Michael Nicolas

@mklnicolas.bsky.social

Plant biologist at CNB-CSIC Madrid. Interested in plant architecture, bud dormancy and abiotic stress . Potato addicted.. CRISPR fan .

If you're planting daffodils, crocuses, and other spring-flowering bulbs and you don't get them all to the ideal depth, don't fret! Many flowering bulbs can *pull themselves* deeper with contractile roots! 📷 Rama Sisodia & Satish C. Bhatla; Mordecai J. Jaffe & A. Carl Leopold

A collage of scientific diagrams showing how some flowering bulbs develop contractile roots that pull the bulbs deeper. The top illustration is a simple black and white time lapse drawing showing a Gladiolus bulb sinking progressively deeper. In the middle, a drawing of an onion-skin colored corm with yellow contractile roots. And to the lower right a photo of actual corms and spidery roots.

Thank you, Marc for posting! I am really excited about these findings. Cell-to-cell diffusion via plasmodesmata is not only regulated by callose but also by regulating ER/PM membrane spacing. This is achieved by the concerted action of tethering proteins in the ER and a plasma membrane lipid, PI4P.

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