The article “Scientists find immune molecule that supercharges plant growth” has been rewritten to provide clarity, structure, and style while maintaining its core ideas. The rewritten version is as follows:

Unlocking Nature’s Potential: Scientists Discover Key Molecule to Supercharge Plant Growth

For years, researchers have known about a molecule called itaconate that plays a vital role in the human immune system. However, its presence and functions in plants remained largely unexplored – until now. Biologists at the University of California San Diego have conducted the first comprehensive study on itaconate’s functions in plants, revealing its significant role in stimulating plant growth.

“We found that itaconate is made in plants, particularly in growing cells,” said Jazz Dickinson, a senior author of the study and an assistant professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. “Watering maize (corn) plants with itaconate made seedlings grow taller, which was exciting and encouraged us to investigate this metabolite further and understand how it interacts with plant proteins.”

The researchers used chemical imaging and measurement techniques to confirm that plants produce itaconate. They also discovered that itaconate plays multiple key roles in plant physiology, including involvement in primary metabolism and oxygen-related stress response.

Optimizing the natural benefits of itaconate could be crucial for safely maximizing crop growth to support growing global populations. “This discovery could lead to nature-inspired solutions to improve the growth of crops, like corn,” said Dickinson. “We also hope that developing a better understanding of the connections between plant and animal biology will reveal new insights that can help both plant and human health.”

The study, supported in part by funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, was published in the journal Science Advances on June 6, 2025. The findings have exciting implications for improving crop growth using nature-inspired solutions, while also offering fresh information for understanding the molecule’s role in human development and growth.

The article begins by highlighting the importance of giant viruses in the ocean, particularly their role in manipulating photosynthesis in single-celled marine organisms like algae. These protists form the base of ocean food webs, making it crucial to understand how these large DNA viruses interact with their hosts and influence marine biogeochemistry.

A recent study published in Nature npj Viruses sheds new light on this topic, using high-performance computing methods to identify 230 novel giant viruses in publicly available marine metagenomic datasets. The researchers characterized the functions of these newly discovered genomes and found that nine proteins involved in photosynthesis were present among them.

The study’s lead author, Benjamin Minch, emphasizes the significance of understanding how giant viruses interact with their hosts and manipulate cellular processes like carbon metabolism and photosynthesis. This knowledge can help predict and manage harmful algal blooms, which are human health hazards worldwide.

The researchers developed an innovative tool called BEREN (Bioinformatic tool for Eukaryotic virus Recovery from Environmental metageNomes) to identify giant virus genomes within extensive public DNA sequencing datasets. Using this tool, they recovered giant virus genomes from large global ocean sampling projects and annotated them using publicly available gene function databases.

The study’s findings fill a gap in the research field by providing an easy-to-use, one-stop tool for identifying and classifying giant viruses in sequencing datasets. The BEREN program is now available for anyone to use, offering new possibilities for monitoring pollution and pathogens in waterways.

The article concludes with the researchers’ emphasis on the importance of continued research into ocean giants and their interactions with marine ecosystems. By understanding these complex relationships, we can better predict and manage the impact of harmful algal blooms and other human health hazards associated with ocean viruses.

Researchers at Swansea University have made an intriguing discovery about the behavior of wild chacma baboons on South Africa’s Cape Peninsula. By using high-resolution GPS tracking, they found that these intelligent primates walk in lines not for safety or strategy, but simply to stay close to their friends.

For a long time, scientists believed that baboons structured their travel patterns, known as “progressions,” to reduce risk and optimize access to food and water. However, the new study published in Behavioral Ecology reveals that this behavior is actually driven by social bonds rather than survival strategies.

The researchers analyzed 78 travel progressions over 36 days and found that the order in which individual baboons traveled was not random. They tested four potential explanations for this phenomenon, including strategic positioning to avoid danger or gain access to resources. However, their findings show that the consistent order of baboon movement patterns is solely driven by social relationships.

According to Dr. Andrew King, Associate Professor at Swansea University, “The baboons’ consistent order isn’t about avoiding danger like we see in prey animals or for better access to food or water. Instead, it’s driven by who they’re socially bonded with. They simply move with their friends, and this produces a consistent order.”
This discovery introduces the concept of a “social spandrel.” In biology, a spandrel refers to a trait that arises not because it was directly selected for but as a side effect of something else. The researchers found that the consistent travel patterns among baboons emerge naturally from their social affiliations with each other and not as an evolved strategy for safety or success.

The study highlights the importance of strong social bonds in baboon society, which are linked to longer lives and greater reproductive success. However, this research also shows that these bonds can lead to unintended consequences, such as consistent travel patterns, which serve no specific purpose but rather as a by-product of those relationships. The findings have implications for our understanding of collective animal behavior and the potential for social spandrels in other species.