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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.