Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi boost plant resilience by remodelling the plant-pathogen membrane interface
Scientists have uncovered a surprising new way plants fight disease by teaming up with beneficial fungi that literally remodel the battleground inside their roots.
Graphic depicting the Plant Automatic Cell Lineage Reconstruction project. Illustration by Elise Laruelle and leaf images by Kumud Saini. Elise Laruelle and Sarah Robinson have been awarded funding from the University of Cambridge's Accelerate Programme for Scientific Discovery and the Cambridge Centre for Data-Driven...
Scientists discover new species of fungus in 407-million-year-old plant fossil from Scotland
Confocal scanning laser microscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, together with Raman analyses, allowed researchers to resolve different features of the plant and fungal structures in the Windyfield chert fossil of the early land plant Aglaophyton majus . Images by Raymond Wightman, taken on SLCU's SP8-...
New biosensor tracks plants’ immune hormone in real time
Arabidopsis thaliana leaf under mock (left) versus infection (right) 20 hours after infection: The right leaf shows salcylic acid (SA) accumulation spreading from the site of pathogen invasion. Images by Bijun Tang. New biosensor tracks plants’ immune hormone in real time Sainsbury Laboratory scientists develop tool to...
Explore the Wonders of Plant Science at Big Biology Day – Saturday 11 October The Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University will be bringing the fascinating world of plant science to life at this year’s Big Biology Day , held at Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge on Saturday 11 October, 10am-4pm . Visitors of all...
Axillary buds are located at the base of each leaf. Initially dormant, each can grow into a branch. To study how branching is regulated by local signalling within each bud and by systemic signalling from other buds, we used stem sections with two axillary buds and their associated leaves (left). This signalling network...
Scientists reveal long-standing mystery of ENOD40, a pioneering gene in legume nodulation research that marks nodule identity
A gene identified more than 30 years ago has now revealed its role as a natural microRNA (miRNA) sponge to fine-tune the legume nodulation pathway. Researchers have discovered that ENOD40 sequesters a miRNA that usually downregulates a positive regulator of nodulation.
ARIA grant to reimagine plant engineering through gene expression noise
Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU) has been awarded a £500,000 two-year grant from the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) to pioneer a radical new approach in plant synthetic biology by using biological noise as a tool rather than treating it as a problem. Co-led by Professor James Locke and Dr Chris...
Advancing Neuroinclusion Best Practices Round Table 24 September 2025 | 2pm Venue: Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 47 Bateman St, Cambridge CB1 7AF ( How to find us ) There’s no need to book, just come along on the day. Attend Online: Join the live Zoom Webinar More information: events@slcu.cam.ac.uk About...
Plant cell sculptors: How key proteins take on different roles to shape development
Trichomes on an Arabidopsis thaliana leaf (here shown using electron microscopy) are formed by a single cell adopting this spiked shape (top images). Arabidopsis plants without a SCAR/WAVE gene cannot form properly shaped trichomes, because their inner cytoskeleton control is impaired (bottom images). Images by Sabine...
