Mastodawn

Plant stomata—microscopic pores responsible for gas exchange and water regulation—are functionally dependent on lipid-modifying enzymes that dictate the flexibility of their surrounding guard cells. Modifying these enzymes reduces pore mobility, which significantly decreases water loss and increases plant survival rates during droughts.
#MolecularBiology #CellularBotany #PlantPhysiology #Botany #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/06/mbio06252601.html

Engineering Drought-Resistant Crops

Discover how lipid-modifying enzymes GELP80 and GELP100 control stomata flexibility in plants, paving the way for drought-resistant agriculture.

Oliver Brendel May 26

#Stomata, which are the pores on the leaf surface which regulate CO2 coming into the leaf, but also the amount of water vapour lost (transpiration), react relatively slowly to environmental changes. One of my PhD students just got his first paper out, showing for beech that shade adapted leaves are more responsive to changes in light. This has consequences for shaded leaves in the canopy of forest : more responsive stomata have a more efficient CO2 uptake and thus #Photosynthesis. Plants under drought were also more responsive, reducing their amount of water lost by transpiration and increasing thereby their #WaterUseEfficiency.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ppl.70856
#AcademicChatter #ClimateChange
#Drought #Forests #Trees #Stomata #PlantPhysiology

michael May 10

7-May-2026
How #soil #bacteria help #plants defend themselves against disease
Researchers at the University of Liège have uncovered a new mechanism by which soil bacteria activate plants’ immune defenses

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1127302

#science #ecology #plantPhysiology

How soil bacteria help plants defend themselves against disease

A new study reveals the mechanism by which surfactin, a molecule produced by beneficial soil bacteria, activates plants’ immune defences. This mechanism, distinct from the classical paradigm of immune recognition, relies on direct interaction with the plant cell membrane. This discovery opens up prospects for the development of next-generation biopesticides.

EurekAlert!

Bill Statler Apr 22

Rice seeds can hear when it's raining.

Scientific Frontline wrote the following post Wed, 22 Apr 2026 05:00:13 -0700 Plant seeds and seedlings possess the biological ability to detect and respond to natural sound vibrations in their environment, utilizing these acoustic cues to break dormancy and accelerate growth.
#Botany #Bioacoustics #PlantPhysiology #MechanicalEngineering #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/04/bot04222601.html

Plants can sense the sound of rain, a new study finds

Experiments by MIT engineers show rice seeds sprout faster to the sound of rain.

Scientific Frontline Apr 22

Plant seeds and seedlings possess the biological ability to detect and respond to natural sound vibrations in their environment, utilizing these acoustic cues to break dormancy and accelerate growth.
#Botany #Bioacoustics #PlantPhysiology #MechanicalEngineering #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/04/bot04222601.html

Plants can sense the sound of rain, a new study finds

Experiments by MIT engineers show rice seeds sprout faster to the sound of rain.

Scientific Frontline Apr 18

Researchers have mapped the precise structural pathways of Photosystem II in plants, revealing exactly how water molecules navigate to the active site for the critical water-splitting reaction that initiates #photosynthesis
#StructuralBiology #PlantPhysiology #Biochemistry #Botany #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/04/phgy04182601.html

Scientists reveal water pathways in photosynthesis

Researchers have revealed a detailed structure of this system in plants, uncovering what they describe as a “water valve”

Scientific Frontline Apr 13

Exposure to light directly enhances the structural adhesion between the outermost epidermal layer and the inner tissues of plant stems. This physiological response acts as a mechanical regulatory system that limits internal tissue expansion and governs overall plant growth.
#Botany #PlantPhysiology #CellBiology #AgriculturalScience #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2026/04/bot04132601.html

A new mechanism for light-controlled plant growth

Compared with plants grown in the dark, the epidermal and inner tissues of plants grown in the light are more tightly bound together

Oliver Brendel Apr 7

The latest research results on stomatal dynamics from our PhD candidate (and quite proud of it :-) : the shade tolerant Fagus sylvatica , the common beech, shows more reactive stomatal responses on shade leaves than on sun leaves, suggesting an optimisation to increase CO2 uptake. The differences in stomatal dynamics were not related, as usually assumed, to differences in stomatal morphology.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ppl.70856

#AcademicChatter #PlantPhysiology #BioDiversity #Stomata #StomatalAnatomy #PlantScience #ForestEcology

michael Mar 6

5-Mar-2026
This odd little plant could help turbocharge crop yields

this is about engineering #Rubisco being more efficient in #hornworts

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1118588

#science #plants #plantphysiology #crops

This odd little plant could help turbocharge crop yields

An international team of researchers has uncovered a remarkable molecular trick used by a unique group of land plants, one that could eventually be engineered into crops like wheat and rice to dramatically boost how efficiently they convert sunlight into food.

EurekAlert!

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Oliver Brendel Feb 17

@MiguelGuerreiro hello, biologists and ecologists is a very wide field. I'm rather on the plant side of things, more specifically in #ForestEcology looking at tree #PlantPhysiology and #EcoPhysiology