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NEWS When a Venus flytrap snaps its fleshy lobes around an unsuspecting insect, it's game over for the prey. And unlike earlier Venus flytrap studies, it mimicked the structure of an actual neuron by including a tiny gap across which ions can jump (known as a synapse in a real nerve cell) within the screen-printed electrodes. [Extracted from the article]

Elevated CO2 may contribute toward plant tolerance to prolonged drought stress. The objective of this study was to investigate changes in protein abundance associated with mitigation of drought stress by elevated CO2 in leaves of a cool-season grass species used as fine turfgrass. Plants of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera cv. Penncross) were grown at either ambient CO2 concentration (400 µL⋅L-1) or elevated CO2 concentration (800 µL⋅L-1) for 35 days under well-irrigated and fertilized conditions and then subjected to drought stress for 21 days by withholding irrigation. Plants exposed to elevated CO2 concentration maintained higher leaf water content, membrane stability, and visual turf quality (TQ) under drought stress compared with plants grown under ambient CO2 conditions. The abundance of proteins involved in photosynthetic carbon fixation and assimilation, including chloroplastic glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase A (GAPDH-A) and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCO) decreased less and the abundance of proteins involved in respiratory metabolism (i.e., cytosolic GAPDH) increased less during drought due to elevated CO2. The results suggest that elevated CO2 lessened growth and physiological damages during drought by facilitating ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate regeneration and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production in photosynthesis and downregulating factors contributing to respiratory metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiments were carried out to study the mechanisms for heat tolerance in chili pepper (Capsicum annuum). To assess these mechanisms, six genotypes were evaluated for cellular membrane thermostability (CMT) and for HSP70 gene expression. The plants were grown in an experimental plant growth chamber. The mean value of CMT indicates that membrane integrity was not damaged by the high temperature treatment (50 °C) in most of the genotypes. The genotypes were classified as follows: heat-tolerant (greater than 60%), moderately tolerant (30% to 60%), and susceptible (less than 30%). The heat-tolerant plants recorded the highest CMTs at 89.27%, 88.03%, and 85.10% for AVPP0702, AVPP0116, and AVPP9905, respectively, which might be the reason for the change in their cell membrane thermostability. AVPP9703 and AVPP0002 showed CMTs of 15.87% and 18.43%, which might indicate their sensitivity to heat stress. Heat shock protein 70 kDa was identified and found to be differentially expressed under the heat stress. Under heat stress, significantly increased levels of the HSP70 gene were detected after 2 h of temperature treatment at 42 °C, which indicated that this gene is quickly and sharply induced by heat shock. This was true for all genotypes tested, which were significantly up-regulated bv more than 36.9-, 7.10-, 3.87-, and 3-fold for AVPP0702, AVPP0116, AVPP0002, and AVPP9703, respectively. The HSP70 gene was found to be significantly down-regulated under heat stress in 'Kulai'. AVPP0702, AVPP9905, and AVPP0116 could be considered as heat-tolerant genotypes, whereas 'Kulai' and AVPP9703 were found to be heat-sensitive genotypes in this investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time courses of change in 1) fruit mass and surface area, 2) deposition of the cuticular membrane (CM), 3) strain of the CM, and 4) formation of microcracks in the CM of developing fruit of european plum (Prunus domestica L. ssp. domestica) were established. Fruit mass, fruit surface area, and CM mass per fruit increased between 50 and 133 days after full bloom (DAFB). Rates of CM deposition were higher during early stage III (50-71 DAFB) when amounts of wax and cutin per fruit increased, resulting in an increase in CM thickness from 3.1 to 5.9 g·m-2. Thereafter, cutin deposition ceased and CM thickness decreased to 4.7 g·m-2 at 133 DAFB. Percentage strain, determined on enzymatically isolated CM disks using image analysis, slightly decreased from 12.0% at 50 DAFB to 4.5% at 71 DAFB, but increased thereafter, averaging about 40% at 133 DAFB. The breakpoint in the time course of strain at 71 DAFB corresponded to the change in rate of cutin deposition. Frequency of microscopic cracks in the CM was closely related to strain of the CM across different developmental stages within a cultivar (pedicel end and cheek region) and across different cultivars at maturity. There was little change in microscopic cracking up to ≈20% strain. However, microcracks markedly increased when strain exceeded 20%. Most microcracks (91.0% ± 3.7% at 133 DAFB) were associated with stomata. These data indicate that a mismatch between surface area expansion of the growing fruit and cutin deposition caused strain and subsequent microcracking of the CM of developing plum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on several studies related to weight management. According to a study from the University of Florida, using food-diary smartphone applications like Noom Coach or MyFitnessPal helps in developing better eating habits and losing weight. Swedish researchers report that a compound in the membranes of green plants like spinach, kale and chard encourages weight loss.

The article discusses a study that evaluated the growth of tassels in plants being stunted due to inability of transporting boron into plant membranes. It references a study published in "Plant Cells" by University of Missouri scientists who treated plants with boron and tested the cellular level of stem cells or meristem in plants with altered pectin. Results showed that boron can stabilize and strengthen cells in plant meristems for increased tassel growth.