Sunflowers Follow The Sun

A recent study was conducted on sunflowers, showing the plant moves with the sun, a property called helioptropism. In order for sunflowers to get the most sunlight possible, they bend to match the arc of the sun. This is with the use of their internal clock and ability to detect sunlight. This is done by the turning on and off of genes that control growth. Stacy Harmer and Hagop Atamian studied Sunflower fields, pots, and growth chambers. They stopped the potted sunflowers from chasing the sun, and notices that they grew smaller that those who moved with the sun. They determined that at night the plants stem grows on the west side in order for them to face the east. During the day, the flower's stem grows on the east to make them face the west. 

Sugar Pump in Plants Discovered

This article is about the recent study that discovered exactly how plants get the proper amount of sucrose. The plant doesn't have a muscle to pump the vitals through like the human heart so they use pump proteins to bring the sucrose around. The phloem is used to get the vital nutrientss around the plant and the pump proteins are what get the carbohydrates to the phloem. "With the participation of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, a research group at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, USA, has now succeeded in identifying this previously unknown sucrose transporter. Different proteins are involved here which belong to the recently identified protein family known as SWEET. The SWEETs arise in the cell membrane of the phloem parenchyma cells. They act as molecular pumps." This article was found at:http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/12/13/sugar_pump_in_plants_identified.html

The Circadian Rhythm for Life

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Circadian_rhythm_labeled.jpg

In a Science Daily News article a study of circadian rhythms in plants is helping aid in the difficulties surrounding the studies in human health. Both humans and plants have genes in which a twenty-four hour period is used for cell division. The article states, “One of the main human circadian rhythm genes, cryptochrome, has been associated with diabetes and depression. Both of these grew from work with plants.” During circadian rhythms in plants, night time is when there is the most activity present due to the absence of light. There are specific genes at night that aid in plant growth, which help scientists see that there are certain times where human genes are also more susceptible to change. One main idea arising from this article is that the genes harnessed in plants within this time period that help cover up diseases could also be helpful in trying to fight off HIV. Scientists are looking into more ways to understand these rhythms so that new potential health aids can be found.

This holds for a large importance within society because studying what is around us can help aid us personally in the long run. There are similarities within species, such as these aiding genes used throughout circadian rhythms and having scientists closely watch what these genes can do can help in the medical field. It is interesting that plants could help us in finding ways to defend ourselves against diseases and infections. Even though organisms can look very different on the outside, there are many similarities on the inside, we just have to look for them.

Summer Seaweed: A Possible New Biofuel

According to an article from Biology News.Net, researchers at Aberystwyth University claim the use of kelp (Laminaria digitata) could prove to be a vital alternative to terrestrial grown biofuels; but the suitability of its chemical composition varies on a seasonal basis. They say harvesting the kelp in July when carbohydrate levels are at their highest would ensure optimal sugar release for biofuel production. "Seaweed biofuel could be very important in future energy production," says Dr. Adams. "What biofuels provide that other renewables such as wind power cannot is a storable energy source that we can use when the wind drops."

This discovery could jump start a fast and efficient new way of producing fuel. With this new research put into effect, we would no longer have to rely on fossil fuel. Research in biofuel has been mainly focused on terrestrial plants, but there is a conflict on using land to grow food or fuel. Since Marine ecosystems account for more than half of global biomass and are relatively unused, this could be a remarkable solution. Hopefully we see more research put into this discovery and have seaweed fuel put to use in the near future.

http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2011/07/05/biofuels_from_the_sea.html

http://www.seaweed.ie/descriptions/laminaria_digitata.html

What Smells? Oh, the World's Smelliest Flower!

The Titan Arum plant, nicknamed the Corpse flower because of its pungent smell of rotting flesh, is in full bloom after 75 years at the University of Basel in Switzerland. According to Bioscholar, the flower was expected to remain open until Easter Sunday.

The eight-foot plant, indigenous to Indonesia’s rain forests, has the largest unbranched shoot in the world. On average, they bloom once in a decade. Collectors and plant enthusiasts around the world desire Titan Arum because of its strange blooming patterns. Twelve of them are housed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the Princess of Wales Conservatory among hundreds of other tropical plants. When the plants are ready to pollinate, the stem heats up to release a pungent smell, which lasts for about three days.

The largest Arum at Kew gardens weighs 200 pounds and grows at a staggering rate of a quarter of an inch an hour. It guzzles liquid fertilizer and potassium each week to keep up its strength while bedded in roomy surroundings. Sir David Attenborough, naturalist and a natural history filmmaker, who invented the name Titan Arum, was the first to capture it flowering on film for his BBC TV series “The Private Life of Plants”. He dropped the plant’s original name – Amorphophallus – perhaps because of the reference to male genitalia.

I could not help but laugh when I read this article. I found it very interesting that a plant could, in fact, smell like rotting flesh. I would have loved to witness this. I also found it rather humorous that it's original name referenced a penis.

Selaginella genome adds piece to plant evolutionary puzzle

A Purdue University-led sequencing of the Selaginella moellendorffii(spikemoss) genome - the first for a non-seed vascular plant - is expected to give scientists a better understanding of how plants of all kinds evolved over the past 500 million years and could open new doors for the identification of new pharmaceuticals.

A team of 100 from 11 different countries was to sequence the genome of Selaginella, a lycophyte. Lycophytes are the oldest living vascular plants, which shed pores to reproduce and have a singular vascular vein through their leaves.

Scientists also discovered that the Selaginella is the only plant that has not experienced a polyploidy event, which means it does not create one or more sets of extra chromosomes. It also is missing genes that most flowers have such as controlling flowering and the stages of changing from a juvenile phase to adult. They are unsure as to how it does what other plants can do with its missing genes.

The genome of the Selaginella would help scientists understand how its genes give the plants its unique characteristics and how other plants are evolutionarily connected to it. There research is to help them understand how plants evolved as well.

This article was interesting to read. I really was never aware of how much we still have to learn about almost everything. Scientists are researching so many things and we discover/learning so many important things that will help us later in life.