đ» The Week in Botany August 28, 2023
With Twitter sharing falling, Iâve started running an experiment on Mastodon to see if I can improve the automated harvesting of share counts, likes and so on across a wide range of scientific papers. Usually, Mastodon only provides around 10% of the content. I didnât keep an exact tag on figures as I should have. However, I think this week Mastodon may have made a slightly bigger contribution than Twitter.
Iâll be back at the same time next week, with another collection of what youâre sharing on social media. Until then, Take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
On Botany One
Using Genomic Prediction to Improve Ecophysiological Crop Models
A guide to combining ecophysiological and genomic models.
Pandemic Gardening Surged Globally as a Coping Strategy, New Research Shows
Growing plants became a pandemic oasis, providing food security, mental health support, and social interaction opportunities, according to recent international research.
Red flowers, short stamens, and acetoin: the secret to attracting fungus gnats
Fungus gnats like red flowers with short stamens and a strong smell of acetoin, and scientists found that Euonymus plants have evolved these traits to attract these flies for pollination.
Crop Diversity Surprisingly Stable in Ethiopia Despite New Introductions
Crop diversity defies concerns in Ethiopia as small farms blend old and new species over millennia.
The poet and the tree: The mythology of rowan
A new book explores the saviour of Thor and protector of cattle.
News & Views
Heredity And Early Experiences Are The Reasons People Love Nature
Our love of nature is highly individual and how we plan our cities and urban green spaces should take this into account, say scientists.
Dead trees around the world are shocking scientists
Forests once deemed resilient are suffering surprising die-offs. To predict the fate of the worldâs woods in the face of climate change, researchers need to understand how trees die.
The Hidden Curriculum of Academia
These are the things that many in academia expect incoming and current graduate students to know, but we rarely teach these things or effectively communicate this information to students, creating discrepancies in who has access to this information. Here we try to convey some of the information we wish we knew before graduate school.
Plant diversity in urban green spaces led to sevenfold increase in insect species, study finds
Scientists find âsubstantial ecological changesâ after greening initiative by major road in Melbourne, Australia.
Native planting under way to create natural wetland for wastewater filtering
Putting 80,000 native plants in the ground to create a natural wetland filtration is now under way at the Manawatƫ Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Forgotten tropical plants rediscovered after 100+ years with the help of community science
Deep in the tropical Andes are hiding plants that were discovered and then forgotten; plants that we knew almost nothing about. Now, thanks to the combined efforts of botanists from Germany, Ecuador, Peru and Costa Rica and amateur plant enthusiasts, these plants have been rediscovered, some of them after more than 100 years. The findings were described in the open-access journal PhytoKeys.
Learning how to garden a forest
An outdated land management ideology with roots in colonialism is keeping California and the West from taking essential steps toward mitigating increasingly destructive wildfires.
Before and after: the rewilded front gardens of Positive News readers
Thereâs a growing trend for tarmacking over front gardens. Positive News readers are bucking it, by doing the exact opposite.
How AI is revealing natureâs secrets by supercharging species identification
AI is taking the world by storm, and science is no exception. Our scientists are using AI to rapidly identify digitised herbarium specimens that underpin crucial research.
Researchers discover another way tropical forests could suffer due to climate change
Tropical forests are reaching critical thresholds due to climate change.
Orchids and corpse flowers delight him. A Huntington curator explains their âmagical powersâ
âGardens are gateways to cultures,â said Brandon Tam, associate curator of the orchid collection at the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, as he unlocked the door to one of the Huntingtonâs orchid collection greenhouses on a hot afternoon in July.
Ecological Forecasting & Dynamics Course
A course on how ecological systems change over time and how to forecast how they will change in the future. Reading + discussion + R tutorials.
Tiny Forests With Big Benefits
Native plants crowded onto postage-stamp-size plots have been delivering environmental benefits around the world â and, increasingly, in the U.S.
Scientific Papers
A new fossil Acmopyle with accessory transfusion tissue and potential reproductive buds: Direct evidence for ever-wet rainforests in Eocene Patagonia
Acmopyle (Podocarpaceae) comprises two extant species from Oceania that are physiologically restricted to ever-wet rainforests, a confirmed fossil record based on leaf adpressions and cuticles in Australia since the Paleocene, and a few uncertain reports from New Zealand, Antarctica, and South America. Andruchow-Colombo et al. investigated fossil specimens with Acmopyle affinities from the early Eocene Laguna del Hunco site in Patagonia, Argentina.
