đ» The Week in Botany July 10, 2023
After Musk killed the APIs for Twitter, the only way to track whatâs popular on the site has been human eyeball v1.0. This weekâs innovation has been putting limits on how many tweets I can see on each day, effectively killing my idea of getting at least one full day off in my weekâs holiday. I donât know if the same limits are responsible for the plummeting number of shares that Iâm seeing, or if itâs just the peak of the summer slump.
One solution would be to switch to Threads, and you can find Botany One there, But at the moment the algorithm and lack of text search means that Threads is a mess. A mess with potential I think, but not really a useful site yet.
This week Iâll be back to work as usual. Unless Musk has another really clever idea, thereâll be another newsletter at the same time next week. Until then, take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
On Botany One
How Do Plants Remember Experiences?
Plants have an amazing ability to remember and adapt to different environments, which helps them survive and grow better, and scientists are using different scientific approaches to understand how this works, unlocking the secrets of nature.
Highbush Blueberries Bloom with Help from Fungal Friends
Improving pollination could also improve your grocery shopping.
Urban Meadows Hold the Key to Pollination Prosperity
An investigation into urban meadows illuminates their importance in harbouring diverse pollinator communities, underscoring the need to maintain and improve these green spaces for the health of our urban ecosystems.
Trees can benefit when their neighbour recruits ants
Planting more trees with nectar-secreting structures not only offers a greener strategy for reforestation and carbon capture, but also enhances the health of neighbouring trees by attracting ant defenders.
Reproduction for one American grass is an open and shut case
Danthonia compressa has a dual strategy for reproduction, allowing it to adapt to a varying environment.
News & Views
First CRISPR-edited salad hits the U.S. market
Scientists weigh in on the future of gene-edited foods.
The Difference Between Native and Neonative Plants, and Why It Matters
The distinction isn't as cut-and-dry as it may seem.
Plant that makes you feel "electrocuted and set on fire at the same time" introduced to U.K. "Poison Garden"
A venomous plant that can make you feel as though you've been "electrocuted and set on fire at the same time" for months with just a single touch is now on display in "the U.K.'s deadliest garden."
The unsung pawpaw is a delicious, low-maintenance, native N. American fruit tree
Looking to plant something unusual, easy to grow and exotically delicious? Let me introduce you to Asimina triloba, the pawpaw tree.
Local TV report on New Caledonia leads to discovery of a new plant species
A team at the Department of Plant Systematics at the University of Bayreuth has recently identified a new plant species of the genus Leichhardtia on New Caledonia and presented it in the journal Phytotaxa. This discovery was triggered by a television report from a local TV station on New Caledonia about a research trip to the hard-to-access island of Yandé northwest of the main island of New Caledonia.
Before it's gone: At 20 feet tall, century plant begins to wither in WRAL Azalea Gardens
If you haven't seen the uniquely beautiful century plant in WRAL's Azalea Gardens - or if you wanted to see it again before it's gone - you may want to come see it soon. After weeks of drawing crowds in the hot summer sun, our Agave Americana is now showing signs of decay.
Hundreds gather to see SF's smelliest flower bloom
A rare plant at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers bloomed on Monday night, the Golden Gate Park garden said in a Twitter post.Â
How a British botanist who has never visited Japan helped revive its âessentialâ seaweed industry
Kathleen Drew-Baker died in 1957 but her memory lives on in the city of Uto in Kumamoto, one of Japanâs largest nori -growing regions. Her work prompted Japanese scientists and nori farmers to use oyster shells to help seaweed thrive, kick-starting nori commercial farming in Japan.
EU seeks to relax gene-edited crop restrictions
The European Commission proposed revising its rules on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on Wednesday to loosen some restrictions for plants resulting from newer gene-editing technology. The EU executive said the move would give farmers more resilient crops and reduce the use of chemical pesticides and offer consumers food with higher nutritional value.
Peat-free success for carnivorous plants adds weight to peat ban, says RHS
Scientists hope success of growing carnivorous plants without peat will convince ministers not to water down ban.
One of Marylandâs oldest trees will be turned into a sculpture
The Linden Oak was the largest known white oak tree in Montgomery County. It will be turned into a sculpture after arborists say it died.
Ukraine's Botanists Risked Their Lives for a Priceless Collection
When the war came to Kherson, a small group of scientists ventured into the ruined city to rescue a unique herbarium.
