December 6, 2021

🌱 TWiB December 6, 2021

I hope you're having a great Hannukah if you celebrate it. If you don't I hope you've had a great week anyway. I've been working on fixing an event calendar, so I'm hoping next year Hannukah, Ramadan and Diwali don't sneak up on me. I'll also be loading events like various conferences, so I'm a bit more prepared for those.

It'll help as I haven't been so on top of things this week. For the past couple of weeks, I've managed to get the emails done by Friday evening, giving me the weekend off. This week it's another Sunday evening job - but judging from share counts, it's been a busy week for many people.

Next week will be a busy week too, with a flurry of year-end meetings. However, assuming omicron doesn't get me, there'll be another round-up of the stories you're sharing on Twitter next week. Until then, take care.

Alun (webmaster@botany.one)

In Botany One

Lobed stems in the evolution of Malvaceae — www.botany.one Non-cylindrical stems have evolved multiple times within climbing plants and are a common climbing mechanism, aiding the climbers in anchoring to other plants or surfaces in search of light.

1D light models as accurate are as 3D at estimating dry matter — www.botany.one Researchers compare trade-offs between simplicity and accuracy when modelling greenhouse cucumber canopies.

Glossy treasure trove for the word-curious plantsperson — www.botany.one Nigel Chaffey discovers a glossary can also be a page-turner.

Improving wine yield and quality by improving carbohydrate modelling — www.botany.one A new study compares the accuracy of carbohydrate allocation and transport models for grapevine.

Snow cover is reducing in the Pacific Northwest, and so too is the niche for evergreen trees in the region — www.botany.one Snow cover can delay the growing season of plants, but reducing it can also have negative consequences.

News & Views

Australia’s Black Summer of fire was not normal – and we can prove it — blog.csiro.au Forest fires in Australia are burning more land across more of the year than ever before, as climate-linked fire weather worsens.

Building a knowledge graph for biological experiments — niklasrindtorff.substack.com To facilitate progress in the life sciences, let's develop a community governed place to store our experimental protocols, results, and compute instructions.

Ed was browsing satellite photos of Mount Delusion when he noticed something odd about the forest “We grow it back” is a motto on VicForests’s website. Off the back of that, they argue the wood they sell is “the ultimate renewable resource”. ‘Regenerating’ logged forests like-for-like is a legal requirement. Failing to do so can be a criminal offence under Victoria’s Sustainable Forests (Timber) Act.  But the ABC can reveal alarming evidence that logged forests aren’t always being grown back, undermining the industry’s claim to sustainability.

Soil fertility drives plant life down-under Rachel Standish discusses her recent article: Mycorrhizal symbiosis and phosphorus supply determine interactions among plants with contrasting nutrient-acquisition strategies. Find out more about the importance of below-ground mechanisms for understanding factors determining community structure.

​A sequence change in a single protein allowed a tomato virus to become a global crop pandemic​​ — globalplantcouncil.org In the last years, a new viral tomato disease has emerged, threatening tomato production worldwide. This is caused by the Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), a member of a devastating group of plant viruses called tobamoviruses. ToBRFV overcomes all known tobamovirus resistance in tomato, including the one conferred by Tm-22, a resistance gene responsible for the stable resistance to these viruses for more than 60 years.

Victoria’s once-common plants and animals in serious decline Victoria’s native animals and natural landscapes are in a state of serious decline, as population growth and land clearing put ecosystems under pressure and climate change causes more extreme natural disasters such as bushfires.

The Botanist Plant Conservation Edition — www.thebotanist.com One-fifth of all plant species are threatened with extinction. Every bottle of our limited design Plant Conservation Edition will contribute to urgent projects saving rare and endangered plant species worldwide. Featuring the same liquid as The Botanist Islay Dry Gin, this limited-edition pack will raise money for Botanic Gardens Conservation International, a charitable organisation delivering meaningful plant conservation and biodiversity work all over the world. This exclusive, limited-run is only available to buy direct from our distillery on Islay. Each bottle will be sent in 100% plastic-free Flexi-Hex design packaging. SHARE

Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides — journals.plos.org This is written for anyone who needs to prepare slides from any length scale and for most purposes of conveying research to broad audiences. The rules are broken into 3 primary areas. Rules 1 to 5 are about optimizing the scope of each slide. Rules 6 to 8 are about principles around designing elements of the slide. Rules 9 to 10 are about preparing for your presentation, with the slides as the central focus of that preparation.

