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Untangling Florida’s botanical family tree A rose is a rose is a rose. But is an Aster an Aster? Well, it depends. Globally, the plant world is in a tizzy, and that’s a good thing, says Kent Perkins, collections manager for the University of Florida Herbarium in the Florida... Read More →

Associate Professor of Quantitative Genetics Genetics researcher Matias Kirst works to discover the genes, metabolic and regulatory networks that control variation in wood quality, growth and other important traits for the forestry and agronomic industry. This includes a... Read More →

Kevin Folta is the Dr. Dolittle of the plant kingdom. Folta is interpreting a new language, spoken between the sun and the Earth’s plants — where blue means one thing, red another — so that one day farmers can use light to give plants instructions: grow faster, bigger, more... Read More →

Think of your memories: a first kiss, a broken bone, a heart-wrenching good-bye. They all changed your DNA. Neuroscientists have long sought clues to memory — what we remember, what we forget — and increasingly, they find genomics plays a key role, says University of Florida... Read More →

To look at the humble loblolly pine – grown in neat rows on large farms throughout the southeastern U.S. and milled for things like building lumber and paper – you would never guess that its genetic code is seven times larger than a human’s. That is just one of the things... Read More →

In patients with multiple sclerosis, the body turns on itself, launching an immune system attack that destroys the coating around nerve fibers in the central nervous system, leaving them exposed like bare wires. Similar to exposed electrical lines, the unprotected fibers touch... Read More →

A University of Florida researcher became the first scientist to achieve genome-scale sequencing and analysis of fragile marine creatures at sea aboard a ship and in real time. The genomic sequencing of potentially thousands of marine species had been impossible until now because... Read More →

Walking across the new DNA-inspired bridge over 13th Street on the southern edge of the UF campus, Patrick Concannon looks down and sees remnants of old railroad tracks embedded in the ground and the concept of the rails morphing into the arms of a double-helix molecule changes... Read More →

Doug and Pam Soltis began their journey as botanical researchers in the 1980s when biotechnology was still young. The human genome had not yet been sequenced, but the first genetically engineered “human” insulin was on the market, and researchers working on techniques for... Read More →

In early 2010, I enjoyed a supermarket experience that I’d never had before. I bought a pretty, stridently red winter tomato that actually tasted like something. As is de rigueur with so-called premium produce nowadays, my purchase bore a little sticker with the trademarked name... Read More →