Scientific Papers
Plants can talk: a new era in plant acoustics
The âplant bioacousticsâ hypothesis posits that plantâecosystem interactions are also controlled by sound and that crop health can be significantly improved by tracking such plant-emitted sound cues. However, information about the ability of plants to emit stress-related acoustic cues has remained enigmatic.
Flowers are leakier than leaves but cheaper to build
Although they are typically short-lived, flowers require resources, such as carbon, water, and nutrients, for their production and maintenance. Water, in particular, is used throughout development and anthesis for a variety of functions, including driving growth and expansion, yet surprisingly little is known about the mechanisms of water balance in flowers, how physiological traits related to water and carbon influence the costs of floral display, and how floral hydraulic traits affect drought responses.
When the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence: Nasa (Loasaceae) rediscoveries from Peru and Ecuador, and the contribution of community science networks
Community science networks have recently made tremendous contributions to documenting biodiversity in many regions across the globe. The rediscovery of six species of Nasa (Loasaceae) from Peru and Ecuador primarily via the platform iNaturalist, is reported.
Increasing plant species richness by seeding has marginal effects on ecosystem functioning in agricultural grasslands
While nature conservation and cultural ecosystem services can certainly benefit from plant species enrichment, Freitag et al.âs study indicates that restoration of plant diversity in naturally assembled communities may deliver only relatively weak increases in ecosystem functioning, such as a more closed nitrogen cycle.
Arabidopsis metacaspase MC1 localizes in stress granules, clears protein aggregates and delays senescence
Stress granules (SGs) are highly conserved cytoplasmic condensates that assemble in response to stress and contribute to maintaining protein homeostasis. These membraneless organelles are dynamic, disassembling once the stress is no longer present. Persistence of SGs due to mutations or chronic stress has been often related to age-dependent protein-misfolding diseases in animals. Ruiz-SolanĂ et al. find that the metacaspase MC1 is dynamically recruited into SGs upon proteotoxic stress in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana).
Long-term changes in forest response to extreme atmospheric dryness
Atmospheric dryness, as indicated by vapor pressure deficit (VPD), has a strong influence on forest greenhouse gas exchange with the atmosphere. In this study, Shekhar et al. used long-term (10â30âyears) net ecosystem productivity (NEP) measurements from 60 forest sites across the world (1003 site-years) to quantify long-term changes in forest NEP resistance and NEP recovery in response to extreme atmospheric dryness. We tested two hypotheses: first, across sites differences in NEP resistance and NEP recovery of forests will depend on both the biophysical characteristics (i.e., leaf area index [LAI] and forest type) of the forest as well as on the local meteorological conditions of the site (i.e., mean VPD of the site), and second, forests experiencing an increasing trend in frequency and intensity of extreme dryness will show an increasing trend in NEP resistance and NEP recovery over time due to emergence of long-term ecological stress memory.
Evidence of fruit syndromes in the recently diverged wild tomato clade opens new possibilities for the study of fleshy fruit evolution
Fleshy fruits provide humans with many flavorful and nutritious crops. Understanding the diversity of these plants is fundamental to managing agriculture and food security in a changing world. This study surveyed fruit trait variation across species of tomato wild relatives and explored associations among color, size, shape, sugars, and acids.
â»ïž Engineering broad-spectrum disease-resistant rice by editing multiple susceptibility genes
Rice blast and bacterial blight are important diseases of rice (Oryza sativa) caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae and the bacterium Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), respectively. Breeding rice varieties for broad-spectrum resistance is considered the most effective and sustainable approach to controlling both diseases. Although dominant resistance genes have been extensively used in rice breeding and production, generating disease-resistant varieties by altering susceptibility (S) genes that facilitate pathogen compatibility remains unexplored. Using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, Tao et al. generated loss-of-function mutants of the S genes Pi21 and Bsr-d1 and showed that they had increased resistance to M. oryzae.
The role of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis in improving plant water status under drought
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have been presumed to ameliorate crop tolerance to drought. Abdalla et al. review the role of AMF in maintaining water supply to plants from drying soils and the underlying biophysical mechanisms. We used a soilâplant hydraulic model to illustrate the impact of several AMF mechanisms on plant responses to edaphic drought.
The dynamic multi-functionality of leaf water transport outside the xylem
A surge of papers have reported low leaf vulnerability to xylem embolism during drought. Scoffoni et al. focus on the less studied, and more sensitive, outside-xylem leaf hydraulic responses to multiple internal and external conditions.
