🌱TWiB October 4, 2021
Even though I put dates in the subject line each week, October has taken me by surprise. I notice the nights getting darker, but it's felt solidly grey since around August. The plants in the garden show no real sign of reacting to the shorter days yet.
However, you can't ignore time forever, and Fresher's Flu is a reminder that autumn has returned to the Northern Hemisphere. I can feel my throat just starting to go. Fortunately, it's not COVID.
Assuming it doesn't develop into something serious, I'll be back with another selection of stories shared by people following @BotanyOne on Twitter at the same time next week.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
In Botany One
A microscopic investigation of fibre development in Cannabis sativa — www.botany.one Can electron microscopy techniques provide new insights into the development of primary phloem fibres in hemp?
In cold weather, rice pollen suffers in a variety of ways as it struggles to develop — www.botany.one A team of botanists in Japan have overturned decades-old assumptions about how cold stress leads to pollen sterility in rice.
Groping in the soil for nutrients encourages root growth — www.botany.one In addition to root proliferation, the root response to a nutrient-rich patch was also accompanied by root hair elongation.
Mutant clover reveals the connections between carbon and nitrogen fixation for legumes — www.botany.one These results suggest that the super-nodulation phenotype per se did not limit growth.
Should you plant your tomato rows oriented north to south or east to west? — www.botany.one A new study challenges the conventional wisdom of row orientation.
A book about trees and fungi, what’s not to like? — www.botany.one
Nigel Chaffey reviews Fungi and trees: Their complex relationships, by Lynne Boddy, 2021.
News & Views
Tomato is first CRISPR-edited food to go on sale in the world — www.newscientist.com For the first time ever, you can now buy a food altered by CRISPR gene editing – at least, if you live in Japan, where the Sicilian Rouge High GABA tomato has just gone on sale.
Another [host] resistance gene bites the dust –Molecular Plant Pathology highlight Septoria tritici blotch is a devastating disease of wheat, but resistance genes such as Stb6 can help defend crop plants from pathogens
Rice feeds half the world. Climate change's droughts and floods put it at risk Scientists and growers will need to innovate to save the staple crop
Saguaro National Park offers so much more than iconic cacti — www.nationalgeographic.com Threatened by drought and invasive plants, the Arizona reserve holds ancient history and offers high desert recreation.
The flower clock: How a small protein helps flowers to develop right and on time Researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology and Nanjing University find that KNUCKLES, a small multi-functional protein, supports the correct timing of floral development for the proper formation of flower reproductive organs
Queensland's Daintree rainforest to be returned to Indigenous Traditional Owners — www.sbs.com.au There are now 32 Aboriginal-owned and jointly-managed national parks on the Cape York Peninsula.
Desertification is turning the Earth barren – but a solution is still within reach The expansion of drylands is leaving entire countries facing famine. It’s time to change the way we think about agriculture
Mash hits: the land that spawned the supermarket spud Most potatoes can be traced to a single Chilean island
Using formaldehyde to detect vegetation stress in times of climate extremes
A new paper in Global Change Biology, led by REALM’s Dr Catherine Morfopoulos, addresses the possibility of using atmospheric formaldehyde concentrations to monitor vegetation stress in response to climate extremes.
Our climate projections for 2500 show an Earth that is alien to humans — theconversation.com While some climate projections do look past 2100, these longer-term projections aren’t being factored into mainstream climate adaptation and environmental decision-making today. This is surprising because people born now will only be in their 70s by 2100. What will the world look like for their children and grandchildren?
Peru’s Incan Rope Bridges Are Hanging by a Thread — www.atlasobscura.com A remarkable ancient technology and tradition that united communities in the Andes is fading into history.
Why Climate Change Is Making It Harder to Chase Fall Foliage - Bloomberg Droughts that cause leaves to turn brown and wither before they can reach peak color. Heat waves prompting leaves to fall before autumn even arrives. Extreme weather events like hurricanes that strip trees of their leaves altogether. For a cheery autumnal activity, leaf peeping is facing some serious threats from the era of climate change.
