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Department of Plant Sciences

 
Read more at: Plant pathogens can't read maps
Plant pathogens can't read maps

Plant pathogens can't read maps

22 January 2016

Robin Thompson , Richard Cobb (University of California, Davis), Chris Gilligan and Nik Cunniffe published a paper in Ecological Modelling analysing how control of plant diseases can potentially be made more efficient. For many plant diseases the spatial extent of management is informed solely by administrative geography...


Read more at: ‘Smoke detector’ enables plant-fungal partnerships
‘Smoke detector’ enables plant-fungal partnerships

‘Smoke detector’ enables plant-fungal partnerships

18 December 2015

In terrestrial ecosystems, plants take up phosphate predominantly via association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). The resulting symbioses contribute to global carbon and mineral nutrient cycles, because AMF provide mineral nutrients to the plant and receive carbohydrates in return. Colonization of plant roots by...


Read more at: Let it glow, (let it glow, let it glow)
Let it glow, (let it glow, let it glow)

Let it glow, (let it glow, let it glow)

3 December 2015

Expression of GFP from liverwort chloroplasts


Read more at: Young Innovators Forum a success
Young Innovators Forum a success

Young Innovators Forum a success

30 November 2015

The launch of the Young Innovators' Forum (YIF) was a success. Last Wednesday, almost 100 farmers and Plant Sciences scientists met in an informal evening get-together in the Sainsbury lab to start what we hope is the first of many gatherings to build a cohort of committed young agri-tech professionals, with a strong...


Read more at: Plant Sciences highly commended at Green Gown Awards
Plant Sciences highly commended at Green Gown Awards

Plant Sciences highly commended at Green Gown Awards

30 November 2015

Plant Sciences' project ' LEDing the way to greener plant growth ' was honoured at the national Green Gown Awards in Bristol last Thursday. We were Highly Commended in the Research & Development category; effectively placing us second in a highly competitive group. The department's Energy Co-ordinator Martin Howes was...


Read more at: Making sense of canopies
Making sense of canopies

Making sense of canopies

27 November 2015

Béatrice Wedeux and David Coomes published a paper in Biogeosciences analysing how environmental factors and selective logging interact to shape the canopies of tropical forests. Using airborne laser scanning technology across a 750 km 2 peat swamp forest landscape in Borneo, the study reveals strong shifts in canopy...


Read more at: Dr Patrick Echlin
Dr Patrick Echlin

Dr Patrick Echlin

10 November 2015

The Department has received the sad news that Dr Patrick Echlin has died. He worked in Plant Sciences from 1963 to his retirement in 1999 and was a University Lecturer when he retired. The funeral will be at 3pm on Monday 23 November 2015 in the west chapel of the Cambridge Crematorium, followed by a gathering at Clare...


Read more at: Silence! - controlling recombination hotspots in plant genomes
Silence! - controlling recombination hotspots in plant genomes

Silence! - controlling recombination hotspots in plant genomes

23 October 2015

The Henderson laboratory have published a new paper investigating epigenetic control of recombination hotspots. Recombination is a major tool for crop breeding and improvement, which creates new combination of genetic diversity. Recombination is concentrated in narrow hotspots along the chromosomes and therefore it would...


Read more at: Athena SWAN award
Athena SWAN award

Athena SWAN award

1 October 2015

The Department is delighted to announce its Athena SWAN Bronze award from the Equality Challenge Unit. The award is in recognition of our efforts to recruit female students and staff, support their ambitions and promote their careers. We hope that this encourages even more women and members of minority groups to apply to...


Read more at: Letter from Armenia
Letter from Armenia

Letter from Armenia

1 October 2015

Pete Carey has spent two weeks in the mountains of Vyots Dzor in Armenia collecting plants of a restricted range species, Potentilla porphyrantha. They have been working on a site that is due to be mined in the coming years. The plants are being translocated to a new glasshouse that they have built at Sevan in one of three...