12+ hour, 56+ min ago   (79+ words) Plants cannot run from their enemies, so they have evolved an extraordinary arsenal of molecular sentinels that detect invading pathogens and launch defences within minutes. Yet this vigilance comes at a price: every burst of immune activity diverts energy, nutrients…...

5+ day, 13+ hour ago   (787+ words) When Martin J. Hodson walked through the door of Dafydd Wynn Parry’s office at Bangor University in Wales on 20 October 1980, he had no idea that the encounter would define the next four and a half decades of his scientific life....

2+ week, 4+ day ago   (684+ words) A scientist who conducted molecular genetics research behind the Iron Curtain, built international collaborations before German reunification, and helped reveal how chloroplasts communicate with the cell nucleus is being celebrated as one of Germany’s pioneering plant geneticists. Professor Thomas Börner,…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago   (72+ words) A hidden network of plant peptide hormones may be giving legumes a far more sophisticated immune system than scientists previously recognized. In a study published in Nature Plants, researchers report that soybean produces a surprisingly diverse family of defence-activating peptides…...

1+ day, 4+ hour ago   (55+ words) Scientists in Australia have developed a robust and reproducible genetic transformation system for Brassica carinata, an ancient East African oilseed that is rapidly emerging as one of the most promising non-food feedstocks for sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel. The…...

1+ day, 2+ hour ago   (805+ words) Lodging, the structural failure of crop stems that bend or collapse under their own weight or under the pressure of wind and rain, remains one of the most persistent threats to agricultural productivity worldwide....

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (905+ words) From Glass Jar to Open Water: The First Complete Lab Recipe for Rescuing Poland’s Critically Endangered Pondweed In the quiet of a tissue culture laboratory in Szczecin, Poland, a rescue operation is underway, and every one of its patients fits…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago   (704+ words) Ghent, 18 August 2026 — Beneath the soil, tomato roots are not passive anchors but dynamic biological interfaces where plants and fungi negotiate an exchange of resources....

10+ hour, 58+ min ago   (94+ words) Insects navigate their world largely through smell, relying on an intricate array of chemosensory proteins to detect everything from host plant volatiles to mating signals. Among these molecular sentinels are ionotropic receptors, or IRs, a family of receptors descended from…...