How plants quickly adapt to shifting environmental conditions

Scientists—and gardeners—have long known that plants grow taller and flower sooner when they are shaded by close-growing neighbors. Now, for the first time, researchers at the Salk Institute have shown the detailed inner ...

How chromosomes change their shape during cell differentiation

The human genome is made up of 46 chromosomes, each of which has a length of about 100 to 200 million base pairs, the building blocks of the DNA double helix. Even during interphase, the period in between the cell division ...

Grainyhead, a master regulator that controls DNA access

A team led by Prof. Stein Aerts (VIB-KU Leuven) has reported how access to relevant DNA regions is orchestrated in epithelial cells. These findings shed new light on the biological mechanisms of gene regulation and open up ...

To protect stem cells, plants have diverse genetic backup plans

Despite evolution driving a wide variety of differences, many plants function the same way. Now a new study has revealed the different genetic strategies various flowering plant species use to achieve the same status quo.

The dawn of a new era for genebanks

Biodiversity goes beyond species diversity. Another important aspect of biodiversity is genetic variation within species. A notable example is the immense variety of cultivars and landraces of crop plants and their wild progenitors. ...

Understanding rust resistance in bread wheat

Pests and diseases result in the loss of one-fifth of the global wheat harvest each year, which is enough to make around 290 billion loaves of bread. Resolving the persistent problem of the fungal rust diseases that attack ...

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