News tagged with tobacco plant

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

Scientists grow solar cell components in tobacco plants

(PhysOrg.com) -- Over billions of years, plants have evolved very efficient sunlight-collecting systems. Now, scientists are trying to harness the finely tuned systems in tobacco plants in order to use them ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Jan 29, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (32) | comments 18 | with audio podcast report

Plant researchers locate transporter used for nicotine metabolism

The next time you take aspirin for a headache, thank a willow tree. Salicylic acid, a compound chemically similar to aspirin, is found in willow tree bark and is made by the plant as a chemical defense against pathogens. ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 01, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Fill 'er up with tobacco? Berkeley lab-led team explores new path to biofuels

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mention biofuels and most people think of corn ethanol. Some may think of advanced biofuels from switchgrass or miscanthus. But tobacco? Not likely.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

Tobacco plant-made therapeutic thwarts West Nile virus

A new therapeutic made from tobacco plants has been shown to arrest West Nile virus infection, according to a new study by Arizona State University scientist Qiang Chen and his colleagues.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 01, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Engineered tobacco plants have more potential as a biofuel

Researchers from the Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories at Thomas Jefferson University have identified a way to increase the oil in tobacco plant leaves, which may be the next step in using the plants for biofuel. Their ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 31, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (4) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Tobacco plant thwarts caterpillar onslaught by opening flowers in the morning

We normally think of pollinators as providing a valuable service to plants, and they certainly do. In exchange for nectar, pollinators like the well-known honey bee carry pollen from one plant to the other ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 21, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Tests underway for new HIV drug farmed from GM tobacco plants

A clinical trial of a potential Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) drug farmed from genetically modified (GM) tobacco plants has at long last got underway in the United Kingdom. The beginning of the trial ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Aug 25, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researcher develop new technique for modifying plant genes

Researchers at the University of Minnesota and Massachusetts General Hospital have used a genome engineering tool they developed to make a model crop plant herbicide-resistant without significant changes to its DNA.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 29, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Study of phytoremediation benefits of 86 indoor plants published

Formaldehyde is a major contaminant of indoor air, originating from particle board, carpet, window coverings, paper products, tobacco smoke, and other sources. Indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as formaldehyde ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 23, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Genes under control:Sscientists develop gene switch for chloroplasts in plant cells

The organelles of photosynthesis -- the chloroplasts - have their own DNA, messenger RNA and ribosomes for forming proteins. Max Planck scientists have now discovered how to regulate the formation of proteins in the chloroplasts. ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 30, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Lethal backfire: Green odor with fatal consequences for voracious caterpillars

During field studies, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology discovered that the oral secretions of tobacco hornworm larvae contain a particular substance that promptly ...

Biology / Ecology

created Aug 26, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Collagen manufactured from transgenic tobacco plants

A scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment has succeeded in producing a replica of human collagen from tobacco plants - an achievement with tremendous ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jun 10, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 2

Tobacco plants yield the first vaccine for the dreaded 'cruise ship virus'

Scientists have used a new vaccine production technology to develop a vaccine for norovirus, a dreaded cause of diarrhea and vomiting that may be the second most common viral infection in the United States after the flu. ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Aug 18, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Tobacco makes medicine

Tobacco isn't famous for its health benefits. But now scientists have succeeded in using genetically modified tobacco plants to produce medicines for several autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including diabetes. The research ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 19, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0