Mad cow disease proteins could help memories form in flowers

Plants have memories of past events that they can pass onto their offspring. For instance, 'mother' plants can sense temperature changes and use that information to form long-term memories that help future generation flower at the right time. Now, new research has found a prions, a protein linked to mad cow disease, could be responsible for how plants form memories. Plants have memories of past events that they can pass onto their offspring. Prions are a type of protein that fold under certain conditions. They can also trigger other proteins around them to fold as well.