Loss of a microRNA molecule boosts rice production

The wild rice consumed by our Neolithic ancestors was very different from the domesticated rice eaten today. Although it is unclear when humans first started farming rice, the oldest paddy fields—in the lower Yangzi River ...

How a molecular signal helps plant cells decide when to make oil

A study at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory identifies new details of how a sugar-signaling molecule helps regulate oil production in plant cells. As described in a paper appearing in the journal ...

When lipids meet hormones—plants' answer to complex stresses

Unlike animals, plants can't run away when things get bad. That can be the weather changing or a caterpillar starting to slowly munch on a leaf. Instead, they change themselves inside, using a complex system of expand iconhormones, ...

Could eating moss be good for your gut?

An international team of scientists including the University of Adelaide has discovered a new complex carbohydrate in moss that could possibly be exploited for health or other uses.

How algae change their internal solar panels to stay alive

A collaboration between the Benning and Kramer labs is revealing how nature's solar panels, found inside algae, constantly grow and shrink in size to adjust to changes in their environments, a crucial system that ensures ...

How plants 'muscle up' against bacteria in the cold

Michigan State University scientists have furthered our understanding on how a plant protein, called CAMTA, helps plants strengthen themselves as they anticipate long periods of cold, such as three to four months of winter ...

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