Tag: botany
Why Are Plants Important?
No Respect? A recent online news item entitled Why We Need Plant Scientists attracted my attention a few days ago. It’s mostly about a paper published in the scientific journal New Phytologist (see ref. 1 below) that prioritizes research questions currently facing “the few, the proud and the chronically underfunded”…
How Plants May Handle Their “Memory” Of Heat Stress
Stress Causes Genes To Jump When plants experience environmental stress, such as very hot temperatures, interesting things may happen inside plant cells at the genetic level. For instance, heat stress (typically, leaf temperatures above 95o F for several hours) may increase the activity of “jumping genes” within the plant genomes.…
Nervous Plants 2 – Plant “Neurobiology”
“Springing the Trap” In the previous post I suggested that the Venus flytrap works something like a mousetrap. And I described how the “trap” is hydraulically set. (For a more thorough explanation of how the Venus flytrap snaps, please see this PDF file). But how do the trigger-hairs on the…
Nervous Plants
Do Plants Have a Nervous System? Back in the heady (hazy?) days of the early 1970’s, a book was making the rounds on college campuses that suggested plants possessed a sort of sentience. This book was The Secret Life of Plants. The professor teaching my Introductory Botany class at the…
Death And Pollination
Some Pollinators Attracted By The Scent Of Death Floral odors, produced by the vast majority of flowering plants, play important roles in plant–pollinator interactions. A recent report of an orchid that attracts pollinators with the smell of carrion (see reference 1 below) reminded me of the infamous Voodoo lily, which…
Into The Wild: Do Genetically-Engineered Plants “Leak” Into The Environment?
Escape of the Transgenes? Last week, I was a bit startled as I listened to a podcast of NPR’s Science Friday program. In this episode (2/18/2011), host Ira Flatow was interviewing the new president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dr. Nina Fedoroff (a distinguished plant…
PLANT TREK – The Next Generation (DIY Plant Genetic Engineering? – Part 4)
Gene Guns, Terminators & Traitors (DIY Plant Genetic Engineering? – Part 3)
“Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie….” After the initial reports in 1983 of successful genetic transformation of tobacco, petunia and sunflower plants using Agrobacterium to mediate gene transfer, this technique was tried on many other crop plants. By 1989, a colleague at the time summarized a “Plant Gene Transfer” meeting he’d attended…
PLANT TREK – To Boldly Go Where No Plant Has Gone Before! (DIY Plant Genetic Engineering? – Part 2)
Where Do New Plants Come From? Well, new plant species arose (and still arise) through plant evolution, that is, as a consequence of hundreds of millions of years of natural selection. About 12,000 years ago, however, humans got involved. Early examples of humans trying to manage plants for their benefit…
Why Are Plants Important?

No Respect? A recent online news item entitled Why We Need Plant Scientists attracted my attention a few days ago. It’s mostly about a paper published in the scientific journal New Phytologist (see ref. 1 below) that prioritizes research questions currently facing “the few, the proud and the chronically underfunded”…
How Plants May Handle Their “Memory” Of Heat Stress

Stress Causes Genes To Jump When plants experience environmental stress, such as very hot temperatures, interesting things may happen inside plant cells at the genetic level. For instance, heat stress (typically, leaf temperatures above 95o F for several hours) may increase the activity of “jumping genes” within the plant genomes.…
Nervous Plants 2 – Plant “Neurobiology”
“Springing the Trap” In the previous post I suggested that the Venus flytrap works something like a mousetrap. And I described how the “trap” is hydraulically set. (For a more thorough explanation of how the Venus flytrap snaps, please see this PDF file). But how do the trigger-hairs on the…
Nervous Plants
Do Plants Have a Nervous System? Back in the heady (hazy?) days of the early 1970’s, a book was making the rounds on college campuses that suggested plants possessed a sort of sentience. This book was The Secret Life of Plants. The professor teaching my Introductory Botany class at the…
Death And Pollination

Some Pollinators Attracted By The Scent Of Death Floral odors, produced by the vast majority of flowering plants, play important roles in plant–pollinator interactions. A recent report of an orchid that attracts pollinators with the smell of carrion (see reference 1 below) reminded me of the infamous Voodoo lily, which…
Into The Wild: Do Genetically-Engineered Plants “Leak” Into The Environment?

Escape of the Transgenes? Last week, I was a bit startled as I listened to a podcast of NPR’s Science Friday program. In this episode (2/18/2011), host Ira Flatow was interviewing the new president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dr. Nina Fedoroff (a distinguished plant…
PLANT TREK – The Next Generation (DIY Plant Genetic Engineering? – Part 4)
Gene Guns, Terminators & Traitors (DIY Plant Genetic Engineering? – Part 3)

“Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie….” After the initial reports in 1983 of successful genetic transformation of tobacco, petunia and sunflower plants using Agrobacterium to mediate gene transfer, this technique was tried on many other crop plants. By 1989, a colleague at the time summarized a “Plant Gene Transfer” meeting he’d attended…
PLANT TREK – To Boldly Go Where No Plant Has Gone Before! (DIY Plant Genetic Engineering? – Part 2)

Where Do New Plants Come From? Well, new plant species arose (and still arise) through plant evolution, that is, as a consequence of hundreds of millions of years of natural selection. About 12,000 years ago, however, humans got involved. Early examples of humans trying to manage plants for their benefit…