Fuelling the repair

When plants are wounded, they quickly set to heal themselves. These unplanned cell divisions and growth require extra fuel. How the plant makes sure this fuel reaches the wound site is not clear. Now a new paper from Israeli scientists shows that while this extra fuel reaches the wound site in the form of sucrose, it is actually glucose that feeds the wound adjacent cells.

Buffering genetic variation

Most genetic differences within species do not result in a phenotype. Instead, their effects are buffered away. One of the ways plants and other organisms do this is by providing help with protein folding, preventing misfolding. Now a group of Chinese scientists have found a potentially second way plants do this, via their spliceosome.