Early-diverging land plants have relatively simple morphologies and structures, but they have a strong ability to adapt to terrestrial environments. Previous studies have shown that lineage-specific genes played an important role in the adaptation of early-diverging land plants, but how these genes originated and evolved remains elusive.
Woody debris (WD) is a critical but often overlooked component of forest ecosystems. WD represents a globally significant carbon stock, and its decomposition returns nutrients to the soil while providing habitat to microbes, plants and animals. Understanding what drives WD decomposition is therefore vitally important when building models of climate change and nutrient cycles.
It has long been known that when a plant is attacked by herbivores, defense responses are generated, which travels from the wounded organ to other parts of the plant that thwarts further attack by the herbivores. Many parasites, especially the holoparasitic ones, usually have highly altered morphologies, special ecology, and evolutionary histories. How parasites respond to insect herbivory and ...
Polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols (PPAPs), possessing highly oxygenated acylphloroglucinol-derived cores decorated with isoprenyl or geranyl side-chains, are a group of structurally fascinating and synthetically challenging natural products that collectively exhibit a broad range of biological activities.
The fern genus Pteris was published by Linnaeus in 1753. The genus contains ca. 200 to 250 species, distributed throughout the tropical, subtropical, and temperate areas of all continents except Antarctica.
Carotenoids are yellow to red pigments synthesized by all photosynthetic organisms. Lutein, β-carotene, and zeaxanthin are essential carotenoids for human health, serving as provitamin A or retina pigments.
The diversity of traits associated with plant regeneration is often shaped by functional trade-offs where plants typically do not excel at every function because resources allocated to one function cannot be allocated to another. By analyzing correlations among seed traits, empirical studies have shown that there is a trade-off between seedling development and the occupation of new habitats, al...
The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a critical role during many phases of the plant life cycle, regulating plant responses to various environmental signals as well as endogenous cues including water limitation, seed development and dormancy and sex determination.
Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi, forming important associations with plants in evolution, have attracted much attention from scientists. Species of the genus Strobilomyces, known as "Old Men of the Woods", can form ECM symbioses selectively with plants of many families, e.g. Dipterocarpaceae, Fabaceae, Casuarinaceae, Myrtaceae, Pinaceae and Fagaceae in both tropical and temperate regions. Mushrooms...
