Latest News
April 3, 2023
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.
March 28, 2023
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.
March 27, 2023
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.
March 24, 2023
Michigan State University researchers including MPS faculty member Hatem Rouached have discovered a molecular mechanism that connects plant root growth to phosphorus availability.
March 15, 2023
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.”
February 8, 2023
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.
June 30, 2022
During undergraduate years, gaining hands-on lab experience and signing your name to a scientific publication can give your resume a well-deserved push, and even help open doors to a new career path or Ph.D. program.
December 7, 2020
Sudden death syndrome is a devastating disease that afflicts soybean crops, causing annual losses in U.S. soybean yields in excess of $274 million dollars. New Michigan State University research shows that the trick to surviving the disease might be a matter of timing when to mount a defense response.
December 4, 2020
A new study from Michigan State University identifies a missing link which controls plant immunity and plants' ability to maintain their cytoskeleton – the frame that both gives plant cells their shape and that serves as a highway for materials to move inside these cells.
