News tagged with plant genes

Big pest, small genome: Blueprint of spider mite may yield better pesticides

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international research team decoded the genetic blueprint of the two-spotted spider mite, raising hope for new ways to attack the major pest, which resists pesticides and destroys crops ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 23, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Jumping gene enabled key step in corn domestication

Corn split off from its closest relative teosinte, a wild Mexican grass, about 10,000 years ago thanks to the breeding efforts of early Mexican farmers. Today it's hard to tell that the two plants were ever close kin: Corn ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Sep 25, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

With secondhand gene, 'freaky mouse' defeats common poison

Over millennia, mice have thrived despite humanity's efforts to keep them at bay. A Rice University scientist argues some mice have found two ways to achieve a single goal -- resistance to common poison.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jul 21, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 16 | with audio podcast

Selaginella genome adds piece to plant evolutionary puzzle

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Purdue University-led sequencing of the Selaginella moellendorffii (spikemoss) genome - the first for a non-seed vascular plant - is expected to give scientists a better understanding of how ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 05, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New genetic study helps to solve Darwin's mystery about the ancient evolution of flowering plants

(PhysOrg.com) -- The evolution and diversification of the more than 300,000 living species of flowering plants may have been "jump started" much earlier than previously calculated, a new study indicates. According ...

Biology / Evolution

created Apr 10, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (6) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

To prevent inbreeding, flowering plants have evolved multiple genes, research reveals

A research team led by Teh-hui Kao, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University, in collaboration with a team lead by Professor Seiji Takayama at the Nara Institute of Science ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 04, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

New evidence in plants shows micro-RNA can move

Ever since tiny bits of genetic material known as microRNA were first characterized in the early 1990s, scientists have been discovering just how important they are to regulating the activity of genes within cells.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Apr 21, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

The story of X -- evolution of a sex chromosome

(PhysOrg.com) -- Move over, Y chromosome - it's time X got some attention. In the first evolutionary study of the chromosome associated with being female, University of California, Berkeley, biologist Doris ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Apr 16, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (11) | comments 1

Pod corn develops leaves in the inflorescences

In a variant of maize known as pod corn, or tunicate maize, the maize kernels on the cob are not 'naked' but covered by long membranous husks known as glumes. According to scientists from the Max Planck Institute ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Apr 24, 2012 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Scientists find how plants grow to escape shade

Mild mannered though they seem, plants are extremely competitive, especially when it comes to getting their fair share of sunlight. Whether a forest or a farm, where plants grow a battle wages for the sun's ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Apr 15, 2012 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

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

Scientists reveal genetic mutation depicted in van Gogh's sunflower paintings

In addition to being among his most vibrant and celebrated works, Vincent van Gogh's series of sunflower paintings also depict a mutation whose genetic basis has, until now, been a bit of a mystery.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 29, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Plants can 'remember' drought and change responses to survive

(PhysOrg.com) -- Plants subjected to a previous period of drought learn to deal with the stress thanks to their memories of the experience, new research has found.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 15, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | 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

Genes may travel from plant to plant to fuel evolution: study

The evolution of plants and animals generally has been thought to occur through the passing of genes from parent to offspring and genetic modifications that happen along the way. But evolutionary biologists ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 16, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 4 | with audio podcast