The Week in Botany June 2, 2025
This week I learned that people are growing tea commercially in Scotland. This surprised me, but the existence of a genuine industry explains how someone almost got away with half a million pounds of fraud. You’ll see that listed below, as I wrote up a little post for Botany One.
You’ll also see this week that I mention last week’s newsletter in the links. This is self-referential, but the idea is that this newsletter will also be a weekly table of contents for the blog, and adding in last week’s list enables people to work their way back.
The newsletter system on WordPress is putting up a fight, so while there will be another email of the papers and the news stories you’re sharing on Mastodon and Bluesky next week, there’s no plans to change the system yet. Until next time, take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
On Botany One
What were root genes doing before they started building roots?
Even plants that don’t have roots have genes to make them, so what is it that these genes are up to?
Pilar Márquez-Cardona: Growing Knowledge, Cultivating Communities
Botany One interviews Prof. Pilar Márquez-Cardona, a plant biotechnologist seeking to put cutting-edge science at the service of local communities.
Scientists Bust the Myth of the Saltwater-Sipping Desert Shrub
The dream of crops that could drink seawater has taken a hit as botanists prove that Nolana mollis, a desert survivor long believed to hydrate itself from atmospheric brine, actually relies on conventional deep-root water uptake to survive Chile's bone-dry Atacama Desert.
How do plants respond to hormone signals instead of cellular noise
You might expect the instructions a cell receives to make a flower to be precise, but the response to those instructions isn’t.
The Swindle That Left Tea With a Bitter Taste
How did a fake Scottish tea plantation fool the finest hotels?
The Week in Botany May 26, 2025
A plant that is happiest when attacking others, a petal that almost plays pinball with pollen, the maths of how plants shape your mood and more...
News & Views
As Trump comes after research, Forest Service scientists keep working
Scientists describe how they’re preparing for the upcoming field season despite the challenges.
Plant Cell webinar: Translating research from Arabidopsis to crop plants and beyond
To celebrate the May 2025 issue of The Plant Cell, and to recognize the 25th anniversary of the publication of the Arabidopsis genome sequence, the editors of this focus issue invited some of the distinguished scientists whose work appears in this focus issue to share their insights and perspectives.
Welcome to the Big Meadow Search
The Big Meadow Search is a UK, Ireland and Channel Island project developed by Carmarthenshire Meadows Group, to raise awareness and interest in grasslands and to record plant species.
Old water, new insights
Five years ago, an experiment began at ETH Hönggerberg: researchers set up an outdoor laboratory in the forest near the campus. They used sensors positioned in trees, the soil and in a stream to study water dynamics and the “old water paradox”. ETH News accompanied the head of the experiment, Marius Floriancic.
Emperor attends tree-planting festival and calls for nurturing healthy forests
Emperor Naruhito attended the 75th National Tree-Planting Festival at Chichibu Muse Park in Saitama Prefecture on Sunday.
'Sheep eater' tropical plant flowers after decade
School horticulturalist Louise Moreton said the event was both exciting and a worrying sign of global warming. (In another version of this story that I’ve lost track of, she also mentions the plant doesn’t actually eat sheep)
Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Bonsai Collection Turns 100 This Year
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden often gets attention for when their esplanade of cherry blossom trees are in bloom. However, the park is recognizing another tree species on its grounds this year - the bonsai.
The Plan to Send Plant-Filled ‘Gardens’ Into Orbit
Off-world agriculture has long seemed experimental, but that could soon change thanks to a collaboration between design firm Heatherwick Studio and the space architecture nonprofit Aurelia Institute.
Agriculture in Forests Can Provide Climate and Economic Dividends
Forest-based agroforestry can restore forests, promote livelihoods, and combat climate change, but emerging agroforestry initiatives focusing only on tree planting is leading to missed opportunities to support beneficial outcomes of forest management, a Yale-led team of scientists found.
The shockingly beneficial effects of lightning on trees
News of ‘lightnophilic’ trees, tall-statured plants that appear to benefit from lightning strikes.
Scientific Papers
MIK2-clade receptor function in perception of a Fusarium-derived elicitor is conserved among different plant families (FREE)
Maroschek et al demonstrate that Fusarium elicitor-responsiveness and proteins belonging to the MIK2-clade are widely conserved among seed plants. They identified a MIK2-clade protein from tomato, which shares properties of AtMIK2 in the perception of the Fusarium elicitor but not of SCOOP peptides.
