY 2.0) by David Goehring
From Camouflaged Plants To “Padlocked” Plant Genes.
Plants and animals DO have many things in common, mostly at the cellular level. But sometimes similarities may occur at higher functional levels, such as body pigmentation. And a story published last June provides such an example.
Other plant science news in June 2018 featured photosynthesis, “locked” genes, and progress against a serious grapevine disease.
Cheers!
- Plants Hiding in Plain Site?: “Plants use many of the same methods as animals to camouflage themselves, a new study shows.”
Camouflaged plants use the same tricks as animals
- “Alien” Photosynthesis?: “The discovery changes our understanding of the basic mechanism of photosynthesis and should rewrite the textbooks. It will also tailor the way we hunt for alien life and provide insights into how we could engineer more efficient crops that take advantage of longer wavelengths of light.”
New type of photosynthesis discovered
- Goodbye to Photorespiration?: “Increasing production of a common, naturally occurring protein in plant leaves could boost the yields of major food crops by almost 50 per cent, according to a new study led by scientists at Essex.”
Scientists boost crop production by 47 per cent
- More Wine?: “Scientists are gaining a better understanding of Pierce’s disease and how it affects grapevines. The disease, which annually costs California more than $100 million, comes from a bacterium called Xylella fastidiosa.”
New Insight Into Why Pierce’s Disease Is So Deadly to Grapevines
- Freeing “Locked” Genes in Plants?: “Purdue University scientists have discovered evidence that the repressive structures that plants use to keep genes turned off is built with a potential self-destruct switch. The findings offer insight into ways to control gene expression to alter plants’ characteristics.”
Plants have unique lock to control expression of genes, study finds
Next-Time: From crowdfunded plant science to bad fertilizers….
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