đ±TWiB November 8, 2021
Often I'll see stories as I compile this newsletter, and wonder how I missed them. However, this week has been busy, so I'm not quite so annoyed with myself for missing some things. One item I've included is a video highlighted by former AoBBlog editor Alan Cann, on the importance of dead wood. I should be making time to follow more videos with so many seminars being uploaded to YouTube. The Linnean Society channel alone would keep me busy for a long while.
Assuming I don't lose track of time watching seminars, I'll be compiling another collection of links to send you next week. Until then, take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
In Botany One
Tolerance to waterlogging in relay sown grain legume crops â www.botany.one How do lentil, faba bean, field pea and grass pea vary in their tolerance to waterlogging, hypoxia and anoxia?
Piecing together the Zamiaceae family tree reveals the evolution of how plants 'breathe' â www.botany.one The Zamiaceae are often considered 'living fossils', but a close study of how they have evolved over millions of years can give a glimpse into the lives of past plants.
Floral development and vasculature of Eriocaulon (Eriocaulaceae) â www.botany.one Arthur de Lima Silva and colleagues present a hypothesis of floral evolution for the family, illustrating a shift from bisexuality to unisexuality and the evolution of nectaries in a complex monocot family, which can contribute to future studies on reproductive biology and floral evolution in other groups
Cultivating interest in fruits â www.botany.one
Nigel Chaffey reviews "Taming fruit: How orchards have transformed the land, offered sanctuary, and inspired creativity", by Bernd Brunner.
The nature of eyebright intraspecific genome size variation â www.botany.one Botanists find notable genuine genome size variation of up to 1.3-fold between individuals of the same species.
News & Views
Jane and 'The Mummy!': Linnean Links to Gothic⊠â www.linnean.org With the nights drawing in, Leonie Berwick and Janet Ashdown investigate the connection between a reanimated mummy, horticulture and the Linnean Society.
A 150-Year-Old Note From Darwin Is Changing How We Plant Forests â www.sciencealert.com More than 150 years ago Victorian biologist Charles Darwin made a powerful observation: that a mixture of species planted together often grow more strongly than species planted individually. It has taken a century and a half â ironically about as long as it can take to grow an oak to harvest â and a climate crisis to make policymakers and landowners take Darwin's idea seriously and apply it to trees.
New study capture sugar transport fundamental to plants In plants, Sugar Transport Proteins (STPs) are key for uptake of glucose. They are responsible for sugar import into plant organs such as seeds, pollen and fruit and are essential for correct tissue development. Moreover, controlling sugar uptake through STPs is used by plants as a vital defense strategy against microbial infection, by using starvation and competition for sugar to restrict microbial growth.
Gingko Fossil Tea by Susannah Lydon & Robin Lamboll â palaeopoems.com Susannah and Robinâs poem focuses on plant fossils found within a coal bed near the sea that were brought to a lab to study. The poem goes over the process of separating the fossils from the rock they are found in, using a mixture of hot water and hydrofluoric acid to wash the rock away, hence the title âGingko Fossil Tea.â Hydrofluoric acid, as alluded to in the poem, is extremely potent, able
Linnean Society Collections Profile â historycollections.blogs.sas.ac.uk Linnaeusâ collections came to London by a rather circuitous route. They were originally left to Linnaeusâ son (also called Carl, also a naturalist), but Carl Filius died young, and with four other children to provide for, Linnaeusâs widow Sara Lisa was forced to sell. She approached the buccaneering explorer and scientific patron Joseph Banks, who recommended a sale to Smith, then a promising botanist recently graduated from the University of Edinburgh. Smith snapped up the huge collection of books, manuscripts, and nearly 14,000 specimens for the bargain price of 1,000 guineas (around ÂŁ76,000 in todayâs money). They are now housed in a purpose-built, bombproof vault beneath the teeming shoppers of Piccadilly.
Deforestation grabs the headlines: but what about the grasslands? Perhaps itâs because we donât have a fancy name for it? âDeforestationâ rolls off the tongue in a rather satisfying way that emphasises the importance of conserving old growth and ancient woodlands. But how do we describe destruction of grasslands? âDegrasslandationâ doesnât really work, even though at its root is trying to describe the same effect: the loss of important, carbon-storing and biodiversity-preserving ecosystems. Grasslands, remember, are the worldâs largest single terrestrial ecosystem.
