🌻 TWiB Jun 6, 2022
I've been keeping a closer eye on Botany than I would like this week thanks to something local that has started releasing pollen. My eyeballs are red and I'm Sneezy when usually I'm Grumpy or Dopey.
It's going to be a busy week for me this week, with a few meetings. I'm hoping I'll be able to make progress on handling translations for the blogposts. There'll probably be a discussion about which languages to prioritise, so if you feel strongly about it, now would be the perfect time to email me.
As well as that, I'll be keeping an eye on Twitter, so there should be another selection of the stories you're sharing at the same time next week. Until then, take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
In Botany One
How Do Seeds Save for a Rainy Day? — botany.one Timing is everything. For seeds it's a matter of life or death.
Modelling phenomics data for temperature response — botany.one Using computational models to overcome the shortcomings of high throughput phenotyping field data.
Botanists have discovered the world's largest plant in what should be one of the world's least plant-friendly environments — botany.one Botanists have discovered the world's largest plant in Shark Bay, but Shark Bay is unusually salty - so how could a plant thrive there?
Find and compare the different tools available for your research in plant science — botany.one The Quantitative Plant website is a comprehensive database of public datasets for plant phenotyping, image analysis software tools and models for plants.
News & Views
Sabotage and pistols - was Ellen Willmott gardening's ‘bad girl’? — www.bbc.co.uk She inspired the names of almost 200 plants, but the reputation of 19th Century horticulturalist Ellen Ann Willmott has been tarnished, with rumours that she sabotaged other people's gardens and carried a gun.
Thermal Ecology to become a hot topic — botany.one We might think of flowers in terms of their colour and scent, but what about their temperature?
25 years of valuing ecosystems in decision-making — www.nature.com The economic value that the world’s ecosystems provide was first estimated in 1997, eliciting a wide range of reactions. How have such valuations advanced since then, and what are today’s frontiers in using these values for decision-making?
Cambridge University Herbarium gains national significance accolade — www.cam.ac.uk Established in 1761, the Herbarium holds an estimated 1.1 million plant specimens from all over the world, making it one of the largest collections of pressed and dried plant specimens in the UK.
While many studies show that genetically modified crops contribute to yield gains, GMO critics say that they don’t. Such claims, they say, are industry talking points drawn from industry-funded studies.
Has the ‘great resignation’ hit academia? A wave of departures, many of them by mid-career scientists, calls attention to widespread discontent in universities.
New study details carbon capture potential of agroforestry and trees on farms — www.cifor-icraf.org Joint research conducted by an interdisciplinary international team geospatially modeled and quantified above and belowground biomass carbon on agricultural land, assessing the mitigation benefits of increasing tree cover in agricultural lands under scenarios of incremental and systemic change.
What's the oldest tree on Earth—and will it survive climate change? — www.nationalgeographic.com Bristlecone pines in the western U.S. have been alive for nearly 5,000 years, but an upstart Patagonian cypress challenges that record.
Meet the world's largest plant: a single seagrass clone stretching 180 km in Western Australia's Shark Bay — theconversation.com Next time you go diving or snorkelling, have a close look at those wondrously long, bright green ribbons, waving with the ebb and flow of water. They are seagrasses – marine plants which produce flowers, fruit, and seedlings annually, like their land-based relatives.
We cannot adapt our way out of climate crisis, warns leading scientist Katharine Hayhoe says the world is heading for dangers people have not seen in 10,000 years of civilisation
Scientific Papers
C4 trees have a broader niche than their close C3 relatives — academic.oup.com
Young et al. combine occurrence data with local environmental and soil datasets to, for the first time, distinguish the ecological factors associated with photosynthetic diversification in the tree life form.
Crafting the plant root metabolome for improved microbe-assisted stress resilience
Hong et al. synthesize recent advances connecting environmental stresses, the root metabolome and microbiota, and propose integrated synthetic biology-based strategies for tuning the plant root metabolome in situ for microbe-assisted stress resistance, offering potential solutions to combat climate change.
An overview of bioinformatics, genomics, and transcriptomics resources for bryophytes — academic.oup.com
Fernandez-Pozo et al. provide a guide to resources available for bryophytes with regards to genome and transcriptome databases and bioinformatics tools.
Auxin-driven ecophysiological diversification of leaves in domesticated tomato
Moreira et al. identify the obv gene and the causative mutation, a non-synonymous amino acid change. This mutation exists as a rare polymorphism in the natural range of wild tomatoes but has increased in frequency in domesticated tomatoes, suggesting that the latter diversified into heterobaric and homobaric leaf types.
