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In the News
  • Phosphate biosensors could lead to more efficient fertilizer usage

    July 19th, 2022
    Shiqi Zhang spent many months sitting alone in a dark room, staring intently into the lens of a confocal microscope as she focused a laser beam on plant cells mounted […] Read more »
  • BTI Welcomes Summer Student Interns

    June 8th, 2022
    On May 31, Boyce Thompson Institute welcomed 41 of the country’s brightest undergraduate students from universities around the country to experience the life of a researcher for 10 weeks. Ten […] Read more »
  • BTI Welcomes Summer Student Interns

    June 17th, 2021
    Read more »
  • Fungi could manipulate bacteria to enrich soil with nutrients

    April 2nd, 2021
    A team of researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) has discovered a distinct group of bacteria that may help fungi and plants acquire soil nutrients. The findings could point […] Read more »
  • Congratulations Spring 2020 Graduates!

    June 15th, 2020
    We are pleased to announce that six BTI researchers received their degrees from Cornell University this spring. Congratulations to our newest alumni: Jason Hoki, Schroeder lab, PhD in Chemistry & […] Read more »
More News
More News
  • Plant Gene Discovery Could Help Reduce Fertilizer Pollution in Waterways

    September 2nd, 2019
    Over-fertilization of agricultural fields is a huge environmental problem. Excess phosphorus from fertilized cropland frequently finds its way into nearby rivers and lakes. A resulting boom of aquatic plant growth […] Read more »
  • BTI Welcomes Summer Student Interns

    June 18th, 2019
    Read more »
  • Congratulations to BTI’s PhD Graduates!

    June 3rd, 2019
    We are pleased to announce that seven Boyce Thompson Institute researchers received their PhD degrees during the Cornell University commencement ceremony on May 26. Congratulations to our newest alumni: Mariko […] Read more »
  • BTI’s Maria Harrison Elected to National Academy of Sciences

    April 30th, 2019
    Maria Harrison, William H. Crocker Professor at Boyce Thompson Institute and Adjunct Professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) at Cornell University, has been elected to the National […] Read more »
  • Plant–Fungal Interface Gets Tubular

    February 8th, 2019
    For hundreds of millions of years, plants and fungi have formed symbiotic relationships to trade crucial nutrients, such as phosphate and fatty acids. This relationship is extremely important to the […] Read more »
  • Back to our roots: Insights from genomes of a plant-associated fungus and its bacterial endosymbionts

    October 25th, 2018
    In an article published this month in the journal New Phytologist, researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute and the National Center for Genome Resources describe the genome sequences (DNA sequences), […] Read more »
  • Maria Harrison featured in interview with International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions

    January 3rd, 2018
    In this IS-MPMI's interview with Kevin Cope (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Maria Harrison discusses her research on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and provides advice to young scientists entering the field. Read more »
  • Maria Harrison, consortium of scientists receive $5 million grant to study genes that help legumes access soil nutrients

    December 18th, 2017
    BTI's Harrison lab will develop Medicago truncatula mutants to identify the function of genes predicted to be important in nitrogen fixation in legumes. Read more »
  • 400 million years of a stable relationship: clues to the molecular basis of balance in AM symbiosis

    April 7th, 2017
    Researchers from the Harrison lab at BTI have identified a transcriptional program that drives arbuscule degeneration during AM symbiosis. This regulation of arbuscule lifespan has likely contributed to the 400MY stability of the symbiosis by preventing the persistence of fungal cheaters. Read more »
  • Feeding fat to fungi: evidence for lipid transfer in arbuscular mycorrhiza

    April 6th, 2017
    Researchers from the labs of Dr. Maria Harrison at the Boyce Thompson Institute and Dr. Peter Dörmann at the University of Bonn have produced the first experimental evidence to suggest that AM fungi also get lipids from the plant. AM-induced FatM and RAM2 may play specific roles in the biosynthesis of 16:0 βMAG, which cannot be produced by the fungus, providing a clue to understanding the obligate nature of AM fungi. Read more »
  • ‘New Visions’ of food security from Cassandra Proctor

    November 18th, 2016
    “Food security is a mixture of all the different aspects of agriculture. It’s not just growing the food," said Proctor. “It’s not just planting something in the ground – there is a lot more to it.” Read more »
  • Researchers Uncover Core Set of Genes for Plant-Fungal Symbiosis

    January 18th, 2016
    BTI researchers used a genome comparison approach to identify genes necessary for beneficial plant-fungal relationships, which may lead to better crop plants that require less fertilizer input. Read more »
  • Harrison Receives Grant for Phosphate Biosensor Research

    December 8th, 2015
    Fluorescent proteins will allow researchers to track phosphate movement through cells in real time. Read more »
  • Better Biofuels: Harrison Collaborates on Sorghum Project

    October 14th, 2015
    Maria Harrison will participate in a $13.5 million, multi-institution systems biology project with Daniel Schachtman of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to develop sorghum that is more drought resistant and uses nitrogen more efficiently. Read more »
  • Scientists Unravel Root Cause of Plant Twists and Turns

    September 28th, 2015
    BTI researchers Harrison and Floss collaborate with Cornell physicists to understand how roots grow around barriers in the soil, while still heading down. Read more »
  • Key Protein for Plant-Fungal Symbiosis Discovered

    August 24th, 2015
    Harrison Lab has discovered that plants use EXO70I to form a membrane around the fungus in arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbioses, beneficial associations where plants receive phosphate from fungi in exchange for carbohydrates. Read more »
  • BTI Hosts Flash Science! Speaking Competition

    May 7th, 2015
    BTI Professor Emeritus Robert Kohut initiates competition at BTI to give early-career scientists an opportunity to communicate with the general public and practice their “elevator speech.” Read more »
  • Planting a Passion for Research

    April 30th, 2015
    Marshall Tyler nominated Maria Harrison for the 2015 Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award. Read more »
  • Ammonium Transporter Saves Plant-Fungal Symbiosis, When Nutrients Run Low

    April 8th, 2015
    The discovery of the role of this ammonium transporter improves the understanding of how the plant and fungal partners regulate the symbiosis and how phosphate and nitrogen move through the system. Read more »
  • Maria Harrison Wins ASPB’s Dennis R. Hoagland Award

    April 7th, 2015
    Professor Maria Harrison is the 2015 winner of the Dennis R. Hoagland Award from the American Society of Plant Biologists, given every three years, for her outstanding work on plant mineral nutrition. Read more »
  • Eaglesham Bridges BTI and Both Cambridges

    March 25th, 2015
    James Eaglesham began his career as an intern at BTI, and heads to the University of Cambridge, England as a Churchill scholar for pathology research. When back in US, Eaglesham will pursue his doctorate in virology at Harvard, in Cambridge, MA. Read more »
  • BTI Scientist Maria Harrison is Co-principal Investigator on $6.5M NSF Award

    July 12th, 2012
    The research project will study genes responsible for beneficial symbioses with bacteria and fungi. Work in the Harrison lab will focus on the plant-fungal AM symbiosis and how it improves phosphorus uptake in plants. Read more »
  • Maria Harrison Named William H. Crocker Scientist

    June 15th, 2011
    At its May meeting, the BTI Board of Directors named Maria Harrison as the William H. Crocker Scientist. Read more »

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