October 10, 2022

🌻 TWiB October 10, 2022

In the Northern Hemisphere, Autumn is tightening its grip. The nights are noticeably darker by the end of the week. In the garden, the older hedgehogs have left to hibernate, leaving this years hoglets in a race to put on weight before winter arrives. Presumably in the Better Hemisphere, you're all enjoying the sunlight coming earlier.

Another way of seeing Autumn, and Hallowe'en coming is in the titles of articles. This week we have vampire plants, phantom forests and ghost authors. I'm not sure what next week will bring, but it will be with you at the same time next week. Until then, take care.

Alun (webmaster@botany.one)

In Botany One

Botanists discover not all clones are the same, it depends on how you make them — botany.one

A study of Paspalum species native to South America shows that while clones can expand a plant's range, the method a parent uses to clone itself will impact how the population develops.

Better sex doesn't lead to better reproduction for a Balearic Arum — botany.one

Botanists have found disturbance can increase pollination and seed set for an Arum on Mallorca. So why isn't that good news for the plant?

How can you encourage ladybugs to your garden? — botany.one Ladybugs, or Ladybirds, are popular insects with gardeners with a taste for pests like aphids, but it's not just prey that's important. Entomologists have examined plants to see what else a ladybug looks for in a home.

Botanical gardens act as artificial oases for butterflies in arid urban areas — botany.one Botanical gardens provide access to vital plants and water for butterflies in the southwest US. This will only become more important as the climate becomes warmer and drier.

Vampire plant reduces fungi's ability to decompose leaf litter — botany.one Parasitic plants draw life from their hosts, but now it seems that even after death, some plants have a baleful influence.

News & Views

Emily Dickinson’s Herbarium: A Forgotten Treasure at the Intersection of Science and Poetry — www.themarginalian.org An elegy for time and the mortality of beauty, composed with passionate patience and a sensuous cadence.

Drax: UK power station owner cuts down primary forests in Canada — www.bbc.co.uk A company that has received billions of pounds in green energy subsidies from UK taxpayers is cutting down environmentally-important forests, a BBC Panorama investigation has found.

Tropical Plant Identification This two-week course has been run regularly since 2004 and arose from weekly family identification sessions held in our Herbarium.

Australia announces plan to halt extinction crisis and save 110 species Priority targeting includes many of Australia’s best-known native animals but will also help others in the same habitats, environment minister says

Newly discovered sexual reproduction process furthers understanding of plant and algae evolution — phys.org Scientists have discovered a sexual reproduction process in microalgae that helps them better understand algae and plant evolution. Their discovery could lead to new industrial applications for microalgae, ranging from wastewater treatment to production of food ingredients and pigments.

Mistletoe's Ridiculously Clingy Seeds Could Make a Biological Glue — www.scientificamerican.com The festive parasite mistletoe’s sticky prowess explained

Wildfires are getting worse. Can scientists save California’s forests from going up in smoke? — www.latimes.com “We have different metrics for describing why the fire hazard is high here,” York said. “But basically the gist is: There’s a lot of fuel on the ground and there’s a lot of trees here.”

Pleistocene-Era Plant Revived from Siberian Permafrost — scitechdaily.com A team of scientists claims that they’ve revived a plant from the Pleistocene era, which lived 32,000 to 28,000 years ago. Silene stenophylla was revived after it had been ingested by an arctic ground squirrel roughly 32,000 years ago.

Don’t make early career researchers ‘ghost authors.’ Give us the credit we deserve When I stumbled on the research paper from one of my former labs, related to a project I had contributed to, I was taken by surprise. No one had told me our work was going to be published!

Phantom Forests: Why Ambitious Tree Planting Projects Are Failing High-profile initiatives to plant millions of trees are being touted by governments around the world as major contributions to fighting climate change. But scientists say many of these projects are ill-conceived and poorly managed and often fail to grow any forests at all.

The Chemicals Behind the Colours of Autumn Leaves — www.compoundchem.com With autumn looming on the horizon, the leaves on some trees have already begun the transition towards the vibrant hues of autumn. Whilst this change may outwardly seem like a simple one, the many vivid colours are a result of a range of chemical compounds, a selection of which are detailed here.

