February 27, 2023

🌻 The Week in Botany February 27, 2023

Working on these emails gets later and later. This week the oven went with a bang. I had planned to listen to practice and qualifying for the E-prix, while working on the email, but instead spent the time in shops trying to be interested in a replacement oven and not wince at the prices.

Speaking of doing things Far Too Late, the deadline for submissions for the special issue African Flora in a Changing World in Annals of Botany is tomorrow. More helpfully, the deadline for Macroalgae in a Changing World is still a little way off.

I need to remember that my own deadline for getting the email done is earlier than usual next week, as I plan to be back in Aberystwyth. However, it still should be with you at the usual time. Until then, take care.

Alun Salt (webmaster@botany.one)

On Botany One

Botanists find out why Yellow Rattle is so good at robbing so many different plants of their nutrients
Herbivores often specialise in the plants they persecute, but European Yellow Rattle can tackle many different species and steal their goodies.

The Tree Book, a book about trees (and people)
Should any trees reincarnated as The Tree Book be pleased or offended?

Is it better to run or fight? The choice facing plant conservationists in France.
Plant translocation is a difficult process. How are conservationists using it as a tool?

Smart Orchards aid the messy business of pollination
Restoring semi-natural habitats can help increase the yield of macadamia orchards without needing extra input, making production more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

News & Views

The ‘silent victim’: Ukraine counts war’s cost for nature
Investigations are under way in the hope this is the first conflict in which a full reckoning is made of environmental crimes.

Fostering science–art collaborations: A toolbox of resources
Scientists and artists are both motivated by creativity and curiosity, and science and art can be mutually reinforcing, supporting discovery and innovation. This Community Page highlights resources for individuals, groups, and institutions to advance science–art collaborations.

Bolivia has a soy deforestation problem. It’s worse than previously thought.
Recently released satellite data from Bolivia shows that soy plantations were responsible for over 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) of deforestation between 2001 and 2021.

Emma Loker Of DIY Garden: 5 Things You Need To Know To Create A Successful Vegetable Garden To Grow Your Own Food
Many people underestimate the benefit of companion plants. You might think — “how much protection can companion plants really give my veg from pests?” The answer is loads! Certain plants can help each other grow by repelling pests or attracting beneficial insects. For example, planting marigolds alongside your veg can help deter pests like aphids and whiteflies.

You Can Still Save Your Plants From the Cold
If frost is headed your way, don't let your plants die.

Dying plant cells warn healthy cells to save themselves from disease
The "deathbed rally," the "last hurrah"—it's not unheard of for living things to mysteriously perk up in the moments before death. It turns out that plants do it too, at least at the cellular level.

Detecting the impact of drought on plants with user-friendly and inexpensive techniques
Climate change is aggravating the impact of droughts on all plant ecosystems worldwide. Although new tools have been developed to detect and assess drought stress in plants—transcriptomic or metabolomic technologies, etc.—they are still difficult to apply in natural ecosystems, especially in remote areas and developing countries.

Treating lunar soil to create fertilizer for growing plants on the moon
Sooner or later, settlers on the moon will have to become farmers. A new ESA Discovery project led by Norway's Solsys Mining is looking into the treatment of lunar soil to create fertilizer for growing plants.

Should we sample vegetation following statistical rules or botanists’ experience? Possibly both!
This post refers to the article Probabilistic and preferential sampling approaches offer integrated perspectives of Italian forest diversity by Alessi et al., published in the Journal of Vegetation Science.

Unexpected benefits from pollinators at edges of second-growth forests
A new study has found open, light-filled forest edges support more flowers and pollinators than the dark interior of second-growth forests and the value of these areas should not be overlooked.

It’s Time to Retire the Term “Blind” Review
As part of ASPB’s commitment to diversity (see ASPB’s Revised Diversity Statement, 2021), we are changing our language around peer review to use the phrase “anonymous” review rather than “blind” review.

The quiet crisis in America’s forests
The solutions to the seed shortage are out there, but will we apply them in time?

How a Guy From a Montana Trailer Park Overturned 150 Years of Biology
Biology textbooks tell us that lichens are alliances between two organisms—a fungus and an alga. They are wrong.

Scientific Papers

A mathematical model integrates diverging PXY and MP interactions in cambium development
Bagdassarian et al. used a mathematical modelling approach to investigate how MP cell division-promoting activity and cell division-repressing activity might be integrated into the same network as a negative feedback loop. In this model, this feedback loop improved the ability of the cambium to pattern correctly and was found to be required for normal patterning as the stability of MP was increased.

Delayed development of basal spikelets in wheat explains their increased floret abortion and rudimentary nature
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) breeding efforts have increased grain yield predominantly by raising grain numbers per spikelet, rather than grain weight or spikelet number. However, across a single spike large differences exist in the number of grains per spikelet. The central spikelets produce the highest number of grains in any given genotype while apical and basal spikelets are less productive. Basal spikelets are delayed in development just after initiation and are smaller and less advanced than central spikelets already by the glume primordium stage. However, basal spikelets continue to develop and produce florets until much later in the wheat growth cycle. The precise timings or the cause of their growth cessation, and subsequent abortion, is largely unknown. In this study Backhaus et al. investigated the underlying causes of rudimentary basal spikelet abortion.

