New research explores the surprising symbiotic relationship between tubers and different ant species at rainforest heights ...

High in Fiji’s rainforest, the ant plant Squamellaria grows swollen tubers packed with sealed, single-door “apartments.” ...

Odd plants from a remote Pacific island reveal new insights into an important ecological question: how unrelated and ...

If you walk through a forest and look down, you might think you're stepping on dead leaves, twigs and soil. In reality, ...

Researchers from the University of Ottawa have discovered that plants may be able to control the genetics of their intimate root symbionts - the organism with which they live in symbiosis - thereby ...

Squamellaria plants grow special structures to host the ants they symbiotically rely on for nutrients. Distinct compartments ...

More information: Laura V. Flórez et al. Antibiotic-producing symbionts dynamically transition between plant pathogenicity and insect-defensive mutualism, Nature Communications (2017).

Many plants form alliances with microbes in the soil in which they grow. But are microbes always beneficial to plants? Or does competition between strains for plant access degrade the service the ...

Some of the symbionts provide one or two enzymes that can break down pectins. Pectins are present in the cell walls of plants and are difficult to digest.

Then urine trouble if you see ‘Symbionts’ at MIT List Visual Arts Center. This exhibition of ‘bio art’ features works made of distilled pee and ‘fired mammalian dung glazed in breastmilk ...

(1) Both symbionts complement each other resulting in enhanced plant diversity, nutrient acquisition and plant productivity compared with a single symbiont situation. (2) Legume biomass is higher ...