To regrow forests the U.S. needs billions of seeds—and many more 'seed hunters' Climbing trees, stealing from squirrels—skilled collectors are becoming rarer, undermining the nation’s ambitious tree planting goals.

Elevational range size patterns of vascular plants in Himalaya contradict Rapoport’s rule Martin Macek discusses his recent article Elevational range size patterns of vascular plants in Himalaya contradict Rapoport’s rule. Find out more about this research in the Himalayas and what makes Ladakh the perfect place to test this rule.

Scientific Papers

Organic acid, a virulence factor for pathogenic fungi, causing postharvest decay in fruits — bsppjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Jiao et al. summarized the research progress on the biosynthesis of organic acids, the role of the pH signalling transcription factor PacC in regulating organic acid, and the action mechanism of the main organic acid secreted via postharvest pathogenic fungi during infection of host tissues. This paper systematically demonstrates the relationships between tissue acidification and postharvest fungal pathogenicity, which will motivate the study of host–pathogen interactions and provide a better understanding of virulence mechanisms of the pathogens so as to design new technical strategies to prevent postharvest diseases.

Phosphatidic acid modulates MPK3- and MPK6-mediated hypoxia signaling in Arabidopsis

Zhou et al. showed that in Arabidopsis, loss of the phospholipase D (PLD) proteins PLDα1 and PLDδ leads to hypersensitivity to hypoxia, but increased tolerance to submergence. This enhanced tolerance is likely due to improvement of PA-mediated membrane integrity. PA bound to the Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases MPK3 and MPK6 in vitro and contributed to hypoxia-induced phosphorylation of MPK3 and MPK6 in vivo. Moreover, mpk3 and mpk6 mutants were more sensitive to hypoxia and submergence stress compared with wild type, and fully suppressed the submergence-tolerant phenotypes of pldα1 and pldδ mutants.

Control of Arabidopsis shoot stem cell homeostasis by two antagonistic CLE peptide signalling pathways

Schlegel et al. show that the CLE40 gene, encoding a secreted peptide closely related to CLV3, is expressed in the SAM in differentiating cells in a pattern complementary to that of CLV3. CLE40 promotes WUS expression via BAM1, a CLV1-family receptor, and CLE40 expression is in turn repressed in a WUS-dependent manner. Together, CLE40-BAM1-WUS establish a second negative feedback loop. They propose that stem cell homeostasis is achieved through two intertwined pathways that adjust WUS activity and incorporate information on the size of the stem cell domain, via CLV3-CLV1, and on cell differentiation via CLE40-BAM1.

The three‐dimensional construction of leaves is coordinated with water use efficiency in conifers

Trueba et al. clarify how the three-dimensional organisation of tissues within the leaf has a direct impact on plant water use and carbon uptake. By identifying a suite of structural traits that influence important physiological functions, their findings can help to understand how conifers may respond to the pressures exerted by climate change.

Tryptophan metabolism and bacterial commensals prevent fungal dysbiosis in Arabidopsis roots

Understanding how host–microbe homeostasis is controlled and maintained in plant roots is key to enhance plant productivity. However, the factors that contribute to the maintenance of this equilibrium between plant roots and their multikingdom microbial communities remain largely unknown. Wolinska et al. observed a link between fungal load in roots and plant health, and they showed that modulation of fungal abundance is tightly controlled by a two-layer regulatory circuit involving the host innate immune system on one hand and bacterial root commensals on another hand.

Plant circadian clock control of Medicago truncatula nodulation via regulation of Nodule Cysteine-Rich peptides

Legumes house nitrogen-fixing endosymbiotic rhizobia in specialized polyploid cells within root nodules, which undergo tightly regulated metabolic activity. By carrying out expression analysis of transcripts over time in Medicago truncatula nodules Achom et al. found that the circadian clock enables coordinated control of metabolic and regulatory processes linked to nitrogen fixation. This involves the circadian clock-associated transcriptional factor LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL (LHY), with lhy mutants being affected in nodulation.

