EARTH.COM - Scientists have identified a single molecule that surges inside stressed plant cells and rapidly chokes off a growth pathway they cannot live without.
The study recasts stunted growth as an active survival response, and it points to a hidden control system that could shape tougher crops.
Inside leaf cells, the slowdown took hold in a pathway so essential that disabling one key enzyme can be fatal.
By tracking shifts in the pathway’s compounds, Wilhelmina van de Ven at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) identified a single intermediate that surged as growth began to slow.