🌻 TWiB May 30, 2022
Here's another collection of most of the top links shared by people following @BotanyOne on Twitter. It's not all. The way I keep track of the job adverts is by seeing what I've retweeted and this week there were a lot of job adverts that we deliberately didn't retweet. As a reminder, if I notice your job advert puts a lot of detail into text uploaded as an image but doesn't include ALT text for people with visual difficulties, then Botany One will not retweet it.
I'll be reminding the Annals of Botany of that this week, as they've prepared an attractive flyer for their forthcoming vacancy for a Social Media Secretary. It's going to be a part-time role. When the details are finalised I'll be sharing them with you here and on the weblog.
With any luck, that will be at the same time next week when the next newsletter will be with you, health permitting.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
In Botany One
How green is my planet? — botany.one
Nigel Chaffey reviews The Green Planet: The Secret Life of Plants by Simon Barnes
Toxomerus basalis: The fly that uses a killer as a babysitter — botany.one Sundews are carnivorous plants that feed on small naive insects. So why does a fly deliberately lay its eggs on the plant?
Research from Germany discovers why your pollen allergies might be getting worse — botany.one It's not just the quantity of pollen that's a problem. It can also be the diversity - and that isn't helped by invasive species.
Lessons from magnolias about past climatic events and plant evolution — botany.one Chinese scientists used data from Magnolia plastid genomes to peer back millions of years to understand Cenozoic climatic changes.
News & Views
New 'CRISPR-Combo' method boosts genome editing power in plants — phys.org
Scientists from the University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, have developed CRISPR-Combo, a method to edit multiple genes in plants while simultaneously changing the expression of other genes.
Use all the tools to improve forest health Managing the risks that wildfire poses to our communities and watersheds is a collective problem that we, as a society, are responsible for creating and addressing. The science is clear: Western forests are becoming more flammable.
A pesticide that’s friendly to everything…except whitefly This RNA-based tool is the next step in agriculture.
The diary of an AGS Apprentice Each year, our apprenticeship scheme helps a young horticulturist deepen their professional knowledge of alpine plants. Read the latest updates from Bertie Swainston, the 2021-2022 AGS Apprentice.
Graduate student selected for Young Scientists Cohort at World Food Forum Ram Neupane, a graduate student in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, will be one of 20 members of the inaugural Young Scientists Cohort at the World Food Forum.
Work begins to turn 99,000 hectares in England into ‘nature recovery’ projects Five projects to receive funding from Defra and Natural England to tackle wildlife loss and improve access to nature
Never-ending rejections in academia and how to deal with them — www.ifocusandwrite.com Rejection is the norm in a scientist’s life. But it is not visible. Does your lab celebrate with a cake or a bottle of Prosecco every time a paper is rejected? Probably not…
Scientists Racing Against Time To Document Colombian Fern Species — www.forbes.com Colombian Botanist Alejandra Vasco is realizing a long-held dream to document the vast diversity of ferns in her home country, racing against time to find new species threatened by climate change and other human activities.
Forest Service finds it was responsible for largest fire in New Mexico history — thehill.com The Forest Service says it was responsible for both the blazes that merged late last month and created the largest fire in New Mexico history.
Russian Academics Aim to Punish Colleagues Who Backed Ukraine Invasion A campaign is circulating a list of dozens of researchers in the hopes they will be denied the prestige of election into the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The Camp Amache rose is blooming. Here’s what it looks like — www.cpr.org A rose bush no one has seen flower in nearly 80 years has produced a lone pink bud in southeastern Colorado. Archaeologist Bonnie Clark was among the first to see it Saturday as survivors, descendants, and local officials took part in an annual pilgrimage to Colorado’s Camp Amache.Â
Scientific Papers
Can we improve the chilling tolerance of maize photosynthesis through breeding? — academic.oup.com
Burnett and Kromdijk synthesize current knowledge of genetic variation for photosynthetic chilling tolerance in maize with respect to each of these traits and summarize the extent to which genetic mapping and candidate genes have been used to understand the genomic regions underpinning chilling tolerance.
Law and order in plants – the origin and functional relevance of phyllotaxis Phyllotaxis is intimately linked to meristem organization. In early-diverged plants (e.g., mosses) the division pattern of the apical stem cell defines leaf arrangement. In angiosperms an auxin-related patterning machine controls phyllotaxis. Phyllotaxis is intimately linked to organogenesis; therefore, very few mutants have a separate phenotype in only one of these traits.