Announcing the Rising Black Scientists Awards â www.cell.com Cell Press and Cell Signaling Technology are excited to announce this yearâs Rising Black Scientists Award essay competition. Our goal is to support talented and motivated Black scientists on their journey. The award is meant to break down barriers and create opportunities by providing funds to support professional development. Two awardees - one undergraduate student and one graduate student/postdoctoral scholar - will be recognized. We encourage submissions from any Black aspiring scientists or active researchers at American institutions within the United States.
Manchester, Botanical City: Plants, Stories, Lives (virtual) Wed 17 Nov 2021 at 15:30 GMT Attendees will be invited to watch a short film about Manchester 'plant stories' (a link will be sent to all registered attendees ca. one week before the event). After contributions from panel members, we will open this up to questions and wider discussion.
Scientific Papers
Song et al. present Strigo-D2, a genetically encoded ratiometric SL signaling sensor that enables the examination of SL signaling distribution at cellular resolution and is capable of rapid response to altered SL levels in intact Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants. By monitoring the abundance of a truncated and fluorescently labeled SUPPRESSOR OF MAX2 1-LIKE 6 (SMXL6) protein, a proteolytic target of the SL signaling machinery, they show that all cell types investigated have the capacity to respond to changes in SL levels but with very different dynamics.
Target enrichment was used to sequence 322 conserved protein-coding nuclear genes from 50 individuals spanning the geographic range of Oenothera sect. Pachylophus, with species trees inferred using concatenation and coalescent-based methods. Patsis et al.'s findings concur with previous research in suggesting that O. psammophila and O. harringtonii are nested within a paraphyletic Oenothera cespitosa.
Drought induces shifts in soil fungal communities that can be linked to root traits across 24 plant species Fungal response to drought depended highly on the fungal group and was related to root trait adjustments to water scarcity. This provides new insights into the role that root trait adjustments to drought may have in modulating plantâfungus interactions in grasslands ecosystems.
Population genomic analysis of Aegilops tauschii identifies targets for bread wheat improvement â www.nature.com
Gaurav et al. found that a rare lineage of Aegilops tauschii geographically restricted to present-day Georgia contributed to the wheat D subgenome in the independent hybridizations that gave rise to modern bread wheat. Through k-mer-based association mapping, they identified discrete genomic regions with candidate genes for disease and pest resistance and demonstrated their functional transfer into wheat by transgenesis and wide crossing, including the generation of a library of hexaploids incorporating diverse Ae. tauschii genomes.
Fu et al. find that AM fungal communities are sensitive to climate extremes, and propose that the plant community mediates AM fungal community responses. Given the ubiquitous nature of AM associations, their climate sensitivity may have profound consequences on plant communities and ecosystem stability under climate change.
A starting guide to root ecology: strengthening ecological concepts and standardising root classification, sampling, processing and trait measurements This handbook, based on the collective effort of a large team of experts, will improve trait comparisons across studies and integration of information across databases by providing standardised methods and controlled vocabularies. It is meant to be used not only as starting point by students and scientists who desire working on below-ground ecosystems, but also by experts for consolidating and broadening their views on multiple aspects of root ecology.
Kim et al. show that Arabidopsis thaliana FYVE2, a plant-specific PI3P-binding protein, provides a functional link between the COPII machinery and autophagy. FYVE2 interacts with the small GTPase SAR1, which is essential for the budding of COPII vesicles. FYVE2 also interacts with ATG18A, another PI3P effector on the phagophore membrane. Fluorescently tagged FYVE2 localized to autophagic membranes near the ER and was delivered to vacuoles. SAR1 fusion proteins were also targeted to the vacuole via FYVE2-dependent autophagy. Either mutations in FYVE2 or the expression of dominant-negative mutant SAR1B proteins resulted in reduced autophagic flux and the accumulation of autophagic organelles. They propose that FYVE2 regulates autophagosome biogenesis through its interaction with ATG18A and the COPII machinery, acting downstream of ATG2.
Dual expression anatomy lines (DEAL) allow simultaneous visualization of gene expression and anatomy
KĂŒmpers et al. adapted the GreenGate cloning vectors to create two destination vectors showing strong marking of cell membranes in either the whole root or specifically in the lateral roots. This system can also be used in both embryos and whole seedlings.
Extinction risk of Mesoamerican crop wild relatives â nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com Crop wild relatives (CWR) are plant taxa closely related to crops and are a source of high genetic diversity that can help adapt crops to the impacts of global change, particularly to meet increasing consumer demand in the face of the climate crisis. CWR provide vital ecosystem services and are increasingly important for food and nutrition security and sustainable and resilient agriculture. They therefore are of major biological, social, cultural and economic importance. Assessing the extinction risk of CWR is essential to prioritise in situ and ex situ conservation strategies in Mesoamerica to guarantee the long-term survival and availability of these resources for present and future generations worldwide.
