Top stories:
Biologists uncover top wetland plant’s hidden weapon - It isn’t uncommon to find plants “fighting” for soil and nutrients. The more plants that inhabit a certain area, the tougher the competition grows. The weaker plants eventually die and the stronger ones continue living. But in some wetland areas, a common reed, Phragmites australis, wields a secret weapon that declares it the winner every time: an extremely toxic acid. The common reed secretes the acid, which is absorbed through the roots of neighboring plants. The acid causes the tubulin proteins (a key component in cell structure and stability) to disintegrate. Published in the Journal of Chemical Ecology.

South China tiger species still exists! – (Note: This is not a plant story, but it is a topic that our major contributor is interested in. So, as a favor to Houdah…) The South China tiger species still exists outside of zoos, despite popular belief that the species had become extinct. The South China species is only one of six tiger species still remaining (three other species, the Bali, Java, and Caspian, all became extinct by the 1940s).

Agriculture
Researches develop Bt Eggplant – Farmers suffer crop losses due to pests each year. The solution seems easy enough. Find an appropriate pesticide, spray it on the crops, and all the bugs are gone. Unfortunately, such is not the case. Over time, bugs have become more and more resistant to many of the pesticides used. Researchers from Cornell University and Sathguru Management Consultants have engineered a solution: pest resistant eggplant. Trials have shown that the new eggplant is both safe and nonallergenic. The plant will help lower the use of insecticides and pesticides by thirty percent while doubling the yield of marketable fruit.

Ecology
Green Alga Genome Project Catalogs Carbon Capture Machinery - Scientists are gaining a new evolutionary perspective of chloroplasts by analyzing new sequence data from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Chlamy, as its affectionately called, is a photosynthetic alga that specializes in harvesting sunlight to assemble sugars. Due to the distinct similarities this species of algae holds with today’s plant chloroplasts, scientists are hoping to open up new strategies for solar energy capture, carbon assimilation, and detoxification of soils.

Cooler Depths of Tropics Found to Be Fine Homes for Kelp Forests - Many living organisms can only survive in specific climates. Humans cannot live in extremely cold places without proper protection, polar bears cannot inhabit arid deserts, and so forth. On the molecular level, most proteins will only perform their functions at a certain temperature range before becoming denatured. With this evidence in mind, scientists believed that kelp forests only grew in cooler waters. A surprising study conducted by Michael Graham suggests that kelp forests may in fact grow in the tropics. While the surface water may be very warm, deeper waters more nutrients and cooler temperatures – all characteristics preferred by kelp. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.