Scientific Papers

Endogenous GFP tagging in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana

Nam et al. have developed a single vector CRISPR/Cas9 guided GFP knock-in strategy in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. This enables precise and scarless knock-in of GFP at the endogenous genomic location to create GFP fusion proteins under their native cis and trans regulatory elements with knock-in efficiencies of over 50%. They show that a previously uncharacterized bestrophin-like protein localizes to the CO2-fixing pyrenoid and demonstrate that by measuring GFP fluorescence we can track relative protein abundance in response to environmental change.

Functional xylem characteristics associated with drought-induced embolism in angiosperms

Lens et al. review data from physiological and comparative wood anatomy studies, highlighting the potential anatomical and physicochemical drivers of embolism formation and spread. They then put forward key knowledge gaps, emphasising what is known, unknown and speculation.

Improving plant productivity by re-tuning the regeneration of RuBP in the Calvin–Benson–Bassham cycle The Calvin–Benson–Bassham (CBB) cycle is arguably the most important pathway on earth, capturing CO2 from the atmosphere and converting it into organic molecules, providing the basis for life on our planet. This cycle has been intensively studied over the 50 yr since it was elucidated, and it is highly conserved across nature, from cyanobacteria to the largest of our land plants.

Ecological Memory in the Biophysical Afterlife of Slavery Building on the work of Saidiya Hartman, Black studies scholars have long theorized and analyzed what it means to exist in the afterlife of slavery, which refers to the precarity and devaluation of Black life since chattel slavery. This article draws the natural environment into this discourse to conceptualize the biophysical afterlife of slavery. The biophysical afterlife of slavery describes how the precarity and devaluation of Black life has affected the natural environments in which these lives exist. Slavery left lingering impacts on soil, water, and vegetation regimes as it maneuvered and settled across the earth, but importantly, its ideological and sociopolitical legacies continue to impact Black ecologies today.

Discovering the rules of plant biogeography using a trait-based approach

Trait-environment correlation analyses are ways to discover general rules in plant biogeography by quantifying to what extent unrelated lineages have similar evolutionary responses to a given type of habitat. In this synthesis, Thais Vasconcelos gives a short historical overview on trait-environment correlation analyses, from some key observations from classic naturalists to modern approaches using trait evolution models, large phylogenies, and massive datasets of traits and distributions.

Links across ecological scales: Plant biomass responses to elevated CO2

Maschler et al. review the effect of e[CO2] on plant biomass across multiple levels of ecological organization, scaling from physiological responses to changes in population-, community-, ecosystem-, and global-scale dynamics. They find that evidence for a sustained biomass response to e[CO2] varies across ecological scales, leading to diverging conclusions about the responses of individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems.

Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing (mNGS) Data Reveal the Phyllosphere Microbiome of Wheat Plants Infected by the Fungal Pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici

The fungal pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici is the causal agent of Septoria tritici blotch (STB), a major wheat disease in Western Europe. Microorganisms inhabiting wheat leaves might act as beneficial, biocontrol, or facilitating agents that could limit or stimulate the development of Z. tritici. Improving our understanding of microbial communities in the wheat phyllosphere would lead to new insights into STB management. This article provides fungal and bacterial metabarcoding datasets obtained by sampling wheat leaves with and without symptoms caused by Z. tritici.

Megadroughts in the Common Era and the Anthropocene — www.nature.com

In this Review, Cook et al. discuss shared causes and features of Common Era (Year 1–present) and future megadroughts. Decadal variations in sea surface temperatures are the primary driver of megadroughts, with secondary contributions from radiative forcing and land–atmosphere interactions.

The identification of the missing maternal genome of the allohexaploid camelina (Camelina sativa)

Mandáková and Lysak report the chromosome-level structure of the predicted tetraploid Camelina genome identified among genotypes previously classified together as C. microcarpa and referred to here as C. intermedia. Detailed cytogenomic analysis of the tetraploid genome revealed high collinearity with two maternally inherited subgenomes of the hexaploid C. sativa.

Careers

Associate Ecologist - London Working in the ecology planning sector, this role will be to manage and deliver very complex projects from inception and bidding stages through to the completion of planning documents such as Preliminary Ecology Appraisals, Ecological Assessments, Ecological Impact Assessments, Mitigation Strategies, Management Plans and Method Statements. You will also be scoping, designing and undertaking ecological surveys. We are looking for someone with a strong technical background who can be a technical lead for the team, nurturing our consultants and graduates in the early stages of their careers.

