đ± TWiB July 26, 2021
Here comes another collection of the stories shared by people following @BotanyOne on Twitter. Over the next few weeks, we're hoping to include some of the stories shared recently at the major conferences recently in the blog. They've been stuffed full of interesting talks, so it might take a while to catch up with them all.
The next conference we'll have someone at is the virtual Ecology 2021 conference, where you can say hello to Juniper. In theory, we should start making plans for attending physical conferences. I don't expect to be attending large conferences for a while yet, as I'm based in the UK.
If you are travelling soon or staying at home, stay safe. I'll be back with more of the stories you're sharing next week.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
In Botany One
Identifying biomarkers for low phosphorus tolerance in soybean â www.botany.one Can a better understanding of proteomic responses to low phosphorus conditions be harnessed to improve future soybean varieties?
Rising sea levels influence a battle to beat the shade in plants â www.botany.one Increasing salinity could free some shade-averse plants from the shadows of their neighbours.
A conifer study reveals how a changing climate could make commercial forestry more complicated â www.botany.one In an unpredictable future climate, planting for less climate sensitivity may prove wiser than attempting to find trees geared for warmer weather.
Range expansion of Galinsoga quadriradiata into the mountains of China â www.botany.one Can shifts in trait values among populations of an invasive plant help assess invasion risks and predict future spread?
A healthy sunflower diet can help domesticated bumblebees avoid infection â www.botany.one Sunflower pollen can reduce parasite load for a bumblebee, but it's not clear how.
News & Views
Invasive plants were too much for humans to handle in an NYC park. Enter the goats. â www.washingtonpost.com Two dozen goats clomped through a New York City park Wednesday with a mission: Whack the weeds.
Protecting forests slows climate change more than mass-planting trees â www.sciencenews.org By holding onto the big, old trees, more carbon will stay sequestered
Learning to Love G.M.O.s Overblown fears have turned the public against genetically modified food. But the potential benefits have never been greater.
"Dr. Beronda Montgomery (Michigan State University) is an outstanding scientist and one of the foremost ambassadors of Botany today." A deserving winner of the Charles Edwin Bessey Teaching Award.
Tomatoes have a kind of nervous system that warns about attacks | New Scientist Tomatoes that are being eaten by insects use electrical signals to send an alert to the rest of the plant, similar to the way our nervous systems warn of damage.
Peatlands worldwide are drying out, threatening to release 860 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year â theconversation.com Peatlands, such as fens, bogs, marshes and swamps, cover just 3% of the Earthâs total land surface, yet store over one-third of the planetâs soil carbon. Thatâs more than the carbon stored in all other vegetation combined, including the worldâs forests.
Functional biology in its natural context: A search for emergent simplicity
The immeasurable complexity at every level of biological organization creates a daunting task for understanding biological function. Bergelson et al. highlight the risks of stripping it away at the outset and discuss a possible path toward arriving at emergent simplicity of understanding while still embracing the ever-changing complexity of biotic interactions that we see in nature.
Life on the Amargosaâa desert river faced with drought Where the underground Amargosa bubbles to the surface, unique flora and fauna thrive. But now, hotter weather and depleted groundwater in Nevada and California threaten this rare ecosystem.
How to pick, prepare and enjoy cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon and other melons So many summer fruits and vegetables take on iconic status for the season. Tomatoes! Corn! Peaches! Summer squash! Do I need to put one on a pedestal above the others? Certainly not. Letâs just say theyâre all great, but for this post, weâre going to train our lens on melons.
RNA breakthrough creates crops that can grow 50% more potatoes, rice | University of Chicago News UChicago-led research could yield increased food production, boost drought tolerance
Blushing plants reveal when fungi are growing in their roots | University of Cambridge â www.cam.ac.uk Scientists have created plants whose cells and tissues âblushâ with beetroot pigments when they are colonised by fungi that help them take up nutrients from the soil.
