September 13, 2021

🌱 TWiB September 13, 2021

Here's another collection of the stories shared by people following @BotanyOne on Twitter. I've been putting this together quite late as I wanted to watch the Italian Grand Prix today. It means I haven't had quite the same amount of time to count the shares and left in more links than usual.

Once again, seeing what other people share has taught me something. This week I've learned about R-loops. I also had fun working on the post about Patompong et al's work on root development. To be honest, they made it very easy by making it very clear in the article's introduction why I should care.

Next week looks like it will be busier as universities start gearing up for the new academic year. Assuming COVID doesn't catch me, the next issue of the Week in Botany should be with you at the usual time. Until then, stay safe.

Alun (webmaster@botany.one)

In Botany One

Fluorescence imaging reveals the colourful phenolic world of Parma violet — www.botany.one Can fluorescence microscopy be used as a rapid tool to quantitatively assess the phenolic profiles of living plant tissues?

The colour of background vegetation reveals how bees see flowers — www.botany.one Studying how bees perceive flowers gives insight into how pollinators have influenced flower evolution.

When looking after pollinators is literally a matter of self-interest — www.botany.one Hand pollination is a surprisingly common form of pollination in global commercial crop production, including for some economically important plants.

Improving roots for crops could improve habitats for wildlife — www.botany.one New research finds that root capturing more nutrients could help wildlife breathe many miles away.

The use of Moringa extract for mite management — www.botany.one A plant from tropical and subtropical regions from Asia might help combat pests of hungry mites.

News & Views

Nearly 30% of 138,000 assessed species are facing extinction, group warns A top international conservation agency warned that 28% of the 138,374 species identified on its "survival watchlist" as being under threat have now been moved to the more dangerous "red list" -- meaning they are at high risk of extinction.

Meet our #plantscistory2021 storytellers: Verena Sesin — globalplantcouncil.org This is the first post of a new series, celebrating the brilliant winners of the #plantscistory2021 contest and their stories. 

5 potential uses for fungi that you haven’t heard of — www.kew.org Despite the huge importance that fungi play on Earth, we still have so much to uncover about these fascinating organisms. Many species are yet to be scientifically described and many incredible uses to be revealed.

Zero extinction target for NSW national parks welcomed by environment groups Minister Matt Kean also announces 221 further sites to join Wollemi pines as assets of intergenerational significance

Manatee deaths in Florida point to a global decline in seagrass ecosystems This year the U.S. state of Florida saw a record number of manatee deaths, and though investigations are still ongoing, experts attribute most of the deaths to the dieback of seagrass, a primary food source.

The flying AI robot that can harvest fresh fruit It’s getting harder to find fruit pickers to harvest the world’s orchards. COVID-19 travel restrictions have prevented seasonal workers crossing borders, so some farmers are turning to AI drones to pick their crops.

Study reveals how genes influence leaf architecture — globalplantcouncil.org A recent study, published in Nature Plants, by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has shed light on how simple leaves – one of the two basic forms of leaves – develop in a plant. The team included researchers from the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology (MCB) and their collaborators from Shodhaka Life Sciences, Bengaluru. 

Threats to crop wild relatives compromising food security and livelihoods Over 70 wild relatives of some of the world’s most important crops are threatened with extinction, according to a new IUCN co-authored study launched today at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille. These plants, native to Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, provide genetic resources that are necessary to breed crops worldwide with greater resilience to climate change, pests and diseases, as well as to improve yields.

The triumphs of post-publication peer-review — kamounlab.medium.com Journals must enforce transparent reporting of metadata associated with biological samples or face the wrath of post-publication peer-reviewers.

Breakdown in specific winter wheat resistance to septoria tritici blotch – Plant Pathology highlight — www.bspp.org.uk Around this time each year, as the combines are parked up for another season, cereal farmers turn their attention to the next year’s crop. Undoubtedly, the biggest farming decision they will make every year is what crop to grow. As most now utilise a crop rotation, this decision can be relatively easy to make. Following this, they must however decide on what variety of their chosen crop they should plant. The correct decision can leave the agronomy for the following season easy; the wrong decision and they could have a lot of sleepless nights from February through to August.

Madagascar faces one of the world's first climate change famines As the African island nation experiences a food-security crisis driven by global warming, researchers say it is an alarm bell for the world

Du Fu’s “Cloves”. I’ve talked about cloves fairly often…

"I’ve talked about cloves fairly often on this blog. Cloves are the dried blossoms of the tree Syzygium aromaticum, which now grows almost throughout the tropics but which in the Middle Ages could be found on only five small islands in eastern Indonesia — namely Ternate, Tidore, Bacan, Makian, and Moti, all in the vicinity of Halmahera, a large-ish island a few hundred kilometres west of New Guinea."

Can we stop calling it biodiversity? There's no word for what we're losing (commentary) — news.mongabay.com The term misdirects attention from the human political, economic, and security realities which have both shaped the de-speciation and removal of wild nature, which must drive any meaningful response.

Plants evolved ability to actively control water-loss earlier than previously thought — globalplantcouncil.org New research has shed light on when plants first evolved the ability to respond to changing humidity in the air around them, and was probably a feature of a common ancestor of both flowering plants and ferns.

Scientific Papers

An update on passive transport in and out of plant cells

Tomkins et al. focus on the passive transport of molecules, describing the fundamental concepts and demonstrating how different levels of abstraction can lead to different interpretations of the driving forces. They summarise recent developments on quantitative frameworks for describing diffusive and bulk flow transport processes in and out of cells, with a more detailed focus on plasmodesmata, and outline open questions and challenges.

