EAST LANSING, Mich. — Research detailing the genome of a wild wheat relative from a team including Michigan State University wheat geneticist Eric Olson has been published in Nature. Olson, an associate professor in the MSU Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, helped map out the genomics of Tausch’s goatgrass (Aegilops tauschii), an annual grass species and donor …
In November 1878, the wooden schooner James R. Bentley set sail from Chicago bound for Buffalo loaded with a large shipment of rye. During the voyage, it encountered heavy seas and gale-force winds and struck a shoal near 40 Mile Point Lighthouse in Lake Huron just north of Rogers City. The damage was severe, and …
Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered two proteins that work together to determine the fate of cells in plants facing certain stresses. Ironically, a key discovery in this finding, published recently in Nature Communications, was made right as the project’s leader was getting ready to destress. Postdoctoral researcher Noelia Pastor-Cantizano was riding a bus to …
A new genetically engineered potato developed by Michigan State University potato breeder Dave Douches has been granted exemption from the biotechnology regulations placed on genetically modified products by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS). The Kal91.3 potato is bred from an MSU potato variety named Kalkaska. The newly developed …
Cyanobacteria are little green microorganisms that photosynthesize, like plants and algae do, but with stark differences in how they function. “I prefer to say that they are tiny green bacteria that are able to perform photosynthesis as plants but within a really tiny compartment,” María Santos-Merino, a postdoctoral researcher in the Ducat lab at the …
The next time you walk through the woods in the dead of winter, take a moment to see if you can spot one of nature’s most persistent and heartiest survivors. No, not the patch of brown grasses peeking through a snowbank, or the acres of trees with their bare boughs and branches, waiting for spring. …
Michigan State University plant biologists have made a discovery that could help turn a natural kill switch in plant cells into a “life switch” that helps crops better survive the challenges presented by climate change. At its core, though, this is a fundamental finding, shared in the journal Nature Plants, that has implications across biology for …
For most people, the quest for the perfect strawberry begins and ends in the produce aisle: perusing small towers of clamshell containers – plastic treasure chests of ruby-red fruit – to find the right one to take home and savor. But for Cholani Weebadde, associate professor and Plant Breeder for International Programs at Michigan State …
Metabolism regulates far more than just body fat—it encompasses all the various life-sustaining chemical reactions that occur within an organism. When food is broken down into energy, a wide range of metabolites are produced. Primary metabolites help regulate and enable normal growth, while secondary metabolites provide unique advantages to an organism based on adaptations to …
Understanding the intricate puzzle pieces that make up the photosynthetic systems of plants can help researchers know how to grow and create plants that can survive in changing climate conditions. Michigan State University scientists in the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory (PRL) are working to illuminate this understanding by investigating specific chloroplast proteins and the role …
