Like a beltway that creates a more flexible traffic flow in a city, metabolic bypasses led to efficient and robust synthesis of both lignin and starch, chemical compounds that are critical for plants. These more efficient pathways could explain why grass plants are so successful in nature and agriculture.

100 million years ago, long before human intervention, ancestors of grasses, including wheat, rice and maize, developed "bypasses" in chemical pathways used to create two critical…

Like a beltway that creates a more flexible traffic flow in a city, metabolic bypasses led to efficient and robust synthesis of both lignin and starch, chemical compounds that are…