Scientific Papers
Flower structure and development in Pennantiaceae: uncovering diversity of pseudomonomerous gynoecia in the basal grade of the order Apiales — academic.oup.com
Pseudomonomerous gynoecia with three (or four) carpels are unknown in the species-rich core group of Apiales, but this condition is shared by three species-poor families (Pennantiaceae, Torricelliaceae, Griseliniaceae) that form the basal grade of the order. Testing a hypothesis on the ancestral nature of carpel dimorphism in Apiales requires comparative data for all three lineages in this grade. Karpunina et al. provide the first detailed description of flowers, including floral vasculature and gynoecium development, in a member of Pennantiaceae (Pennantia corymbosa)
Large herbivores suppress liana infestation in an African savanna
Declines of wild megafauna are expected to transform ecosystems and are known to influence tree–grass balance in African savannas, but the effects of large herbivores on lianas are unknown. Using diet analysis, long-term exclosure experiments, and smaller-scale manipulations, Coverdale et al. show that liana infestation occurred rapidly after the loss of large herbivores and suppressed tree growth and reproduction.
Complete root specimen of plants grown in soil-filled root box: sampling, measuring, and staining method Detailed datasets containing root system and its architecture in soil are required to improve understanding of resource capture by roots. However, most of the root study methods have paid little attention to make and preserve whole root specimens. This study introduces root system sampling equipment that makes the entire root specimen with minimum impairment and without displacement of the spatial arrangement of the root system in root boxes.
AprGPD: the apricot genomic and phenotypic database
To better manage the continuous addition of new data and increase convenience, Chen et al. constructed the apricot genomic and phenotypic database (AprGPD, http://apricotgpd.com). At present, AprGPD contains three reference genomes, 1692 germplasms, 306 genome resequencing data, 90 RNA sequencing data. A set of user-friendly query, analysis, and visualization tools have been implemented in AprGPD. They have also performed a detailed analysis of 59 transcription factor families for the three genomes of apricot.
On the evolution of plant thermomorphogenesis — academic.oup.com
While we have begun to understand how angiosperms sense and respond to elevated ambient temperature, very little is known about thermomorphogenesis in plant lineages with less complex body plans. It is unclear when thermomorphogenesis initially evolved and how this depended on morphological complexity. In this review, Ludwig et al. take an evolutionary–physiological perspective and generate hypotheses about the emergence of thermomorphogenesis.
The quiescent centre of the root apical meristem: conceptual developments from Clowes to modern times — academic.oup.com
In this review Dubrovsky and Ivanov discuss the concepts of the quiescent centre (QC) of the root apical meristem (RAM) and their change over time, from their formulation by F.A.L. Clowes to the present. This review is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Clowes, and they present his short biography and a full bibliography of Clowes’ work.
Imaging the living plant cell: from probes to quantification
Colin et al. review some recent advances in live imaging of plant cells. In particular, they discuss the solutions that plant biologists use to live image membrane-bound organelles, cytoskeleton components, hormones, and the mechanical properties of cells or tissues. They not only consider the imaging techniques per se, but also how the construction of new fluorescent probes and analysis pipelines are driving the field of plant cell biology.
Differential degradation of RNA species by autophagy-related pathways in Arabidopsis — academic.oup.com
The plant vacuole recycles proteins and RNA delivered to it by autophagy. In this study, by isolating intact vacuoles from Arabidopsis plants, followed by subsequent RNA purification, and deep sequencing, Hickl et al. provide a comprehensive characterization of Arabidopsis vacuolar RNAome
Careers
Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Ecology We are looking for a Quantitative Ecologist/Conservation Biologist who can teach biostatistics to students at all levels of our Ecology, Biological Sciences and Biomedical Sciences (IBMS accredited) undergraduate programmes, in addition to teaching more broadly across our Ecology provision, including our highly successful foundation year.Â
CSIRO Winanga-y Postdoctoral Fellowship in Circular Nutrients and Plant Nutrition The Postdoctoral Fellow will address the need to develop a more circular nutrient economy for Australia. Recycling of nutrients (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorus) from urban and food processing waste streams back to agriculture can achieve improved economic and environmental outcomes for both urban and regional communities. The Postdoctoral Fellow will work with agricultural scientists and waste treatment engineers to develop and test products that may enable more effective and efficient recycling of nutrients from waste streams back to agriculture.
