🎄 The Week in Botany December 23, 2024
It’s the end of the year, and if you’re receiving this, then I’ve just crawled over the finish line. There’ll be no newsletter next week. Normally I take two weeks off at this time of year, but it might just be one with Christmas falling midweek. It depends on how Hogmanay goes.
In the New Year I have plans to shift host for the email list again. This time I’m going to try integrating the mailing list directly with the weblog, but I’ll want to make sure you’re only getting the emails you signed up for.
I hope you have a relaxing Yuletide, Christmas, Hanukkah or just time off. I’ll be back in the New Year. Until then, take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
On Botany One
Climate-ready crop
RIPE team shows increase in food mass through photorespiratory bypass in elevated temperatures.
News & Views
‘Critically Endangered’ plant named after Orangutan renamed as Nepenthes pongoides
Named after the Orangutan whose scientific term is Pongo, this plant - Nepenthes pongoides, found in the ultramafic mountains in central Sabah, has a striking resemblance to the great ape’s long, dark, rusty-red hair.
see also New Scientist.
The paper this is based on is available at the Australian Journal of Botany.
Europe's Most Innovative Library Has a Botanical Garden on the Roof
Warsaw University Library stylishly connects the past and present.
Space Gardens
As NASA plans missions to the Moon and Mars, one challenge is figuring out how to provide crew members with enough healthy food.
Mysterious 'Alien Plant' Revealed to Belong to Extinct Family
The first evidence of the species—in the form of fossilized leaves—came to light in eastern Utah in 1969. At the time, researchers believed that the plant belonged to the ginseng family, known scientifically as Araliaceae.
see also LiveScience.
The paper this is based on is free access for a limited time.
20,000 square metres in Wied Inċita restored, opened to the public
750 trees and hundreds of shrubs have been planted in the park.
Toadstool with teeth and ghostly palm among plant and fungus finds of 2024
Scientists race to discover new species before destruction of natural world drives them to extinction.
The Mountain fire torched his nursery and avocados, but it didn’t kill his irises or spirit
It’s hard to believe that plants like irises, with their frilly and frothy flowers, could be resilient enough to survive a moisture-sucking Santa Ana wind storm followed by a fire that blackened hundreds of mature avocado trees a few dozen feet away.
Plants helping to halt old mines polluting rivers
Project organisers say the plants on the three hectares (7.4 acres) of land will mean less rain water will wash over the mine waste, reducing erosion and the amount of metal washed into the becks.
Professor Mary Gibby, Ph.D., OBE, FLS, FRSE, PPBPS (1949-2024)
Mary Gibby was a remarkable person and a leading botanist of her generation. During her long and distinguished career, she focused on ferns, the genus Pelargonium, plant conservation, and supporting the next generation of botanical researchers.
Joanne Chory obituary: biologist who discovered the genetic origin of light-induced plant growth
The pioneering plant scientist engineered roots for carbon sequestration and passionately advocated on behalf of women.
Exploring spirals in nature: The maths behind plant growth
Nigel Chaffey reviews Do plants know math? Unwinding the story of plant spirals, from Leonardo da Vinci to now, by Stéphane Douady, Jacques Dumais, Christophe Golé & Nancy Pick.
Scientific Papers
Functional responses of Mediterranean flora to fire: A community-scale perspective ($)
Leys et al analysed the relationships among fire, vegetation and functional traits, at both species and community levels. Altogether, there are highly significant direct relationships between the number of fires and leaf area (negatively) as well as seed mass (positively).
Spatiotemporal visualization of SnRK1 activity unveils its multifaceted role during plant growth and development (OA)
Smagghe et al employed a separation of phase-based activity reporter of kinase (SPARK)-based sensor to monitor SnRK1 activity at cellular resolution during the plant life cycle. Their findings unveiled a dual role for SnRK1: a constitutive one, tightly linked to meristematic and vascular tissues, and a dynamic one, steering growth according to energy and nutrient availability.
@dejaegerlab.bsky.social
Time to end the vascular plant chauvinism ($)
The emphasis on vascular plants reveals a bias that leaves the non-vascular plants — the tiny, overlooked, inconspicuous plants — hidden in the shadows, literally.
