Seeds – PossibleThreat Articles

The pectin is protectin': Study uncovers a plant barrier against toxic aluminum

October 24, 2019 0 Comments Agriculture and Food, Botany, Endangered Plants, Genetics, mice, Pests and Parasites, Seeds, Soil Types

Aluminum toxicity is a major contributor to poor crop growth, especially in regions with acidic soils. How aluminum enters at the growing root tips of plants is not well understood. Researchers have found that pectin, a chemical component of the plant cell wall, may play a key role as a barrier to prevent aluminum from entering rice plants. The study sheds light on how rice plants may resist aluminum toxicity.

News Science

How plant roots grow hair

October 17, 2019 0 Comments Botany, Endangered Plants, Genetics, Nature, New Species, Pests and Parasites, Seeds, Soil Types

The roots of plants can do a lot of things: They grow in length to reach water, they can bend to circumvent stones, and they form fine root hairs enabling them to absorb more nutrients from the soil. A team of researchers has now identified an important regulator of this process.

News Science

Sweet corn growers, processors could dramatically increase yield, profit

October 8, 2019 0 Comments Agriculture and Food, Botany, Ecology Research, Endangered Plants, Fisheries, Food and Agriculture, Seeds, Zoology

In an industry struggling to maintain profitability, it's curious that U.S. processing sweet corn – the corn that ends up in cans and freezer bags – is falling so far below its potential. Yet, that's what a new study clearly demonstrates.

News Science

Limited seed availability, dry climate hamper post-wildfire forest recovery

October 2, 2019 0 Comments Botany, Exotic Species, Forest, Nature, Rainforests, Seeds, Trees, Wildfires

A lack of tree seedling establishment following recent wildfires represents a crucial bottleneck limiting coniferous forest recovery in the western US, new research finds.

News Science

Biologists track the invasion of herbicide-resistant weeds into southwestern Ontario

September 30, 2019 0 Comments Ecology, Endangered Plants, Evolutionary Biology, Exotic Species, Grassland, Nature, Rainforests, Seeds

A team led by biologists have identified the ways in which herbicide-resistant strains of the invasive common waterhemp weed have emerged in fields of soy and corn in southwestern Ontario. The resistance, first detected in 2010, spread thanks to two mechanisms: either pollen and seeds of resistant plants were physically dispersed by wind, water and other means, or resistance appeared through the spontaneous emergence of mutations that then spread.

News Science

How a protein connecting calcium and plant hormone regulates plant growth

September 26, 2019 0 Comments Agriculture and Food, Botany, Endangered Plants, Genetics, Life Sciences, Nature, New Species, Seeds

A new study finds that a unique mechanism involving calcium, the plant hormone auxin and a calcium-binding protein is responsible for regulating plant growth.

News Science