Penny Anderson Associates Ltd is currently seeking a suitably experienced ASSISTANT ECOLOGIST to join our busy, professional team in Buxton, Derbyshire, who can demonstrate drive and initiative, together with an enthusiasm for ecology and a commitment to working with us.
Penny Anderson Associates Ltd is currently seeking a suitably experienced SENIOR ECOLOGIST to join our busy, professional team in Buxton, Derbyshire, who currently holds one or more protected species survey and mitigation licences and who can demonstrate drive and initiative, together with an enthusiasm for their subject and a commitment to team working.
Undergraduate Student The environmental transformation and interaction team at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is seeking an undergraduate research assistant in Plant Sciences, environmental science, ecology, biology, microbiology, cell biology, or a related field. Our team encourages applications from students attending a local university near the PNNL campus in Richland, WA. We are seeking a high-caliber research assistant to assist with ongoing plant and microbiome experiments and to support general lab housekeeping. Work involves a variety of tasks including plant propagation and maintenance, seed harvesting and sterilization, preparing media and solutions, sample collection (plant tissues, soil, etc.), weighing samples, assisting with multi-omics sample preparation (e.g. DNA, RNA, protein, metabolites), autoclaving, and laboratory cleanup.
Group Leader Positions We are recruiting tenure-track Group Leaders to join CEPAMS and deliver internationally outstanding and innovative research programmes. CEPAMS Group Leaders have joint affiliation between the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology or the CAS Centre for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, together with the John Innes Centre in the UK.
Postdoctoral Research Scientist Wilkes University invites applications for a postdoctoral research scientist who will study the controls on phenology of Arctic plants under an NSF funded project.
Professor/Assoc. prof. within agricultural entomology In Norway, as in most other countries, it is a national policy to reduce the use and negative impact of plant protection products and practices. Research and development in this field has increased substantially in recent years, as have funding possibilities. NMBU is the only academic institution in Norway that offers higher education and doctoral degrees in this subject. The appointee is expected to have a good understanding of the needs of society and to be able to address these needs by establishing projects through external financing.
Postdoctoral Research Associate Full-time Arizona Institutes for Resilience (AIR) at the University of Arizona invites applications for a year-to-year appointment, contingent upon funding and performance, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the recently established & cross-cutting postdoctoral cluster hire “Bridging Biodiversity & Conservation Science (BBCS): Forecasting Future Environments” initiated in 2016.
Plant Pathologist (Mycology) Identifier In this position you will provide expertise in fungal biology, taxonomy and risk analysis as a recognized specialist and consultant or team member to agency import policy staff, survey design groups, survey personnel, and Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey (CAPS) program managers. You will also review, evaluate, and suggest modifications of inspection methodologies and approaches as an enhancement to plant pest and plant disease surveillance systems.
Curator (m/f/d) Full-time position Permanent contract The curator’s main tasks involve the scientific and curatorial supervision of the collections, including their taxonomic processing, with special attention to the herbarium of the seed plants (spermatophytes) and an emphasis on flowering plants (angiosperms) and the historical background of collectors and the collection. The curator should also continue to develop the seed plants collection (especially flowering plants) based on the facility’s curatorial strategy and in cooperation with the herbarium specialists. The successful applicant will also provide support to visiting scholars and researchers with their research endeavors as well as assist with public relations projects to enhance the Botanic Gardens and Botanical Museum’s visibility.
EFS Planner & Group Facilitator We are seeking an EFS Planner & Group Facilitator to oversee the provision of facilitation services for the Ulster Wildlife Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS) Group Programme, predominantly in Fermanagh/Tyrone, but growing in other areas across NI. You will also be required to participate in the seasonal preparation of EFS plans for scheme applicants, actively pursuing new business and new Group members. You will provide an independent, confidential service to potential and existing scheme participants with the primary objective of ensuring that designated lands and priority habitats participating within the scheme move towards favourable condition status.
Plant Molecular biologist Applications are invited for the post of Plant Molecular biologist in NIAB’s Crop Transformation group, based in Cambridge. NIAB is an independent plant science research organisation with focus on the development and characterisation of new varieties of crops. The Crop Transformation Group undertakes Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of crops such as wheat, rice, barley, oilseed rape and potato and is developing methods for recalcitrant legume species.
