Biological, physical and mathematical sciences at Michigan State University
In the current issue of Science, MSU evolutionary biologists demonstrate how a new virus evolves, which sheds light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations. The research showed for the first time how the virus called “Lambda” evolved to find a new way to attack host cells, an innovation that [...]
The discovery of a new gene is helping scientists envision more-efficient molecular factories of the future. A team of researchers, led by Katherine Osteryoung, MSU plant biologist, announced the discovery of Clumped Chloroplasts – a new class of proteins – in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. CLMP1 plays a [...]
Catherine Lindell, associate professor of zoology, was recently awarded a $2 million grant to study ways to limit bird damage to fruit crops. The grant is one of three awarded to MSU researchers that will be used to enhance research involving specialty crop production in the United States. The grants are part of 29 awards, [...]
The continued growth of cropland and loss of natural habitat have increasingly simplified agricultural landscapes in the Midwest. Having a single, dominant crop rather than a variety of wild plants is associated with increased crop pest abundance and insecticide use, consequences that could be tempered by perennial bioenergy crops. While the relationship between landscape simplification, [...]
Plant Biology Professor Robin Buell and Biochemistry Professor Dean Della Penna are part of an international research team that is mapping the genome of the potato. In the current issue of Nature, the team revealed that it accomplished its goal, thus quickly closing the gap on improving the food source’s elusive genome. “This is the [...]
Michael Thomashow, director of the Plant Research Lab, has proven that circadian rhythms spark plants’ ability to fend off cold weather. The research was published in the April 6, 2011 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Just as monarch butterflies depend on circadian cues to begin their annual migration, so [...]
The USDA announced several grants involving CNS faculty, including: Shannon Manning, assistant professor of microbiology, $2.4M for a food safety project, Claire Vieille, assistant professor of microbiology, $957,000 for a bioenergy project “Engineering succinate production by Actinobaccillus succinogenes,” and Carolyn Malmstrom, associate professor of plant biology, for a bioenergy project “Control and mitigation of generalist [...]
The discovery of a hormone acting like molecular glue could hold a key to bolstering plant immune systems and understanding how plants cope with environmental stress. Professor Gregg Howe recently revealed how the plant hormone jasmonate binds two proteins together to form a receptor – an emerging new concept in hormone biology and protein chemistry. [...]
Zoology Professor Stephen Hamilton has published a study in the current issue of the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences indicating the role of rivers and streams as a source of nitrous oxide to the atmosphere now appears to be twice as high as estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Read more…
There is a small, unassuming plant in the mustard family – thale cress – that grows in Europe and Asia and has been cultured in the International Space Station. Better known as Arabidopsis thaliana, or just Arabidopsis, it is one of the most studied plants in the world. At MSU, it plays a central role [...]
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