🌻 TWiB April 4, 2022
It'll be a busy week next week. On my to-do list for a while has been to move the website to a better server. I've known that the day was coming that we'd need better hosting. It seems that day came March 30, so next week the site might break down for a while as various addresses resolve to direct you to the faster server.
It's sooner than I would have liked as things remain hectic here. But in happy news, the Annals of Botany Company is looking to appoint two editors to Botany One. I'll point you to the Plantae version of the job advert as the Botany One site is unreliable at exactly the wrong time.
I'll write help on how to apply and try to get it out early this week. However, the single best bit of advice I have is read the advert. We're trying to be very explicit about what we are looking for and have nine application questions for you to answer.
One in thirteen people were infected by COVID-19 in the UK last week. I still haven't caught it once yet. Given current policy is to pretend it's not happening, I feel that will change soon. But so long as it's not this week, then there'll be another newsletter with you at the same time next week.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
In Botany One
Phylogeography of the invasive Brazilian peppertree in South Africa
Can a better understanding of the origins of the invasive tree species Schinus terebinthifolia in South Africa help to inform its management?
Mimi Tanimoto of Kew Gardens shares details of their new MSc courses.
We're looking for new editors Want to spread the word about Botany, or know somebody who won't shut up about plants? We have the perfect role. Deadline May 3, 2022
A trick of the light: Optimizing light quality conditions speeds plant growth Model identifies optimal light conditions to manipulate the circadian clock.
Species delimitation and a new Betula species in section Costatae Botanists have developed an integrated approach to identify differences between closely related species.
News & Views
Crop Science Centre to conduct field trials of genetically modified barley that could reduce need for synthetic fertilisers — www.cam.ac.uk Trials will evaluate whether enhancing the natural capacity of crops to interact with common soil fungi can contribute to more sustainable, equitable food production.
How and why to say ‘no’ to colleagues and collaborators — www.nature.com Sometimes it’s best to refuse offers and focus on the right projects to benefit your career.
Four Nature Books To Read This Spring While we (not so) patiently wait for the last frost to rear its head and the weather to warm, why not read a new-to-you book about plants and nature? Mia Hoppel—Philadelphia high school student, home gardener, and volunteer gardener with the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education as well as Laurel and West Laurel Hill Cemetery—rounded up four of her recent favorite books on nature, ranging from the story of a teenage climate activist in Northern Ireland to Robin Wall Kimmerer's critically acclaimed Braiding Sweetgrass. Â
Hosting the UoL Plant and Photosynthesis Symposium 2022 A group of PhD and postdoc students got together and organised a Plant and Photosynthesis Symposium which was held on the 17th of March 2022. We spoke to Jessica Pritchard, one of our PhD students, who organised the event to find out what it was all about and her experiences before, during and after the symposium.
Plants for pollinators: New DNA research reveals fascinating insights into the plants used by bees and hoverflies — botanicgarden.wales New research from the National Botanic Garden of Wales has created a league table of the favourite flowers of bees and hoverflies, giving a window into their secret lives.
Biopiracy row at UN talks in Geneva threatens global deal to save nature More talks needed on targets to protect wildlife as developing countries call for payment for finds based on their biodiversity
ggplot2 cheat sheets — christianb.gumroad.com
"Cheat sheets say more than a thousand words. Over the past two years I have created a series of cheat sheets for ggplot2 users. The cheat sheets are from my course ggplot2 fundamentals on Udemy."
Giant orchids found growing wild in UK for first time Range typically found in southern and central Europe is expanding north as climate warms
Rolling wildflower blocks: benefits for biodiversity — www.britishecologicalsociety.org A Policy Direction published in the Journal of Applied Ecology details how rolling wildflower blocks can be a more effective measurement against insect decline than flower strips in agricultural landscapes.
Scientific Papers
Global plant diversity as a reservoir of micronutrients for humanity | Nature Plants — www.nature.com
Cantwell-Jones et al. predict the B-vitamin profiles of >6,400 edible plants lacking nutritional data and identify 1,044 species as promising key sources of B vitamins. Several of these source species should become conservation priorities, as 63 (6%) are threatened in the wild and 272 (26%) are absent from seed banks. Moreover, many of these conservation-priority source species overlap with hotspots of malnutrition, highlighting the need for safeguarding strategies to ensure that edible plant diversity remains a reservoir of nutrition for future generations, particularly in countries needing it most.
