plant kingdom

Given the vast biodiversity in the plant kingdom, Zahn said, "It's completely crazy to think that casein is the only protein that melts and stretches under heat exposure."

In doing so, they have created something truly novel: a large "reference catalogue" of plant cell wall compositions from 287 species, broadly representing the entire plant kingdom.

Finally, Bever said his team's findings that show biodiversity prohibits pathogen growth isn't as clear-cut outside the plant kingdom.

Even more exciting is that this knowledge of these genes, which are highly conserved across the plant kingdom, could help biofortify other crops such as wheat and barley using gene-editing and other modern breeding techniques.

And just look at them: Milkweeds are “among the most elaborate in the plant kingdom,” he writes, with “a complexity comparable to that of rare orchids.”