Ground tissue circuitry regulates organ complexity in maize and Setaria Plant roots do so much more than just hold a plant up. As a site for air storage during flooding, mycorrhizal symbiosis, or carbohydrate storage, the more complex root can tap more complicated functions. Taking advantage of a dye that stains less the deeper it penetrates the tissue, Ortiz-Ramírez et al. applied fluorescence-activated cell sorting to the complex cell layers of the maize root. RNA sequencing applied to the single-cell pools defined a developmental map and showed that the mobile transcription factor SHORT-ROOT travels through multiple cell layers and directs this grass root’s anatomical complexity.

Pathogen effectors: What do they do at plasmodesmata? — bsppjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Iswanto et al. summarize and highlight recent advances in the study of plasmodesmata-associated fungal/oomycete/bacterial effectors. We also discuss how pathogen effectors interfere with host defence mechanisms in the context of plasmodesmata regulation.

A new protocol for speed vernalisation of winter cereals | bioRxiv

There are many challenges facing the development of high-yielding, nutritious crops for future environments. One limiting factor is generation time, which prolongs research and plant breeding timelines. Recent advances in speed breeding protocols have dramatically reduced generation time for many short-day and long-day species by optimising light and temperature conditions during plant growth. However, winter crops with a vernalisation requirement still require up to 6–10 weeks in low-temperature conditions before transition to reproductive development. Cha et al. tested a suite of environmental conditions and protocols to investigate if vernalisation can be satisfied more efficiently. They identified a vernalisation method consisting of exposing seeds at the soil surface to an extended photoperiod of 22 h day:2 h night at 10°C with transfer to speed breeding conditions that dramatically reduces generation time in both winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) and winter barley (Hordeum vulgare).

Crop genetic erosion: understanding and responding to loss of crop diversity

Crop diversity underpins the productivity, resilience and adaptive capacity of agriculture. Loss of this diversity, termed crop genetic erosion, is therefore concerning. While alarms regarding evident declines in crop diversity have been raised for over a century, the magnitude, trajectory, drivers and significance of these losses remain insufficiently understood. Khoury et al. outline the various definitions, measurements, scales and sources of information on crop genetic erosion. They then provide a synthesis of evidence regarding changes in the diversity of traditional crop landraces on farms, modern crop cultivars in agriculture, crop wild relatives in their natural habitats and crop genetic resources held in conservation repositories.

When it only takes one to tango: assessing the impact of apomixis in the fern genus Pteris

Picard et al. used spore analyses of herbarium specimens to determine reproductive mode for 127 previously unsampled Pteris species. Then they leveraged biogeographic and phylogenetic analyses to estimate the global distribution and evolution of apomixis in Pteris. Among all Pteris species examined, they found that 21% are exclusively apomictic, 71% are exclusively sexual, and 8% have conflicting reports

Careers

Fruit Production Scientist in Kearny, NJ Bowery Farming is looking for a passionate and committed Fruit Production Scientist to join its AgScience Team. 

Senior / Principal Ecologist Role Treetec has an excellent opportunity for a proven Ecologist / Botanist to join our team in Melbourne. This role offers technical growth through working across a range of environments.  You will contribute as part of an established team and lead a variety of projects.  Primarily a managerial role, with great flexibility, home/desk based – overseeing teams and projects.  Field work is an option, not a necessity.

Group Leaders We’re looking for creative early-career or established researchers who wish to develop exciting long-term independent programmes in plant and microbial science and be part of our highly collaborative culture.

Collections Manager, Flowering Plants — careers.hireology.com Field Museum is hiring a Collections Manager to manage its world-class Flowering Plants collections as well as subsidiary collections that includes Gymnosperms and Economic Botany.

Undergraduate Research Internships While BTI & Cornell offer various projects and opportunities for undergraduates, all selected students will be considered apart of one cohort and participate in joint activities during the 10-week program. The following areas represent the general types of research offered and are all a part of the same BTI Undergraduate Application Form. We encourage applicants with multiple interests to select projects across each area.

Postdoctoral Associate - New Roots for Restoration Biology Integration Institute The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is recruiting three postdoctoral research associates to join the New Roots for Restoration Biology Integration Institute (NRR-BII), a five-year, NSF-funded initiative supporting integrated research and training activities at the Danforth Center and NRR-BII partner institutions in St. Louis (Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis University, St. Louis Science Center) and beyond (Chicago Botanic Garden, The Land Institute, University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University of Vermont).

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