Even low concentration levels of toxins in apparently clean surface waters can be fatal to the plant kingdom, reveals one of the latest studies from the Department of Botany at the Faculty of Science and Technology (TTK) of the University of Debrecen. The study, published in the journal Environmental Pollution, presents at the cellular and molecular levels how toxic substances and herbicides in our environment damage the inner defense mechanisms of plant cells. These internationally significant findings have been recognized with the Count István Tisza Foundation for the University of Debrecen Publication Award.