Plants - Science & research news

Sugary poo could be used to lure destructive plant pests to their doom

September 27, 2022 // 0 Comments

By K.E.D. Coan, science writer Aggregation of spotted lanternflies, Lycorma delicatula. Image credit: Jana Shea / Shutterstock.com Spotted lanternflies send signals with [...]

Space lettuce

March 6, 2020 // 0 Comments

Nutritious and safe crops would be a dietary supplement to assist remote space missions: Frontiers in Plant Science [...]

How one tough shrub could help fight hunger in Africa

January 8, 2019 // 0 Comments

A drought-resistant native plant can irrigate food crops and increase production: Frontiers in Environmental Science [...]

Cancer-fighting drugs also help plants fight disease

October 17, 2018 // 0 Comments

Image of plant leaf with fungus infection: The finding that anti-cancer drugs help plants fight disease could lead to new treatments for fungal and other plant pathogens: Frontiers in Plant ScienceThe finding that anti-cancer drugs help plants fight disease could lead to new treatments for fungal and other plant pathogens: Frontiers in Plant Science

The finding could help with efforts to develop disease resistance against fungal infections and other plant pathogens: Frontiers in Plant Science [...]

Cocoa CRISPR: Gene editing shows promise for improving the ‘chocolate tree’

May 25, 2018 // 0 Comments

Frontiers in Plant Sciences: The powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 could help to breed cacao trees that exhibit desirable traits such as enhanced resistance to diseases

The powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 could help breed cacao trees with desirable traits such as enhanced resistance to diseases: Frontiers in Plant Sciences [...]

New technique predicts risk of plant disease and infestation

November 8, 2017 // 0 Comments

Algorithms described Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics provide maps of potential hotspots for plant disease and infestation worldwide. [...]

Wild grape yeast could be more effective than pesticides in preventing grape molds

November 7, 2017 // 1 Comment

Wild grapes contain a huge variety of yeasts that can inhibit grape molds, and offer an eco-friendly alternative to chemical pesticides.

A wild yeast described in Frontiers in Microbiology could be an eco-friendly alternative to chemical pesticides. [...]

Taking the brakes off plant production: not so good after all

October 16, 2017 // 1 Comment

Speeding up the slowest part of photosynthesis to increase plant yield doesn't work in practice, finds a study in Frontiers in Plant Science [...]

Combining genomics with farmers’ traditional knowledge to improve wheat production

July 26, 2017 // 0 Comments

Scientists demonstrate that the indigenous knowledge of smallholder farming communities may yield genomic targets useful for wheat breeding. [...]

Plant reveals anti-Alzheimer’s compounds

June 22, 2017 // 1 Comment

Japanese scientists develop a new technique to isolate active therapeutic compounds for Alzheimer's disease from plants. [...]

How microbes affect plant life

May 23, 2017 // 1 Comment

The Research Topic, published in Frontiers in Plant Science & Frontiers in Microbiology, aims to cover all aspects of biotrophic plant-microbe interactions [...]

The schoolyard interactions of Earth’s ecosystem

November 30, 2016 // 0 Comments

Predators eavesdrop on insect-plant interactions, while plants backstab the insects they attract, recent research shows [...]

Not all trees influence the environment equally

November 11, 2016 // 1 Comment

When adding more green to your neighborhood, are all trees the same? Not quite, according to recent research led by Heikki Setälä from the University of Helsinki. [...]

How growing more legumes could relieve economic stress

November 8, 2016 // 0 Comments

Two major dependencies can be alleviated by increasing legume cultivation. These are the dependency of nitrogen fertilizers and the dependency on imports. [...]

How your diet can influence your environmental impact

October 31, 2016 // 1 Comment

By Hedwig Ens, Frontiers The impact of our dietary choices on the global phosphorus footprint shouldn’t be neglected, recent research in Frontiers in Nutrition [...]

Don’t fear GM crops, they could help solve the sustainability crisis

September 12, 2016 // 0 Comments

by Emily Barker, Frontiersin.org Modified crops are nothing to be scared of and could be essential in solving the global sustainability crisis, explained Dr. James Lloyd, [...]

To survive climate change, plants must adapt – and fast

August 23, 2016 // 7 Comments

Researchers read into the biological history of plants to reveal how plants will survive when birds and bees fly away. [...]

Butterflies use differences in leaf shape to distinguish between plants

August 5, 2016 // 0 Comments

The preference of Heliconius butterflies for certain leaf shapes is innate, but can be reversed through learning, says a study in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. These [...]

Do trees go to sleep at night?

August 1, 2016 // 0 Comments

by Juan Jovel, Frontiersin.org It may sound like something from a fantasy book, but scientists have found that trees seem to go to sleep at night. One hour after sunset, tree [...]

Break it down! How scientists are making fuel out of plants

July 5, 2016 // 0 Comments

When you ride the bus to school in the morning, your journey is probably powered by diesel or gasoline, which is both made from petroleum. Petroleum is a fossil fuel, which [...]