More than a decade ago, plant geneticists noticed something peculiar when they looked at grafted plants. Where two plants grew together, the cells of each plant showed signs of having picked up ...

Past genetic experiments have shown that, when plants are grafted together, entire genomes can move between the host and the graft, but it was not clear how the genetic material was traveling. In a ...

All plant cells obtain their energy mainly from two organelles they contain - chloroplasts (responsible for photosynthesis) and mitochondria (responsible for the biochemical cycle of respiration that ...

Unlike our organs, cell organelles such as mitochondria are not fixed in place, but when, where, how, and why organelles move remain unclear. Research published in the Biophysical Journal shows that ...

Bacteria are only the only organisms that are able to 'fix' nitrogen, or remove it from the atmosphere and convert it into a useful form. While some plants seem to fix nitrogen, it is actually ...

Princeton researchers created new tools to study the separation of liquids inside of cells into compartments, so-called membraneless organelles. The significance of this intracellular liquid phase ...

Picture a living cell as if it were a city. If you were the urban planner for this (very little, very alive) city, one of the things you would have to decide is how to allocate space for different ...

Cells are not isolated units; they continuously exchange proteins, genetic material, and even entire organelles with their ...

Prior to using this narrative, have learners create their own model of a cell in their notebooks using whatever background information or experience they might have. While exploring the narrative, ...