When viruses attack, autophagy – the cell’s cleanup system – helps plant cells survive by striking the balance between defence and self-destruction, preventing both fatal overreactions and unchecked damage, a study published in Science by researchers…

Blue and red light act as opposites and provide plants with crucial signals for their growth. A new study involving the Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (GMI) of the OeAW shows how plants use light to control their shape and…

Newly identified autophagy receptor in liverworts found to recycle membraneless organelles – and to send Parkinson’s linked alpha-synuclein for degradation in human neurons. This was discovered by plant researchers at the OeAW in a new study.

Duckweed grows fast and is easy to cultivate, but until now has been difficult to modify genetically. A new, reproducible transformation toolkit for these plants opens the door to the wider use of duckweed in basic research and biotechnology.

Researchers identify a new key protein involved in removing damaged proteins in plants. This could help make plants more resilient in the face of climate change.

Scientists at the Gregor Mendel Institute (GMI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have discovered a new piece in the puzzle of how plants keep epigenetic information stable across generations. Their findings, published in Nature Plants, show that a…

Researchers at the Gregor Mendel Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have uncovered how proteins in plants can acquire new functions through subtle electrostatic changes. Their findings, published in Nature Plants, point to a mechanism that…

Plants grow in precise 3D patterns, shaped by active stem cells in regions called meristems. Researchers in Liam Dolan's lab at the Gregor Mendel Institute have identified the gene CYP78E1 as a key regulator of branching in the model plant Marchantia…

Transposons, so-called jumping genes, are a threat to genomes, so plants work hard to prevent them from mobilizing and re-inserting into the genome. Spirodela polyrhiza, the most ancient member of the duckweed family, uses an understudied epigenetic…

Understanding how plants adapt to different environments is crucial for addressing climate change. A new study by the groups of Liam Dolan and Frédéric Berger at the Gregor Mendel Institute (GMI) of Molecular Plant Biology links climate data with…