ReadCube: https://rdcu.be/cKy94
The annotation and analysis of complex 3D plant organs using 3DCoordX
In plants, characterization of 3D digital representations of organs at single-cell resolution represents a promising approach to addressing this problem. A major challenge is to provide organ-centric spatial context to cells of an organ. Vijayan et al. developed several general rules for the annotation of cell position and embodied them in 3DCoordX, a user-interactive computer toolbox implemented in the open-source software MorphoGraphX.
Mutually inclusive mechanisms of drought-induced tree mortality
Hajek et al. studied 9435 young trees of 12 temperate species planted in a diversity experiment in 2013 to assess how hydraulic traits, carbon dynamics, pest infestation, tree height and neighborhood competition influence individual mortality risk. Following the most extreme global change-type drought since record in 2018, one third of these trees died. Across species, hydraulic safety margins (HSMs) were negatively and a shift towards a higher sugar fraction in the non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) pool positively associated with mortality risk. Moreover, trees infested by bark beetles had a higher mortality risk, and taller trees a lower mortality risk.
Plant phytochrome B is an asymmetric dimer with unique signalling potential — www.nature.com
Many aspects of plant photoperception are mediated by the phytochrome (Phy) family of bilin-containing photoreceptors that reversibly interconvert between inactive Pr and active Pfr conformers1,2. Despite extensive biochemical studies, full understanding of plant Phy signalling has remained unclear due to the absence of relevant 3D models. Li et al. report a cryo-electron microscopy structure of Arabidopsis PhyB in the Pr state that reveals a topologically complex dimeric organization that is substantially distinct from its prokaryotic relatives.
ReadCube: https://rdcu.be/cKzeB
Remarkable floral colour variation in the functionally specialized fly-pollinated iris, Moraea lurida — academic.oup.com
Sapromyophilous flowers are visited by flies seeking carrion or faeces, and flowers of this guild are typically large, purple or red-brown, often speckled and produce a pungent scent. Flowers of the South African iris Moraea lurida conform to this syndrome, but show considerable variation in colour and pattern. Moir et al. were intrigued by the floral variation within a single population and investigated floral visitors and the effect of body size on pollen loads and whether different colour forms attracted different pollinator assemblages. They found a diverse array of insect visitors, but Diptera comprised the overwhelming majority, with Calliphoridae considered to be the most important for pollination on the basis of their visitation frequency and pollen loads.
Embracing mountain microbiome and ecosystem functions under global change.
Wang et al. review the literature on microbial diversity across taxonomic groups and ecosystem types on global mountains. Microbial community shows climatic zonation with orderly successions along elevational gradients, which are largely consistent with traditional climatic hypotheses. However, elevational patterns are complicated for species richness without general rules in terrestrial and aquatic environments and are driven mainly by deterministic processes caused by abiotic and biotic factors.
Climate warming changes synchrony of plants and pollinators — royalsocietypublishing.org
Freimuth et al. used global biodiversity facility occurrence records to examine phenology trends in plants and their associated insect pollinators in Germany since the 1980s. They found strong phenological advances in plants but differences in the extent of shifts among pollinator groups. The temporal trends in plant and insect phenologies were generally associated with interannual temperature variation and thus probably driven by climate change.
Tropical tree growth driven by dry-season climate variability — www.nature.com
Zuidema et al. compile a pantropical tree-ring network to show that annual woody biomass growth increases primarily with dry-season precipitation and decreases with dry-season maximum temperature. The strength of these dry-season climate responses varies among sites, as reflected in four robust and distinct climate response groups of tropical tree growth derived from clustering. Using cluster and regression analyses, they find that dry-season climate responses are amplified in regions that are drier, hotter and more climatically variable.
