Latest Plant physiology Stories

Biologists have identified plant enzymes that may help to engineer plants that take advantage of elevated carbon dioxide to use water more efficiently. The finding could help to engineer crops that take advantage of rising greenhouse gases.Plants take in the carbon dioxide they need for photosynthesis through microscopic breathing pores in the surface of leaves. But for each molecule of the gas gained, they lose hundreds of water molecules through these same openings. The pores can tighten to...

Working to develop heartier, better-adapted crops for southern U.S.Dr. Daniel Leskovar, a Texas AgriLife Research plant physiologist at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Uvalde, has been investigating ways to help vegetable plants make a less stressful transition from the greenhouse to the field."This research can aid in the successful production and possibly even the further profitability of some vegetable crops by producing high-quality, more adaptive plants that will...

Superior 'leaf plumbing' gave flowering plants evolutionary advantageTo Charles Darwin it was an 'abominable mystery' and it is a question which has continued to vex evolutionists to this day: when did flowering plants evolve and how did they come to dominate plant life on earth? Today a study in Ecology Letters reveals the evolutionary trigger which led to early flowering plants gaining a major competitive advantage over rival species, leading to their subsequent boom and abundance.The...

Photosynthetic organisms need to cope with a wide range of light intensities, which can change over timescales of seconds to minutes. Too much light can damage the photosynthetic machinery and cause cell death. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution were part of a team that found that specific proteins in algae can act as a safety valve to dissipate excess absorbed light energy before it can wreak havoc in cells.The research, performed mostly by Graham Peers in the laboratory of Krishna...

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cavitation Technologies, Inc. (CTI) (OTC Bulletin Board: CVAT; Berlin: WTC) is pleased to announce a research report has been issued on the Company by Grass Roots Research and Distribution Inc., Wall Street's leading independent research firm, with a "BUY" recommendation and a $2.04 long term price target. To view full report please paste the following link to your browser: www.grassrootsrd.com/Reports/cavitation_technologies.pdf Grass Roots...

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cavitation Technologies, Inc. (CTI) (OTC Bulletin Board: CVAT; Berlin: WTC) has announced that it has filed three new PCT patent applications to protect our intellectual property worldwide. The patents are for Flow-Through Cavitation Assisted Rapid Modification of Crude Oil, Modification of Beverage Fluids, and Method for Cavitation Assisted Refining, Degumming and Dewaxing of Oil and Fat, for its Nano Cavitation Technologies. Cavitation...

Junior professor's breakthrough launches unprecedented number of publications in high-profile journalsBreakthrough research done earlier this year by a plant cell biologist at the University of California, Riverside has greatly accelerated scientists' knowledge on how plants and crops can survive difficult environmental conditions such as drought.Working on abscisic acid (ABA), a stress hormone produced naturally by plants, Sean Cutler's laboratory showed in April 2009 how ABA helps plants...

Scientists at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, UK, have shown how plants can protect themselves against genetic damage caused by environmental stresses. The growing tips of plant roots and shoots have an in-built mechanism that, if it detects damage to the DNA, causes the cell to 'commit suicide' rather than pass on its defective DNA.Plants have, at the very tips of their roots and shoots, small populations of stem cells, through which they are able to grow and produce new tissue throughout...

Charting femtosecond energy flow could aid redesign of molecules to improve light captureUniversity of California, Berkeley, chemists have discovered the secret to the success of a jellyfish protein whose green glow has made it the darling of biologists and the subject of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.The researchers' study of green fluorescent protein (GFP) and the structural changes it undergoes when it fluoresces is the cover story of the Nov. 12 issue of the journal...

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cavitation Technologies, Inc. (CTI) (OTC Bulletin Board: CVAT; Berlin: WTC) is pleased to announce it has signed Agri Process Innovations, Inc. ("API") (www.apinnovations.com) as a new Strategic partner to supply equipment, systems and expertise which compliment CTI's product offerings and know how. API is a leading provider of small and medium size renewable fuels plants. According to Kirk Wiggins, CTI's Director of Sales and Business...