Research Blog

By Fulton E. Rockwell, and N. Michele Holbrook The structure of leaf vasculature viewed over a broad phylogenetic scale from lycophytes to eudicots correlates with stomatal conductance (gs), providing the basis for the hypothesis that increasing vein density drove the evolution of high fluxes in angiosperms.…

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Mark your calendars for the first Plantae.org live online chat discussion with featured community member Anne Sternberger! Support your peers  |  Discuss plant science topics  |  Learn about how others work Tuesday, June 27th at 5pm EST / 11am HST |  Join: www.plantae.org/annes Anne is…

Light is an essential environmental factor for photosynthetic organisms, serving as a source of energy and signal information. To precisely perceive and respond to different wavelengths of the light spectrum, eukaryotic photosynthetic microorganisms and higher plants have developed different classes…

Water deficit (WD) is one of the main environmental stress factors affecting crops and global food security. Acclimation to WD, however, enables plants to maintain growth under unfavorable environmental conditions. To shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying WD acclimation, Rymaszewski et al.…

Auxin regulates many aspects of growth and development in land plants, but the origin and evolution of auxin signaling and response mechanisms remain largely unknown. Genome analyses of the moss Physcomitrella patens revealed the presence of the principal gene families involved in auxin homeostasis and…

Root hairs are long tubular extensions of root epidermal cells that greatly increase the root surface area and thereby assist in water and nutrient absorption. Root hairs are found in nearly all vascular plants, including angiosperms, gymnosperms, and lycophytes, and they exhibit similar cellular features,…

Phenotyping, the process of measuring and analyzing observable plant characteristics, is a term used frequently in the College of Agriculture these days—and a technique that is now automated for field research at Purdue. The Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center, a 25,500-square-foot facility…