Danforth Center

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center: A St. Louis based non-profit committed to Improving the Human Condition through Plant Science.

[ZEISS Microscopy @zeiss_micro]

A tiny plant, a role in the bigger food picture.🌱 This Arabidopsis thaliana flower was fixed in buffered aldehydes, contrasted with osmium tetroxide, embedded in agarose and imaged using ZEISS VersaXRM 5 Insight. Sample courtesy of Dr. Keith Duncan, @DanforthCenter #WorldFoodDay

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

Big news for St. Louis agtech! Danforth Center startup @Spearhead_Bio has closed an oversubscribed $1.62M seed round to advance crop-engineering technology designed to save years and millions of dollars in developing improved crops.

Learn more: https://t.co/TngoExrYPR

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

A new microscope funded by @NSF grant will help Danforth Center scientists see how plant cells grow, respond to stress, and defend against disease—advancing research to protect crops and strengthen food security.

Read more here: https://t.co/cSxKMyl0eO

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

Rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, and barley share an ancient genetic history. A new study co-authored by Danforth Center Member Emerita Toby Kellogg reveals how the grass family began, and offers knowledge that could help advance food security.

Read more: https://t.co/RABjvJc7Hi

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

@LancasterUni @gatesfoundation Photo: Gates Agricultural Innovations (Gates Ag One)

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and @LancasterUni just landed a $4.9M grant from the @gatesfoundation to help cassava (a crop that feeds roughly 800 million people) hold up under extreme heat. The four-year project is called HeatSmart Cassava.

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

The focus is Rubisco activase, a protein essential to photosynthesis that breaks down under heat. The team will test heat-stable versions in cassava plants under both heat and drought, working toward varieties built for extreme conditions.

Read more here: https://t.co/AqGmu887Rx

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

Get the next edition right to your inbox: https://t.co/peOWP4ZiQE

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

3 things you'd already know about if you subscribed to On the Vine: Jackie Joyner-Kersee's new food and nutrition center, a scientist fighting for heat- and drought-resistant crops, and volunteer beekeepers restoring our prairie.

Subscribe below so you're not the last to know.

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

A new review co-authored by Boominathan Mohanasundaram and our Sona Pandey, PhD, looks at how rising CO2 and heat could affect how stable these ecosystems stay, and whether they keep storing carbon or start releasing it. Read more: https://t.co/2jTkFwHTGT

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

One of the smallest plants on Earth is doing some of the biggest work for the planet's carbon cycle: peatlands built by moss store nearly a third of the world's soil carbon, more than 2x what's held in all the world's forest biomass combined.

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

New research coauthored by our VP of Research Allison Miller, published in @plantspplplanet, maps where this wild grapevine diversity survives and where conservation is needed most. Read more about what's in your glass: https://t.co/XFaAdaMA2i

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

Most of the world's vineyards grow on rootstock from wild grapevines native to North America. In the 1800s, these wild grapevines saved Europe's vineyards from a pest called phylloxera, and their rootstock is still used today. Now they need saving too.

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

@TheGrandFarm @Bayer @39NorthSTL @pivotbio Thanks for joining us!

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

A single 2020 storm decimated 850,000 acres of corn in Iowa. Danforth Center PI Erin Sparks is tackling that problem underground: engineering corn with more flexible roots to resist wind damage.

Featured in @Forbes: https://t.co/KrtilBiKdr

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

This month’s On the Vine is here! If you don’t already know, our monthly e-newsletter is the easiest way to follow along with all that’s going on at the Center. 📨

Check out our latest issue and be sure to sign up today: https://t.co/jBJ3s4IhtC

#ScienceNews #PlantScience

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

@ilfarmertoday took a closer look at how this research connects to a challenge farmers are facing right now: more frequent and intense heat events that threaten crop yields and food security.

Read the full article here: https://t.co/cAOHUYY6uN

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

Can a plant remember a heat wave?

Danforth Center principal investigator Ru Zhang is studying how photosynthetic cells retain "heat stress memory" to help breed more heat-resilient crops. 🌿

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

We were honored to welcome @USDA Under Secretary Scott Hutchins (@USDAScience) to the Danforth Center this week. Thank you, Under Secretary Hutchins, for your time and for your commitment to supporting American agricultural innovation.

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

https://t.co/QvEfsAhBLK

[Danforth Center @DanforthCenter]

St. Louis has spent 25 years building an ecosystem where world-class science stays and grows.

Here's how. 🔬 @stlmag