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Yeast, lowering a plant’s winter heat bill
As I was thinking about my topic for this week’s article, I thought I would do myself a little favor by first baking one of my favorite homemade desserts: white chocolate bread pudding. Not only did this help to inspire my thoughts, but perhaps even more importantly, it fed my unrelenting appetite...
Meet My Distant Cousin…Arabidopsis
For years, scientists have faced the lofty challenge of confirming the evolutionary link between primates and humans, but with new research from Purdue University, scientists may turn their focus on evolutionary kinship between apes and plants.
While attempting to revive dying plants, researchers discovered...
Organic Anti-Fungal Compound
Food competition in the tropics is not limited to two animals fighting over a single prey. In fact, carnivorous plants and fungi also compete for food, albeit at a much more molecular level. After an insect is trapped by a carnivorous plant, it falls into the plant’s “pitcher,” which contains enzymes...
Root Hair Growth Explained
For humans hair is like an accessory, we spend money cutting it, styling it, and coloring it; almost everything we do with our hair is for superficial reasons (except for cilia in our intestines, nasal cavity etc). Animals have fur for protective purposes, to keep warm in the summer or perhaps camouflage....
Water, without it we simply can’t survive
Posted by Usman in Environment, Featured Articles, Research, Strange But True on 02 24th, 2010 | No Comments
When we made the transition a little over a decade ago from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, many believed that we were finally closing the door on one of the most notably problematic and violent centuries in world history. Not only were two major World Wars fought during this period, but major...
Mutations Crucial to Viral Infections
As I was reading this article today, I realized that for some reason I tend to prefer learning about genetic research over other sub disciplines in Biology. The more knowledge we have about the specific functions of genes, the better chance we have of curing genetic diseases. Research into the viral...
Justice: Plant Style
The principle of “an eye for an eye” found in the Code of Hammurabi of ancient Babylonian origin has been understood by anthropologists and other social scientists as being a peculiar characteristic of human social interaction for centuries. Although it may seem that we are the only species of life...
Auxin May Provide Stronger Root Systems
Every time I read about agricultural research, I notice that the focus is always on the need for food. More specifically, the need to be able to grow more plants with fewer resources so that we can alleviate world hunger. A lot of the studies I have read and written about focus on cures for fungal infections...
The Phenomena of Whispering Leaves
In many of my previous articles, I have often discussed the rather interesting phenomenon of plant communication. While this is undoubtedly an amazing testament to the inherent complexity of plant life, evolutionarily, the ability for plants to be able to communicate with one another is more of a pragmatic...
Almonds Never Tasted So Toxic
If asked to identify three poisonous entities that can be found in nature, what first comes to mind? A snake? A spider?
How about an almond tree? Although almonds may have many health benefits associated with their consumption, the nectar of an almond tree actually has quite the opposite effect.
After...
Soybean Genome Mapped
As I plan ahead for college graduation and graduate school, it is sometimes easy to get carried away and wish for things to be easier and different. Sometimes I just don’t want to be in any more science classes, but I know that success in medical school or graduate school depends on me going back and...
Bundle Up Those Genes – It’s Cold Out!
They say in Texas, “If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes and it will change.” With days that range from 30 degrees to 80 degrees in the winter months, I may have my heat running at full force on a Monday, and then the air conditioner blasting by Friday; but how does this rapidly changing...
The often beautiful consequences of Natural Selection
Ever since I was a child, I have always considered the city of Chicago as my home away from home. Although I was born and raised in Houston, my Aunt lives in the windy city and I have been lucky enough to be able to visit her and my cousins at least a few times every year. After my brother graduated...
Ethylene Details Discovered
Every person is unique. I have noticed that in every group, each individual offers something valuable to the collective. And, although different, each person depends on someone else in some way. How does this pertain to ethylene? Turns out that a family of ethylene genes (a group of related genes)...
Don’t Stress It!
As a financial consultant in Chicago, my brother is often required by his job to travel to meet with current and potential clients. About a month ago, he was asked by his boss whether or not he would be interested in helping the San Francisco branch of his firm with an upcoming deadline that they had....
Plants as Social beings: an Altruistic Growth
The social behavior of kin recognition has been well studied and understood in the animal kingdom, and recently evolutionary biologists have begun to explore this phenomenon in the plant world.
It is widely recognized that plants have the ability to detect and respond to plants around them. However,...
