Welcome to
Plants and Pipettes
Join us in exploring the fantastic world of molecular plant biology! We dive deep into the cells of all green things and together we discover the mechanisms behind photosynthesis, flower development and much more!
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How the Leaf got its Shape
Leaves begin their lives as a tiny rounded ‘peg’- an outgrowth of a cluster of just a few cells. Yet as they grow, they develop not only in size, but also in shape. The result: a huge and beautiful d…
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Werewolf roots
This werewolf didn’t come into being like the werewolves of other stories do. There wasn’t a bite, a fever, or rapidly sprouting knuckle-hairs. There wasn’t a dark night or a full moon or the howling…
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A house that plants built
Insects, viruses, bacteria and others can hijack plant genes to turn leaves into highly specialised organs that have one main function: to serve as a home for the invader. Sometimes disgust a…
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Promoting defence from all sides
These promoters are pretty much the genetic version of Darth Maul’s double sided light saber. Today we’re talking about bidirectional promoters, another amazing feature invented by nature, and no…
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1000 is a very big number!
Today, in celebration of hitting a major milestone of 1000 followers on social media, we thought we’d look at another special thousand: the 1kp project. Back in 2012, an interdisciplinary tea…
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There’s no such thing as Mar-Can’t-ia
If you were as much of a plant-loving biology nerd as I was, you might still have some vague memories of plant classification systems rattling around from high school times. You known, the kind stuff…