January 15, 2024

🌻 The Week in Botany January 15, 2024

I’m hoping I have this sent on time this time. I had the email written Sunday evening last week, but forgot to press the ‘schedule’ button. Happily, I’m finishing this email a little earlier in the evening, and I’ve even had the time to add the careers section at the end this week.

Once again it’s a mix of the things you’ve been talking about, and we have both the old and the new this week. The old is a paper from 2005 about a gymnosperm parasitic plant, which I hadn’t heard of. The new is a book review from former Botany One blogger Nigel Chaffey, who now has his own blog at PlantCuttings.uk. He plans to have something new available every Friday.

I’m working on some changes to the system for sending out emails again, to make it easier for someone else to take over in the future if necessary. There should nonetheless by another email with you as usual next week. Until then, take care.

Alun (webmaster@botany.one)

Subscribe now

On Botany One

Climate and competition limit the spread of a damaging grass
Research shows climate and competition with other plants stop the damaging invasive grass Johnsongrass from spreading further across the USA.

Tackling Plant Biodiversity Conservation in the Anthropocene
A global team of plant experts harnessed new tools to map worldwide hotspots of botanical evolution over millions of years, revealing overlooked regions crucial for protecting nature’s phylogenetic diversity against extinction.

The Journey of a Tropical Plant Tribe from Africa to the Americas
Scientists used DNA to track how a group of tropical plants travelled across continents over millions of years and found that they were able to spread because they attracted a variety of animals to eat their fruits and excrete their seeds.

Subscribe now

News & Views

‘Plant-Based’ Has Lost All Meaning
A label once intended for meat replacements is now used for shampoo, booze, and nearly every other product imaginable.

‘The Trees Saved Me’
In Romania, a walk in the woods blossomed into a mission to safeguard centuries-old beeches and the history that shaped them.

Extreme droughts are worse for plants than we thought
Grasslands are almost 40 per cent less productive after a year of extreme drought, an experiment spanning six continents suggests.

Italian Town Hitches Its Wagon to Plants That Bloom (Even in Winter)
Lakefront Verbania in Italy’s Piedmont seeks to attract flower lovers with its mild climate, spectacular gardens and wild nature.

He’s out to photograph every native plant in L.A. County — 750 down, 1,840 to go
At 34, Matt Smith is a widower and amateur botanist whose grief and passion are fueling a quest some might call quixotic — to photograph every plant native to Los Angeles County.

Scientists have discovered the world's oldest forest—and its radical impact on life
Fossil roots helped suck up carbon from atmosphere, fundamentally changing the climate.

Kew Gardens names mysterious plants and fungi new to science
From an underground "forest" to spectacular orchids, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, discovered 74 new plants and 15 fungi last year.

Tasmanian garden wins prize for world’s ugliest lawn
Winner says people can save water, help animals and free themselves from the tyranny of lawnmowing.

For a long life, avoid the garden
Nigel Chaffey reviews Gardening can be murder: How poisonous poppies, sinister shovels, and grim gardens have inspired mystery writers by Marta McDowell,

Scientific Papers

Extreme drought impacts have been underestimated in grasslands and shrublands globally (OA)
Drought has well-documented societal and economic consequences. Climate change is expected to intensify drought to even more extreme levels, but because such droughts have been historically rare, their impact on ecosystem functioning is not well known. Smith et al. experimentally imposed the most frequent type of intensified drought—one that is ~1 y in duration—at 100 grassland and shrubland sites distributed across six continents. They found that loss of aboveground plant growth, a key measure of ecosystem function, was 60% greater when short-term drought was extreme (≤1-in-100-y historical occurrence).

A plant virus manipulates the long-winged morph of insect vectors ($)
Wing dimorphism is a typical phenotypic plasticity in insects. Most cases reported previously involve indirect regulation of plant viruses to wing dimorphism of insect vectors through host plants. Yu et al. reveal that a plant virus directly induces a long-winged morph in male insect vectors. This regulation is mediated by a species-specific unclassified gene, which was proven a downstream factor of the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling pathway. The long-winged insect vectors induced by viruses in turn facilitate viral long-distant dispersal and large-scale epidemics.