Interspecies transfer of RAMOSA1 orthologs and promoter cis sequences impacts maize inflorescence architecture
Grass inflorescences support floral structures that each bear a single grain, where variation in branch architecture directly impacts yield. The maize (Zea mays) RAMOSA1 (ZmRA1) transcription factor acts as a key regulator of inflorescence development by imposing branch meristem determinacy. Strable et al. show RA1 transcripts accumulate in boundary domains adjacent to spikelet meristems in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor, Sb) and green millet (Setaria viridis, Sv) inflorescences similar as in the developing maize tassel and ear.

Dual specificity and target gene selection by the MADS-domain protein FRUITFULL
van Mourik et al. characterized different regulatory roles of the MADS-domain transcription factor FRUITFULL (FUL) in flower development and mechanisms modulating its activity. They found that the dual role of FUL in regulating floral transition and pistil development is associated with its different in vivo patterns of DNA binding in both tissues.

Redox-mediated responses to high temperature in plants
Hendrix et al. summarize current knowledge on the functions of ROS and oxidoreductase systems in integrating high temperature signals, towards the activation of stress responses and developmental acclimation mechanisms.

Distimake vitifolius (Convolvulaceae): reclassification of a widespread species in view of phylogenetics and convergent pollen evolution
Distimake vitifolius comb. nov. (Convolvulaceae), currently treated as Camonea vitifolia, is a common and widespread species in South-East Asia. A recent study on the re-delimitation of the genus Merremia classified its species into six genera. The results of molecular phylogenetic analyses and the presence of hexazonocolpate pollen informed the transfer of Merremia vitifolia to Camonea. Pisuttimarn et al. present new molecular, morphological and palynological data and reinterpret previous results, demonstrating that the species should be classified in Distimake instead, reflecting the phylogenetic relationships of the species.

To each their own! Nectar plasticity within a flower mediates distinct ecological interactions
Nuptial and extranuptial nectaries are involved in interactions with different animal functional groups. Nectar traits involved in pollination mutualisms are well known. However, we know little about those traits involved in other mutualisms, such as ant–plant interactions, especially when both types of nectaries are in the same plant organ, the flower. de Kassia Balduino et al. investigated if when two types of nectaries are exploited by distinct functional groups of floral visitors, even being within the same plant organ, the nectar secreted presents distinct features that fit animal requirements.

Peptide signaling through leucine-rich repeat receptor kinases - insight into land plant evolution
Multicellular organisms need mechanisms for communication between cells so that they can fulfill their purpose in the organism as a whole. Over the last two decades, several small post-translationally modified peptides (PTMPs) have been identified as components of cell-to-cell signaling modules in flowering plants. Such peptides most often influence growth and development of organs not universally conserved among land plants. PTMPs have been matched to subfamily XI leucine-rich repeat (LRR) receptor-like kinases (RLKs) with > 20 repeats. Phylogenetic analyses, facilitated by recently published genomic sequences of non-flowering plants, have identified seven clades of such receptors with a history back to the common ancestor of bryophytes and vascular plants. This raises a number of questions: When did peptide signaling arise during land plant evolution?

Genotype–environment associations to reveal the molecular basis of environmental adaptation
Lasky et al. outline strategies to ground genotype–environment associations (GEAs) in the underlying hypotheses of genetic architecture and better test GEA-generated hypotheses using genetics and ecophysiology. They provide recommendations for new users who seek to learn about the molecular basis of adaptation.

Air channels create a directional light signal to regulate hypocotyl phototropism
Nawkar et al. show that inter-cellular air channels6,7 are required for an efficient phototropic response. These channels enhance light scattering (refraction and reflection) in Arabidopsis hypocotyls thereby enhancing the light gradient across the photo-stimulated organ. They identify an embryonically expressed ABC transporter that is required to keep air in inter-cellular spaces in seedlings and for efficient phototropism. Their work suggests that this transporter shapes cell wall properties to maintain air between cells.

A thousand-genome panel retraces the global spread and adaptation of a major fungal crop pathogen
Human activity impacts the evolutionary trajectories of many species worldwide. Global trade of agricultural goods contributes to the dispersal of pathogens reshaping their genetic makeup and providing opportunities for virulence gains. Understanding how pathogens surmount control strategies and cope with new climates is crucial to predicting the future impact of crop pathogens. Feurtey et al. address this by assembling a global thousand-genome panel of Zymoseptoria tritici, a major fungal pathogen of wheat reported in all production areas worldwide.

Careers

Postdoc in Non-coding RNAs during Plant Regeneration, Uppsala
A Post-doctoral position is available at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Uppsala, Sweden to investigate how non-coding RNAs control plant regeneration. Non-coding RNAs are a recently discovered and largely unexplored aspect of gene regulation that we believe play an important role in how plants regenerate tissues. The position is in partnership with Dr. Sebastian Marquardt’s group at the University of Copenhagen.