ReadCube: rdcu.be/d38L4
Avian seed dispersal out of the forests: A view through the lens of Pleistocene landscapes (OA)
Juan P. González-Varo reflects on the current patterns of avian seed dispersal in the fragmented anthropogenic landscapes of Europe from a Pleistocene perspective. The aim of this exercise is to discuss linkages between past and present landscapes, seeking an historical understanding of the high spatial complementarity of avian seed dispersal in and out of the forests.
A scaffold protein manages the biosynthesis of steroidal defense metabolites in plants ($)
Boccia et al identify a cellulose synthase–like protein, an unexpected biosynthetic component that interacts with the early pathway enzymes, enabling steroidal scaffolds production in plants. Moreover, knockout of this gene in black nightshade, Solanum nigrum, resulted in plants lacking both steroidal alkaloids and saponins. Unexpectedly, these knockout plants also revealed that steroidal saponins deter serious agricultural insect pests.
Shortcutting Photorespiration Protects Potato Photosynthesis and Tuber Yield Against Heatwave Stress (OA)
Over two growing seasons, a chloroplast localized synthetic glycolate metabolic pathway expressed in potato, enhanced tuber biomass. Meacham-Hensold et al confirmed that this yield benefit did not come at the cost of tuber quality.
Increasing Rubisco as a simple means to enhance photosynthesis and productivity now without lowering nitrogen use efficiency (OA)
Nearly all crop carbon is assimilated through Rubisco, which is catalytically slow, reactive with oxygen, and a major component of leaf nitrogen. Developing more efficient forms of Rubisco, or engineering CO2 concentrating mechanisms into C3 crops to competitively repress oxygenation, are major endeavors, which could hugely increase photosynthetic productivity (≥ 60%).
Hyperspectral reflectance integrates key traits for predicting leaf metabolism (OA)
There has been widespread interest in developing trait-based models to predict photosynthetic capacity from leaves to ecosystems, but comparably less for nonphotorespiratory mitochondrial CO2 release (dark respiration).
Cytochrome c levels link mitochondrial function to plant growth and stress responses through changes in SnRK1 pathway activity
Coronel et al report that plants with reduced levels of the mitochondrial respiratory chain component cytochrome c (CYTc), required for electron transport coupled to oxidative phosphorylation and ATP production, show impaired growth and increased global expression of stress-responsive genes, similar to those observed after inhibiting the respiratory chain or the mitochondrial ATP synthase.
The evolution of reproductive leaf dimorphism in two globally distributed fern families is neither stepwise nor irreversible, unless further specialization evolves ($)
Suissa & Smith analyzed 118 species in Blechnaceae and Onocleaceae, applying quantitative morphometrics and phylogenetic comparative methods to test the pillars of a modernized interpretation of Dollo’s Law. The evolution of dimorphism in Blechnaceae is neither stepwise nor irreversible, with direct transitions from monomorphism to dimorphism, including several reversions. In contrast, Onocleaceae exhibits an irreversibility to monomorphism only upon further specialization of fertile leaves for humidity-driven spore dispersal; this suggests that additional specialization, not dimorphism alone, may facilitate irreversibility.
In AoBC Publications
Evolutionary diversification of C2 photosynthesis in the grass genus Homolepis (Arthropogoninae)
Global change aggravates drought, with consequences for plant reproduction (OA)
An introduction to the special issue on global change and plant reproduction (OA)
Elevate Your Career: Present at the UPSC Symposium for Early Career Plant Scientists!
We invite talented young scientists to participate in this upcoming symposium at the Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC). As selected candidate you will present your research in an international forum, meet UPSC group leaders, and explore potential collaborative projects. You will also attend a workshop on EU funding opportunities and tour UPSC’s excellent research facilities.
The two-day symposium will take place on March 26-27, 2025, in Umeå, a dynamic and rapidly growing city in Northern Sweden.
Careers
Note: These are posts that have been advertised around the web. They are not posts that I personally offer, nor can I arrange the visa for you to work internationally.
Post-doctoral research associate: Arctic terrestrial ecology, Edinburgh
We are looking for a PDRA to be part of the TundraTime project, studying the impact of climate change on vegetation and terrestrial ecosystem functioning in the Arctic tundra and impacts of Arctic vegetation phenology change. The goal of this PDRA position is to test how plant responses to climate change are playing out across tundra ecosystems. A specific focus will be on the productivity of non-vascular vegetation and their physiological responses to a changing climate working with data from Svalbard.
Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Crop Quantitative Genetics, Cambridge
An example of the research you will work on in this position is the BBSRC funded “Ensemble Plant Populations” project (https://www.niab.com/news-views/news/news-improved-access-plant-genetic-resources-drive-crop-innovation), where in collaboration with EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) we are developing a web-tool containing existing population-based sequence and variant data, supporting users to run statistically sound genetic mapping analyses for an impressive range of populations and crop species.
Botanic Garden Curator and Head of Horticulture, Oxford
As Botanic Garden Curator and Head of Horticulture, you will be responsible for the day-to-day management and development of the Botanic Garden. Your role will be key in delivering the vision and strategic plan for OBGA as set by the Director. You will be a member of the OBGA Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and work closely with the Director and Deputy Director to realise the vision for the Botanic Garden.
Postdoctoral Research Associate (Tropical Palaeoecology), Exeter
You will contribute to cross-disciplinary research integrating a range of state-of-the-art techniques in archaeology, archaeobotany, palaeoclimate, remote sensing, botany, and plant DNA to investigate the long-term human legacy on a tropical forest in Belize. The context ranges from initial peopling of the region in the Late Pleistocene, through agricultural adoption, the rise and fall of an ancient Maya centre, and the subsequent 1000 years of forest succession.
Fully Funded Hardiman PhD Scholarships, Galway
The Hardiman PhD Scholarships will provide a stipend of €25,000 per annum, plus tuition fees are covered for four years. We want to attract the best students to the University of Galway and to support your development as innovative individuals.
Researcher/Group leader in wood biology, Umeå
A position as a group leader (principal investigator) is available in the field of wood biology at the Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Biology, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Umeå. The planned research topic of the applicant should focus on a specific aspect of wood formation, such as wood analytical chemistry, genetics and genomics, growth and development, or interactions with the surrounding environment.
PhD student (f,m,div) in the field of organic vegetable production, Großbeeren
The position is integrated in the Junior Research Group “Organic Cultivation Systems” in the programme area “Horticultural Systems of the Future” (HORTSYS). The aim of the research project “ökoZuG-BB” is to develop and implement innovative, sustainable and resilient organic vegetable production systems that meet the specific climatic challenges of the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan region. A systemic approach is used to consider the factors of fertilization, irrigation, plant protection and weed control.
TT Assistant Professor of Plant Evolutionary Biology, North Carolina
The Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at North Carolina State University invites applications for an Assistant Professor position in Plant Evolutionary Biology. This position is a 9-month, tenure-track position with responsibilities divided between research and teaching. We seek an individual who uses innovative approaches to understand molecular mechanisms underlying plant evolution and adaptation.
Postdoctoral Scholar, Pennsylvania
The Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology is seeking a Postdoctoral Scholar to research innovative biological control strategies for managing the North American beech leaf nematode. The scholar will lead or coordinate studies using naturally occurring bacteria from areas affected by Beech Leaf Disease (BLD) to suppress Litylenchus crenatae ssp. mccannii (Lcm) nematode populations. Additionally, the scholar will test our collection of bacterial pathogens for nematocidal activity against Lcm.
Genomic Breeding Post Doc, Minnesota
The Shannon Potato Genomics and Breeding Lab (https://shannonlabumn.github.io/) at University of Minnesota is looking for a genomic breeding post doc to analyze genomic, phenomic, agronomic, and environmental data for the breeding program. The Shannon Lab breeds russets, chips, and fresh-market red and yellow potatoes at the tetraploid and diploid level. The post doc will be responsible for RenSeq analysis for powdery scab resistance, GWAS analysis for verticillium wilt resistance, and building/updating genomic selection models for the breeding program.
Plant Science Education Research Assistant Professor- Tenure Track, New York
The School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) welcomes applications for a 9-month, full-time tenure-track position in Plant Science Education Research at the assistant professor level. We are looking for a highly collaborative individual who performs research on the methods, effectiveness, and impacts of plant science education and has a strong record of scientific expertise in one or more domains of plant science, including plant breeding and genetics, plant biology, horticulture, plant pathology, plant-microbe biology, mycology, and/or soil and crop sciences, reflecting the Sections of SIPS.