Forest fires raged across the American West this past summer, and it was the second-worst fire season in Alaska’s history. By next spring, however, the charred landscape is guaranteed to be green once again, aided by natural chemicals that activate seeds from latency and spur plant growth after the flames have passed. Scientists have finally isolated the compound responsible for this miracle of nature, which could aid the recovery of damaged lands and eventually lead to bigger farm yields.
An important clue turned up in 1989, when South African researchers discovered that smoke rouses seeds of fire-dependent plants from dormancy. It took another 13 years for researchers from the University of Western Australia and Ph.D. student Gavin Flematti to pin down which part of smoke gives the signal. The compound, called gavinone in honor of its codiscoverer, is produced when cellulose, the sugar that makes up the cell walls of ...
