News

Scientists often spend countless hours on tedious measurements. But one such measurement just got a lot easier - counting fungal structures to quantify arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonisation in plant roots is now automated thanks to a new method developed at the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU).Understanding how soil fungi …

SLCU researchers have discovered that a protein involved in the early formation of root nodules in legumes also plays a key role in transforming the nodule into a nitrogen-fixing factory.The work provides an important advance in understanding the symbiotic relationship between plants and nitrogen-fixing bacteria and facilitates future engineering o…

Above image: Cryo-scanning electron microscopy of Hibiscus trionum petal fracture with false colour processing showing the cuticle has two physically distinct layers. Credit: Raymond Wightman. False color processing by Gareth Evans.Flowers are employing a materials science phenomenon typically associated with failures in structural engineering to p…

Dr Renske Vroomans has been appointed to the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU) to lead research into the evolutionary dynamics of developmental processes in plants.Dr Vroomans joins SLCU during an exciting time for evolutionary developmental biology, also known as evo-devo, with new data and modelling tools and innovative approaches …

This is the first time this vital, 400 million year old process has been visualised in real time in full root systems of living plants. Understanding the dynamics of plant colonisation by fungi could help to make food production more sustainable in the future.Almost all crop plants form associations with a particular type of fungi – called arbuscul…

Like the movie version of Spider-Man who shoots spider webs from holes in his wrists, a little alpine plant has been found to eject cobweb-like threads from tiny holes in specialised cells on its leaves. It’s these tiny holes that have taken plant scientists by surprise because puncturing the surface of a plant cell would normally cause it to explo…

To describe something as slow and boring we say it’s “like watching grass grow”, but scientists studying the early morning activity of plants have found they make a rapid start to their day – within minutes of dawn.Just as sunrise stimulates the dawn chorus of birds, so too does sunrise stimulate a dawn burst of activity in plants.Early morning is …

In some environments there is no way for a seed to know for sure when the best time to germinate is. In spring, cues like light, temperature and water may suggest to seeds that conditions are optimal for germination, but a week later an unpredictable drought or frost could kill the emerging seedlings.So how does a plant make sure that all of its of…

Professor Giles Oldroyd has been elected as an international member of the National Academy of Sciences in the USA. As Russell R Geiger Professor of Crop Science, Director of the Crop Science Centre and SLCU Group Leader, Professor Oldroyd’s research focuses on using the foundational knowledge of plants to drive transformative change in agriculture…

Can one plant produce both tasty and nutritious beans and tubers? Yes, the African yam bean can. Not only does it grow high-protein edible grains and tubers, this drought-resilient crop also replenishes the soil and is highly adaptable to varying-climates.Once prevalent across West and Central Africa, the African yam bean has been taken over by oth…

Arabidopsis thaliana shoot apical meristem with multiple flowers radiating out from centre at different stages of development (left) and the shoot apex under a scanning electron microscope where the centre area contains stem cells and is surrounded by young flower primordia (right). Images by Weibing Yang.How plant stem cells renew themselves – a c…

The research team that developed a biosensor that first recorded that a distinct gradient of the plant growth hormone gibberellin correlated with plant cell size has now revealed how this distribution pattern is created in roots.Starting when a plant embryo forms within a seed and continuing throughout the plant lifecycle, undifferentiated stem cel…

Chris Whitewoods will join the SLCU research leadership team to head a new research group focused on understanding how plants pattern themselves in three dimensions. We are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Chris Whitewoods, who will be joining us in March 2021.Dr Whitewoods, who has been appointed as a David Sainsbury Research Career Dev…

 SLCU's François Nédélec has joined Andrea Musacchio, from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, and Thomas Surrey, from the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, to study one of the most fundamental processes in life – cell division. Their project has been awarded a prestigious ERC Synergy Grant, valued at 11 million …

Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU) researchers, as part of a multidisciplinary international team, have uncovered a mechanism controlling subtle changes to the architecture of cell walls in plant roots that bolsters their defence against Phytophthora palmivora without negatively affecting plant growth.Each year 30 to 40 percent of the…