Simple means to improve the interpretability of regression coefficients The simple methods presented here put the focus on parameter estimation (point estimates as well as confidence intervals) rather than on significance thresholds. They allow fitting complex, but meaningful models that can be concisely presented and interpreted. The presented methods can also be applied to generalised linear models (GLM) and linear mixed models.
Drought induces shifts in soil fungal communities that can be linked to root traits across 24 plant species Fungal response to drought depended highly on the fungal group and was related to root trait adjustments to water scarcity. This provides new insights into the role that root trait adjustments to drought may have in modulating plantâfungus interactions in grasslands ecosystems.
Terrestrial-type nitrogen-fixing symbiosis between seagrass and a marine bacterium â www.nature.com
Mohr et al. describe an N2-fixing symbiont, âCandidatus Celerinatantimonas neptunaâ, that lives inside seagrass root tissue, where it provides ammonia and amino acids to its host in exchange for sugars. As such, this symbiosis is reminiscent of terrestrial N2-fixing plant symbioses. The symbiosis between Ca. C. neptuna and its host Posidonia oceanica enables highly productive seagrass meadows to thrive in the nitrogen-limited Mediterranean Sea.
Careers
Postdoctoral Researcher (Feng Group) Weâre looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the Feng Group, working on cutting-edge science in the field of epigenetic reprogramming in plant germlines.
Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Plant Genome Engineering Tenure Track Assistant Professor in » Plant Genome Engineering « to begin as soon as possible. The position is a W2 fixed-term (6 year) tenure-track professorship with the possibility for promotion to a tenured W3 professorship.
2-yr postdoc on âMacroecology for tree conservation and restoration The Department of Biology, Aarhus University, invites applications for a 2-year postdoc position on macroecological studies for the conservation and restoration of tree diversity globally. This postdoc project is part of the big VILLUM Investigator project âBiodiversity Dynamics in a Changing Worldâ (BIOCHANGE), funded by VILLUM FONDEN. BIOCHANGE aims to address one of the key challenges facing humanity â how to conserve the diversity of life on a planet heading towards 11 billion inhabitants and facing strong climate change in order to safeguard our natural and cultural heritage, quality of life, the numerous ecosystem services on which society depends, and even the basic functioning of the biosphere.
Assistant Professor of Plant Biology in West Lafayette, IN for Purdue University The College of Agriculture at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, invites applications from outstanding basic scientists for an academic year tenure-track assistant professor position in plant biology. Candidates addressing important fundamental questions in plant biology, broadly defined, including but not limited to developing and/or applying computational approaches, are encouraged to apply.
Join our team Weâre looking for a part time sparkling science writer to join our crew. Youâll be working within our creative team to produce high-quality written content that meets our clientsâ needs and requires minimal editing. Weâre primarily looking for someone to work with our B2B clients (semi-technical scientific audiences, thought leadership), but who can also write for public-facing/B2C audiences when needed.
Assistant Professor of Arid-Land Ecosystems The School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE) at the University of Arizona (UA) seeks outstanding applicants for a tenure-track position focused on the ecology and management of the vegetation of working grassland-savanna-shrubland-woodland ecosystems of arid and semi-arid regions.
PhD Position: Unravelling temperature signalling in plants The De Smet lab is looking to recruit 1 highly motivated Ph.D. student, who will be involved in elucidating the underlying signalling mechanisms that play a role in regulating plant growth under a changing climate, especially high temperature. The successful candidate will use a multidisciplinary approach, combining biochemistry (phosphoproteomics), cell biology (confocal microscopy), and plant genetics (functional characterization of key regulators).
Research Assistant I The Haus Lab in the Department of Horticulture is hiring a Research Assistant I who will provide expert support and assist in overseeing and coordinating root biology research. Major responsibilities include maintaining and enforcing lab safety guidelines, performing routine lab work to support research projects (including ordering, equipment calibration/maintenance, etc.), assisting in planning and designing experiments, running small-scale pilot experiments collecting root data on various plant species, and writing short reports on the analysis of these experiments.
The Haus Lab in the Department of Horticulture at Michigan State University is hiring a research associate (postdoctoral position) to lead ongoing root biology research identifying root developmental traits associated with the multiple origins of dry bean and investigating legume root responses to abiotic stressors. Dry beans are an important source of plant-based iron and protein, but production is limited by a number of environmental stressors. Our projects aim to mitigate production losses using inherent, but poorly understood root traits. The successful candidate will lead research projects using developmental, quantitative genetics, and bioinformatic-based approaches.
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