Compositional shifts associated with major evolutionary transitions in plants
Heterogeneity in gene trees, morphological characters, and composition has been associated with several major plant clades. Smith et al. examine heterogeneity in composition across a large transcriptomic dataset of plants to better understand whether locations of shifts in composition are shared across gene regions and whether directions of shifts within clades are shared across gene regions.
Careers
Professorship in Molecular Biology of Plants, ZĂŒrich
The successful candidate must be an established researcher in her or his field of molecular plant science with a proven track record in terms of research output, acquisition of third-party funding, and teaching and mentoring. The future professor is expected to strengthen the scientific impact and societal role of the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology (IPMB). The professor will contribute to teaching and its further development at both Bachelor and Master level, in particular with courses on plant molecular biology, and supervise PhD students. Furthermore, we expect active participation in scientific and policy-oriented regional, national, or international societies and committees as well as outreach activities.
Lecturer in Horticulture, Cupar, Scotland
We are looking for a horticulture lecturer who can integrate with colleagues across our existing teaching and research strengths. The successful candidate will have an awareness of the horticultural industry as a whole and have knowledge of sustainable horticultural practices and be willing to contribute to the enhancement of the departments sustainability. Ideally, the successful applicant will be experienced in FE and/or HE delivery, combined with a drive to impact positively on todayâs horticulture industry.
Higher Education Programme Manager: Horticultural Science, Cornwall
Based at our University Centre Eden Project campus, we have a fantastic opportunity to join our team as the Higher Education Programme Manager in Horticultural Science. We are looking for an enthusiastic individual to manage this exciting, employer-led programme. Applicants must be able to work closely with affiliated teams and be a willing participant in the development of inspiring and responsive Teaching, Learning and Assessment (TLA). In conjunction with the Curriculum Area Manager (CAM) for Operations and the CAM for Curriculum Development, the successful candidate will develop an innovative curriculum which equips learners with the real-world skills, knowledge and aptitudes to give them competitive advantage in their future career.
Modern Apprentice - Plant Growth, Durham, UK
The post holder will work under the direction of the plant growth facility manager and the academic lead within the Molecular Plant Sciences group and be trusted to work independently on set tasks. The primary role is to provide support to the multiuser plant growth facilities. The responsibilities of this role will include waste management, specialist category 2 glasshouse and growth room cleaning, and general maintenance of growth facilities. This includes the monitoring of environmental growth conditions, pest management, maintaining stock of plant growth materials and supply of plants for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. The post holder ! will also assist with management of health and safety within the facility ensuring adherence to HSE guidance on GM requirements.
Research Assistant - Root Endosymbiosis, Oxford
The Department of Biology is looking for a post-doctoral research assistant (PDRA) that will report to Dr Ronelle Roth and work on understanding cross-kingdom communication in the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis. Your research will focus on two possible projects 1.) to study extracellular vesicles (EVs) produced during the interaction by analysing plant and fungal protein biomarkers and EV cargoes and assessing their function in the AM symbiosis; and 2.) to examine the role of small interfering RNAs in modulating the plant-fungal interaction.
Postdoctoral Research Assistant: Evolution and Local Adaptation in Seasonal Environments, Oxford
A postdoctoral research assistant position is available for three years working with Prof Ben Sheldon FRS on the evolution and ecology of phenological synchrony within and between trophic levels. The main aims of the post are (i) to carry out research testing the scale of local adaptation to varying phenology between deciduous trees and their primary consumers, and (ii) to carry out research on trophic interactions between producers and primary and secondary consumers revealed by meta-barcoding approaches. An additional project (iii) may involve collaborative work on population genomics of oak trees and their relationships with consumers. The post is funded as part of a UKRI Frontiers grant running from 2022-2027.
Postdoctoral Research Assistant: Evolutionary Ecology of Phenological Synchrony in Multi-trophic Systems, Oxford
A postdoctoral research assistant position is available for two years working with Prof Ben Sheldon FRS on the evolution and ecology of phenological synchrony within and between trophic levels. The main aim of the post is to develop conceptual and theoretical models, and methods to test them, to understand the evolutionary and ecological processes that act on phenological synchrony in multi-trophic systems. The post is funded as part of a UKRI Frontiers grant running from 2022-2027.