PhD Project: Plant conservation, forestry and fires, Tasmania
How to meet human needs for timber while limiting harm to biodiversity is an urgent scientific goal. This PhD project will address this challenge by quantifying the impacts of forestry systems and wildfire on plant species. The project will involve field-based plant surveys in a large landscape-ecology study, combined with innovative modelling to quantify the optimal landscape-level combination of logging systems and reserves that best support native plant communities for a given yield of timber.

Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Oxford
The Kriechbaumer lab in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences is looking to fill the vacancy of postdoctoral research assistant for our BBSRC funded research project. This exciting project will use cutting-edge bioimaging techniques to analyse links between the structure and the function of the plant endoplasmic reticulum.

Botanical Research Technician, Newcastle UK
The Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering is seeking an experienced and highly motivated Botanical Research Technician (Field crops). This is an exciting opportunity to join a team of technical staff supporting the botanical research activities in the School of Natural & Environmental Sciences, through the provision of technical support within the University Farm sites at Cockle Park and Nafferton.

Agricultural Scientist or Technician, Dublin
A agricultural scientist/agronomist is required to assess the glasshouse and field performance of crops. The technician will test and optimise the potential of biologicals to improve plant performance in the field and also assist with glasshouse studies. They will help select optimal microbial consortia for the field studies, travel within Ireland the UK and Europe to assess the performance of endophytes (in collaboration with partner trial sites), and conduct assessments of the impact of endophytes on grain quality. In addition, they will conduct studies to assess the impacts of endophytes on the soil and plant microbiome, which will involve collection of soil and plant samples in Ireland, the UK and the EU, and working with laboratory-based technicians and partner companies, using DNA-based technology to assess the impact of endophyte applications on the soil and plant microbiome.

Strategic Research Development Officer, Kew
You will be part of the Research Services Team working with over 450 scientists across both of Kew’s sites, the Royal Botanic Gardens in London, and the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst. You will engage with researchers to help them translate their novel ideas into compelling, successful funded research projects. To do this you will have experience and a proven track record in facilitating discussions amongst a diverse range of scientists, building exciting partnerships through collaborator engagement, and strategic horizon scanning for targeting of specific funding calls, to turn these ideas into successful research proposals.

Glasshouse Facilities Manager (Experimental Officer), Guildford
The University of Surrey is delighted to announce an exciting opportunity within the Centre for Environment and Sustainability for a Glasshouse Facilities Manager (Experimental Officer). In their role, the Experimental Officer will provide essential support in the delivery of a demonstration project investigating applications of soil-free technology to biomass and bioenergy crops. This high profile multi-million-pound large-scale demonstration project is part of the BEIS Biomass Feedstock Innovation programme. You will be joining a team of 15 other scientists, innovators and industry experts from the University and beyond, where you will be providing technical know-how in demonstrating the viability of Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) willow and other species propagated in a novel (aeroponic) environment.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow or Associate, Exeter
The Centre for Ecology and Conservation wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Associate/Fellow to conduct research into marine forest assemblages. The successful candidate will review existing knowledge on a range of marine forest assemblages, anthropogenic-induced changes, and the ecosystem services they provide. This information will be distributed to project partners as metadata to inform knowledge gaps and research needs. The candidate will also lead a historical baseline assessment on marine forest assemblages in Tenerife to delve deeper into the magnitude and drivers of ecological changes observed over the past decades.

Research Associate / Postdoc, Institute of Forest Botany and Forest Zoology, Dresden
The Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Department of Forest Sciences, Institute of Forest Botany and Forest Zoology, the Chair of Forest Zoology offers, subject to the availability of resources, a project position as Research Associate / Postdoc (m/f/x). The position to be filled will be the key postdoc position within the BIOCOMP project “Consequences of global biodiversity loss and climate change for decomposer communities and implications for forest carbon fluxes” which is funded by the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant). Within the project, interactive effects of climate and land use on decomposer biodiversity (insects and microbes) and wood decomposition will be studied in a global experiment.

Lecturer/Assistant Professor in Horticulture, Dublin
Applications are invited for a Temporary (3 year) or Permanent post of a Lecturer / Assistant Professor in Horticulture within UCD School of Agriculture & Food Science. The appointee will be expected to establish a close working relationship with the horticulture industry and research agencies. They will also take an active part and leadership role in the development and delivery of existing undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in horticulture and in the development of other new educational and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes within the School.

Research Fellow (Biological Sciences), Singapore
The successful candidate will work with Project Investigator on the shelf-life extension of leafy greens under a project on Sustainable Urban Food Production. The project will also focus on preserving the nutritive quality of fresh produce during storage.

Education Administrative Assistant, Morris Arboretum, Philadelphia
The Education Administrative Assistant is a critical member in the education department. Reporting to the Director of Education, this position is a primary point of contact for external constituents looking to schedule programming at the Arboretum, as well as receiving, maintaining and organizing records and schedules within the department.