It Pays To Research: The Benefits Of Maize
We’ve been posting articles every week on the plant research being done to cure diseases, improve economies, and eliminate hunger. Sometimes, however, it’s a good idea to come back and comment on the results from some of the research being done to improve our society. Whether it is to substantiate...
Gingko Biloba: Solution to Radiation Damage?
Posted by Pallavi in Featured Articles, Health, Medicinal Plants, Research on 10 29th, 2009 | No Comments
Have you ever thought about the evolution of pharmaceutical drugs? When I watch Grey’s Anatomy or House, I constantly feel amazed by far humans have come, how much we understand about the human body, and how many drugs and procedures have been procured to help us live longer. However, while the contemporary...
Nanotechnology: Colossal steps into the future
Ever since the Silicon Valley technology boom of the nineties, the phrase “nanotechnology” has attained a special place in the science world’s colloquial vocabulary.
Proposed devices implementing nanotechnology include LED contact lenses, improved fiber optics, and increasingly faster...
Family First
The expression “family comes first” is one that has and continues to be relayed by virtually every culture of the world. In fact, as a student of Arabic, I was exposed to a peculiar Arab version of this motto that both denotes the importance of family while simultaneously establishing a hierarchal...
The Ongoing Immunity Struggle between Plants and Bacteria
With the recent increase in the activity of the H1N1 virus, the evolution of pathogens is under the spotlight. It scares me to think how one strain of the flu virus that affected birds, evolved and jumped to pigs and then ran rampant among humans. It has taken a long time for scientists to finally come...
Red Leaves in America: not just patriotic plants
In Europe, the tree leaves appearing during the Autumn season are predominantly yellow, whereas in America they are mostly red. Why? An article recently published in New Phytologist attempts to solve this mystery. The fact that plants produce anthocyanin, a pigment that causes leaves to appear red once...
Spit the Seeds Out, but Save Them
My father was at one time a farmhand in rural South India. He sat on the floor with his eight siblings and ate his food off of a banana leaf. In this mud-made shanty made by my grandfather, the family would very often have dessert after their feast. They may have not had running water or electricity,...
New Plant Barcode System May Speed Up Nature’s Checkout Lines
While we may not think about it, we all know how much barcodes at the supermarket save time by quickly identifying the item we’re buying.
Scientists too have long understood the importance of developing an efficient way to determine the species of an organism. Within the last few years, a barcode...
ZFNs Provide More Accurate Means for Creating GMOs
Posted by Pallavi in Agriculture, Featured Articles, GM Foods, Research on 07 30th, 2009 | No Comments
In June we read about a revolutionary new technique for creating genetically modified plants without the use of external DNA. The article (http://www.greenseedling.com/2009/06/17/new-method-of-gene-modification/) illustrated the research done with “zinc finger” nucleases. The nucleases allow genes...
Creation of Super Plants
With the constant struggle to improve agricultural yield and provide solutions for our impending global hunger problems, scientists are working harder than ever to discover new means to create more efficient agricultural processes.
A recent study has made a significant leap towards producing crops without...
Warning the Clones
University of California at Davis professor Richard Karban has published his most recent research in the latest edition of Ecology Letters. His research has shown that plants can warn nearby “clones,” or genetically identical cuttings, of forthcoming danger.
Karban’s group found that the sagebrush...
The Spectacular Debut of Snow Roots
Posted by Deepa in Environment, Featured Articles, Research, Strange But True on 06 18th, 2009 | No Comments
….brought to you by Evolution
The C. Conorhiza plant lives high in the Caucasus Mountains, which are nestled between the Black and Caspian Seas. A recent study in “Ecology Letters” reveals how C. Conorhiza plants thrive in the Caucasus Mountains, despite freezing temperatures at high altitudes.
A...
Plant Immunity
The immune system amazed me when I first learned about it. How intriguing is it that our body is able to recognize, target and attack danger without harming what’s benign? One little failure in the immune system can prove catastrophic. It can lead to letting an invader win or allowing an autoimmune...
Tell Your Plants to Stop Overreacting
We are all aware that our immune systems protect us from harmful pathogens, and many of us are also aware that plants have immune systems not unlike ours. One of the most prevalent diseases in the human world, diabetes, is caused by an overactive immune system. Over the years, we have come to understand...
Gold: The New Green?