From suppressed to dominant: 3D crown shapes explain the “to grow or wait” growth behavior in close-to-nature forests (FREE)
Crown plasticity enables trees to acclimate to competition and environmental stress, but how social strata and species-specific behavior modulate crown structure–secondary growth relationships remains poorly understood. Ahmed et al tested three hypotheses in close-to-nature forests across wet (Germany) and dry (Spain) sites using terrestrial laser scanning and tree-ring width data of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) and Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) in Germany, and Stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) in Spain.
Imputation integrates single-cell and spatial gene expression data to resolve transcriptional networks in barley shoot meristem development (FREE)
Demesa-Arevalo et al investigate transcriptional changes during barley development, from the specification of meristem and organ founder cells to the initiation of distinct floral organs, based on an imputation approach integrating deep single-cell RNA sequencing with spatial gene expression data.
Evolutionary responses to historic drought across the range of scarlet monkeyflower (FREE)
The breeder’s equation predicts the evolutionary change in a trait from one generation to the next as the product of the selection differential and the narrow-sense heritability in that trait. Incorporating these aspects of the breeder’s equation, we performed a resurrection study with the scarlet monkeyflower (Mimulus cardinalis) to evaluate whether traits associated with drought adaptation have evolved in populations across a species’ range in response to extreme drought.
ERFVIIs as transducers of oxygen-sensing in the evolution of land plant response to hypoxia ($)
The transcriptional response to low oxygen (hypoxia) in flowering plants is transduced through group VII Ethylene Response Factor (ERFVII) transcription factors, whose proteolysis is oxygen-dependent via the PLANT CYSTEINE OXIDASE (PCO) N-degron pathway. When and how this response to hypoxia evolved in land plants remains unknown. Here we investigated the conservation and divergence of transcriptional responses to hypoxia in major land plant clades. Carbonare et al identified induction of gene functions associated with glycolysis and fermentation as part of a conserved response across all land plant divisions.
CYP722A1-mediated 16-hydroxylation of carlactonoic acid regulates the floral transition in Arabidopsis (FREE)
This study demonstrates that Arabidopsis cyp722a1 mutants exhibit an earlier floral transition without excessive shoot branching. Biochemical analysis revealed that CYP722A1 catalyzes the hydroxylation of CLA to produce 16-hydroxy-CLA (16-HO-CLA), which is subsequently methylated by CLAMT to form 16-HO-MeCLA. 16-HO-CLA and 16-HO-MeCLA were detected in the wildtype; however, these compounds were absent in max1-4 mutant, deficient in CLA synthesis, and in cyp722a1 mutant.
Thermal acclimation of stem respiration implies a weaker carbon-climate feedback ($)
Plant respiration contributes several times the amount of carbon emissions to the atmosphere as anthropogenic sources. Respiration also increases with temperature, leading to a positive feedback loop. However, plants can acclimatize to warmer temperatures and reduce their respiration rate. Using a model based on ecological-evolutionary optimality principles, Zhang et al. predicted the rate of respiration acclimation to warming driven by decreasing water viscosity within the plant.
Systemic territoriality in academia: The Gollum effect’s impact on scientific research and careers (FREE)
Scientific progress thrives on collaboration and knowledge sharing, yet territorial behaviors in academia, which we call the Gollum Effect, threaten this foundation. This global study reveals how such behaviors, particularly in ecology and conservation, disproportionately affect early-career and marginalized researchers, potentially driving talented and motivated scientists away from addressing crucial environmental challenges.
Plant native: comparing biodiversity benefits, ecosystem services provisioning, and plant performance of native and non-native plants in urban horticulture (FREE)
Many horticulturalists assert that non-native plants are more successful and provide equal or greater habitat and ecosystem services than native plants. However, little research has compared native and non-native plants in urban systems. We present here a systematic literature review, using the PRISMA methodology, to assess three questions: (1) Is there a difference between native and non-native plants in their ability to support faunal biodiversity in urban green spaces? (2) Is there a difference between native and non-native plants in their provisioning of urban ecosystem services? 3)Do non-native species outperform natives in urban environments in terms of survival, growth, and fitness?
Rapid adaptation and extinction across climates in synchronized outdoor evolution experiments of Arabidopsis thaliana (FREE)
Climate change is threatening species with extinction, and rapid evolutionary adaptation may be their only option for population rescue over short ecological timescales. However, direct observations of rapid genetic adaptation and population dynamics across climates are rare across species. To fill this gap, we conducted a replicated, globally synchronized evolution experiment with the plant Arabidopsis thaliana for 5 years in over 30 outdoor experimental gardens with distinct climates across Europe, the Levant, and North America.
