New findings reported this week by plant molecular biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are deepening scientists’ views of a cell surface regulator, FERONIA receptor kinase from the model plant Arabidopsis.
The receptor was once thought to be involved only in reproduction, but is in fact required throughout plant growth, development and in surviving environmental challenges.
Because FERONIA is a member of a considerably larger receptor family whose functions were mostly unknown, the researchers say new understanding of how FERONIA functions may open many research avenues, not only in basic plant biology, but in new methods of improving plant growth, especially in plants under stress, and improving seed yields and crop production.
More information is available here: http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/discovery-plant-growth-mechanisms-opens
