đ± TWiB April 12, 2021
I'm not sure if it's been a quiet week, or if it's just that I've had a quiet week. I've taken some time off at the start of the week, and my telco decided I should spend Friday off the Internet.
One of the things on my to-do list this week is to work on my garden. To help me I've bought Dave Goulson's new book Gardening for Bumblebees. I think the review is going to be very positive, though the book is lacking an index. If you're planning to use it as a reference to look things up then the ebook, so you can use the search-in-text function, might be better.
I doubt I'll have that review ready soon, but I know there are a few interesting things due out on the blog in the coming week. They'll be included along with the stories shared by people following @BotanyOne on Twitter in next week's newsletter.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
Monday
Recruiting postdocs graduate trainees
Interested in joining the Lichtenberg Lab? We are currently recruiting postdocs graduate trainees. The lab combines ecology and animal behavior to study plant-animal interactions, insect foraging and insect biodiversity.
Maize chloroplast genomes hint at high levels of genetic diversity within landraces â www.botany.one Haplotype analysis showed a clear distinction between Andean and lowland landraces.
Charting the genomic landscape of seed-free plants
Szövényi et al. review the reference genomes available and identify those that are missing in the seed-free lineages. They compare patterns of various levels of genome and epigenomic organization found in seed-free plants to those of seed plants.
Nuts for coco de mer: islanders rally to save worldâs biggest seed The rare palm that bears this botanical icon grows wild on just two islands in Seychelles. Now locals are helping to save it in a new planting scheme
Tuesday
Plants Were My Beacon of Hope During the Pandemic â www.elle.com Their undeterred maturation was a reminder that springâindeed life itselfâwas moving on.
Postdoctoral Fellow Herb Hydraulics
This postdoctoral position fits within the work of Dr. Lens who explores structure-function relationships in a number of woody and herbaceous lineages. One aspect of his work investigates whether drought has driven the development of woody species during evolutionary history.
Unbiased clade age estimation using a Bayesian Brownian Bridge
In a recent paper Silvestro et al. presented a new model, the Bayesian Brownian Bridge (BBB), to infer clade age based on fossil evidence and modern diversity. This provided an earlier date than usually accepted for flowering plants. Budd and colleagues have critiqued the paper. Here comes a response.
Above- and below-ground factors determine the effect of added nitrogen â www.botany.one Both light capture and phosphorous acquisition affected the success of nitrogen-enriched plants.
Wednesday
What causes fruit set failure in pink trumpet trees? Look at pistils to find out more â www.botany.one
A new study suggests a simple genetic control of self- and cross-pollination compatibility in an ornamental tree.
A biosensor for the direct visualization of auxin
Herud-SikimiÄ et al. report a genetically encoded biosensor for the quantitative in vivo visualization of auxin distribution. The sensor is based on the Escherichia coli tryptophan repressor, the binding pocket of which is engineered to be specific to auxin.
Postdoctoral Position in Plant-Pathogen Coevolution
The McCann Lab is looking for a postdoctoral researcher to investigate plant-pathogen coevolutionary interactions in field and laboratory settings. Our team seeks to understand the processes driving disease emergence and how pathogens evolve in wild and agricultural environments.
The BSA are pleased to announce the PLANTS program funded by the National Science Foundation and Botanical Society of America to bring talented and diverse undergraduates to BOTANY 2021 - Virtual.
Thursday
Yu et al. demonstrate that transcriptomic gradients along the longitudinal root axis associate with specific shifts in rhizosphere microbial diversity. Moreover, they have established that root-derived flavones predominantly promote the enrichment of bacteria of the taxa Oxalobacteraceae in the rhizosphere, which in turn promote maize growth and nitrogen acquisition.
âA hostile environment.â Brazilian scientists face rising attacks from Bolsonaroâs regime
Last week, scientists at the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), Brazilâs lead agency for studying and managing the nationâs vast protected areas, had to start abiding by an unwelcome new rule. It gives one of ICMBioâs top officials the authority to review all âmanuscripts, texts and scientific compilationsâ before they are published.
Researchers fear President Jair Bolsonaroâs administration, which has a markedly hostile relationship with Brazilâs scientific community, will use the reviews to censor studies that conflict with its ongoing efforts to weaken environmental protections.
Invasive earthworms, invasive plants and their effects on native species â www.botany.one How do invasive species interact to influence the abundance and physiology of native plants?
Fire-driven behavioral response to smoke in a Mediterranean lizard
Ălvarez-Ruiz et al. conducted a terrarium experiment in which lizards from habitats with contrasted fire regimes (fire-prone vs. non-fire-prone) were exposed to smoke versus control (false smoke) treatment. They found that, in populations from fire-prone habitats, more lizards reacted to smoke, and their behavioral response was more intense than in lizard populations from non-fire-prone habitats. Lizards survive fires by smelling them.
Friday
CLCd and CLCf act redundantly at the TGN/EE and prevent acidification of the Golgi stack
Scholl et al. show here that CLCd and CLCf, two distantly related members of the Arabidopsis chloride channel (CLC)-family that co-localize in the TGN/EE act redundantly and are essential for male gametophyte development. Combining an inducible knock-down approach and in vivo pH-measurements, they show that reduced CLC-activity does not affect pH in the TGN/EE but causes accumulation of the V-ATPase in trans-Golgi cisternae leading to their hyper-acidification. Taken together, their results show that CLC-mediated anion transport into the TGN/EE is essential and affects spatio-temporal aspects of TGN/EE-maturation as well as its functional separation from the Golgi stack.
Concrete steps to diversify the scientific workforce
Tilghman et al. explain what is lost by a lack of diversity; to describe some promising efforts to achieve it; and to propose urgent, larger-scale actions that political and institutional leaders, educators, and scientists can take to redress the inequities that pervade our professions.
How a Carnivorous Mushroom Poisons Its Prey Scientists have known for decades that oyster mushrooms feasted on roundwormsâand theyâve finally figured out how their toxins work
Tree crowns avoid colliding in 3D â www.botany.one
A new metric quantifies the âpuzzle-shape-nessâ of tree crowns.
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