Tenure Track - Assistant or Associate Professor in Plant Biology The Department of Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology (MCDB) at UCLA is searching for one faculty appointment at either the Assistant or Associate Professor level. UCLA nurtures a thriving and collaborative plant biology research community with strengths in developmental biology, epigenetics, mechanobiology, light signaling, and plant-microbe interactions who are dedicated to inclusive teaching and training of a diverse group of students and scientists. Individuals working in any area of molecular, cell, and developmental biology with a focus on plant biology are invited to apply.

Graduate Student Research Awards - Society of Systematic Biologists The Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB) Graduate Student Research Awards assist graduate students conducting research in systematics. These grants are for collection of preliminary data or to enhance dissertation research (e.g., by visiting additional field collection sites or museums). Applicants may be from any country, but must be members of SSB, and are advised to join the Society as soon as possible to facilitate their applications. Previous awardees may not re-apply, but previous applicants who were not selected for funding are encouraged to re-apply. Awards will range between $1000 - $3000 and can be used up to the end of the awardee's studies.

Technicien(ne) de laboratoire en biologie végétale Pour compléter son équipe, le groupe de recherche du Professeur Soyk appartenant au Centre intégratif de génomique (CIG) de la Faculté de biologie et de médecine de l'Université de Lausanne est à la recherche d'une technicienne ou d'un technicien de laboratoire.

Independent Research Fellowships Leading to Tenured Faculty Positions at the John Innes Centre We are inviting applications from outstanding researchers who either hold, or wish to apply for Independent Research Fellowships (such as a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, or a Royal Society University Research Fellowship). Shortlisted candidates will be invited to give a seminar at the Fellows Conference, which will be held on 20 February 2023.   During the conference, you will be able to discuss your proposals, the development of your group and your future career plans in depth with JIC Faculty in one-to-one meetings.

Lab Manager A lab manager position in the lab of Dr. Nick Smith in the Department of Biological Sciences at Texas Tech University. The Smith Ecophysiology Lab examines the responses of plants and ecosystems to change in abiotic conditions and the resulting feedbacks from these responses to global change. The successful applicant will join a vibrant group of researchers in the Lab, which is housed within the new EcoHealth Lab facility. The position provides laboratory, field, and administrative support to the Smith Ecophysiology Lab at Texas Tech University.

Faculty Tenure-Track Position Starting August 2023 Cal Poly Humboldt and the Department of Biological Sciences invites applicants for an academic year tenure-track faculty position specializing in Plant Physiology.

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Peatland Ecology - Ecosystem Processes We are seeking a Postdoctoral Research Associate who will support the Ecosystem Processes Group within the Environmental Sciences Division (ESD), http://www.esd.ornl.gov at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) with a passion for studying the natural world, with particular emphasis community-level assessment of CO2 and CH4 fluxes from peatland surface.

Postdoctoral position in evolutionary ecology - Uppsala University, Sweden A position as a postdoctoral researcher in evolutionary ecology/biomechanics is available at the Department of Ecology and Genetics, Plant Ecology and Evolution Program.

Master student in pathogen detection; UBC & FPInnovations Our research team at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and FPInnovations seeks a graduate student at the MSc level to conduct research on the detection of plant pathogens in wood. This study will aim to develop both lab and field-based methods to detect pathogens in wood and wood products following various treatments.

Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Genomics — aprecruit.ucr.edu The Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology (EEOB) invites applications for a 9-month tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor in the area of Evolutionary Genomics, starting July 1, 2023. Candidates should address key evolutionary questions in such areas as genomics or genetics of adaptation, speciation genetics, ecological genomics, evolutionary quantitative genetics, demographic processes, genome evolution or phylogenomics. Candidates proficient in the application of advanced statistical methods are encouraged.

Assistant Editor (2 positions available) - British Ecological Society We are seeking enthusiastic candidates with demonstrable experience in academic publishing and an interest in further developing their publishing career to join our journals’ publications team.

4-year PhD Position in Plant Regeneration — jobs.vib.be

Plants possess an unparalleled regeneration capacity, allowing them to survive severe stress conditions such as injury, herbivory attack, and dramatic weather conditions. Previously, we have identified within Arabidopsis thaliana key molecular components that control stem cell replenishment following cell death. In follow-up work, we aim to understand the pathways operating upstream and use this knowledge to increase the regeneration potential of difficult-to-propagate tree species. This project is financed by an ERC-Adv grant.

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