News

Jun

13

2022

Plants’ threat-detection mechanisms raise the alarm

By Carnegie HQ

Palo Alto, CA— New work led by Carnegie’s Zhiyong Wang untangles a complex cellular signaling process that’s underpins plants’ ability to balance expending energy on growth and defending themselves from pathogens. These findings, published in Nature ...

Jun

13

2022

“Protective cloak” prevents plants from self-harming in very bright conditions

By Carnegie HQ

Palo Alto, CA— New work led by Carnegie’s Petra Redekop, Emanuel Sanz-Luque, and Arthur Grossman probes the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which plants protect themselves from self-harm. Their findings, published by Science Advances , improve ...

Jun

08

2022

Uncovering an evolutionary process that enabled diversity of plant life on Earth

By Carnegie HQ

Palo Alto, CA— About 1.2 billion years ago a blue-green bacterium was engulfed by a more complex cell, transforming our planet and allowing a tremendous diversity of plant life to emerge and continue to evolve. The engulfed cyanobacterium—sometimes ...

Jun

07

2022

How do plants know how big to grow?

By Carnegie HQ

Palo Alto, CA— Organisms grow to fit the space and resources available in their environments, leading to a vast diversity of body sizes and shapes within a population of the same species. What are the genetic and physiological mechanisms that ...

May

06

2022

Can algae unlock the secrets of photosynthesis?

By Carnegie HQ

Palo Alto, CA— A team led by current and former Carnegie plant biologists has undertaken the largest ever functional genomic study of a photosynthetic organism. Their work, published in Nature Genetics , could inform strategies for improving ...

May

03

2022

Plant Cell Atlas is inspiring the next generation

By Carnegie HQ

Palo Alto, CA— In many ways, plants form the cornerstone of our society. They are key to the health of many ecosystems, underpin our entire food chain, provide us with fuel and medicine, and mitigate the effects of carbon pollution in our atmosphere ...

Apr

27

2022

What can plants learn from algae?

By Carnegie HQ

Palo Alto, CA— Algae have a superpower that helps them grow quickly and efficiently. New work led by Carnegie’s Adrien Burlacot lays the groundwork for transferring this ability to agricultural crops, which could help feed more people and fight ...

Feb

07

2022

Elucidating plants’ survival skills could save humanity in a changing climate

By Carnegie HQ

Palo Alto, CA— Plant science will be crucial for solving many of society’s most-pressing challenges—including climate change, food security, and sustainable energy—but what are the outstanding mysteries that plant researchers need to solve to pave ...

Dec

09

2021

New understanding of plant nutrient response could improve fertilizer management strategies

By Carnegie HQ

Palo Alto, CA— Green is a color that is almost universally associated with plants—for good reason. The green pigment chlorophyll is essential to plants’ ability to generate food; but what happens if they don’t have enough of it? New work from ...

Oct

26

2021

How do plants act fast to fight off infections?

By Carnegie HQ

Palo Alto, CA— New work led by Carnegie’s Kangmei Zhao and Sue Rhee reveals a new mechanism by which plants are able to rapidly activate defenses against bacterial infections. This understanding could inspire efforts to improve crop yields and ...

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