Researchers have shown for the first time that a specific protein plays an indispensable role in the formation of vacuoles, by far the largest organelles in plant cells. Enveloped by a membrane, vacuoles store substances vital for the plant cell and in many cases important to humans as well. Until now, scientists have only vaguely understood how these vacuoles are formed or how the substances stored inside them get there.

Scientists have developed a new tool for improving the expression of desirable genes in rice in parts of the plant where the results will do the most good.

The widening of the Panama Canal currently underway has created a rare opportunity to study the insects that inhabit the plants of environmentally sensitive Central American rainforest habitats. A new research effort there could shed light on biodiversity by documenting the area's host-plant relationships.

Scientists are working on a way to screen crop plants for toxic accumulation. Many plants, in response to predators or herbivores, release hydrogen cyanide to defend themselves. The new genetic screen for plants lacking this ability will be particularly useful for crops grown in tropical and sub-Saharan Africa.

Rising over 2,500 meters from Kenya's northern desert, the Mathews Range is a sky island: isolated mountain forests surrounded by valleys. Long cut off from other forests, 'sky islands' such as this often contain unique species and ecosystems. Supported by the Nature Conservancy, an expedition including local community programs Northern Rangelands Trust and Namunyak Conservancy recently spent a week surveying the mountain range, expanding the range of a number of species and discovering what is likely a new insect.

Despite the many cosmetic products, surgical treatments, food supplements, and drugs designed specifically to reverse the biological effects of aging in humans, long-lived aspen clones aren't so lucky. Researchers have shown that as long-lived male aspen clones age, their sexual performance declines.

Why do some insect-eating plants like sundews keep their flowers so far away from their traps? New research suggests that it isn't a clever trick to keep pollinators safe, it's about getting pollinated.

At Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, Calif., a fierce battle is taking place between an invasive plant and a native plant, but one with a new twist. European beachgrass provides cover that allows a timid deer mouse to get close enough to the lupine to snip off stalks of lupine fruits without being nabbed by overflying birds. The two plants aren't in direct competition, but the beachgrass in this indirect way threatens the lupine's ability to survive.

Researches in Sweden have shown how climate change many million years ago has influenced the geographical range of plants by modeling climate preferences for extinct species. The method can also be used to predict what effects climate change of today and tomorrow will have on future distributions of plants and animals.

A discovery of a vital feature of a plant's temperature sensing and growth mechanism could help to increase yields from crops. Researchers have found a gene that plays a significant role in the growth rate of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Researchers have shown that even the most widely-varying species of plants share remarkable similarities in the composition of proteins in them that undergo phosphorylation, a regulatory mechanism involved in various cellular phenomena. A database released by the group, with information on over three thousand phosphorylated proteins and phosphorylation sites in rice, opens new doors in the study and engineering of plants.

How toxic, blue-green algae out-compete other organisms through a form of selfish "enslavement" -- and by so doing proliferate dangerously in freshwater bodies -- has been described by a researcher.

Scientists have developed new technology that may contribute to the increase of crop yields in agriculture. The technology platform based on "tandem affinity purification" was developed to map the basic machinery of cell division in plants much faster than the existing techniques.

In a "Perspective" article in the Aug. 13 edition of Science, Chris Somerville of UC Berkeley, Steve Long of UIUC, and colleagues from Berkeley's Energy Biosciences Institute suggest that a diversity of plant species, adaptable to the climate and soil conditions of specific regions of the world, can be used to develop agroecosystems for fuel production that are compatible with contemporary environmental goals.

When plant-eating mammals such as goats chomp on a sprig of alfalfa, they could easily gobble up some extra protein in the form of insects that happen to get in their way. But a new report shows that plant-dwelling pea aphids have a strategy designed to help them avoid that dismal fate: The insects sense mammalian breath and simply drop to the ground.

As the fate of Europe's largest collection of fruit and berries hangs in the balance of a Russian court decision, the Global Crop Diversity Trust issued an urgent appeal for the Russian government to embrace its heroic tradition as protector of the world's crop diversity and halt the planned destruction of an incredibly valuable crop collection near St. Petersburg.

'Fearless' aphids -- which become accustomed to ignoring genetically engineered chemical alarms in plants and alarms sent by fellow aphids -- become easy prey for ladybugs. That's good news for farmers, according to researchers.

Could a "hot" flower attract pollinators by serving as a reward in a plant-pollinator mutualism? Many flowering plants produce nectar and pollen as rewards in exchange for pollination services by insects and other animals. Interestingly, however, a few plants have flowers that also produce heat metabolically -- so what is the adaptive function of this flower heating?

A beneficial yeast that tolerates fungicide may offer a "one-two punch" against Fusarium graminearum, the fungal culprit behind Fusarium head blight ("scab"). Scientists isolated an improved variant of the yeast Cryptococcus flavescens about two years ago, and are evaluating its potential as a biocontrol agent.

A 15-year experiment in an outdoor "laboratory" shows that naturally colonizing wetlands can offer just as many, if not more, ecological services as will wetlands planted by humans. Researchers have been comparing the behavior of two experimental marshes on the campus, one that was planted in 1994 with wetland vegetation and another that was left to colonize plant and animal life on its own.