ReadCube: https://rdcu.be/cKzh7
Krawczyk et al. identified and characterized three proteins of Arabidopsis thaliana that form a lipid droplet (LD)–plasma membrane (PM) tethering complex in plant cells, namely LD-localized SEED LD PROTEIN (SLDP) 1 and SLDP2 and PM-localized LD-PLASMA MEMBRANE ADAPTOR (LIPA). Using proteomics and different protein–protein interaction assays, they show that both SLDPs associate with LIPA.
Root phosphatase activity aligns with the collaboration gradient of the root economics space
Han et al. evaluated the role of root phosphatase activity (RPA) within the root economics space and the order-based variation of RPA, as well as the correlations between RPA and a suite of leaf traits and soil properties over a range of evergreen tree species in a subtropical forest.
Careers
ARC Grant-Funded Researcher (A) The postdoctoral research position will combine genomics and phenomics to demonstrate a new approach for introducing genetic diversity from wild barley into elite cultivars to improve yield potential.
Research Laboratory Technician (Fixed Term) Applications are invited for a laboratory technician to support the research work in Dr Jeongmin Choi 's laboratory, starting as soon as possible. This is an exciting opportunity for somebody passionate about scientific research to join a new team and work in a state-of-the-art laboratory.
Postdoc/Experienced Researcher candidate interested in applying for an MSCA Individual Fellowship in plant-microbe interactions The Van den Ende lab, Sugar Metabolism team, specialized in fructans and part of the KU Leuven Plant Institute (https://www.kuleuven.be/plant-institute) in Belgium and the Siri Fjellheim research group (https://fjellheimresearchgroup.blog/) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU, Norway) are jointly willing to support one joint application for the EU Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship.
Biologist Specialist (Botanist) Applicants must meet or exceed these qualifications:Â The formal education equivalent of a bachelor's degree in biology, zoology, botany, or a related field; plus two years of experience in a field of biological science, including one year in a leadership capacity.
Collections Manager, Paleobotany The Field Museum has an immediate opening for a Paleobotany Collections Manager. This full-time, permanent position reports to the Head of Geological Collections in the Gantz Family Collections Center. The Collections Manager is responsible for the management and development of one of the largest fossil plant collections in North America, in collaboration with the curator of paleobotany. The Paleobotany Collections Manager position is focused on management of the paleobotany collection (80%), with some allowance for personal research activities (20%).
Post-doc position in Plant Sciences : Application of untargeted approach for the identification of new quality marker of grapes and red wines A 2 years (+1) position supported by Bordeaux Plant Science (BPS) research program is available in the UMR Ecophysiology and Grape Functional Genomics (EGFV) in Bordeaux, France.
Improving eukaryotic and/or prokaryotic oxygenic photosynthesis - Cité des énergies A permanent scientist position is open in the team Photosynthesis & Environment (P&E) within the BIAM institute located in the Cadarache centre, Southern France (Provence).
PhD student (m/f/d) in Protein Biochemistry (6/2022)
We are looking for a highly motivated candidate to identify substrates of protein ADP-ribosylation in model and crop plant species. Applicants must hold a Diploma or Master’s degree in biochemistry, biology or a closely related field. The ideal candidate has a strong background in plant protein biochemistry, post-translational protein modifications or protein mass spectrometry and has a demonstrated ability to work and communicate efficiently and productively in a collaborative research team. The candidate has strong oral and written communication skills in English.Â
Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d) in Molecular Plant Sciences (7/2022)
The dynamic and multinational IPB-Department of Molecular Signal Processing offers a postdoctoral position to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of phosphate sensing in the context of phosphate-metal (Fe, Al) interactions and Fe redox cycling during plant root development (research group Nutrient Sensing).
PhD Student (m/f/d) in Biochemistry (8/2022) — www.ipb-halle.de The dynamic and multinational IPB-Department Molecular Signal Processing seeks a PhD candidate who contributes to the elucidation of molecular mechanisms that monitor external phosphate bioavailability in the context of phosphate-metal (Fe, Al) interactions during plant root development (research group Nutrient Sensing)
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The email is funded by the Annals of Botany Company.
Kew launches new MSc courses — www.botany.one Mimi Tanimoto of Kew Gardens shares details of their new MSc courses.
We're looking for new editors — www.botany.one Want to spread the word about Botany, or know somebody who won't shut up about plants? We have the perfect role. Deadline May 3, 2022