For millions of years, plants have generated their own energy by means of photosynthesis. This mechanism of converting sunlight into power has proven to be very successful for plants, but for humans, employing the sun as a power source is not quite as simple. After extracting a photosynthetic protein...
Who says you can’t be cozy while you eat?
Posted by Usman in Environment, Featured Articles, Research, Strange But True on 04 29th, 2009 | No Comments
A few years ago when my parents were thinking about purchasing a new home, I remember sitting down with a home builder who was showing off some of the state-of-the-art custom features he had recently installed in a few of his latest projects. Among these features, the most interesting (and perhaps most...
Preventing the Bacterial Genocide of Rice
Posted by Amar in Featured Articles, GM Foods, Research, Strange But True on 04 28th, 2009 | No Comments
Two of the most harmful diseases that plague rice across the world are caused by bacteria. The first disease, bacterial blight, can reduce yield by 50%, and the other, though not as damaging as bacterial blight, can cause bacterial leaf streak. However, bacterial leaf streak is becoming more prominent...
The Pros and Cons of Legalizing of Marijuana in the United States
Posted by Andrea in Featured Articles, Marijuana Special Topic Week, Medicinal Plants, Research on 04 25th, 2009 | No Comments
[All this week, GS is covering stories on Marijuana - its traditional uses, basic biology, criminalization, neurological effects and more. This is our final installment of Marijuana Special Topic Week.] Legalization of Marijuana has been a hot topic in this nation since it was outlawed in 1937. In the...
Marijuana in the World of Medicine
Posted by Sarah in Featured Articles, Health, Marijuana Special Topic Week, Medicinal Plants, Research on 04 24th, 2009 | No Comments
[All this week, GS will be covering stories on Marijuana - its traditional uses, basic biology, criminalization, neurological effects and more. Join us all this week for our in depth study of this fascinating, controversial plant!] The word “marijuana” has undoubtedly earned its fair share of criticisms...
The Science of Weed
Posted by Usman in Featured Articles, Health, Marijuana Special Topic Week, Medicinal Plants, Research on 04 22nd, 2009 | No Comments
[All this week, GS will be covering stories on Marijuana - its traditional uses, basic biology, criminalization, neurological effects and more. Join us all this week for our in depth study of this fascinating, controversial plant!] Cannabis: a word that has undoubtedly struck a different emotional chord...
The Negative Neurological Effects of Marijuana
Posted by Amar in Featured Articles, Health, Marijuana Special Topic Week, Research on 04 20th, 2009 | 2 Comments
[All this week, GS will be covering stories on Marijuana - its traditional uses, basic biology, criminalization, neurological effects and more. Join us all this week for our in depth study of this fascinating, controversial plant!]
Many marijuana users believe that there are no significant negative...
Bzzzz..Watch out plants!
Ever since I was a child, I have had an extreme phobia of insects. Some children are afraid of snakes, others of dogs, but for me it was always the droning sound of an insects wings flapping near a light in my house that got me into true panic mode. From cockroaches to spiders and everything else in...
Electric Plants
Last week, I wrote an article about how subterranean insects use plants as telephonic devices to communicate with their above ground counterparts. I concluded that it is truly amazing to know that the basis behind some of the technologies we as humans pride ourselves on inventing today have existed in...
Radio Waves Prevent Frosty Plants
A new system to fight frost on plants incorporates radio frequency technology. The radiant heating system, developed by Raytheon Technology, serves as a more efficient way to heat crops and prevent frost. Without heating the air between it and the plants, the Tempwave system delivers energy to the plants...
AT&T, T-Mobile, or Arabidopsis thaliana?
In the year 1844, an Italian man by the name of Innocenzo Manzetti first came up with the idea of a “speaking telegraph”. More than a century and a half later, cellular telephones have come to dominate the way humans communicate with one another. I remember growing up as a kid watching the once acclaimed...
Huanglongbing: More than Just an Onomatopoeia
The discovery of an efficient method of sequencing DNA genomes has been one of the most important biological breakthroughs of this era. It has led to an exponential increase in finding ways of treating genetic disorders in humans as well as discovering the means of preventing infection by sequencing...
Special Delivery
Everyday our society makes new advances in technology. Computers, cell phones and cameras manage to be made smaller each time that a new model arrives on the market. Not only have technologies that benefit our social or business lives reduced in size, but medicine also seems to be following this miniature...
Don’t forget to eat your vegetables! Or should you?
