Rice is a staple food crop for more than half the world’s population, but most farmers don’t grow high-yielding varieties because the seeds are too expensive. Researchers from the University of California’s Davis and Berkeley campuses have identified a potential solution: activating two genes in rice egg cells that trigger their development into embryos without the need for fertilization, which would efficiently create high-yielding clonal strains of rice and other crops.
New research suggests that it could be possible to separate treatment from hallucinations when developing new drugs based on psychedelics. The anti-anxiety and hallucination-inducing qualities of psychedelic drugs work through different neural circuits, according to research using a mouse model. The work is published Nov. 15 in Science.
A bumblebee’s brain is smaller than a sesame seed. But it can still accomplish quite a bit.
“You don’t need a big brain to learn well,” said Felicity Muth, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior and a National Geographic Explorer who studies cognition in bees and other animals. “Bumblebees are capable of many of the same cognitive feats as many vertebrates.”
You have likely not spent much time thinking about the uterus of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. But then, neither have most scientists, even though Drosophila is one of the most thoroughly studied lab animals. Now a team of biologists at the University of California, Davis, has taken the first deep look at the Drosophila uterus and found some surprises, which could have implications not just for understanding insect reproduction and potentially, pest control, but also for understanding fertility in humans.
For many plants, more branches means more fruit. But how does a plant branch or not branch? New research from the Department of Plant Biology has shown how plants break down the hormone strigolactone, which suppresses branching, to become more “bushy.” Using a combination of structural biology, biochemistry, and genetic engineering, the team confirmed the specific enzymes responsible for dismantling strigolactone, and their mechanism. Understanding how strigolactone is regulated could have big implications for many crop plants.
Plants need to be able to communicate with themselves—by sending signals from their leaves to their roots to their flowers—so that they can coordinate growth and optimize resource use. They also need to communicate with other plants and organisms, which they achieve by releasing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), tiny molecules that are often associated with distinct smells. Scientists know a lot about how plants emit these odorous signals, however very little is known about how they receive and interpret them.
Researchers in the College of Biological Sciences have received a grant to study the role of the cerebellum in autism. “We need a more holistic understanding of the brain circuits that drive this disorder,” says Alex Nord, an associate professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior (NPB), and a researcher at the Center for Neuroscience (CNS). “The cerebellum is a key component that has been largely overlooked until recently.”
Sorghum, or broomcorn, is a staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa, but approximately 20% of annual yields are lost due to infections with witchweed (Striga hermonthica), a parasitic plant that steals nutrients and water by latching onto the plant’s roots.
Our understanding of schizophrenia has increased greatly in recent years, as studies of large groups of people have identified a multitude of genetic variants that increase a person’s risk of the disease. But each of those individual risk factors accounts for “only a very minor amount of the overall risk,” said Alex Nord, a professor of neurobiology, physiology and behavior in the College of Biological Sciences and the Center for Neuroscience.
A promising new fungicide to fight devastating crop diseases has been identified by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The chemical, ebselen, prevented fungal infections in apples, grapes, strawberries, tomatoes and roses, and improved symptoms of pre-existing fungal infection in rice.