HY5: a key regulator for light-mediated nutrient uptake and utilization by plants (OA)
ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 (HY5), a bZIP-type transcription factor, is a master regulator of light-mediated responses. ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 binds to the promoter of c. 3000 genes, thereby regulating various physiological and biological processes, including photomorphogenesis, flavonoid biosynthesis, root development, response to abiotic stress and nutrient homeostasis. In recent decades, it has become clear that light signaling plays a crucial role in promoting nutrient uptake and assimilation.

Soil organic carbon stocks in native forest of Argentina: a useful surrogate for mitigation and conservation planning under climate variability (OA)
The nationally determined contribution (NDC) presented by Argentina within the framework of the Paris Agreement is aligned with the decisions made in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on the reduction of emissions derived from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as forest carbon conservation (REDD+). In addition, climate change constitutes one of the greatest threats to forest biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, the soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks of native forests have not been incorporated into the Forest Reference Emission Levels calculations and for conservation planning under climate variability due to a lack of information. The objectives of this study were: (i) to model SOC stocks to 30 cm of native forests at a national scale using climatic, topographic and vegetation as predictor variables, and (ii) to relate SOC stocks with spatial–temporal remotely sensed indices to determine biodiversity conservation concerns due to threats from high inter-annual climate variability.

Extracellular niche establishment by plant pathogens ($)
The plant extracellular space, referred to as the apoplast, is inhabited by a variety of microorganisms. Reflecting the crucial nature of this compartment, both plants and microorganisms seek to control, exploit and respond to its composition. Upon sensing the apoplastic environment, pathogens activate virulence programmes, including the delivery of effectors with well-established roles in suppressing plant immunity. Roussin-Léveillée et al. posit that another key and foundational role of effectors is niche establishment — specifically, the manipulation of plant physiological processes to enrich the apoplast in water and nutritive metabolites.
ReadCube: https://rdcu.be/dvYaK

♻️ A unique mode of parasitism in the conifer coral tree Parasitaxus ustus (Podocarpaceae) (OA)
Almost all parasitic plants, including more than 3000 species, are angiosperms. The only suggested gymnosperm exception is the New Caledonian conifer, Parasitaxus ustus, which forms a bizarre graft-like attachment to the roots of another conifer Falcatifolium taxoides. Yet, the degree of resource dependence of Parasitaxus on Falcatifolium has remained speculative. Feild & Brodribb show that Parasitaxus is definitively parasitic, but it displays a physiological habit unlike any known angiosperm parasite.

Illuminating plant water dynamics: the role of light in leaf hydraulic regulation (OA)
Light intensity and quality influence photosynthesis directly but also have an indirect effect by increasing stomatal apertures and enhancing gas exchange. Consequently, in areas such as the upper canopy, a high water demand for transpiration and temperature regulation is created. This paper explores how light intensity and the natural high Blue-Light (BL) : Red-Light (RL) ratio in these areas, is important for controlling leaf hydraulic conductance (K_leaf) by BL signal transduction, increasing water permeability in cells surrounding the vascular tissue, in supporting the enormous water demands.

Development and implementation of a stand-level satellite-based forest inventory for Canada (OA)
Satellite data can provide products relevant to forest science and management on a regular basis (e.g. annually) for land cover, disturbance (i.e. date, extent, severity, and type), forest recovery (e.g. quantification of return of trees following disturbance), and forest structure (e.g. volume, biomass, canopy cover, stand height), with products generated over large areas in a systematic, transparent, and repeatable fashion. While pixel-based outcomes are typical based upon satellite data inputs, many end users continue to require polygon-based forest inventory information. To meet this information need and have a spatial context for forest inventory attributes such as tree species assemblages, we present a new work-flow to produce a novel spatially explicit, stand-level satellite-based forest inventory (SBFI) in Canada applying image segmentation approaches to generate spatially unique forest stands (polygons), which are the fundamental spatial unit of management-level inventories.

A suberized exodermis is required for tomato drought tolerance (OA)
Plant roots integrate environmental signals with development using exquisite spatiotemporal control. This is apparent in the deposition of suberin, an apoplastic diffusion barrier, which regulates flow of water, solutes and gases, and is environmentally plastic. Suberin is considered a hallmark of endodermal differentiation but is absent in the tomato endodermis. Instead, suberin is present in the exodermis, a cell type that is absent in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. Here we demonstrate that the suberin regulatory network has the same parts driving suberin production in the tomato exodermis and the Arabidopsis endodermis.

