Quiet Branches is back to regular posts about science. I’ll try to get one post up each week through the holidays, including some guest posts! Excited to bring you more plant science stories. Creating a plant Plants are ubiquitous in our day-to-day lives. We all benefit from the products they produce. Air, food, shelter, clean water, … More Shoot apical meristems.
This week, I’m going to write about a Genetically modified crop plant brought into the world by nature. Did you think only humans could genetically modify organisms? Nature’s been at it since long before humans were around. An international team of researchers published a paper in PNAS about the discovery of two T-DNA loci in … More A Naturally Genetically Modified Organism.
Cytokinins: Part 2. Last week, I told the story about how cytokinins as a factor that induced cell division and new shoot formation. The first in the class of molecules was the adenine derivative Kinetin. Kinetin is a synthetic molecule, or the product of rearranging natural ones when DNA sits out for many months. Carlos … More Cytokinins, Part 2.
This post touches on a lot of things. I wasn’t aware of just how many things interlinked in this story. So I hope you enjoy the story of the discovery of cytokinins, and the connections made herein. This year is the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the first cytokinin, kinetin. And this one is … More The Discovery of Cytokinin.
It’s hormone month at The Quiet Branches. It makes a little sense now that I think about it. Love is supposedly in the air with Valentine’s Day and the plants that go dormant for winter will soon be back, engaging their hormone pathways to sprout new growth. In a way, I hope I’m teaching you … More Plant Hormones: Ethylene
Here is a list of small molecule (chemical) signals used by most/all plants: Auxin Cytokinin Ethylene Abscisic acid Gibberellin Salicylic acid Jasmonic acid Brassinosteroids Strigolactones Don’t worry about what these names mean or what these things are for now. I’ll be writing posts about them in the coming weeks. Hormones In human growth and development, … More Plant hormones: Auxin.
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