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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.

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.

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.

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.