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In plants, the jasmonate signaling pathway helps plants control their defense responses to environmental stresses. Like the human body, plants respond differently to individual threats. Just as people wouldn’t get a fever due to a sprained ankle, plants deal with harmful elements in particular ways. A study from the Howe lab looks at how plants respond to environmental threats in the correct way.

MPS graduate student MacKenzie Jacobs writes about her experience in Switzerland in summer 2023, attending Polyploid Summer School at the University of Fribourg.

Five Molecular Plant Sciences graduate students have been accepted to the Plant Biotechnology for Health and Sustainability Graduate Training Program. This two-year program provides training and career opportunities for students who are interested in research areas related to plant biotechnology.

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology features MPS graduate stuent Angel McKay Whiteman as a Graduate Student Spotlight.

MPS faculty member David Lowry participates in a collaboration between plant and education researchers at MSU working to transform the relationship students have with science.

Two MPS faulty members, Josh Vermaas and Tom Sharkey, teamed up to investigate how isoprene levels and temperature affect the thylakoid membrane of plants at the nanoscale.

This scientific connection led to a unique collaboration between Robert Quinn and MPS faculty member Christoph Benning, who teamed up and received a $1.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study the role that betaine lipids from a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with algae play in coral bleaching.

Kadeem J. Gilbert, W.K. Kellogg Biological Station faculty member and assistant professor in the Michigan State University College of Natural Science’s Department of Plant Biology, has received a prestigious award that recognizes outstanding young plant scientists.

Since Michigan is the nation's leading producer of tart cherries, Michigan State University researchers, including MPS faculty member Courtney Hollender, were searching for the genes associated with tart cherry trees that bloom later in the season to meet the needs of a changing climate.

Graduate student Hannah Parks and postdoctoral researcher María Santos Merino have been awarded the 2023 Anton Lang Memorial Awards at a ceremony which took place on Monday, April 24, 2023. This year’s lecture was given by University Distinguished Professor Thomas D. Sharkey from Michigan State University.

The interview is with Joanne Thomson about her role and contributions to the recent NASA experiment provided by the Brandizzi lab.

Michigan State University’s renowned plant researchers are collaborating on solutions to grow more abundant, nutritious and resilient plants that will feed a growing population.

Cyanobacteria, photosynthetic microorganisms which have widespread uses in the production of pigments, antioxidants and supplements and potential ones in biofuels and plastics, have a new way to communicate with one another to control their population, researchers, including MPS graduate student Rees Rillema, show.

MPS faculty member Federica Brandizzi discusses agricultural innovation. The world’s population is growing, and climate change is continuing to impact the crops we need to feed that growing population.

The moon holds answers, and a MPS faculty member Federica Brandizzi and graduate student Joanne Thomson are bringing those answers within reach. Patience, creativity and a cheerful fearlessness are turning insights buried in plant seeds into pathways to the very survival of the human race.

Found in acidic volcanic hot springs, the extremophilic alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae contains a unique process that allows them to survive in extreme environments. Researchers, led by graduate student Anne Steensma from the Molecular Plant Sciences Graduate Program, are looking at this process and its potential to change how we understand the ways photosynthetic organisms adapt to environmental challenges like high temperatures.

Michigan State University researchers including MPS faculty member Hatem Rouached have discovered a molecular mechanism that connects plant root growth to phosphorus availability.

Harman is a first year Ph.D. student in the MPS program. He wants to pursue a career in agriculture research to improve food and our food system using novel gene-editing techniques to discover and implement novel traits that benefit both producers and consumers.

Michigan State University researcher Acer VanWallendael understands the public’s fascination with fungus. It is, after all, a fungus that kicks off the zombie apocalypse in the hit HBO series “The Last of Us.”

Scopolamine and hyoscyamine are medicinally important compounds that are produced in some solanaceous species. MPS student Hannah Parks is interested in understanding the metabolism in this family of plants.

MSU researchers, including MPS students Emily Lanier and Abigail Bryson, have traced the evolution of mint genomes for potential future applications that range from medicines to pesticides to antimicrobials.

Complicated sets of biological data can be challenging to extrapolate meaningful information from. Wanting to find a better way to look at this data led Berkley Walker, assistant professor at the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory (PRL) and the Department of Plant Biology, to team up with statistician and Assistant Professor Chih-Li Sung from the Department of Statistics and Probability.

A new study from researchers at Michigan State University underscores that we still have much to learn regarding how plants will function — and how nutritious they will be — as more carbon enters our atmosphere.

With $10.65 million of support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Michigan State University is home to one of the nation’s newest Energy Frontier Research Centers.Led by Cheryl Kerfeld, a Hannah Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, the center is exploring how nature compartmentalizes some of its most important biochemical reactions.

Researchers at Michigan State University are working to clear the runway for a new source of cleaner, more sustainable biodiesel and jet fuels derived from a relative of cabbage and cauliflower.

The Brandizzi Lab at MSU is sending seeds to space aboard NASA’s Artemis I mission to explore how humanity can sustain itself outside of Earth.

Michigan State University and the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated by Stanford University, are working to build new microscopes that allow scientists to peer into plant cells like never before.

MSU and Purdue researchers team up to create a new type of strong, sustainable, self-healing timber infused with microbes.

MSU researchers are studying plants that can survive extreme drought and what they can teach us about life without water.

Bianca Serda is a second-year graduate student in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Molecular Plant Sciences programs here at Michigan State University. "I have learned that there are many resources available to help move my research forward, all I need to do is ask what is available for me and somehow, I find what I need."

Join the Molecular Plant Sciences program Fall and Spring semester for the Monday seminar series.

Berkley Walker's lab - including MPS graduate students Luke Gregory, Kalia Smith and Anne Steensma - was acknowledged by the Office of Environmental Health and Safety as a part of their inaugural Laboratory Safety Recognition Awards this year.

Researchers at Michigan State University discovered a new way plants are adapting to the changing climate — information that can be used to help plants grow strong while also maintaining their nutritional value.

Because of their diversity and other traits, hardy monkeyflowers have become the hot new plant to study.