“Don’t forget to eat your vegetables, honey!” How many of us can say, without hesitation, that we have heard such a command from our mothers every day about half way through dinner? Either my mother is the most enthusiastic vegetable cheerleader on the planet, or this seems to be a common trait...
Rice Tungro Disease: Solution Available
Over the course of the year, we have talked a lot about rice; it’s an eye opening phenomenon for me to think of how much research is conducted over one crop. There are new problems being diagnosed and fixed constantly to help increase rice yield. For example, a recent study shows that a single virus...
Attention Leaves: If you’re not productive, you too might be let go in this economy
Amputation is one of the most mentally and physically trying experiences an individual would ever have to go through. In extreme cases, however, amputation often becomes necessary as a last resort for those with extensive gangrene, infection, or other extreme wounds.
If a doctor feels that an infection...
Cereal may be the solution to our food supply woes
The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen German Research Center for Environmental Health has been researching the genetic sequence of the African plant Sorghum, commonly known as milo. According to Dr. Klaus Mayer, the center is focusing the study on this particular species because, as a C4 plant, its analysis...
X-Plants?
With the bringing of a new year and a new president, legislation is changing in Washington these days at a tremendous pace. Perhaps any day now, we are expected to see a unilateral lift of the previous bans on embryonic stem cell research enforced by the previous administration. In doing so, many in...
Tired of Uprooting Your Garden Every Year? Plant Perennials!
Have you ever questioned why you spend countless hours planting flowers in the spring only to have to re-plant them again next year? For those flower-enthusiasts who do not wish to uproot their garden annually, perennial plants, which survive for several years, are ideal; however, new research conducted...
Plants may aid in HIV treatment?
Some additional perspective on yesterday’s story.
About a month ago, I remember reading an article in either Time or Newsweek magazine that dealt with the issue of the average life expectancy of humans around the world. In the list that they compiled of the over 200 or so countries on earth, I...
Toxic Inhalation
As a botanist, my mother has always understood the immense beneficial effect of having houseplants. She sometimes took this a little too far by effectively turning our front porch into a mysterious jungle that naturally formed a haven for a diverse plethora of unwanted insects to buzz inches away from...
Roots Don’t Grow There!
Two weeks ago, we talked about how scientists have discovered the proteins and promoter sequences in plants responsible for the growth of root offshoots. Well, it seems like science today is moving forward as fast as technology does.
Pankaj Dhanukshe, a researcher from Ultrecht University, has now discovered...
In Defense of Strawberries
Every summer I look forward to 3 things: A nice vacation, weekend camp-outs, and strawberry season. Who knew that while I was gorging myself on those delightful red berries that researchers around the world were using strawberry genes to make a breakthrough in plant biology.
As one of their defense mechanisms,...
Two (Discriminatory) Peas in One Pod
A fundamental problem that arises with all of life on earth is allocating a limited number of resources over the entire span of a population. Since the dawn of humanity, this has been the source of countless wars and conflicts that have resulted in the tragic deaths of many and the injury of countless...
Even Plants Play the Mating Game
New studies conducted on plant mating have concluded that humans may not be the only species rejected by the opposite sex. According to researchers from the University of Missouri, pollen proteins may contribute to a signaling process that determines if a female plant accepts or rejects certain pollen...
S.O.L: Save Our Leaves
[* Are you visiting our site from Facebook? Welcome to Greenseedling! Here, you'll find the latest news stories from the exciting (yes!) world of plants! Plants have quite a few surprises up their, er, leaves. Need proof? Check out Usman's story on plant communication below. (What? You didn't...
We’re all Johnny Appleseeds
Last summer, while sitting with my 8 year old cousin on a lazy Sunday afternoon, we both watched as my mother cut us all a various assortment of fruit as she routinely does and my cousin asked, “Why are fruits the only thing that are good for us and that taste delicious? I love candy and fries but...
Adaptation
Perhaps the most fundamental unifying feature of all of life on earth is the immense ability of our planet’s various life forms to adapt to the most extreme of conditions. Even in seemingly barren regions of the world, scientists have been hard pressed to find even a single area that fails to provide...
The Great Fall
As summer nears its end and we proceed into the more pleasant days of autumn, one can’t help but notice the drastic climatic and physical changes that naturally ensue during this transitional period. Perhaps the most inspiring of these changes is so characteristic of autumn that it has led many in...
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