The Week in Botany September 8, 2025
It’s been a quiet week on the blog for a couple of reasons. One is that the email problem has continued, meaning that I can’t schedule posts without emailing copies of it to you all. I’ve reverted back to the Buttondown system for the email, and killed the server on WordPress, which will now just hold the blog posts.
The lack of scheduling wouldn’t be a problem if I pressed the ‘publish’ button live. The reason I couldn’t push posts live is that I’ve been out of office for family reasons, which will continue for this week. However, with the email system fixed, or at least smashing into enough pieces that it looks fixed if you squint hard enough, I can now return to scheduling posts, so this week should be closer to normal.
In fact it should be better than normal, because I’ve seen the posts that will be scheduled, and there’s a few that surprised me. What shouldn’t surprise you is there will be another email of the papers and the news stories you’re sharing on Mastodon and Bluesky next week. Until next time, take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
On Botany One
Domestication causes some crops to lose protective immunity genes
Losing immunity receptor genes makes these crops more susceptible to disease, but wild relatives can be used to better understand these genes and help breed hardier crops.
Cecilia Zumajo-Cardona: Untold Stories of Plant Evolution
Botany One interviews Dr. Cecilia Zumajo-Cardona, a speaker at the “Evolutionary History of the Gnetales” symposium held during Botany 2025.
Parasitic plants help build lignin deposits in host tissues
Their unknown function in developing hausteria remains to be uncovered.
…and last’s week’s Week in Botany with why Taylor Swift might be good for plants and why Northern Irish rock group Ash might not be.
News & Views
Rewilding project aims to restore resilience to fire-prone Spain via wildlife
A project in Spain is bringing Przewalski’s horse to a sparsely populated region to help stem out-of-control fires and boost the local economy.
Banksia seedlings planted to replace those lost after Black Summer bushfires
Volunteers have planted hundreds of banksia seedlings on Mount Burrowa in Victoria's Upper Murray. The species, Banksia canei, was wiped out from the Burrowa-Pine National Park in the Black Summer bushfires, but scientists propagated new seedlings from a closely related plant found nearby.
‘The forgotten forest’: how smashing 5.6m urchins saved a California kelp paradise
‘The forgotten forest’: how smashing 5.6m urchins saved a California kelp paradise
Pollution, warm oceans and hungry urchins devastated Pacific kelp. Now, thanks to divers with hammers, one of the world’s most successful rehabilitation projects has helped it rebound.
To defend against Russian tanks, Finland and Poland consider restoring wetlands
Finland and Poland are both considering rewetting dried-out peatbogs to form defence barriers against a potential Russian ground invasion. Restoring these natural carbon sinks could also bring significant environmental benefits.
How Joshua trees switch up their photosynthesis game
Joshua trees can beat the heat of the desert with the help of a special form of photosynthesis, according to data presented in the latest peer-reviewed paper from the Joshua Tree Genome Projectcollaboration. The study is the first “fruit” of a multi-year experiment in growing Joshua tree seedlings in experimental gardens distributed across the Mojave Desert, led by plant physiologist Karolina Heyduk at the University of Connecticut and USGS ecologist Lesley DeFalco.
Some tropical trees cool their leaves to survive the heat — but not all species have ways to cope
How do you cool yourself on a hot day? Perhaps you find shade, switch on a fan or retreat to air conditioning? But spare a thought for tropical forest trees. As the climate warms, they must either adjust to the heat, adapt over generations, or begin a slow decline toward death.
Rooted in Knowledge: How Plant Science Shapes Edible Landscapes Worldwide
The urban, rural and forested edible landscapes of the world are not yet fully mapped, and perhaps they never will be in a conventional sense. But for plant scientists, these are not gaps–they are invitations.
Climate crisis will increase frequency of lightning-sparked wildfires, study finds
These wildfires tend to burn in more remote areas and grow larger faster, posing a higher risk to public safety and health.
Tomato or potato, which came first?
