News tagged with plant biologist

Ultraviolet protection molecule in plants yields its secrets

Lying around in the sun all day is hazardous not just for humans but also for plants, which have no means of escape. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun can damage proteins and DNA inside cells, leading ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cell's 'battery' found to play central role in neurodegenerative disease

A devastating neurodegenerative disease that first appears in toddlers just as they are beginning to walk has been traced to defects in mitochondria, the 'batteries' or energy-producing power plants of cells.

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jan 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists replicate key evolutionary step in life on earth

(PhysOrg.com) -- More than 500 million years ago, single-celled organisms on Earth's surface began forming multi-cellular clusters that ultimately became plants and animals.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 16, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (46) | comments 501 | with audio podcast

Linear sequences for seed plants

Scientists have been working out the best way to arrange plant specimens in herbaria and other collections so that their order best reflects evolutionary relationships.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Dec 21, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

A major step forward towards drought tolerance in crops

When a plant encounters drought, it does its best to cope with this stress by activating a set of protein molecules called receptors. These receptors, once activated, turn on processes that help the plant ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 19, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Genome tree of life is largest yet for seed plants

Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, The New York Botanical Garden, and New York University have created the largest genome-based tree of life for seed plants ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Cellular processing of proteins found in Congolese child birthing tea now revealed

Many plants produce compounds that serve as a defense against predators or pathogens. Some are also used by humans for a variety of beneficial purposes, such as in medicines. As recently as the early 1990s, a unique class ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 12, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Solar power development in US Southwest could threaten wildlife

Government agencies are considering scores of applications to develop utility-scale solar power installations in the desert Southwest of the United States, but too little is known to judge their likely effects on wildlife, ...

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 09, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (3) | comments 13

Biologists monitor crocodiles at nuclear plant

(AP) -- An unexpected but fruitful relationship has blossomed between two potent forces in the swamps of South Florida: the American crocodile, and a nuclear power plant.

Biology / Ecology

created Dec 06, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Shedding light on the 'dark matter' of the genome

Most of the time, Stefano Torriani is a plant pathologist. His most recent research project revolved around the fungus Mycosphaerella graminicola where he analyzed a special class of genes that encode cell wall degrading enzyme ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 29, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Invasive false brome grass is spreading, but Oregon's insects are biting

After hiking in Oregon, a University of Oregon plant biologist suggests, people may want to brush off their shoes and comb through their dogs in an effort to curb the spread of an invasive grass that is expanding ...

Biology / Ecology

created Nov 15, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Discovery of new gene could improve efficiency of molecular factories

The discovery of a new gene is helping researchers at Michigan State University envision more-efficient molecular factories of the future.

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 03, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Growing without cell division

An international team of scientists, including biologists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, may have pinpointed for the first time the mechanism responsible for cell polyploidy, a state ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 01, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

On guard against drought

Identification of a gene that helps plants to conserve water under drought conditions will bring biologists closer to understanding how plants tolerate drought. Researchers, led by Takashi Kuromori at Japan's ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 28, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

How plants sense touch, gravity and other physical forces

(PhysOrg.com) -- At the bottom of plants' ability to sense touch, gravity or a nearby trellis are mechanosensitive channels, pores through the cells' plasma membrane that are opened and closed by the deformation ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 21, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (15) | comments 0 | with audio podcast