Endangered Plants News

May 16, 2024

Top Headlines

Climate Change Is Most Prominent Threat to Pollinators

May 15, 2024 — A new article has found that climate change is the most prominent threat to pollinators -- such as bumblebees, wasps, and butterflies -- who are essential for biodiversity conservation, crop yields and food security. The research suggests that many ...

From Roots to Resilience: Investigating the Vital Role of Microbes in Coastal Plant Health

May 15, 2024 — Understanding how salt marsh grass stays healthy is of crucial ecological importance, and studying the ways bacteria interact with these plants is key. Thanks to recent advances in genomic ...

Now We Know, What Gets Roots to Grow: Can Help in Future Droughts

May 15, 2024 — A biological mechanism familiar to people who fast helps plant roots grow strong. The discovery provides an answer to a long-unanswered question and a deeper understanding of the 'mouths' of plants that can help to develop climate-resilient ...

Like Dad and Like Mum...all in One Plant

May 13, 2024 — Scientists have established a system to generate clonal sex cells in tomato plants and used them to design the genomes of offspring. The fertilization of a clonal egg from one parent by a clonal sperm from another parent led to plants containing the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 5:27pm EDT

New Record Holder for Smallest Dispersers of Ingested Seeds: Woodlice

May 8, 2024 — Even bugs as small as woodlice can disperse seeds they eat, setting a new record for smallest animal recorded to do so. The discovery underscores the crucial yet often overlooked role that small ...

Free-Forming Organelles Help Plants Adapt to Climate Change

May 7, 2024 — Plants' ability to sense light and temperature, and their ability to adapt to climate change, hinges on free-forming structures in their cells whose function was, until now, a mystery. Researchers ...

Genomes of 'Star Algae' Shed Light on Origin of Plants

May 3, 2024 — Land plants cover the surface of our planet and often tower over us. They form complex bodies with multiple organs that consist of a broad range of cell types. Developing this morphological ...

Plants Utilize Drought Stress Hormone to Block Snacking Spider Mites

May 3, 2024 — Recent findings that plants employ a drought-survival mechanism to also defend against nutrient-sucking pests could inform future crop breeding programs aimed at achieving better broadscale pest ...

Unlocking the Genetic Mysteries Behind Plant Adaptation: New Insights Into the Evolution of a Water-Saving Trait in the Pineapple Family (Bromeliaceae)

Apr. 30, 2024 — Researchers have achieved a breakthrough in understanding how genetic drivers influence the evolution of a specific photosynthesis mechanism in ...

Calcium Can Protect Potato Plants from Bacterial Wilt

May 1, 2024 — Scientists have discovered that calcium plays a significant role in enhancing the resistance of potato plants to bacterial ...

New Japanese Lily Species Identified, 1st Addition to Sukashiyuri Group in 110 Years

May 1, 2024 — For the first time since 1914, a new species of the Japanese lily known as sukashiyuri has been identified. A research team analyzed the morphology ...

Novel Genetic Plant Regeneration Approach Without the Application of Phytohormones

May 1, 2024 — Conventional plant regeneration approaches by cell culture require the external application of plant growth regulators, including hormones. However, ...

Discovery of Mechanism Plants Use to Change Seed Oil Could Impact Industrial, Food Oils

Apr. 30, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a new mechanism of oil biosynthesis and found a way to genetically engineer a type of test plant to more efficiently ...

Barley Plants Fine-Tune Their Root Microbial Communities Through Sugary Secretions

Apr. 25, 2024 — Different types of barley recruit distinct communities of soil microbes to grow around their roots by releasing a custom mix of sugars and other ...

Ancient Maya Blessed Their Ballcourts

Apr. 26, 2024 — Using environmental DNA analysis, an international team of researchers identified a collection of plants used in ceremonial rituals in the ancient Maya city of Yaxnohcah in Mexico. The plants, known ...

Artificial Intelligence Helps Scientists Engineer Plants to Fight Climate Change

Apr. 24, 2024 — Scientists are using artificial intelligence software to analyze plant root systems, laying out a protocol that can be applied to gather data on crop and model plant phenotypes (physical ...