Sweet and fatty symbionts: photosynthetic productivity and carbon storage boosted in microalgae within a host (OA)
Symbiosis between a host and intracellular eukaryotic microalgae is a widespread life strategy in aquatic ecosystems. This partnership is considered to be mainly energized by the photosynthetically-derived carbon energy of microalgal symbionts. A major question is whether microalgae increase their photosynthetic production and decrease carbon storage in order to maximize carbon translocation to their host. By combining three-dimensional subcellular imaging and physiological analyses, Catacora-Grundy et al. show that the photosynthetic machinery (chloroplast and CO₂-fixing pyrenoid) of the symbiotic microalga Micractinium conductrix significantly expands inside their host (the ciliate Paramecium bursaria) compared to the free-living state.

Careers

Project Specialist - Specialty and Ethnic Crops, Washington DC
The Project Specialist for Specialty and Ethnic Crops reports to the Director of the Center for Urban Agriculture and Gardening Education (CUAGE) in the College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences. The incumbent is an integral part of the visionary team of professionals dedicated to urban agriculture and to a comprehensive urban food system that improves the quality of life and economic opportunity for DC residents and urban populations worldwide. Specialty and ethnic crops are an integral part of the research and food production goals of CAUSES given the diversity of urban populations, including prevalent immigrant populations in the DC Metro area. The incumbent will have a passion for sustainable urban agriculture and for employing cutting-edge technology and cutting-edge production methods to grow high yields of ethnic crops in small urban spaces.

Biological Sciences Instructor, California
Under the general direction of a dean, an Instructor provides comprehensive classroom instruction to students from diverse backgrounds for the purpose of facilitating the attainment of their academic or vocational objectives. There is currently one full time, tenure-track position at Moorpark College that will begin during the Fall 2024 semester.

Research Assistant or Research Fellow in Crop Science, Cranfield, UK
To carry out research and communications related to a Defra-funded Farming Futures project “Increasing yield in UK protected cropping by altering light quality”. The project will evaluate innovative new greenhouse coating technology for its effect on plant growth and development and on postharvest quality for selected horticultural crops. The technology alters light spectrum to affect photosynthesis and growth responses using novel chemistry.

Research Associate “Sphagnum Moss on the Hills”, Manchester
The Department of Geography has an exciting opportunity for a research associate to join our peatland research team and extend our work on peatland restoration. We are seeking to appoint a research associate on a full time appointment for 15 months to join the project called “Sphagnum Moss on the Hills” (SMOOTH) funded by Faculty of Humanities Strategic Investment Fund. This is an interdisciplinary project involving staff from the Department of Geography, with colleagues in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, as well as other academic and non-academic partners.

PhD Studentship - A targeted enzymatic treatment for control of Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris, the cause of black rot of brassicas, Newcastle, UK
Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc) is the causal agent of black rot an important plant bacterial disease of UK crops such as cabbage, broccoli, Brussel sprouts and other related vegetables. The production of biofilms by Xcc is known to be involved in pathogenicity in crops but also linked to the bacteria ability to survive and persist in the environment. Xcc can be spread through infected seeds and biofilms formed in irrigation pipes of plant nurseries. This project will explore the utilisation of a xanthan specific glycoside hydrolase for degradation of Xcc biofilms to prevent infection.

Research Associate (Fixed Term), Cambridge
We are seeking a Post doctoral Research Associate to contribute to projects, investigate plant metabolic pathways and to enable biological production of high-value natural products using synthetic biology approaches.

Research Associate (Fixed Term), Cambridge
We are seeking a highly motivated post-doctoral Research Associate to:
* Develop AI strategies for parameter estimation in large-scale kinetic models of photosynthesis on existing datasets and newly acquired data for 20 C3 species
* Characterize parameter uncertainty and specify additional data to be measured to improve estimation precision.
* Identify photosynthetic improvement strategies using combinatorial mix-and-match metabolic strategy.