STRESS RESISTANCE

Jun 26 2025SCIENCE

Boosting Rice Resilience with Desert Plant Genes

Plants have clever ways to handle tough conditions. One such method involves a signaling system called the MAPK cascade. This system acts like a plant's alarm and response team, kicking into gear when faced with stress like too much salt, dry spells, or extreme heat. At the top of this team is a gene called MEKK, which plays a big role in helping plants cope with the...

reading time about 1 minute
May 12 2025SCIENCE

How Fir Trees Handle Heat Stress

Abies beshanzuensis is a type of fir tree. It struggles with high temperatures. This is a big problem for its survival. Scientists have been looking into how this tree copes with heat. They found some interesting things. The tree's ability to photosynthesize drops when it's hot. This means it makes less food. The chlorophyll, which gives leaves their green col...

reading time about 1 minute
Jan 06 2025SCIENCE

The Power of AtbZIP69: Enhancing Wheat's Stress Tolerance

Scientists have turned to a tiny gene, AtbZIP69, to create tougher wheat plants. By inserting this gene into a specific wheat variety, they’ve made these plants much better at handling low nitrogen and drought conditions. When faced with stress, these genetically altered wheat plants showed increased activity in their antioxidants and adjustments in how they use and ...

reading time less than a minute