6,357 potato varieties put to the test

Project POMORROW is decoding the genetic material of all potatoes in the German gene bank

17-Sep-2025 - Potatoes are the fourth most important crop in the world after rice, wheat, and corn—and play a crucial role in feeding the global population. However, little is known about the genetic diversity of the potatoes stored in Germany. This is set to change now: as part of the POMORROW – Potatoes for ...

Scientists discover how yew trees save lives

Complete biosynthetic pathway for one of the world's most successful chemotherapeutics revealed

14-Dec-2023 - Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology unravel the biosynthetic pathway of paclitaxel in Yew plants, a most successfully used chemotherapeutic for cancer treatment. This discovery might facilitate the production of this very complex molecule which is currently ...

Cinderella of chemical biology

Small molecules, largely ignored until now, have regulatory functions in stress reduction

25-Feb-2022 - Living organisms produce an abundance of small molecular compounds, called metabolites. Although, it is clear that small molecules are central to all aspect of life, their exact functionalities are often unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, and because small molecules act by binding with ...

Genetic key to "healthy" tea

Genome of an ancient tea tree elucidated and more than 200 different tea varieties analysed

03-Aug-2020 - Tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the world's most popular drinks with a wide range of flavours and health benefits. Researchers from Huazhong Agricultural University of Wuhan (China), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant ...

Sustainable use of CO2 using a modified bacterium

13-Mar-2020 - A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam-Golm, led by Dr. Arren Bar-Even, has succeeded in reprogramming the diet of the bacterium E. coli in such a way that it can use formic acid or methanol as its sole source of nutrition. These simple organic ...

A new role for vitamin B6 in plants

10-Feb-2016 - Vitamin B6, which exists in different natural forms called vitamers, is essential for all living organisms, as it participates in numerous aspects of cells’ everyday life. Researchers from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and collaborators have discovered an unexpected role for this ...

Large scale production of pharmaceuticals in tomatoes

Usage of plants as bio-factories

03-Nov-2015 - Fruits and vegetables are healthy. This is something every child knows. However, we would need to consume high amounts of many plant products to achieve an efficient dose of helpful natural compounds, because those are often low-concentrated in plants. Scientists of Dr. Alisdair Fernie’s research ...

Sugar influences the onset of flowering

Only when light, age and energy conditions are right do plants flower

08-Feb-2013 - A plant can reproduce successfully only if it flowers at the appropriate time. Therefore, a complex network of photoreceptors and other proteins has evolved to monitor environmental conditions such as light and temperature. It has long been thought that plants must also ensure that they have ...

Direct transfer of plant genes from chloroplasts into the cell nucleus

Gene function preserved despite structural differences in the DNA

23-Apr-2012 - Chloroplasts, the plant cell’s green solar power generators, were once living beings in their own right. This changed about one billion years ago, when they were swallowed up but not digested by larger cells. Since then, they have lost much of their autonomy. As time went on, most of their ...

CSI at the service of cellulose synthesis

Plant researchers identify a protein involved in the formation of cellulose

26-Jul-2010 - Grains, vegetables and fruit taste delicious and are important sources of energy. However, humans cannot digest the main component of plants - the cellulose in the cell wall. Even in ruminants, animals that can metabolise cellulose, the digestibility of the cell wall plays a crucial role in feed ...