Thanks to some genetic tricks, plants can now speak in color. A team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside hacked the natural stress response system in Arabidopsis thaliana, a small white-flowered plant from the mustard family that serves as a common model organism in plant biology labs. When exposed to the pesticide azinphos-ethyl, A. thaliana turns from green to red, flagging the contamination loud and clear.
“It’s an unambiguous readout of what’s in the environment,” says Ian Wheeldon, co-lead researcher and a UC Riverside chemical engineering professor. He believes that giving plants the power to share what they’re experiencing, in a way that’s visible to the naked eye,
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