Mission
Our mission is to discover, maintain, and transmit knowledge concerning basic plant biology and provide leadership in the biological sciences.
In dangerous fungal family’s befriending of plants, a story of loss
Researchers show that gene loss — not the evolution of new genes — helped drive the fly amanita mushroom into its symbiotic relationship with plants.
Blazes of light reveal how plants signal danger long distances
The plants produce a protein that only fluoresces around calcium, letting the researchers track its presence and concentration. Then came caterpillar bites, scissor cuts and crushing wounds.
An ocean apart, carnivorous pitcher plants create similar communities
Asian pitchers transplanted to Massachusetts bogs can mimic the living communities of natives so well that the pitcher plant mosquito — a specialized insect that evolved to complete its life cycle exclusively in North American pitchers — lays eggs in the impostors, new research shows.
Events
- October
- October 25
- October 25Biology Colloquium: Kate McCullohThe plant danger zone: assessing different strategies to deal with abiotic stresses3:30 PM, B302 Birge Hall
- November
- November 1Biology Colloquium: Gonzalo GiribetAnother round of metazoan phylogeny: current progress and future directions3:30 PM, B302 Birge Hall
- November 8Biology Colloquium: Warren PorterP-GMO crops and pesticide use - unexpected relationships and risks to animals and humans3:30 PM, B302 Birge Hall