Global biodiversity data suggest allopolyploid plants do not occupy larger ranges or harsher conditions compared with their progenitors
Species' geographical and environmental range is a critical aspect of their survival and adaptation, hence conservational approaches. The study sought to understand if allopolyploid plants, plants with multiple sets of chromosomes, have a larger geographical range and can withstand more severe conditions than their progenitors (original parent plants). However, findings showed that allopolyploid plants did not consistently occupy larger or more extreme regions, suggesting that genome content, not number of chromosome sets, is likely a more significant factor in a plant's adaptability and invasiveness.
A conservation-significant threatened mammal uses fire exclusions and shifts ranges in the presence of prescribed burning
The study tracked the movement patterns of 20 quokkas, a threatened Australian animal species, before and after controlled burnings. It found that quokkas who earlier resided in the burn areas moved into fire-free zones and stayed away from the burn areas for about 105 days. The study concludes the necessity of setting up fire-free zones near controlled fires to retain habitat for such species.
Conventional and new genetic resources for an eggplant breeding revolution
Eggplants are a major crop with a lot of potential for genetic improvement, due to vast, unexplored genetic diversity within their species. To better adapt to climate change and improve eggplant varieties, breeders will have to tap into this diversity using new genetic resources and biotechnology. International support will be important for a needed "breeding revolution" to help eggplants adapt to climate change.
Applications and opportunities of click chemistry in plant science
Chen et al. review click chemistry reactions and their applications in plant systems, highlighting the activity-based probes and metabolic labeling strategies combined with bioorthogonal click chemistry to visualize plant biological processes. These applications offer new opportunities to explore and understand the underlying molecular mechanisms regulating plant composition, growth, metabolism, defense, and immune responses.
Code sharing increases citations, but remains uncommon
Maitner et al. find that scientists are overwhelmingly (95%) failing to publish their code and that there has been no significant improvement over time, but we also find evidence that code sharing can considerably improve citations, particularly when combined with open access publication.
How flower development genes were identified using forward genetic screens in Arabidopsis thaliana
Smyth discusses the results of premolecular screens for flower development mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana, carried out at Caltech and Monash University, emphasizing the usefulness of saturation mutagenesis, multiple alleles to identify full loss-of-function, conclusions based on multiple mutant analyses, and from screens for enhancer and suppressor modifiers of original mutant phenotypes.
Production of yellow-flowered gentian plants by genetic engineering of betaxanthin pigments
Nishihara et al. attempted to produce yellow-flowered gentians by genetic engineering of betaxanthin pigments. First, white-flowered gentian lines were produced by knocking out the dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DFR) gene using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing.
Adaptation to pollination by fungus gnats underlies the evolution of pollination syndrome in the genus Euonymus
Mochizuki et al.âs results suggest that the observed combination of floral characters is a pollination syndrome associated with the parallel evolution of pollination by fungus gnats. Although the role of the red floral display and acetoin in pollinator attraction remains to be elucidated, our finding underscores the importance of fungus gnats as potential contributors to floral diversification.
Arabidopsis stomatal lineage cells establish bipolarity and segregate differential signaling capacity to regulate stem cell potential
Cell polarity combined with asymmetric cell divisions (ACDs) generates cellular diversity. In the Arabidopsis stomatal lineage, a single cortical polarity domain marked by BASL orients ACDs and is segregated to the larger daughter to enforce cell fate. Wallner et al. discovered a second, oppositely positioned polarity domain defined by OCTOPUS-LIKE (OPL) proteins, which forms prior to ACD and is segregated to the smaller (meristemoid) daughter.
Ecological Forecasting and Dynamics: A graduate course on the fundamentals of time series and forecasting in ecology
The 'Ecological Forecasting and Dynamics' is a semester-long course offering a comprehensive overview of ecological forecasting and dynamics, using paper-based discussions and R-based tutorials. The course provides self-directed learning material digitally, including reading lists, discussion questions, tutorial videos, and instructor notes, and allows for modifications based on the specific course goals and students' knowledge levels. While it prioritizes open-source materials, some content may require access to closed-access papers. The course has already garnered significant engagement online and has been taught successfully at the authors' university.
