Plant & zo
The science of plants and more
Plants, maybe just hearing the word makes your hart beat quicker. Maybe not, up to now you just viewed plants as decorations. Not inconceivable. But plants are so much more. They are essential for us. They give us the oxygen we breathe. Give us the food we eat. Plants extremely interestingly even without knowing this. Did you know plants can do calculus? That they can detect nutrients, and grow actively towards them? That they use insects, not only for pollinating their flowers, but also as defence against other insects? Here you will read about this and more. About the ingenuity of plants, the discoveries about this made by researchers, and how plants actual do all those things.
Latest Blogs
Longer roots
Longer roots To access deeper located water enables a plant to better withstand drought. Helpful hereby are longer roots that penetrate deeper into the soil. It is one of the traits that breeders select during the development of drought resilient wheat. Although a big stumbling block is that there is relatively little known about which…
Loss of pressure
Loss of pressure The epidermis, the outer cell layer of a plant, protects the plant against the outside world. Their function is determined by their position in the plant. All cells in the outermost cell layer are doomed to develop into epidermis cells. Up to now it was unknown how these cells recognise their position.…
Yellow leaves for more energy
Yellow leaves for more energy Optimal use of photosynthetic capacity, the capture of energy is of great importance for a higher crop yield. Knowing this, it is not strange that for a long time breeders were selecting for greener leaves. As greener leaves mean more photosynthetic capacity. But this is not the whole story. Greener…
Unique together
Unique together The regulation of genes is done for an important part by transcription factors. But which genes a transcription factor transcribes is strongly dependent on where it is. This allows a transcription factor to regulate different genes in different tissues. The big question is: How does it do this? Now researchers from the Netherlands…
Extra root growth through infection
Extra root growth through infection Nematodes that infect plants can cause lots of damage. These parasites infect the plants through their roots. When inside, they work their way up to the vascular bundle, were they start feeding. Plants are growing more roots around the infection site, as a way of compensating. But up to now…
Pollen discrimination
Pollen discrimination When visiting flowers pollinators bring a wide variety of pollen, coming from a range of plants. From plants of the same species, but also from those that are not related at all. Plants are picky, to prevent spending their energy on the production of unviable offspring. Only pollen that are recognised as compatible…
Grip on DNA
Grip on DNA For plants that reproduce trough flowering, a proper formation of these flowers is essential. One of the important proteins in this process is LEAFY, a gene on/off switching protein. LEAFY regulates genes needed for flower formation. LEAFY can turn on some of these by itself, but for others LEAFY needs a helping…
Gene expression, a case of regulation
Gene expression, a case of regulation Expression of genes is regulated on multiple levels. Well known of these are the transcription factors, gene on/off switches. In addition, accessibility of the DNA determines if a gene can be transcribed or not. Moreover, there is regulation at the RNA level. Determining if and which part of the…
Gene editing via grafting
Gene editing via grafting Something we cannot ignore is our need for better plants. Plants that can deal better with extremes, like drought, heat, or salt. Plants that are better protected against pests. That have a higher yield. That are more nutritious. A whole shopping list. And rather yesterday than today. Techniques like gene editing…
Arrested development
Arrested development Plants procreate through a double fertilization. They don’t get twins, only one of the two sperm cells fertilizes an egg cell. The second sperm cell is needed for the fertilization of the central cell. To form the endosperm, tissue that supports the developing embryo in its growth and germination. Giving the endosperm an…
Keeping the balance when submerged
Keeping the balance when submerged Plants, just like animals and humans need oxygen to survive. Normally this is no problem. As a by-product of photosynthesis, oxygen is freely available. But by flooding a plant is under water, no photosynthesis can take place resulting in a lack of oxygen. To survive such a submergence, plants switch…
Working together
Working together The first thing a seedling does, after its germination, is growing upwards. To get above the ground into the sunlight. A seedling gets there not so much through cell division, but through stretching itself. Researchers know that this is regulated by the plant hormones auxin and brassinosteroid. But how these two growth-managers work…
Resistance to witchweed
Resistance to witchweed Weeds are unwanted. Often, easy removed by hoeing. But it is a different story when weeds are parasitising a plant. Striga is one of these parasitising weeds. It is a real pest in sub-Sahara Africa. It parasitises crops like maize, rice, and sorghum. And it gets its nickname ‘witchweed’ from the ability…
Ghost plants
Ghost plants Plants and the colour green are inseparable connected. Plants are green due to their chlorophyl, the small organelles where photosynthesis takes place. Still there are plants that, irrespective of the advantages of making your own energy, chose to chuck their chlorophyl out. Without chlorophyl these plants have a ghostly appearance and get their…
New plants
New plants Plants reproduce through pollination. But they can do it also without. For example, can you multiply plants via cuttings. The cuttings are a clone of the mother plant. You can also do this on a much smaller scale. Take mature cells, from for example a leaf, and grow them on culture media and…
Only supple cells may stretch
Only supple cells may stretch Growth, through making more cells. Or through stretching the cells. Or maybe through something that is a bit in between, what makes it possible for the cells to get even bigger. Endoreplication: the multiplication of the DNA without a cell division following. You would expect that the more DNA copies…
Birth of a gene
Birth of a gene A gene, one that does something new, that has a different expression, often emerges from an old, already existing gene. Through duplication, through the shuffling of domains, through mutations. But not out of nothing. That what is often the believed. May be a mystery how genes emerged in the first place,…
Getting it just right
Getting it just right Plants can’t change place when their environment changes. Whether it is warm or cold, wet or dry, all a plant can do is adapt. One of the things it adapts is the size of its flowers. German researchers found out that under warm conditions the flowers are smaller than under cold…
Loading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Plant en Zo 