The degree of herbivory and the effectiveness of defense varies widely among plant species. Resource availability in the environment is proposed as the major determinant of both the amount and type of plant defense. When resource are limited, plants with inherently slow growth are favored over those with fast growth rates; slow rates in turn favor large investments in antiherbivore defenses. Le...

BACKGROUND Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz, known by such popular names as "gold-of-pleasure" and "false flax," is an alternative oilseed crop for biofuel production and can be grown in harsh environments. Considerable interest is now being given to the new concept of the development of a fusion plant which can be used as a soil remediation plant for ground contaminated by heavy metals as well as a...

Pheromone receptors (PRs) are essential in moths to detect sex pheromones for mate finding. However, it remains unknown from which ancestral proteins these specialized receptors arose. The oldest lineages of moths, so-called non-ditrysian moths, use short-chain pheromone components, secondary alcohols, or ketones, so called Type 0 pheromones that are similar to many common plant volatiles. It i...

In August 2006, plant biologists gathered at the FASEB ‘Mechanisms in Plant Development’ meeting in Vermont, which was organized by Laurie Smith and Ueli Grossniklaus. A variety of plant developmental mechanisms were presented at this meeting and, although many talks focused on Arabidopsis thaliana as a primary model in which to study plant development, research in maize, tomato, Chlamydomonas ...

Plant growth and development directly depend on several physical variables, such as light, temperature or humidity and also indirectly through the action of pests (pathogens, insects) or pollutants. This dependency results from biological processes such as photosynthesis, mineral root absorption, stomatal opening, or disease development, responding to these physical variables. These responses a...

The diversity of plant species and their distribution in space are both thought to have important effects on the function of wetland ecosystems. However, knowledge of the relationships between plant species and spatial diversity remains incomplete. In this study, we investigated relationships between spatial pattern and plant species diversity over a five year period following the initial resto...

The molecular responses of a plant to a stress and the molecular profiles of plant organs during their development and differentiation are the reflection of the contribution from different cell types composing the plant and the organs. Hence, a major limitation to understanding plant cellular and molecular responses in different cells is the multicellular complexity of the plant or organs used ...