How a harmful fungus renders its host plant defenseless

The fungus Ustilago maydis attacks corn and can cause significant damage to its host. To do this, it first ensures that the plant offers little resistance to the infection. The surgical precision it applies is shown by a ...

Molecular feedback-loop for plant growth

Plant growth is not a uniform process: Plants grow in length at the shoot and root tip in particular, while in other places they form new leaves or flowers. These different processes must be coordinated with each another ...

Transporter protein regulates root gravitropism in Arabidopsis

In a finding that could be used to improve the nutrient uptake of crops, a RIKEN-led team has identified a transporter protein that is involved in the tendency of plant roots to grow downwards in response to gravity, a phenomenon ...

Time-lapse reveals the hidden dance of roots

Duke researchers have been studying something that happens too slowly for our eyes to see. A team in biologist Philip Benfey's lab wanted to see how plant roots burrow into the soil. So they set up a camera on rice seeds ...

Molecular compass for cell orientation

Plants have veins that transport nutrients throughout their whole body. These veins are organized in a highly ordered manner. The plant hormone auxin travels directionally from cell-to-cell and provides cells with positional ...

Study sheds new light on vein formation in plants

An international team of researchers including the University of Adelaide, has found plant hormones known as strigolactones suppress the transportation of auxin, the main plant hormone involved in vein formation, so that ...

How plants' vascular cells turn into holes

Theoretical biologists have solved a unique puzzle in the structure of plants' vascular tissue. Two mutations that had opposite effects appear to lead to the same result. Professor of Computational Developmental Biology Kirsten ...

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