SCIENCE ALERT - At some point in evolutionary history, possibly around 400 million years ago, things started having sex. This adaptational (and sensual) advance introduced multiple benefits by allowing increased gene sharing, thereby helping to prune deleterious mutations and boost general fitness. Avocado trees also ostensibly like to have sex, but face a problem: Each...
THE COOL DOWN - Before a young avocado tree ever produces its first flowers, breeders may now be able to predict whether it will follow the A or B type blooming schedule. Researchers at two University of California campuses identified its corresponding gene, according to a UC Riverside press release. What happened? A research team...
SFGATE - Even as a fixture in California cuisine and a sizable industry for the state’s farmers, avocados have presented an ongoing mystery for scientists: How do they easily flip sexes? In a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, California researchers have finally answered that question by tracing...
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...
EARTH.COM - Plants can’t run from danger. When sunlight suddenly becomes too intense, temperatures spike, or conditions turn hostile, they have to survive exactly where they are. To cope, they rely on rapid internal changes. One of the most important is the ability to slow growth almost instantly – not over hours or days, but...
THE WASHINGTON POST - Death Valley, known as the driest place in North America, is teeming with life with a once-in-a-decade blossoming of wildflowers known as a superbloom, transforming a normally brown desert landscape into carpets of gold. Wildflowers bloom across parts of southern California and Nevada at different degrees usually every year. In some...
UC ANR - Grape Day at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center – a time-honored learning event dating to the late 1960s – was convened again on Aug. 12 for wine, table and raisin grape growers to hear about the latest field trials and innovations. “The primary purpose of Grape Day is to showcase...
EARTH.COM - Wild tomatoes rooted on the raw lava of Fernandina and Isabela Islands have done something biologists once filed under “nearly impossible,” reviving a molecular defense that disappeared from their relatives millions of years ago during species evolution. The phenomenon has been traced to a tiny tweak in the plants’ chemistry, and it now...
DAILY GALAXY - In an unexpected discovery, researchers have found that wild tomatoes in the Galápagos Islands seem to be evolving in reverse. This fascinating phenomenon, previously thought to be rare, suggests that evolution isn’t always a straightforward process. The finding, which challenges conventional wisdom, could lead to exciting breakthroughs in genetic research. Tomatoes Turning...