The question of whether the potato or the tomato came first is explored from two perspectives: their introduction to Europe and their evolutionary origins.
Using pollen to make paper, sponges and more
Reengineered, the powdery stuff could become a range of eco-friendly objects.
L.A. desperately needs more shade. So why were 77 palm trees planted near LACMA?
This summer, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the city’s Bureau of Street Services and Metro planted 77 new Mexican fan palms on Wilshire Boulevard, mostly along the sidewalk and medians outside the museum’s new David Geffen Galleries. Local environmentalists, who are lobbying hard for more shade trees in L.A., are decrying the decision. They say palm trees are expensive to maintain, highly flammable and hopeless at producing the shade Angelenos need to dull the heat that radiates off the city’s streets, sidewalks and other hardscape surfaces.
This Week in Botany
5 Years Ago: Global warming and earlier flowering: a thermogradient tunnel experiment
10 Years Ago: Has Botany got its poster boy?
15 Years Ago: How old is my meadow?
Scientific Papers
Genetic architecture of a light-temperature coincidence detector (FREE)
Light and temperature variations are inescapable in nature. These signals provide daily and seasonal information, guiding life history determinations across many taxa. Seluzicki & Chory show that signals from the PHOTOTROPIN2 (PHOT2) blue photoreceptor combine with low temperature information to control flowering. Plants lacking PHOT2 flower later than controls when grown in low ambient temperature.
Nonuple atg8 mutant provides genetic evidence for functional specialization of ATG8 isoforms in Arabidopsis thaliana (FREE)
To explore ATG8 specialization, Del Chiaro et al generated the nonuple Δatg8 mutant lacking all nine ATG8 isoforms. The mutant displayed hypersensitivity to carbon and nitrogen starvation, coupled with defects in bulk and selective autophagy as shown by biochemical and ultrastructural analyses.
Transgenerational polarity axis inheritance during Ceratopteris embryogenesis (FREE)
By studying Ceratopteris richardii embryogenesis, Woudenberg et al find that maternal tissues guide orientation of the early embryo body axis, thus aligning its root pole towards the homologous maternal rhizoids. They find that axis polarity inheritance is mediated by maternal tissue mechanical patterns, and thus identify a robust mechanism for progeny establishment as a nurturing strategy in plants.
Potential and challenges for application of microbiomes in agriculture (FREE)
Copeland et al discuss the beneficial potential of plant microbiomes to enhance plant growth, nutrition, stress tolerance, pathogen protection, and commercial value through the modulation of taste and flavors, using examples from model plants and agriculturally important crops. They then discuss how microbial invasion and persistence in standing communities, trade-offs under multiple stressors, and community instability under host- and environment-imposed modulation should be considered in the rational design of microbial inocula, followed by a scrutiny of the method of microbial delivery.
Novel root clusters in the grasstree Kingia australis (Dasypogonaceae) increase the root surface:volume ratio by 70 times (FREE)
Kingia australis grasstree root clusters, exposed by riverbank erosion, were studied for their morphology and function. These clusters, with a high surface area due to numerous rootlets and root hairs, likely enhance water and nutrient uptake rather than storage.
Bistable Mutation-Selection Equilibria and Violations of Fisher’s Theorem in Tetraploids: Insights from Nonlinear Dynamics (FREE)
Polyploidy and whole genome duplication (WGD) are widespread biological phenomena with substantial cellular, meiotic, and genetic effects. Despite their prevalence and significance across the tree of life, population genetics theory for polyploids is not well developed. The lack of theoretical models limits our understanding of polyploid evolution and restricts our ability to harness polyploidy for crop improvement amidst increasing environmental stress. To address this gap, Gibbon et al developed and analyzed deterministic models of mutation-selection balance for tetraploids under polysomic (autotetraploid) and disomic (allote-traploid) inheritance patterns and arbitrary dominance relationships.