Postdoctoral Research Assistant: Remote Sensing Scientist/Computational and Spatial Ecology, Oxford
A postdoctoral research assistant position is available for up to 3.5 years (2.5 years with a potential further yearâs extension) working with Prof Ben Sheldon FRS on the application of deep learning in ecology. The main roles of the post are to develop computational deep-learning methods to infer species identity and phenology at the level of individual trees from time series of drone images and to use these data to understand the spatial scaling of phenological variation. Depending on the background of the successful candidate, the post holder could also explore how this contributes to ecology and evolution of producer-consumer relationships. The post is funded as part of a UKRI Frontiers grant running from 2022-2027.
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Stirling
We seek a biological modeller with experience of species distribution modelling (ecological niche modelling),advanced statistical modelling and scenario-based approaches. This two-year role will focus on modelling the suitability of different ectomycorrhizal fungi(EMF) species, tree hosts and locations and exploring the benefits and trade-offs between EMF production and different structural and temporal components of the linked food and forest systems.
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.
Doctoral Researcher in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning, Helsinki
The doctoral researcher will investigate biodiversity change, species interactions and their interplay on ecosystem functioning in boreal forests and tundra. The project will involve analysis of observational data, and experiments in the forests, tundra, and greenhouse. Functional traits will often be used to quantify biodiversity and its change in time, across environmental gradients and in experimental treatments. The doctoral researcher will be encouraged to design their own research project within the scope of the overall project in collaboration with the PI. The successful candidate will be able to take part in the activities within REC, OEB and the wider University. Five percent of working time will be devoted to teaching and supervising undergraduate students.
Research Fellow (Biological Sciences), Singapore
This is one of the three open positions for Postdoctoral Fellows (Research Fellows) in the lab of Yuchen Long. The successful candidate will work on an interdisciplinary project on the biomechanical regulations in plant development. Our lab is interested in how biomechanical inputs, particularly tissue mechanics and hydraulics, contribute to the developmental processes in the plant meristematic tissues.Â
Research Officer - Plant Energy & Biotechnology, Monash
The Faculty of Science has a fantastic opportunity for a Research Officer to join the School of Biological Sciences. This position provides a variety of high-quality research services to support the operations of the Plant Energy & Biotechnology research group and executes various research-related tasks to facilitate the completion of funded research projects. The Research Officer will work closely in the School of Biological Sciences and The Faculty of Science more broadly. The School of Biological Sciences has earned a distinguished global recognition for its exceptional research and educational programs, with a commitment to becoming a world-renowned leader in life sciences. Our areas of expertise comprise evolutionary biology, conservation biology and ecology, as well as genetics and genomics.
Postdoctoral position, Evolution of floral microbiomes, Uppsala
A postdoctoral position is available at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden, to study the relevance of floral microbiome for plant reproduction. The project will use a combination of microbiomics and plant genetics to understand the contribution of the floral microbiome to plant reproduction and pollinator health. The position is funded by a project grant from FORMAS for an initial period of two years.
PhD position in Plant speciation genetics, Uppsala
A PhD position is available at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden, to study the mechanisms of reproductive isolation in plants. The project will use a combination of reverse genetics, transcriptomics, microscopy, and population genetics approaches to understand the molecular processes preventing close relative species from hybridizing in sympatry. The position is funded by a project grant from the Swedish Research Council for four years.
Research Assistant/Associate Computational Biology (Fixed Term), Cambridge
Applications are invited for a Research Assistant/Research Associate position in the group of Professor Henrik Jönsson at the Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge University, to carry out fundamental research in the field of Computational Morphodynamics in plants. Applicants must have or be close to obtaining a PhD in Computational Biology, Physics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Bioengineering, Systems Biology or a related field. Proficiency in dynamical models of molecular regulation in cells, finite element models of mechanics of materials, or image analysis methods is required. Candidates are expected to have experience in the following areas: dynamical and/or finite element modelling.
Assistant Professor Plant Systems, Computational or Synthetic Biology, Maastricht
We are looking for an Assistant Professor in Systems, Computational, or Synthetic Biology with a focus on plants to help develop our new activities in plant systems biology at the Greenport Campus Venlo in the Southern Netherlands. The campus has a focus on research (from fundamental to applied) in relation to human health, the environment and relevant stakeholders. While located at Campus Venlo, you will also be formally affiliated with the Maastricht Centre for Systems Biology (MaCSBio), an interdisciplinary research centre aimed at integrating and modelling biological data from different empirical domains using data-driven as well as theory-driven analytical and modelling approaches.