News tagged with host plants

Deterring signals: Tobacco plants advertise their defensive readiness to attacking leafhoppers

Following herbivory, plants produce jasmonic acid, a hormone which activates several plant defense reactions. Scientists found that leafhoppers can evaluate whether tobacco plants are ready for defense when attacked. If jasmonate-signaling ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Direct transfer of plant genes from chloroplasts into the cell nucleus

Chloroplasts, the plant cell's green solar power generators, were once living beings in their own right. This changed about one billion years ago, when they were swallowed up but not digested by larger cells. ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 13, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Crabs, insects and spiders vulnerable to oil spill, but also resilient

Crabs, insects and spiders living in coastal salt marshes affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster were damaged by the massive oil spill but were able to recover within a year if their host plants remained ...

Biology / Ecology

created Mar 07, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New mathematical model explains how hosts survive parasite attacks

In nature, how do host species survive parasite attacks? This has not been well understood, until now. A new mathematical model shows that when a host and its parasite each have multiple traits governing their ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 04, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Fused genes tackle deadly Pierce's disease in grapevines

A gene fusion research project led by a University of California, Davis, plant scientist delivers a one-two punch to Pierce's disease, a deadly threat to California's world-renowned wine industry.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 20, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Can indigenous insects be used against the light brown apple moth?

The light brown apple moth (LBAM), Epiphyas postvittana (Walker), an invasive insect from Australia, was found in California in 2006. The LBAM feeds on apples, pears, stonefruits, citrus, grapes, berries and many other plants ...

Biology / Ecology

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Bacterial plasmids -- the freeloading and the heavy-lifters -- balance the high price of disease

Studying self-replicating genetic units, called plasmids, found in one of the world's widest-ranging pathogenic soil bacteria -- the crown-gall-disease-causing microorganism Agrobacterium tumefaciens -- Ind ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers learn how pathogen causes speck disease

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have discovered how the structure of a protein allows a certain bacteria to interfere with the tomato plant's immune system, causing bacterial speck disease.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 15, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Medicago genome sequence sheds new light on how plants evolved nitrogen-fixing symbioses

The genome of Medicago, a close relative of alfalfa and a long-established model for the study of legume biology, has been sequenced by an international team of scientists, capturing around 94 per cent of its ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 16, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Butterfly legs 'taste' plants for egg laying: study

A species of butterfly uses its legs to taste plants to see which leaves offer its eggs the best chance of survival, Japanese scientists said Wednesday.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 16, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

A new species of gall makers in the aphid genus of plant lice was found in China

Aphid researchers from Chinese Academy of Sciences found one new species, Aleurodaphis sinojackiae Qiao & Jiang, 2011 from Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces, China. It forms leaf galls on Jack trees (Sinojackia x ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 01, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Insect gut microbe with a molecular iron reservoir

Microbes are omnipresent on earth. They are found as free-living microorganisms as well as in communities with other higher organisms. Thanks to modern biological techniques we are now able to address the ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Sep 01, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Targeting toxin trafficking

Toxins produced by plants and bacteria pose a significant threat to humans, as emphasized by the recent effects of cucumber-borne Shiga toxin in Germany. Now, new research published on July 21st by the Cell Press journal ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jul 21, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Asian 'megapest' is chomping up US orchards

A stink bug from Asia is chomping up US vegetable fields, orchards and vineyards, causing experts to scramble through an arsenal of weapons to try and halt this stealthy, smelly predator.

Biology / Ecology

created Jun 28, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

How ants tame the wilderness: Rainforest species use chemicals to identify which plants to prune

Survival in the depths of the tropical rainforest not only depends on a species' ability to defend itself, but can be reliant on the type of cooperation researchers discovered between ants and tropical trees. ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast