QUESTION: How do seedless plants reproduce? ANSWER: Scientists estimate that there are approximately 400,000 species of plants on Earth. It is no surprise that there are many forms of plant ...

Understanding the Context

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A study out of Harvard and Purdue universities is starting to unravel the genetic mechanisms that allow some plants to duplicate their entire genomes and continue to reproduce. A scientist has moved a step closer to turning sexually-reproducing plants into asexual reproducers, a finding that could have profound implications for agriculture. Farmers throughout the world spend ...

Key Insights

Sex in the garden is more straightforward for the birds and the bees than it’s for the plants. Reproductive processes vary among flowering plants; for many, there is more than one option. When ... For the first time, a team of researchers has identified a small RNA species and its target gene that together regulate female germline formation in plants -- crucial knowledge for manipulating plant ... Activity 1 – Tap and find Activity 2 – Flowering plant quiz Activity 3 – Steps of flowering reproduction Activity 4 – Label the sexual organs Unlike animals, plants don’t need a male and a female to ...

Final Thoughts

Postdoc Imtiyaz Khanday and Professor Venkatesan Sundaresan with cloned rice plants in a UC Davis greenhouse, December 2018. Khanday, Sundaresan and colleagues have solved the problem of propagating ...