Healthy growth of wheat, maize and other crops is not possible without the plant's own hormones. Professor Ulrich Hammes is investigating the proteins that help the hormones reach their sites of action.

Plants adapt their water consumption to environmental conditions by counting and calculating environmental stimuli with their guard cells. Plant researchers from Würzburg report this in ‘Current Biology’.

Using optogenetics, Würzburg researchers have detected a new acid sensor in plant cells that is addressing a cell-internal calcium store, as they report in the journal "Science".

Plants in which an ion channel of the vacuole is hyperactive are extremely stressed and grow poorly. But the broad bean is an exception, as Würzburg researchers have discovered.

A functional sperm tail is essential for successful reproduction. Defects in its development often lead to infertility. This is also shown by a recent international study involving researchers from Würzburg.

When ant pupae are infected by pathogens, they change their body odour. In this way, they warn the colony of the risk of infection - and thus seal their death.

Glossy flowers are visible to bees from a distance, but make color recognition difficult up close. They thus represent a visual compromise of nature, as a new study by the University of Würzburg shows.

Even in sunny forest gaps, browsing by roe deer prevents the natural regeneration of many tree species. Researchers at the University of Würzburg show just how strongly these ungulates shape forest development.