Highlights

The delicate stalk and pretty white flowers of Triantha occidentalis may seem like the perfect place to perch if you’re an insect, but get trapped in its sticky hairs and it will suck the nutrients from your dead corpse. That’s the surprising new finding by University of British Columbia and University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, detailed in PNAS. Triantha – […]

Article by: Miranda Meents (Lacey Samuels lab) 2015 is somewhat of an anniversary in cell biology. 350 years ago, Robert Hooke published the first description of what he called a cell. But it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that we started to look inside cells.  Then, in 1898, the Italian scientist Camillo Golgi first described, and […]

Viruses and bacteria fall back to Earth via dust storms and precipitation. 2011 dust storm in the Sahara. An astonishing number of viruses are circulating around the Earth’s atmosphere – and falling from it – according to new research from scientists in Canada, Spain and the U.S. The study marks the first time scientists have […]

An international team of researchers have completed a massive effort to sequence genes from more than 1,100 plant species—an undertaking that saw UBC botanists collect rare mosses from remote corners of BC, and travel to the South Pacific to collect parasitic plants. “One of the crucial samples we wanted to include was a parasitic conifer […]

For most of us, microbes mean only one thing: disease. Disease-causing microbes are actually the extreme minority of the most abundant form of life on Earth. But because of their immediate and direct importance to our health, they are much better studied than the rest of the microbial world. Still, new discoveries about the basic […]

Article by George Haughn The primary plant cell wall of land plants is an essential cellular structure needed for support, cell-cell adhesion, signaling and interaction with both the biotic and abiotic environment. It is composed of a complex, dynamic extracellular matrix consisting of a network of carbohydrate polymers (cellulose, hemicellulose and, pectin) and structural proteins. Wall […]

Article by Katy Hind, Sandra Lindstrom, and Patrick Martone It is estimated that we have described only 10-20% of species diversity on Earth.  In particular, floristic surveys using modern molecular techniques have revealed that we are vastly underestimating the number of seaweed species.  This finding has implications for researchers using classical methods of identification and is likely […]

​Article by Carl Douglas Do plants have different sexes, meaning distinct male and female individual organisms within a species? The separation of male and female sexual function into different individuals is called “dioecy” and is common in eukaryotes, occurring in 94% of animals. Yes – this occurs in plants but in contrast to animals it is […]

Figure 1. Five years old Populus trichocarpa trees at Totem Field collection, UBC. Article by Adriana Suarez-Gonzalez (Douglas lab) If you are reading this article, then you survived your birth, acclimated to rainy and cold weather and have successfully battled a number of flu viruses. The same happens in trees, but because plants are stationary and can’t […]

Article by Xin Li lab Like animals, plants are constantly exposed to bacteria, viruses, and fungi that have the potential to cause diseases. To remain healthy plants possess a complex immune system which relies on immune receptors that are able to recognize pathogens and respond before an infection is established. If a pathogen is able to avoid […]

Article by Sandra Lindstrom, Paul  Gabrielson, Jeff Hughey, Erasmo Macaya and  Wendy  Nelson. This project is not something I ever envisioned.  How did someone who is interested in the biogeography and phylogeny of seaweeds occurring on the West Coast of North America end up leading a project that revised the taxonomy of a genus of […]

Article by the Samuels lab Trees and other plants need strength to stand upright and move water effectively from their roots to their leaves. That strength comes from the cell walls that plant cells build around themselves as they grow. Cell wall material makes up most of the mass of plants. Trees that live for […]

​ Article by Xin Li lab Like animals, plants are constantly exposed to bacteria, viruses, and fungi that have the potential to cause diseases. To remain healthy plants possess a complex immune system which relies on immune receptors that are able to recognize pathogens and respond before an infection is established. If a pathogen is able to […]

A new grassroots effort—announced this month in Trends in Ecology and Evolution—is calling for a reevaluation of some terminology used in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) to make it more inclusive and precise. The initiative, the EEB Language Project was launched by like-minded scientists across the United States and Canada, including three University of British Columbia researchers—Dr. Kaitlyn […]