A species of parasitic wasp discovered by chance could provide farmers with a chemical-free way of controlling a major pest

Researchers have taken positive steps towards using plant virus-based particles for the treatment of human autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis

Strict national measures have been implemented to safeguard the UK from a range of plant health threats, in particular the devastating disease caused by Xylella fastidiosa

Self-isolation in the face of a marauding pathogen may save lives but it comes at the expense of life-sustaining essentials such as transport, communication and connectivity. New research suggests plants must balance similar trade-offs as they respond to pathogens that could rip through their defence cell by cell

You may not have heard of geosmin but, wherever you may be on this planet, it is highly likely that you’d recognise its smell. New research by scientists in Sweden and the UK has helped to explain why it exists

Researchers have discovered that the circadian clocks in plants play a critical role in the consumption of water, allowing plants to use this precious resource more efficiently

For billions of years life on Earth was restricted to aquatic environments, the oceans, seas, rivers and lakes. Then 450 million years ago the first plants colonised land, evolving in the process multiple types of beneficial relationships with microbes in the soil

Researchers have discovered how a notorious pathogen may have hijacked one of nature’s most enduring mutual relationships, shedding new light on why plants possess genes that appear to be detrimental to their well-being