When scientists discovered a mutant gene that "turns on" another gene responsible for the red pigments seen in corn, they also solved an almost six-decades-old mystery with a finding that may have implications for plant breeding in the future. The mystery involved a spontaneous gene mutation causing red pigments to »
New research confirms that leaves are nature's most sophisticated environment sensors. We can therefore use leaves to tell us about the management of the land they are growing in. Professor of Zoology, Yvonne Buckley at Trinity College Dublin is part of a global network of grassland ecologists who have found »
A research group at Aarhus University in Denmark has explained the structure of a sugar transport protein (STP) that is unique to plants. STP is unique to plants, and is important for the proper development of plant organs such as pollen. Sugar is generated in plants through photosynthesis and transported »
Research groups from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and the University of Münster (WWU) have discovered a new switch that plants use to control their responses to iron deficiency. The findings from their research on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana is published in the journal Developmental Cell. Because plants are »
A study conducted by scientists from the University of Nottingham and the University of Birmingham, in collaboration with researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Utrecht uncovered the mechanism that allows plants to remember changes in their environment. To figure out how plants sense and ‘remember' changes in their environment, »
Plants convert sunlight into energy through photosynthesis; however, most crops on the planet are plagued by a photosynthetic glitch, and to deal with it, evolved an energy-expensive process called photorespiration that drastically suppresses their yield potential. Researchers from the University of Illinois and U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research »
Nature can inspire technological innovation. Take the example of Sunflower Solar Harvester! It is developed by a Swiss company which tracks the sun like sunflower and cools itself by pumping water through its veins like a plant. In the process, it produces heat, desalinated water, and refrigeration from the 12kW »
Sunflower’s growth is directly related to sunlight! You can grow it in a home garden as sunflowers are heat-tolerant, resistant to pests, and beautiful. Seed harvesting is also possible from them. Here are a few tips: • Sunflowers grow best in locations with direct sunlight (6 to 8 hours per »
• The giant flower on sunflowers is actually made up of many tiny blooms. • Sunflowers typically grow between 5 and 12 feet tall. They can reach full height in as little as six months. • The current world record for tallest sunflower was set in 2014, at a towering 30 feet, 1 »
