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The molecular mechanisms enabling plants to quickly adapt their rate of flower production in response to changing nutrient levels in soil have been revealed by researchers at the Sainsbury Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could contribute to improving crop yields by …

Game-changing synthetic biology developments that could help address global health and agriculture challenges will be examined at a three-day international synthetic biology symposium at the Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge, this spring (16-18 April 2018).The symposium, “Crossing Kingdoms”, will bring together leading scientists from a…

The health of a plant is dependent on successfully navigating a diverse world of plant colonizing microbes. For many plants, a fundamental challenge is facilitating colonization of beneficial symbionts whilst also deterring colonization of detrimental pathogens. SLCU’s Sebastian Schornack studies common and contrasting processes involved in the int…

I have always held a deep fascination with the natural world and this was almost certainly fuelled by my early years living in Zambia and seeing first-hand the amazing African wildlife. My first experiences working with plants came when I joined the group of Brian Staskawicz at the University of California, Berkeley, to do a year-long undergraduate…

SLCU researchers have discovered a way in which cells order progress through cell division - by keeping certain regulatory components “locked in” the nucleus until needed.All parts of a plant – the stem, leaves, flowers, roots, come from a pool of cells found in plant meristems. To keep the supply of these meristem cells going, the cells must under…

Plants present a multitude of patterns to the world. One of the most obvious and striking is phyllotaxis (from Ancient Greek phýllon meaning leaf and táxis meaning arrangement), the position of organs around the stem. In new work by PhD student Marina Linardic, in the Braybrook Group, potential patterning mechanisms for phyllotaxis in a seaweed hav…

Small amounts of a chemical hormone can reprogram a plant cell and change it’s growth and physiology. Which plant cells produce these chemicals? Where and when do these chemical hormones go? And what genetic programs do they influence once they arrive?These questions are now easier to answer for one such chemical, the growth hormone gibberellin. A …

Small amounts of a chemical hormone can reprogram a plant cell and change it’s growth and physiology. Which plant cells produce these chemicals? Where and when do these chemical hormones go? And what genetic programs do they influence once they arrive?These questions are now easier to answer for one such chemical, the growth hormone gibberellin. A …

New research published this week, as a collaborative effort between University of Cambridge, University of Sheffield and The John Innes Centre, is changing the way we understand plant ‘breathing’. On almost every leaf of every plant, tiny active pores called stomata act as channels through which carbon dioxide enters and oxygen leaves the plant; th…

I grew up bringing home living things I wasn’t supposed to take inside. I just wanted to watch them grow and figure out how they did it. I find the idea that living creatures start with one single cell that multiplies and differentiates to create a fully functional organism (and that evolution can act on these processes to produce new forms that lo…

Phloem is celebrated for its role in moving the products of photosynthesis from ‘source’ tissues, e.g. leaves, through the plant body-plan to ‘sink’ tissues, e.g. roots. Despite this central role in plant physiology, the photosynthate delivery interface between the phloem and the surrounding sink tissues is not well characterised. Recently, a colla…

New research reveals the science behind a silver lining – SLCU researchers and CU Botanic Garden staff combine forces to discover the how and why behind the Saxifraga’s silver-white crust.This collaboration arose from a desire to test cutting edge microscopy techniques on plants beyond those usually used in SLCU plant research. “I needed test subje…

Can we improve crop photosynthesis to feed the world sustainably? A lecture by Prof Steve Long as well as tours, talks and activities mark SLCU's involvement in the upcoming Festival of Plants on 20 May. SLCU is preparing for the annual Festival of Plants held in the Botanic Garden. Members of SLCU will give informal talks and tours, as well as ru…

A key regulator has been discovered to determine cell size in flowers through random fluctuations. Counterintuitively, this randomness can lead to patterns. This finding helps us to understand how biological patterns are initiated, how shape and size are determined during growth, and may lead to important discoveries improving crop yields.Scientist…

EMBO and FEBS announce SLCU Director Professor Ottoline Leyser as the recipient of the tenth FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award.The award recognizes outstanding achievements of female researchers in the life sciences in the past five years. Ottoline Leyser receives the honour for her work on the evolutionary, developmental and biochemical mechanism…