Assistant Professor in East Lansing, MI for Department of Plant Biology The Department of Plant Biology at Michigan State University invites applications for a tenure system Assistant Professor position in Ecology. We welcome applications from individuals who work primarily on plants (or other photosynthetic organisms), including those who work at the interface of plants and other areas in ecology (e.g., plant-microbe interactions, plant-insect interactions, ecosystem dynamics, macroecology, etc.), so long as plants are a strong component of the candidate's research.
Postdoctoral Fellow (A/B) in X-ray phenotyping The Plant Accelerator is looking for a Postdoc to work with their new bespoke X-ray CT system for phenotyping of cereal spikes and plant roots.
Postdoctoral Research Scientist Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Scientist to join the Patron Group in the Engineering Biology Department at the Earlham Institute, based in Norwich, UK. Background: Work in the Patron lab is focussed on exploring metabolic diversity and understanding how genes are regulated. These two areas come together to enable the biomanufacturing of natural products, in which we reconstruct metabolic pathways using synthetic regulatory elements and engineer host genes to balance expression and maximise yield.
Full Professor and Chair Systems and Synthetic Biology Wageningen University & Research (WUR) is recruiting a full professor to chair the Systems and Synthetic Biology (SSB) group. The mission of the SSB group is to contribute to the elucidation of the mechanisms underlying basic cellular processes, evolution and interactions among cells, organisms and their environment and to translate this knowledge into applications of biotechnological, medical and environmental interest.
Editor-in-Chief The Botanical Society of America (BSA) is soliciting applications for the position of Editor-in-Chief of Applications in Plant Sciences (APPS), the Society’s first fully Open Access journal, dedicated to the rapid dissemination of newly developed, innovative tools and protocols in all areas of the plant sciences. The five-year term will begin in early 2022. Both direct applications and nominations of others are welcomed.
Research Assistant The Nouri lab in the Department of Plant Pathology is seeking a full-time research assistant to conduct virology-related experiments at the bench, growth chamber, and greenhouse.
Assistant Professor - Evolutionary Genomics The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at the University of Kansas seeks a tenure-track assistant professor in Evolutionary Genomics. The department is particularly interested in candidates applying cutting edge genomic approaches in emerging model or non-model systems to address fundamental questions in evolutionary biology. Research examples include genome evolution, genomic responses to climate change and/or species interactions, the genetic and developmental basis of complex traits, and mechanisms underlying speciation and biodiversity.
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Plant Biology The Biology Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory invites applications for a 1-year term Postdoctoral Research Associate position subject to renewal contingent on satisfactory performance and funding.
Tenure Track Faculty Position in Molecular Cell Biology The Department of Biology at Wake Forest University invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track faculty position in molecular cell biology, with a start date of July 1, 2022.
Assistant Professor in Plant Cell Wall Glycobiology/Glycochemistry The University of Georgia invites applicants for a tenure track faculty position to begin in Fall 2022. This position will be at the rank of Assistant Professor in the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (CCRC; https://ccrc.uga.edu) and a home academic department of Franklin College (specifically Biochemistry & Molecular Biology). Scientists in the CCRC work in a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment fostered by interactions among diverse fields of research on biomedical glycoscience, plant and microbial glycoscience, and synthetic and analytical chemistry.
Scientist, Plant Virology Pairwise is looking to hire a motivated plant virology scientist into its Delivery Technology team to help achieve core aspects of the company’s R&D platform and be part of developing our scientific strategy. Core responsibilities include development of new delivery and transformation technologies for gene editing tools and transgenes.
Project Manager - Construction Minnesota Native Landscapes, a leader in ecological restoration, has an opening for a Project Manager, Construction position. The Project Manager, Construction directs and oversees the implementation of small-scale ecological construction projects, generally projects with revenue under $150,000.
Technical Officer Work under general guidance of research staff at the Western Australian Herbarium to mobilise existing taxonomic information on assorted genera in Myrtaceae for publication via the Flora of Australia and other online portals. Undertakes curation and maintenance of Herbarium collections and associated data.
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