🌽 Scientists just got one step closer to understanding how plants decide to keep growing — and it could change everything about how we breed them.⁠ ⁠ Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have mapped stem cell activity across thousands of maize and corn cells, identifying the genes that regulate how plants grow and produce. Some of those regulators are directly linked to how productive a corn plant becomes — which means breeders may one day be able to select for those traits with precision.⁠ ⁠ The data is now publicly available as a gene expression atlas, free for the entire scientific community to use.⁠ ⁠ For horticulturists and plant breeders, this is foundational: the more we understand what tells a plant to grow, the better equipped we are to work with — and improve on — that process.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ cshlnews ⁠ ⁠ 📸 creds: Unsplash, Mordo Bilman ⁠ ⁠ #plantscience #gardennews #horticulturalnews #americangardener #masterswitchforplantgrowth #plantgrowth #ahsgardening #sustainableagricul...