š» The Week in Botany April 22, 2024
This week weāve arranged for Botany One to be at Student Botany Festival as part of Botanical University Challenge. The exact details arenāt fixed but it will be something about science blogging. Thatāll be happening at the end of August, giving me a hard deadline to finish the blogging course Iāve been working on. The goal will be to open the blogging course up worldwide as soon as we can.
Iāll share more details when I have them, but before then thereāll be another email of what's getting shared on Mastodon, Bluesky, Twitter and LinkedIn at the same time next week. Until then, take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
In AoBC Journals
News & Views
Are women in research being led up the garden path?
A moving memoir of botany and motherhood explores the historical pressures on female scientists.
This Storybook cottageās native plant wonderland shows how gorgeous no grass can be
Water-hungry lawns are symbols of Los Angelesā past. In this series, the LA Times spotlights yards with alternative, low-water landscaping built for the future.
Sapphire Tower Plant Blooms For First And Last Time In 20 Years
This plant has spectacular, otherworldly-looking flowers.
Initiative plants native eastern redbud trees in Pittsburgh
It's finally beginning to feel and look like spring. Washington D.C. is known for its cherry blossoms but Pittsburgh is showing off her eastern redbud trees. KDKA-TV's Alexandra Todd reports.
Gene-editing crops to be colourful could aid weeding, say scientists
Creating visually distinctive plants likely to become important as more weed-like crops are grown for food.
The Highest Tree House in the Amazon
In 2023, conservationists and carpenters converged on Peru to build luxury accommodations in the rain-forest canopy.
Boulder County agriculture collective will plant trees for Earth Day
Boulder County collective Drylands Agroecology Research, a nonprofit group, wants volunteers to celebrate Earth Week by planting trees at a local farm.
Biodiversity Is Natureās āMagicā That Improves Peoplesā Mental Health
A newly published study finds that spending time in natural spaces that have more biodiversity is associated with greater improvements in our mental well-being than spending time in spaces with less natural diversity.
āForest gardeningā: Stoush over Aboriginal corporationās land management
It sounds peaceful and calm, but the concept of āforest gardeningā has sparked a new chapter in Victoriaās forest wars, pitting an Aboriginal corporation against a prominent ecologist and his publisher, Allen and Unwin.
Plantwatch: why does a rainforest vine turn into a part-time carnivore?
Scientists have finally discovered why this remarkable plant becomes hungry for bugs.
Scientific Papers
Natural genetic variation in dynamic photosynthesis is correlated with stomatal anatomical traits in diverse tomato species across geographical habitats (OA)
Yoshiyama et al measured gas exchange under fluctuating light, along with stomatal density and size, in eight wild tomato species and two tomato cultivars. The photosynthetic induction response showed significant diversity, with some wild species having faster induction rates than the two cultivars.
Multiple transcription factors of Arabidopsis thaliana that are activated by LEAFY COTYLEDON 2 regulate triacylglycerol biosynthesis (OA)
LEC2, a master regulator of triacylglycerol (TAG) synthesis in seeds, regulates various transcription factors (TFs). This study identified five new TFs (ARR21, AIL6, ERF55, WRKY8, and ANAC038) that increase TAG synthesis in leaves. AIL6 overexpression in Arabidopsis increased total fatty acid content and altered composition in seeds.
Floral traits and their connection with pollinators and climate (OA)
Basnett et al used Rhododendron as a model system and collected floral traits (corolla length, nectar volume and concentrations), floral visitors and climatic data on 21 Rhododendron species across two continents (North America, Appalachians and Asia, Himalaya). Based on this, they quantified the influence of climate and pollinators on floral traits using phylogeny-informed analyses.
Contrasting carbon cycle along tropical forest aridity gradients in West Africa and Amazonia (OA)
Zhang-Zheng et al present a detailed field assessment of the carbon budget of multiple forest sites in Africa, by monitoring 14 one-hectare plots along an aridity gradient in Ghana, West Africa. When compared with an equivalent aridity gradient in Amazonia, the studied West African forests generally had higher productivity and lower carbon use efficiency.
Latitude or altitude as the future refugium? A case for the future of forests in Asia Minor and its surroundings (OA)
Ekberzade et al aim to answer: (1) if climate change progresses under a business-as-usual scenario of anthropogenic emissions for this century, how may the forest ranges be affected? (2) will there be potential regional extinctions of the taxa simulated? (3) may any site emerge as a potential refugium?
Adaptive responses to living in stressful habitats: Do invasive and native plant populations use different strategies? (F2R)
Wan et al ask whether stress populations of natives and invasives differ in the magnitude of lowered performance under non-stress conditions and if they vary in the degree of performance advantage under stress.
Nitrogen-fixing organelle in a marine alga
Studying a marine alga with a cyanobacterial endosymbiont, Coale et al. used soft x-ray tomography to visualize cell morphology and division of the alga, revealing a coordinated cell cycle in which the endosymbiont divides and is split evenly, similar to the situation for plastids and mitochondria in these cells.
