The nightshades, family Solanaceae, are a diverse group of flowering plants within the order Solanales, encompassing approximately 90–100 genera and 2,500–3,000 species, including both herbaceous and woody forms. Members are characterized by typically alternate leaves, actinomorphic pentamerous flowers, and a superior ovary usually forming berries or capsules. Chemically, Solanaceae are notable for producing a variety of alkaloids, such as tropane, steroidal glycoalkaloids, and nicotine, which often have potent neuroactive or toxic properties. The family includes important model organisms and crops (e.g., Solanum, Capsicum, Nicotiana) widely used in plant genetics, physiology, and metabolic pathway research.
Scientists in Sweden have taken an important step toward fighting potato late blight, a plant disease that once triggered a historic famine in Ireland and now threatens to spread globally due to climate change. A new study ...
Agriculture
Apr 22, 2026
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A study investigating microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) in agricultural settings has found they reduced plant growth and entered plant tissues through the soil, raising new concerns about food safety and human exposure. ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 21, 2026
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Researchers at University of Tsukuba have demonstrated that tomato mutants lacking the SlIAA9 gene, an auxin signaling repressor involved in the regulation of seed germination, not only retain high germination capacity under ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 17, 2026
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Plants are often seen as passive organisms, rooted in one place and largely unable to react to the world around them. But a new field of research is challenging these assumptions and showing that plants are as sophisticated ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 16, 2026
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California's processing tomato industry for the first time this past harvest season, agreed to voluntary equipment cleaning and notification guidelines to prevent the spread of branched broomrape, a parasitic weed that attaches ...
Ecology
Apr 16, 2026
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Tomato yellow leaf curl disease (TYLCD), caused by begomoviruses, is a global problem in tomato production, affecting yield. While introduction of resistance genes is one of the strategies to control TYLCD, introduction of ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 14, 2026
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Beans of the cacao plant, Theobroma cacao, are used in chocolates, pharmaceuticals and other products, but they're under threat. Increased drought associated with climate change has already begun to stress cacao-growing regions ...
Ecology
Apr 13, 2026
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Nicotine, a potent insecticidal alkaloid unique to the nightshade family, has been employed in agriculture as a pesticide since 1690. It also has therapeutic potential for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 10, 2026
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Morning-blooming morning glories and flowers that release fragrance at night seem as if they know the time. A KAIST research team has uncovered, at the molecular level, the workings of a "biological clock" aligned with insect ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 27, 2026
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Long before humans cultivated crops or sailed between continents, a group of plant viruses was already evolving among wild plants in Eurasia. According to a new international study published in Plant Disease, the ancestors ...
Evolution
Mar 9, 2026
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