How climate change and deforestation interact in the transformation of the Amazon rainforest (FREE)
The Amazon rainforest is one of Earth’s most diverse ecosystems, playing a key role in maintaining regional and global climate stability. However, recent changes in land use, vegetation, and the climate have disrupted biosphere-atmosphere interactions, leading to significant alterations in the water, energy, and carbon cycles. These disturbances have far-reaching consequences for the entire Earth system. Franco et al quantify the relative contributions of deforestation and global climate change to observed shifts in key Amazonian climate parameters.
Systematic discovery and engineering of synthetic immune receptors in plants ($)
A vast array of receptors at the plant cell surface perceive fragments of pathogens and elicit immune responses. Each receptor binds to specific pathogenic ligands. Ngou et al. analyzed thousands of plant pattern recognition receptors and identified distantly related receptors with similar ligand-binding regions that convergently evolved to detect bacterial cold shock proteins.
Diversification of functional requirements for proteolysis of Auxin Response Factors (FREE)
de Roij et al identify a critical residue for proteolysis of the repressive, B-class MpARF2, and find it to be functionally conserved in degradation of the activating, A-class MpARF1. Unlike MpARF2, however, impaired MpARF1 degradation had little effect on auxin response and development, suggesting differential integration in biological function.
The Global Canopy Atlas: analysis-ready maps of 3D structure for the world's woody ecosystems (FREE)
Woody canopies regulate exchanges of energy, water and carbon, and their three-dimensional (3D) structure supports much of terrestrial biodiversity. Remote sensing technologies such as airborne laser scanning (ALS) now enable the 3D mapping of entire landscapes. However, we lack the large, harmonized and geographically representative ALS collections needed to build a global picture of woody ecosystem structure. To address this challenge, Fischer et al developed the Global Canopy Atlas (GCA): 3,458 ALS acquisitions transformed into standardized and analysis-ready maps of canopy height and elevation at 1 m2 resolution.
In AoBC Publications
Climate links leaf shape variation and functional strategies in quinoa’s wild ancestor (FREE)
axiomFP.py a software for visual ploidy and quality assessment of Axiom SNP array data (FREE)
Smarter Stomata: Emergent technologies unlocking yield potential in a changing climate (FREE)
Repeated loss of plastid NDH during evolution of land plants (FREE)
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.
Associate Professor (or Professor) in Plant Sciences. Oxford
We are seeking a researcher and teacher with outstanding potential to bring exciting new perspectives in the area of molecular plant biology at the University of Oxford. This is a unique opportunity to join a dynamic new Department with a culture that values, innovation, collegiality, and scholarship. The successful candidate will start 1 September 2026.
Max Planck Postdoc Program, Germany
The Max Planck Postdoc Program provides talented early career researchers with a range of attractive opportunities to advance their careers in science. Applications are accepted twice a year - on March 1 and September 1. The Max Planck Society offers bundled postdoc positions to interested top talents. The second call for applications starts on September 1, 2025, and ends on October 13, 2025.
Referent*in (m/w/d) für Wissenschaftskommunikation, Dusseldorf
Scientific research and analysis, development of research projects and funding applications, and science communication in German and English. This includes creating content for various platforms, coordinating media inquiries, and evaluating implemented measures.
Assistant Professor in Plant Science, Utrecht
In this role, you will contribute to the teaching and research portfolio of the Plant Stress Resilience group. You will develop an independent research line that complements, strengthens and extends the existing research themes in the group. You will build on your experience in the field of abiotic stress research using innovative and multi-disciplinary approaches and new technologies.
Postdoctoral Fellow in Evolutionary Genomics, Stockholm
The Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences invites applications for postdoktoral fellow for the project “Harnessing evolutionary transitions, machine learning, and genomics to decode pollen evolution and unravel sexual selection mechanisms shared across kingdoms”. The project is led by Prof. Tanja Slotte in close collaboration with co-investigators Prof. John Fitzpatrick, Prof. Catarina Rydin, and Dr. Allison Hsiang at Stockholm University. This project will investigate the evolutionary drivers and genomic consequences of pollen evolution in response to shifts in pollination mode in flowering plants.