Evolution – Plant en Zo

Adapting to gravity

Plants underwent lots of changes when they emerged onto land 500 million years ago. Now Japanese researchers show in an article “First contact with greater gravity: Moss plants adapted via enhanced photosynthesis mediated by AP2/ERF transcription factors” that one of those adaptations likely was an increase in photosynthetic activity.

Biggest plant family tree

Biggest plant family tree Always wanted to know how forget-me-nots and oak trees are related. Now you can find out using the up till now biggest ever family tree of flowering plants. Researchers recently published this family tree in Nature. First a few numbers. 279 researchers out of 27 countries worked on the family tree.Continue reading “Biggest plant family tree”

Learned early

Learned early A good immune response is important to quickly overpower incoming pathogens. Now researchers show in Plant Cell that that basis of this response stems from 500 million years ago. Immune receptors are important for the recognition of pathogens. Plants have multiple types of immune receptors. One of those are the NLR immune receptorsContinue reading “Learned early”

Slowly improving

Slowly improving Rubisco, the most occurring enzyme of our planet, is not really efficient. It is more a good enough type of enzyme. Now researchers from England show that rubisco is one of the slowest evolving proteins, which is improving with each slow step it takes. Rubisco, the enzyme that is converting CO2 into sugars,Continue reading “Slowly improving”