Plant Biology

Several institutions to benefit from $16 million grant to research photosynthesis and water use efficiency

Researchers at the U. of I. found that plants vary a lot in the efficiency with which they uptake carbon dioxide and conserve water. Plant biology professor Andrew Leakey, left, mentored Kevin Wolz, who was an undergraduate at the time he conducted the research. Wolz now holds degrees in civil...

 

The world’s oldest fossil mushroom was preserved in limestone, an extraordinarily rare event, researchers say.

Donald Ort is among four University of Illinois professors elected to the National Academy of Sciences this year.

Using computer model simulations, scientists have predicted that modern soybean crops produce more leaves than they need to the detriment of yield—a problem made worse by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide. They tested their prediction by removing about one third of the emerging leaves on soybeans...

Plant biology professors Lisa Ainsworth, Stephen P. Long, and Donald Ort are three of eight Illinois faculty members on the Clarivate Analytics / Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list, 2016.

As computer models predicted, genetically modified plants are better able to make use of the limited sunlight available when their leaves go into the shade, researchers report.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign B.Sc. Integrative Biology, 2006 Ph.D. Plant Biology, 2013

Plant biology professor Andrew Leakey and colleagues report that soybeans will suffer yield losses sooner than previously predicted under future conditions that combine elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels with drought.