How plant roots respond to waterlogging
Daniel & Jartman discuss how changes in the root growth rate, lateral root formation, density and growth angle of non-flood adapted plant species (mainly Arabidopsis) could contribute to avoiding and enduring critical hypoxic conditions. In addition, they discuss the current molecular understanding of how ethylene and hypoxia signalling control these adaptive root growth responses.
Easy, fast, cheap, informative, and pretty â staining of plant sections with Mayerâs mucicarmine and Lugolâs reagent
Barbara Ćotocka has developed a new, cost-effective and simple method for staining plant sections. The technique uses Mayerâs mucicarmine and Lugolâs reagent for detailed anatomical analysis of various plant organs. It allows for effective identification of non-lignified cell walls, mucilage, protein-rich compounds and starch. Useful for both education and research.
Floral resources encourage colonisation and use of green roofs by invertebrates
Green roof retrofits offer a promising avenue to increase greenspace and thus biodiversity in the city. The successful colonisation and establishment of plants and animals on green roofs is limited by the location and context of the green roof. Berthon et al. use a before, after, control, impact (BACI) design to monitor the colonisation of a new retrofit roof in Melbourne CBD. They find that colonisation for some taxa occurs rapidly, with honeybees (Apis mellifera) arriving four days after flowers had been planted.
Careers
Head of Science and Biodiversity Conservation, Wales
The Head of Science and Biodiversity Conservation will ensure the management of the National Botanic Garden of Wales is underpinned by evidence-based science and is an exemplar of regenerative land management that makes clear links between plant sciences, biodiversity and sustainable agriculture. This role will strengthen and expand the institutionâs reach and reputation and ensure it is clearly articulated at a local, national and international level.
Researcher â Centre for Middle Eastern Plants, Edinburgh
Weâre looking to add someone with a focus on field botany and data analysis skills to the team to enable us to grow further, build resilience and respond rapidly to new opportunities. Youâll be developing and raising awareness of the importance of field botany through work with local, regional and global partners, developing new tools and practices linked to our scientific and taxonomic capacity and experience in the region. On top of that youâll be undertaking specific expert field missions and supporting capacity and capability development.
Research Assistant (Fixed Term), Cambridge
This post will involve supporting the molecular cloning for a portfolio of cutting-edge biosensor engineering and optimisation projects. The advanced biosensors that will be the output of this role will illuminate previously undetectable cellular and subcellular metabolite patterns in vivo. The position will also take on a leading role in standardising gene parts, other components and procedures to build a 'Biosensor Foundry' that will be shared with the broader community to accelerate the single cell biology revolution.
Research Assistant/Research Associate (Fixed Term), Cambridge
We seek a postdoc Research Associate with proven experience in the application of AI / computer vision approaches to forest ecology, on a project that aims to map tropical rainforest species as part of ongoing efforts to restore a 100,000 hectare fragment of degraded forest in Indonesia. Specifically, the researcher will work on the identification of tree species using multispectral drone imagery collected over permanent plots.
Senior Research Assistant (Fixed Term), Cambridge
The Senior Research Assistant will work collaboratively alongside with a group of research assistants, under the management of CSC Platform Manager and be required to take responsibility for the laboratory management tasks specific to Prof. Oldroyd's research team. This includes the induction and training of prospective lab members, the procurement of group consumables, managing and allocating lab spaces for the Oldroyd group members and maintaining collections of genetic materials. The postholder will also contribute to ensuring a safe working environment by preparing standard operating procedures, risk assessments and ensuring compliance with local health and safety rules.
Research Laboratory Assistants (Fixed Term), Cambridge
Applications are invited for Laboratory Assistants with a background in plant molecular biology and genetics, whose primary role will be to support the research projects and contribute to the smooth running of the projects for Prof. Giles Oldroyd's research team at the Crop Science Centre within the Department of Plant Sciences. This is an exciting opportunity for somebody enthusiastic to support the ongoing research within the group, to join a team of vibrant and friendly group of researchers and technicians and work in a state-of- the-art laboratory.