Filipino farmers get approval to grow nutritious Golden Rice - Alliance for Science â allianceforscience.cornell.edu Farmers in the Philippines have gotten the green light to grow Golden Rice, which has been genetically engineered to contain nutrients that can improve health, especially in young children.
Scientific Papers
Zuntini et al. investigated (1) relationships across families and genera of Commelinales; (2) phylogenetic placement of never-before sequenced genera; (3) how well off-target plastid data integrate with other plastid-based data sets; and (4) how the novel inferences coincide with the infra-familial classification.
Yamasaki et al. explored the role of microbes present in extracts of oral secretion isolated from larvae of Spodoptera litura, a generalist herbivore, in phytohormone signaling-dependent defense responses in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Science Forum: A community-led initiative for training in reproducible research
Auer et al. describe how workshops developed by the Reproducibility for Everyone (R4E) initiative can be customized to provide researchers at all career stages and across most disciplines with education and training in reproducible research practices.
Convergent evolution of gene regulatory networks underlying plant adaptations to dry environments
Artur and Kajala address how the study of carbon concentrating mechanisms and desiccation tolerance has provided insight into convergent evolution of gene regulatory networks underlying plant adaptation to dry environments, and how these insights could be applied to currently emerging understanding of evolution of root impermeabilization through different barrier cell types.
Large differences in leaf cuticle conductance and its temperature response among 24 tropical tree species from across a rainfall gradient More frequent droughts and rising temperatures pose serious threats to tropical forests. When stomata are closed under dry and hot conditions, plants lose water through leaf cuticles, but little is known about cuticle conductance (gmin) of tropical trees, how it varies among species and environments, and how it is affected by temperature.
Ethical considerations of urban ecological design and planning experiments â nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Pataki et al. describe the growing field of urban ecological design and planning and present a framework for expanding the ethical considerations of socioecological researchers and urban practitioners who collaborate on interdisciplinary teams. Drawing on existing ethical frameworks from a range of disciplines, they outline possible ways in which ecologists, social scientists, and practitioners should expand the traditional ethical considerations of their work to ensure that urban residents, communities, and non-human entities are not harmed as researchers and practitioners carry out their individual obligations to clients, municipalities, and scientific practice.
Split-root assays for studying legumeârhizobia symbioses, rhizodeposition, and belowground nitrogen transfer in legumes This review is focused on discussing the various types of split-root assays currently used in legume-based studies, and their associated advantages and limitations. Furthermore, this review also focuses on how split-root assays have been used for studies on nitrogen rhizodeposition, belowground nitrogen transfer, systemic regulation of nodulation, and biotic and abiotic factors affecting legumeârhizobia symbioses.
Zuo et al. tracked the infection progress of Ustilago maydis and Sporisorium reilianum in maize leaves and used two distinct infection stages for cross-species RNA-sequencing analyses. They identified 207 of 335 one-to-one effector orthologs as differentially regulated during host colonization, which might reflect the distinct disease development strategies.
Wenzell et al. document that Castilleja sessiliflora and the C. purpurea complex are characterized by high diversity in floral color across varying geographic scales. Despite phenotypic divergence, groups were not well supported in phylogenetic analyses, and little genetic differentiation was found across targeted Angiosperms353 loci.
Pereira Nunes et al. use laser Doppler vibrometry to characterize natural frequencies of stamens of six morphologically diverse, buzz-pollinated, heterantherous Solanum taxa and compare the frequency of bumblebee buzzes produced on two Solanum spp. with different natural frequencies. They found that stamen morphology and plant identity explain variation in their natural frequency.
Drivers of seedling establishment success in dryland restoration efforts | Nature Ecology & Evolution â www.nature.com
Shackelford et al. examine restoration seeding outcomes across 174 sites on six continents, encompassing 594,065 observations of 671 plant species. Their findings suggest reasons for optimism. Seeding had a positive impact on species presence: in almost a third of all treatments, 100% of species seeded were growing at first monitoring.