Detection of the metabolic response to drought stress using hyperspectral reflectance — academic.oup.com
Burnett et al. measured drought stress in six glasshouse-grown agronomic species using physiological, biochemical, and spectral data. In contrast to physiological traits, leaf metabolite concentrations revealed drought stress before it was visible to the naked eye.
Powell et al. develop a gene-to-phenotype network for shoot branching, a critical developmental pathway underpinning harvestable yield for many crop species, as a case study to explore the value of developing gene-to-phenotype networks to enhance understanding of selection responses.
Boosting plant genome editing with a versatile CRISPR-Combo system
Pan et al. showcase the powerful applications of CRISPR-Combo for boosting plant genome editing. First, CRISPR-Combo is used to shorten the plant life cycle and reduce the efforts in screening transgene-free genome-edited plants by activation of a florigen gene in Arabidopsis. Next, they demonstrate accelerated regeneration and propagation of genome-edited plants by activation of morphogenic genes in poplar. Furthermore, they apply CRISPR-Combo to achieve rice regeneration without exogenous plant hormones, which is established as a new method to predominately enrich heritable targeted mutations.
Marković and Jaillais propose that PI4P has a prominent role in specifying the identity of the plasma membrane and in supporting some of its key functions and should be considered a hallmark lipid of this compartment.
Plant cell division from the perspective of polarity
Glanc reviews recent progress in the understanding of cell division orientation in the embryo and primary root meristem of Arabidopsis from both developmental and cell biological standpoints.
Twenty-Five Years of Propagation in Suspension Cell Culture Results in Substantial Alterations of the Arabidopsis Thaliana Genome — www.mdpi.com
Pucker et al. report the sequencing and the analysis of the At7 genome. Large scale duplications and deletions compared to the Columbia-0 (Col-0) reference sequence were detected. The number of deletions exceeds the number of insertions, thus indicating that a haploid genome size reduction is ongoing.
Semchenko et al. 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.
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.
Savanna fire regimes depend on grass trait diversity Most fires on Earth occur in savannas, but vary considerably in their extent, frequency, and intensity. These patterns cannot fully be explained by climate or land management. An important ‘missing-piece’ in explaining the variation in savanna fire regimes is the diversity of grasses that fuel fires and whose traits strongly influence fire behaviour. The major differences in savanna fire behaviour across continents may lie in the contrasting species and trait assemblages in savanna grass communities. Fire regimes change significantly when savanna grass communities or traits are altered by the introduction of invasive species and climatic changes.
An overview of bioinformatics, genomics, and transcriptomics resources for bryophytes
Fernandez-Pozo et al. provide a guide to resources available for bryophytes with regards to genome and transcriptome databases and bioinformatics tools.
Careers
Plant Records Specialist (Collections Specialist II) The Plant Records Specialist is a key pillar of the Garden’s curatorial, horticultural, and plant collections management operations and serves all programmatic areas of the organization with taxonomic and technical expertise. The Plant Records Specialist will think holistically and strategically about the living collections development, as well as perform assigned functions, anticipate opportunities for collaboration and coordination, think and perform duties across functions, and act at all times as an ambassador for the Garden.
Innovation Fellow – Crop Biotechnology There will be up to four positions offered, three will be located at ANU, Canberra and one will be seconded to work with the NSW Department of Primary Industry in Wagga Wagga for a relatively more industry-facing, research-orientated position. One position is for 3 years and the others up to 5 years.
Senior Biodiversity Consultant
We are working alongside one of the largest High Speed Rail projects, and are looking for a Biodiversity Technical Specialist or Senior Ecologist to join a small, but busy team of 3 on a full-time basis. In the position, you will be involved with the internal client function, and be responsible for the creation and reviewing of policy documents, environmental and ecological standards, liaising with statutory bodies, and producing Environmental Statement documents.
The position is aimed to last the longevity of the project, so could be considered to be a "job for life" as the project is due to be completed in 2040.
Applications Now Accepted for the APPS Reviewing Editor Board 2022-2024 The Botanical Society of America is seeking interested applicants to serve on the Reviewing Editor Board for Applications in Plant Sciences, our open access journal promoting the rapid dissemination of newly developed, innovative tools and protocols in all areas of the plant sciences.
PhD Opportunities This Training Centre is offering a wide range of PhD student projects to equip the next generation of researchers to apply innovative genetic, machine learning and analytical technologies to crop development – whilst evaluating these innovations against socio-economic, regulatory and market drivers to maximise their adoption and to transform the industry.
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