The Spiciness of Mustard May Depend on Soil Microbes

Apr. 22, 2024 — New study finds microbes may influence the taste of mustard ...

Plant Sensors Could Act as an Early Warning System for Farmers

Apr. 17, 2024 — Using a pair of sensors made from carbon nanotubes, researchers discovered signals that help plants respond to stresses such as heat, light, or attack from insects or bacteria. Farmers could use ...

Unique Field Study Shows How Climate Change Affects Fire-Impacted Forests

Apr. 17, 2024 — During the unusually dry year of 2018, Sweden was hit by numerous forest fires. A research team has investigated how climate change affects recently burnt boreal forests and their ability to absorb ...

Making Crops Colorful for Easier Weeding

Apr. 17, 2024 — To make weeding easier, scientists suggest bioengineering crops to be colorful or to have differently shaped leaves so that they can be more easily distinguished from their wild and weedy ...

CO2 Worsens Wildfires by Helping Plants Grow

Apr. 16, 2024 — By fueling the growth of plants that become kindling, carbon dioxide is driving an increase in the severity and frequency of wildfires, according to a new ...

Seed Ferns: Plants Experimented With Complex Leaf Vein Networks 201 Million Years Ago

Apr. 16, 2024 — According to a research team led by palaeontologists, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several ...

Twisted Pollen Tubes Induce Infertility

Apr. 16, 2024 — Plants with multiple sets of chromosomes, known as polyploids, are salt-tolerant or drought-resistant and often achieve higher yields. However, newly formed polyploid plants are often sterile or have ...

Biofortified Rice to Combat Deficiencies

Apr. 11, 2024 — Vitamin B1 is an essential micronutrient for human beings. Its deficiency is the cause of numerous diseases of the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Researchers have achieved a significant advance ...

Genetic Underpinnings of Environmental Stress Identified in Model Plant

Apr. 11, 2024 — Researchers have identified 14 genes that thale cress -- a plant commonly used in genetic investigations since its genome is well documented -- express more when responding to five specific ...

How Plants Adjust Their Photosynthesis to Changing Light

Apr. 8, 2024 — Light supplies the energy plants need to build up biomass. A research team is researching how plants adapt their photosynthesis to changing light. They describe a key molecular mechanism that ...

These Plants Evolved in Florida Millions of Years Ago: They May Be Gone in Decades

Apr. 2, 2024 — Scrub mints are among the most endangered plants you've probably never heard of. More than half of the 24 species currently known to exist are considered threatened or endangered at the state or ...

Melting Glaciers in a Warmer Climate Provide New Ground for Invasive Species

Apr. 1, 2024 — In 2022 and 2023, biologists from research institutes in the UK and the Falkland Islands led two expeditions to South Georgia to study the impacts of invasive species on this cold and rugged ...

Researchers Discover Key Gene for Toxic Alkaloid in Barley

Mar. 28, 2024 — Barley is one of the most important cereal crops on a global scale. Many barley cultivars produce a toxic alkaloid called gramine that affects the suitability of barley as fodder, but also helps to ...

Discovery of Amino Acid Unveils How Light Makes Plants Open

Mar. 26, 2024 — Scientists have uncovered a unique mechanism that regulates the opening of stomata in plants. Phosphorylation of the amino acid Thr881 on the plasma membrane proton pump plays a key role in this ...

Maize Genes Control Little Helpers in the Soil

Mar. 25, 2024 — Tiny organisms such as bacteria and fungi help to promote the health and function of plant roots. It is commonly assumed that the composition of these microbes is dependent on the properties of the ...

New Route to Recyclable Polymers from Plants

Mar. 25, 2024 — Cellulose, abundantly available from plant biomass, can be converted into molecules used to make a new class of recyclable polymers, to sustainably replace some ...

'Winners and Losers' as Global Warming Forces Plants Uphill

Mar. 25, 2024 — Some plant species will 'win' and others will 'lose' as global warming forces them to move uphill, new research ...

Bees Need Food Up to a Month Earlier Than Provided by Recommended Pollinator Plants

Mar. 22, 2024 — Plant species which are recommended as 'pollinator friendly' in Europe begin flowering up to a month too late for bees, resulting in low colony survival and low production of queens. This ...