Yu et al. show that transgenic expression of the human RNA demethylase FTO in rice caused a more than threefold increase in grain yield under greenhouse conditions.
Careers
North America Product Systems Lead
Requires a masterâs degree with at least eight years of leadership experience in relevant field with at least five years of relevant experience including technology and/or business strategy development across a diversified agricultural product portfolio and implementation and driving innovation adoption OR Ph.D. degree with at least five years of experience
Full Professor and Chair of the Crop Physiology group Wageningen University & Research is looking for a full professor (0.8 - 1.0 fte) to lead the Crop Physiology Chair group of our University, one of the leading universities on food, health and environment worldwide.
Assistant/Associate Professor in College Park, MD for University of Maryland â jobs.plantae.org The Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA) invites applications for a 12-month tenure-track position of Assistant Professor with a 50% Extension, 40% Research, and 10% Teaching appointment.Â
Education programs manager at arboretum (review begins early August) Hoyt Arboretum Friends is seeking an Education Programs Manager (EPM) to lead the implementation of education events and programs, including school field trips, youth and family programs and adult classes and lectures
Call for PhD students 3nd cohort - DFG Research Training Group Baltic TRANSCOAST The University of Rostock together with the Leibniz-Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW) is seeking, subject to financial allocation: 13 highly motivated PhD candidates for the DFG Research Training Group âBaltic TRANSCOASTâ.
Research Fellow in Plant Biophysics and Biomechanics We are looking for a highly motivated and enthusiastic postdoctoral researcher to join the Benitez-Alfonso lab, funded by a UKRI Future Leader Fellowship to work on the project âPDWallMech: Harnessing PlasmoDesma Wall Mechanics for plant biotech and biomaterialsâ.
Three Postdoctoral Research on Genomics of Pollen Thermotolerance in Winston Salem, NC for Wake Forest University, Brown University, University of Arizona â jobs.plantae.org Three postdoctoral research positions are available as part of a collaborative interdisciplinary NSF Plant Genome Research Program funded project that focuses on using modern genomic tools and latest RNA-seq technologies to develop heat-tolerant tomato varieties.
PhD in Postharvest Biology on Volatilome Changes During Postharvest False Codling Moth Infestation of Citrus Fruit The MeBioS postharvest group of the Department of Biosystems, is looking for a motivated PhD candidate to study the changes in volatile production of citrus fruit in response false codling moth infestation closely working together with Citrus Research International (CRI) from South Africa.
6 PhD Funded Positions in: Plant Ecology, Thermal Tolerance, Soil Invert Ecophys, Evolution, Plant physiol, Adaptive Genomics in Australia 6 PhD projects in the Oz alpine: plant ecology, thermal tolerance, soil invert ecophys, evolution, plant physiol, adaptive genomics
Post-doctoral Research Associate We are seeking three post-doctoral research associates to generate and analyse DNA sequence data, investigating adaptations of British tree species to diseases and local environments.
Plant Biochemistry Postdoctoral Scholar in Emeryville, CA for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory â jobs.plantae.org Lawrence Berkeley National Labâs (LBNL) Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology Division has an opening for a Plant Biochemistry Postdoctoral Scholar to join the team.
Manager Natural History Collections Te Papa's Natural History team develop, care for and research collections of plants and animals, documenting the biological richness and complexity of New Zealand's biodiversity and helping in its protection. Through exhibitions, publications, public programmes and learning programmes we strengthen New Zealanders understanding of te taiao, the natural environment.
Training & Travel Grants This grant supports the training and development of students and postgraduate research assistants. Grants of up to ÂŁ1,000 are available.
Details - Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Research Fellow in Sorghum Genetics and Genomics for Plant Network Biology This position will join a dynamic research team focused on sorghum breeding and genomics based at Warwick in Queensland and led by Prof David Jordan and Dr Emma Mace. The position will have access to large data sets generated through previous research in sorghum and generated in the course of the centre of excellence.
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