Establishment patterns of saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) at the microsite scale help explain saguaro regeneration and distributions in heterogenous, regional habitats (FREE)
Breslin et al investigated microsite characteristics correlated with saguaro establishment, the degree and direction of those correlations, and microsite effects on growth rate and saguaro abundance using 40 years of repeat survey data from saguaro plots at the Desert Lab.
Tracing Oxygen and Hydrogen Isotope Signals From Water Sources to Tree-Ring Compounds ($)
Stable oxygen (δ18O) and hydrogen (δ2H) isotope compositions of tree-ring compounds preserve information about environmental waters; however, our understanding of their isotopic relationships is hampered by the lack of long-term data sets. Diao et al investigated correlations using unique 17-year (2006–2022) δ18O and δ2H time series of bi-weekly measured soil solution, modelled precipitation and xylem water, along with those of tree-ring α-cellulose and lignin methoxy groups from Norway spruce (Picea abies) across three Swiss forest sites.
Epicormic Resprouting in Fire-Prone Ecosystems ($)
Pausas & Keeley review the biogeography of epicormic resprouting, the mechanisms of protection, the fire regimes where it occurs, and the evolutionary drivers that shaped this trait. They propose that epicormic resprouting is adaptive in ecosystems with high fire frequency and relatively high productivity, at moderate–high fire intensities.
In AoBC Publications
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.
Darwin-Hamied Senior Research Fellowship (stipendiary) in Biodiversity, Cambridge
Christ’s College invites applications for a stipendiary Senior Research Fellowship in biodiversity, tenable for 5 years (potentially renewable), commencing on 1st October 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.
Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term), Cambridge
A 3-year post is available in the Henderson group to study the genetic and epigenetic structure of plant centromeres, and how this relates to their function in cell division and chromosome segregation.
Research Assistant - Plant Developmental Plasticity (Fixed Term), Cambridge
Applications are invited for a Research Assistant position in the group of Dr Alexander Jones at the Sainsbury Laboratory, Cambridge University. The Jones group combines imaging of FRET biosensors with high-resolution genetic and biochemical perturbations to understand phytohormone cellular dynamics.
Research Technician Plant and Soil Ecology, Lancaster
We wish to appoint a highly committed and capable research technician to provide technical support for a recently funded NERC project that aims to experimentally test how the upward expansion of ericaceous shrubs modifies processes regulating soil carbon gain and loss, and hence soil carbon storage in alpine grassland.
Postdoc in Mechanistic Biodiversity Modelling with temporary civil servant status (“Akademische*r Rätin*Rat), Bonn
Our team’s research focusses on mechanistic biodiversity modelling across spatiotemporal scales and levels of organisation (from individual to ecosystems, under natural and human-induced scenarios). We combine ecological and eco-evolutionary models with field work and data analyses to understand and predict biodiversity dynamics. Our work focusses on terrestrial ecosystems and plants, in particular island biogeography, species distribution dynamics, eco-evolutionary feedbacks, biodiversity diversity gradients, tropical forests and vascular epiphytes.
Scientist in Treeline Dynamics and Ecosystem Functions in Mountain Regions 80-100% (f/m/d), Davos
You investigate treeline dynamics and ecosystem functions in mountain regions under global change. By leveraging existing datasets, collecting complementary data, and applying innovative methods, you quantify and predict ecosystem changes near treeline and in adjacent mountain ecosystems. Your research advances the understanding of changing mountain ecosystems and supports more effective planning and implementation of nature-based protection and other measures to optimize ecosystem functions and services.
Postdoc or PhD student position in Plant Physiology, Lausanne
Funded for 4 years by the Swiss National Science Foundation, the laboratory of Prof. Niko Geldner in the Department of Plant Molecular Biology at the University of Lausanne is seeking a position for a collaborative research project with Prof. Meibom, as well as Prof. Ramakrishna, at EPFL. We look for strongly motivated candidates for a young researcher position (either Postdoc or PhD student) to study plant physiology using the cutting edge genetic and analytical technics, including the novel (and unique) CryoNanoSIMS instrument.
Research Technician Root Barriers, Utrecht
Are you fascinated by diversity of plant structures and intrigued by their ability to protect plants from stresses? Do you want to be part of a dynamic team working towards the common goal of understanding how plants maintain multiple barriers and use them to survive and thrive? Are you interested in carrying out high-throughput phenotyping screens and understanding how root traits affect plant fitness? Then you could be our new colleague in the BarrierFates consortium!