What does chlorophyll leave behind after a billion years?
Scientists have identified one of the earliest multicellular algae. Their new method could help unlock much more information from Precambrian fossils.
Category: Cells, Genes & Molecules
Simulating grass phenotypic plasticity as an emergent property
Integrating plant functioning at organ scale can simulate the phenotypic plasticity of plants.
Increasing the copies of genes increases the ecological niche that nettles can thrive in
Botanists find it’s easier to find the gene to cope with a problem if you carry more copies of genes.
How much does a phytolith look like an average phytolith?
The phylogenetic pattern in phytolith shape was successfully revealed by applying geometric morphometrics to 2D phytolith shape outlines, strengthening the potential of phytoliths to track the evolutionary history and paleoecology of grasses.
Evolutionary history of two rare conifers from the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
This study sheds light on the evolution of two endemic juniper species from the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and their responses to Quaternary climate fluctuations
Brassinosteroids regulate petal spur length in Aquilegia
Botanists used virus-induced gene silencing and gene expression experiments to understand the function of brassinosteroid-related transcription factors in Aquilegia coerulea petal spurs.
Plant computational model explains how leaf veins develop
Polar auxin transport dynamics control vein patterning.
Target capture sequencing for investigating repetitive DNA
Botanists find a way to recycle genomic data and contribute to a better characterization of plant biodiversity.
The nature of eyebright intraspecific genome size variation
Botanists find notable genuine genome size variation of up to 1.3-fold between individuals of the same species.
Are species hiding in the Arctic?
Some of the problems that limit the number of species in the Arctic might also contribute to creating new species.
Flowers grow less yellow without sulphur, and that could affect the pollinators that need to see them
Both Van Gogh and Nature like to use sulphur-derived pigments for flowers, but what happens when there’s not enough sulphur?
New maize reference genome may help grow genetically modified lines of corn more easily
The ugly duckling of corn may hold the key to having better grains in the future.
Allele mining could help improve forage grasses
Botanists demonstrate a novel, effective approach to allele discovery in diverse accessions using a draft reference genome from a single species.
Improving gene regulatory network models with RNA levels in absolute units
Recalibrating models using absolute – instead of relative – mass units makes it possible to test modelled transcription rates against biochemical data.