An autoactive NB-LRR gene causes Rht13 dwarfism in wheat
Borrill et al. show that Rht13 encodes a nucleotide-binding site/leucine-rich repeat (NB-LRR) gene. A point mutation in the semidwarf Rht-B13b allele autoactivates the NB-LRR gene and causes a height reduction comparable to Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b in diverse genetic backgrounds.
Semchenko et al. review the evidence for host-specificity in plant-associated microbes and propose that specific plant–soil feedbacks can also be driven by generalists. They outline the potential mechanisms by which generalist microbial pathogens, mutualists and decomposers can generate differential effects on plant hosts and synthesize existing evidence to predict these effects as a function of plant investments into defence, microbial mutualists and dispersal.
Perception of a conserved family of plant signalling peptides by the receptor kinase HSL3
Plant genomes encode hundreds of secreted peptides; however, relatively few have been characterised. Rhodes et al. report here an uncharacterised, stress-induced family of plant signalling peptides, which they call CTNIPs.
Bayer et al. have produced a wheat pangenome graph maintained within an online database to facilitate interrogation and comparison of wheat cultivar genomes. The database allows users to visualize regions of the pangenome to assess PAV between bread wheat genomes.
Suetsugu et al. revealed that each Oxygyne species is predominantly colonized by a narrow clade within Glomeraceae and that closely related Oxygyne species target closely related AMFs, as observed previously in Afrothismia spp. and Thismia.
The role of root hairs in water uptake: recent advances and future perspectives
Although the efficacy of root hairs in nutrient uptake, especially phosphorus, has been well recognized, their role in water uptake remains contentious. Cai and Ahmed review recent advances in this field, discuss the factors affecting the role of root hairs in water uptake, and propose future directions.
Cloning of the broadly effective wheat leaf rust resistance gene Lr42 transferred from Aegilops tauschii — www.nature.com
Lin et al. identify three candidate genes for Lr42. Overexpression of a nucleotide-binding site leucine-rich repeat (NLR) gene AET1Gv20040300 induces strong resistance to leaf rust in wheat and a mutation of the gene disrupted the resistance.
An oxygen-sensing mechanism for angiosperm adaptation to altitude
Abbas et al. investigated the relationship between altitude and oxygen sensing in relation to chlorophyll biosynthesis—which requires molecular oxygen3—and hypoxia-related gene expression.
Careers
Non-executive Director (Scientific) Joining the eight-member Board, the Directors will help determine eLife’s strategic priorities and provide effective challenges to the eLife Senior Management Team. They will also assist in developing policy and maintaining high standards of probity within eLife.
Postdoctoral fellowship in Cell Biology 2-year postdoctoral fellowship (with expected starting date October 1, 2022) is available in the group of Dr. Petra Marhava at Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC)/Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology.
PhD on the Role of the Plant Circadian Clock in Latitudinal Adaptation The project will involve experiments using specialised growth environments with advanced LED optics as well as genetic tools such as CRISPR-mediated mutagenesis and high-throughput transcriptomics and proteomics. As a result, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to acquire a range of skills suitable for both academic and industrial careers.
Fungarium Curator This is an exciting opportunity to become a member of Kew’s Fungarium Collections Management team. You will be assisting in the curation of our unique and extensive Fungarium collection, which holds an estimated 1.25 million dried fungal specimens.
Post-doctoral Researcher in Forest Conservation Genetics The successful applicant will form an integral part of a new project within the Center for Forest Protection, aiming to evaluate genetic bottlenecks in planted and natural colonised young woodlands in the UK.
Endangered Species Review Biologist Applicants must have at least (A) four years of full-time, or equivalent part-time, professional, paraprofessional or technical experience in work involving the protection, preservation and/or management of endangered and protected species, of which (B) at least two years must have been in a professional capacity and of which (C) at least one year must have been in a supervisory capacity, or (D) any equivalent combination of the required experience and the substitutions below.
Green or Crispy: Which Plants Use Transpiration to Survive Heatwaves? The Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment (HIE)(opens in new window) is looking for a highly motivated and qualified candidate to undertake PhD research. The successful candidate will join a vibrant, multi-institutional research team and be supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery project grant entitled “Green or crispy: Which plants use transpiration to survive heatwaves?”
Support for MSCA applications We are looking for a highly motivated young scientist to visit us for a week. This time will be used to prepare an application for a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action (postdoctoral fellowship). Your research interest should be on medicinal plants with the potential to discover drug candidates against infections.
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