http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Biologist Magdalena Bezanilla and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have used a technique they call multi-gene silencing to, for the first time, simultaneously silence nine genes in a multicellular organism. It allowed them to discover molecular secrets of how certain plant tissues know which end is their growing tip, also referred to as polarized growth. http://www.physorg.com/news170439907.html Biology Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:25:48 EST news170439907 What began with an off-the-cuff curiosity eventually led Joe Williams to hang from the limbs of a tree 80 feet above the soil of northeastern Australia. http://www.physorg.com/news136483600.html Biology Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:06:40 EST news136483600 In flowering plants, the female reproductive organ, the pistil, comprises the stigma, style, and ovary. The stigma catches pollen shed by the male anthers. If the pollen is compatible, it will germinate and send tubes through the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the style toward the ovary. It is in the style ECM where recognition and acceptance or rejection of the pollen takes place. Compatible pollen tubes grow unhindered toward the ovary. Incompatible pollen tubes become distorted and stop growing. The recognition mechanism is analogous to the immune systems in animals. Factors present in both the ECM and the pollen are needed for recognition and rejection or acceptance. http://www.physorg.com/news133845527.html Biology Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:18:47 EST news133845527