Research Highlights

Scientists in the group of Angela Hay at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne are uncovering how a small weed uses exploding seed pods to disperse its seeds. Their new study, published in The Plant Cell, reveals the genetic mechanisms that control the synthesis and precise patterning of thickened cell walls required for rapid motion in explosive fruit.
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Using the crucifer Cardamine hirsuta researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIPZ) uncovered how enhancer evolution contributed to differences in leaf shape within this plant family. [more]

Prof. Dr. Miltos Tsiantis, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research and head of the Department of Comparative Development and Genetics, receives an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The prestigious funding will support his project CLONAL, aimed at advancing our understanding of clonal reproduction by root sucker formation. [more]

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MPIPZ research groups collaborate to produce a fully phased, chromosome-scale genome assembly of Cardamine chenopodiifolia [more]

Researchers describe the unusual trait of amphicarpy, where two types of fruit develop on the same plant: one above- and the other below-ground. [more]

Researchers discover a genetic switch in plants that can turn simple spoon-shaped leaves into complex leaves with leaflets [more]