Vitamin B1 enhancement in the endosperm of rice through thiamine sequestration (OA)
Fitzpatrick et al address previous bottlenecks related to enhancing thiamine content in rice endosperm and field performance in a proof-of-concept study.
Frugivores enhance potential carbon recovery in fragmented landscapes (OA)
Bello et al used individual-based models to assess frugivore-mediated seed rain in open areas along a fragmentation gradient. Movements of large birds were limited in landscapes with <40% forest cover, although small birds continued to disperse seeds. Large birds disperse seeds of late-successional species with higher carbon storage potential. Their restricted movement therefore reduced potential biomass in future forests by 38%.
Parallel evolution of angiosperm-like venation in Peltaspermales: a reinvestigation of Furcula
Coiro et al re-examine the morphology of the enigmatic foliage taxon Furcula, a potential early Mesozoic angiosperm relative, and argue that its hierarchical vein network represents convergent evolution (in the Late Triassic) with flowering plants (which developed in the Early Cretaceous) based on details of vein architecture and the absence of angiosperm-like stomata and guard cells.
Careers
Research Assistant Position for the Hormonal Crosstalk in Plant Development Group, Brno
We are seeking aĀ research assistantĀ to join the research group of Helene Robert Boisivon ā Hormonal Crosstalk in Plant Development (https://boisivonlab.ceitec.cz/). Our team is focused on the role of hormones during the plant embryo and seed development and in the response to warm temperatures. For our studies, we use plant model speciesĀ Arabidopsis thalianaĀ and oilseed cropĀ Brassica napus. We are looking for aĀ motivated researcher to join us on aĀ project investigating the roles of the BnaTAA1 auxin biosynthetic enzymes inĀ Brassica napus.
Chair of Functional Diversity and Evolution of Plants, Dresden
You (m/f/x) will represent the subject Functional Diversity and Evolution of Plants in teaching and research. You will contribute to teaching and further developing the facultyās degree programs Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (BSc), Biology in Society (MSc) and Molecular Biosciences and Productive Biosystems (MSc) as well as in teaching export for other faculties. Within the framework of undergraduate teaching in the Faculty of Biology, lectures are to be given in German.
Associate Lecturer, Genomics (Part-time), Melbourne
Your responsibilities will include delivering lectures, practicals and workshops; contributing to the revision of curriculum and subject material as required; contributing to the development, marking and compilation of assessments, including assignments and examinations.
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Conservation Biology, Wellington
The appointee will be involved in developing, administering, and teaching into our undergraduate and postgraduate ecology courses, including field-based courses. There will be an expectation to contribute to grow our conservation biology programme, as well as recruit and supervise postgraduate students. A desire to establish or maintain an Aotearoa New Zealand-based research programme will be important, along with an ability to attract external research funding.
Research Assistant, School of Agriculture and Food Science, Dublin
The primary purpose of this role is to carry out research work in root biology and spectral imaging to support the RootCheck project, develop new or advanced research skills and competences, and participate in the publication in peer-reviewed academic publications and scholarly dissemination.
Assistant or Associate Professor of Horticulture, Missouri
The University of Central Missouri, Department of Agriculture, is seeking an energetic and flexible Assistant or Associate Professor with the ability or potential to teach applied courses in Horticulture. This 9-month, tenure-track appointment will be primarily student-centered with teaching, research, and outreach duties.
Assistant or Associate Professor of Biology, South Carolina
Claflin University, Department of Biology invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant/Associate Professor of Biology with a vision to enhance its strong undergraduate program and actively participate in research and teaching in its growing graduate program. Specific responsibilities include: daily instruction of courses in the undergraduate and graduate biology program curricula as assigned each semester (expected to teach i.e. courses such as, Biology, Botany Ecology, Environmental Ecology, Technology and Environmental Interaction, Environmental Management) in accordance with the course syllabi, administration of exams, monitoring of student attendance, submission of final grades, and other duties associated with course instruction.
Senior Technician (Molecular Ecology), Durham
The purpose of this role is to support research into the insects visiting cocoa flowers (Theobroma cacao) and pollinating them. This project uses a sophisticated DNA sequencing approach called metabarcoding to sequence traces of DNA left behind by pollinators on the flowers, and then match these DNA fingerprints to known species that left them behind ā much like the police do at a crime scene.
Senior Technician: Education (3 roles), Sheffield
The School of Biosciences is looking to recruit three talented technicians who will strengthen our skill base in the support of practical teaching in the Undergraduate (UG) and Postgraduate Taught (PGT) Laboratories. The breadth of activity in the School includes fieldwork, plant biology, ecology, cell biology, developmental biology, neuroscience, genetics, biochemistry and microbiology.