In the News
Recent Salk news from the Plant biology team
Machine learning helps plant science turn over a new leaf
LA JOLLA—Father of genetics Gregor Mendel spent years tediously observing and measuring pea plant traits by hand in the 1800s to uncover the basics of genetic inheritance. Today, botanists can …
Key enzyme found in plants could guide development of medicines and other products
LA JOLLA—Plants can do many amazing things. Among their talents, they can manufacture compounds that help them repel pests, attract pollinators, cure infections and protect themselves from excess temperatures, drought …
Getting to the root of how plants tolerate too much iron
LA JOLLA—Iron is essential for plant growth, but with heavy rainfall and poor aeration, many acidic soils become toxic with excess iron. In countries with dramatic flood seasons, such as …
Gene identified that will help develop plants to fight climate change
LA JOLLA—Hidden underground networks of plant roots snake through the earth foraging for nutrients and water, similar to a worm searching for food. Yet, the genetic and molecular mechanisms that …
Editing of RNA may play a role in chloroplast-to-nucleus communication
LA JOLLA—What will a three-degree-warmer world look like? How will plants fare in more extreme weather conditions? When experiencing stress or damage from various sources, plants use chloroplast-to-nucleus communication to …
Salk Institute initiative to receive more than $35 million to fight climate change
LA JOLLA—The Salk Institute’s Harnessing Plants Initiative to combat climate change using plants, led by Professor Joanne Chory, executive director of the Harnessing Plants Initiative, will receive funding of more …
New technologies enable better-than-ever details on genetically modified plants
LA JOLLA—Salk researchers have mapped the genomes and epigenomes of genetically modified plant lines with the highest resolution ever to reveal exactly what happens at a molecular level when a …
To repair DNA damage, plants need good contractors
LA JOLLA—When a building is damaged, a general contractor often oversees various subcontractors—framers, electricians, plumbers and drywall hangers—to ensure repairs are done in the correct order and on time.
Similarly, …
A switch to turn fragrances on and off
LA JOLLA—Salk Institute and Purdue University scientists have discovered the switch in plants that turns off production of terpenoids—carbon-rich compounds that play roles in plant physiology and are used by …
Understanding how DNA is selectively tagged with “do not use” marks
LA JOLLA—Not all of your genome needs to be active at any given time. Some regions are prone to hopping around the genome in problematic ways if left unchecked; others …
Self-defense for plants
LA JOLLA—When you see brown spots on otherwise healthy green leaves, you may be witnessing a plant’s immune response as it tries to keep a bacterial infection from spreading. Some …
Salk scientists Joanne Chory and Terrence Sejnowski named to National Academy of Inventors
LA JOLLA—Salk Institute Professors Joanne Chory and Terrence Sejnowski have been elected Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Chory is director of the Salk Institute’s Plant Molecular and …
Salk Institute’s Joanne Chory awarded prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
La Jolla—Salk Institute scientist Joanne Chory, one of the world’s preeminent plant biologists who is now leading the charge to combat global warming with plant-based solutions, has been awarded a …
How plant architectures mimic subway networks
LA JOLLA—It might seem like a tomato plant and a subway system don’t have much in common, but both, it turns out, are networks that strive to make similar tradeoffs …
How plants grow like human brains
LA JOLLA—Plants and brains are more alike than you might think: Salk scientists discovered that the mathematical rules governing how plants grow are similar to how brain cells sprout connections. …
New method to rapidly map the “social networks” of proteins
LA JOLLA—Salk scientists have developed a new high-throughput technique to determine which proteins in a cell interact with each other. Mapping this network of interactions, or “interactome,” has been slow …
A better dye job for roots—in plants
LA JOLLA—(June 1, 2017) Once we start coloring our hair, we may be surprised to learn that we begin to have a problem in common with plant biologists: finding the …
Helping plants pump iron
Seedlings (bottom) and roots (top) of Arabidopsis thaliana plants reveal that one variant of the FRO2 gene (right) is better for growth in low-iron conditions than the other FRO2 variant (left).…
Media Coverage
The Plan to Grab the World’s Carbon with Supercharged Plants
April 26, 2019
– Wired
Salk Scientists Plan To Combat Climate Change With Plants
April 17, 2019
– KPBS
Salk Institute gets $35 million for ‘audacious’ plan to fight global warming with carbon-hungry plants
April 16, 2019
– The San Diego Union Tribune
This scientist thinks she has the key to curb climate change: super plants
April 16, 2019
– The Guardian
Could a superplant save the planet?
Jan 31, 2019
– Financial Times
Scientists aim to fight climate change with super plants
Nov 17, 2017
– LA Times
Salk scientists describe strategy to address climate change using plants
Voice of America (VOA)