Plant cells are totipotent, meaning individual cells have the potential to develop into a full organism, a property unique to the zygote for animals. However, in most species for most cells, plant cells are not spontaneously totipotent, since they must be treated with specific hormone combinations to unlock their totipotency. Species within the Kalanchoe genus is unique as they spontaneously develop foliar embryos that are fully realized plantlets with shoot and root from notches along the edges of leaves. We speculate that the progenitor cells that give rise to these foliar embryos are totipotent, and we are using single cell techniques to identify & characterize them. In addition to being a fundamental process for plant biology, we foresee unlocking totipotency has many biotechnological applications, such as faciliating genetic transformation and the development of synthetic organs of biomanufacturing.

Welcome! Our research focuses on the evolutionary process at the molecular level. In particular, we investigate how a mixture of natural selection and non-adaptive forces create and maintain the amazi...

A 3D animated visualization of an LLM with a walkthrough.

Abstract. Single-stranded RNA molecules can form intramolecular bonds between nucleotides to create secondary structures. These structures can have phenoty

Abstract. Single-stranded RNA molecules can form intramolecular bonds between nucleotides to create secondary structures. These structures can have phenoty

Why cooking classes are a terrible way to stop people from being fat

Genetic load can reduce fitness and hinder adaptation. While its genetic underpinnings are well established, the influence of environmental variation on genetic load is less well characterized, as i.....

Remarks by Director Kratsios at the National Academy of Sciences REINVIGORATING AMERICA’S SCIENTIFIC ENTERPRISE AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY Washington, D.C.

The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.