Multiomics analysis of kernel development in response to short-term heat stress at the grain formation stage in waxy maize — academic.oup.com

Understanding the adaptive changes in maize kernels under high-temperature stress during grain formation stage is critical for developing strategies to alleviate the negative effects on yield and quality. In this study, Guo et al. subjected waxy maize (Zea mays L. sinensis Kulesh) to four different temperature regimes from 1–15 d after pollination (DAP), namely normal day/normal night (control), hot day/normal night, normal day/hot night, and hot day/hot night. Compared to the control, the three high-temperature treatments inhibited kernel development and starch deposition. To understand how the kernels responded to high-temperature stress, their transcriptomes, proteomes, and metabolomes were studied at 10 DAP and 25 DAP.

Two plastid POLLUX ion channel-like proteins are required for stress-triggered stromal Ca2+ release

Two decades ago, large cation currents were discovered in the envelope membranes of Pisum sativum L. (pea) chloroplasts. The deduced K+-permeable channel was coined fast-activating chloroplast cation (FACC) channel but its molecular identity remained elusive. To reveal candidates, Völkner et al. mined proteomic datasets of isolated pea envelopes. Our search uncovered distant members of the nuclear POLLUX ion channel family.

Phototropin-mediated perception of light direction in leaves regulates blade flattening

One conserved feature among angiosperms is the development of flat thin leaves. This developmental pattern optimizes light capture and gas exchange. The blue light receptors phototropins are required for leaf flattening, with the null phot1phot2 mutant showing curled leaves in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). However, key aspects of their function in leaf development remain unknown. Legris et al. performed a detailed spatiotemporal characterization of phototropin function in Arabidopsis leaves. We found that phototropins perceive light direction in the blade, and, similar to their role in hypocotyls, they control the spatial pattern of auxin signaling, possibly modulating auxin transport, to ultimately regulate cell expansion.

Development of aerial and belowground tubers in potato is governed by photoperiod and epigenetic mechanism

In this review, in addition to key tuberization factors, Kondhare et al. highlight the role of photoperiod and epigenetic mechanism that regulates the development of aerial and belowground tubers in potato.

Toward an understanding of the detection and function of R-loops in plants — academic.oup.com

Although lagging behind studies in humans and other mammals, studies of R-loops in plants have recently entered an exciting stage in which the roles of R-loops in gene expression, genome stability, epigenomic signatures, and plant development and stress responses are being elucidated. Gao et al. review the strengths and weaknesses of existing methodologies, which were largely developed for R-loop studies in mammals, and then discuss the potential challenges of applying these methodologies to R-loop studies in plants

SnRK1 stimulates the histone H3K27me3 demethylase JMJ705 to regulate a transcriptional switch to control energy homeostasis

Wang et al. show that the rice histone H3K27me3 demethylase JMJ705 is required for low energy stress tolerance in rice plants. The genetic inactivation of JMJ705 resulted in similar effects as those of the rice snrk1 mutant on the transcriptome, which impair not only the promotion of the low energy stress-triggered transcriptional program but also the repression of the program under an energy-sufficient state.

The CaM1-associated CCaMK–MKK1/6 cascade positively affects lateral root growth via auxin signaling under salt stress in rice Ca2+/calmodulin (CaM)-dependent protein kinases (CCaMKs) and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinases (MAPKKs) are two types of kinases that regulate salt stress response in plants. It remains unclear, however, how they cooperatively affect lateral root growth under salt stress. Here, two conserved phosphorylation sites (S102 and T118) of OsCaM1 were identified, and found to affect the ability to bind to Ca2+  in vitro and the kinase activity of OsCCaMK in vivo.

An evidence-based 3D reconstruction of Asteroxylon mackiei, the most complex plant preserved from the Rhynie chert

The Early Devonian Rhynie chert preserves the earliest terrestrial ecosystem and informs our understanding of early life on land. However, our knowledge of the 3D structure, and development of these plants is still rudimentary. Hetherington et al. used digital 3D reconstruction techniques to produce the first well-evidenced reconstruction of the structure and development of the rooting system of the lycopsid Asteroxylon mackiei, the most complex plant in the Rhynie chert

The adaptive challenge of extreme conditions shapes evolutionary diversity of plant assemblages at continental scales — www.pnas.org

Neves et al. explore an extended view of the tropical conservatism hypothesis to account for two often-neglected components of climatic stress: drought and the combined effect of seasonal cold and drought—the latter being a common feature of extratropical dry environments. They show that evolutionary diversity of angiosperm assemblages in extratropical dry biomes is even lower than in biomes subject to only one type of climatic stress

Careers

Post Doctoral Research Associate Perform research on the regulation of cell division and elongation in the plant root, under the guidance and supervision of the Principal Investigator.

Postdoctoral Associate Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)-Terrer Lab, to leverage remote-sensing data to investigate patterns in tropical and savanna ecosystems under global change.  Will investigate questions related to historical and current patterns in carbon storage, greening, deforestation, degradation, savannization/desavannization patterns and the interactions between the carbon, hydrological and nutrient cycles, combining top-down approaches with field observations.  Will spend about 50% of the time working on ideas devised independently.  

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology: Evolutionary Biologist The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant or tenured Associate Professor position in Evolutionary Biology. We encourage applications from biologists working in all areas of evolutionary biology and using empirical and/or theoretical approaches.

Associate Professor in Biology, especially Plant Ecology The ideal candidate conducts research related to plant population and community ecology and complements current research at the program, which ranges from evolutionary genetics to community ecology.

Postdoctoral position in plant photobiology The Center for Integrative Genomics of the University of Lausanne invites applications for the position of Postdoctoral position in plant biology

Associate Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Data Driven Evolution and Biodiversity

A position as Associate Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Data Driven Evolution and Biodiversity is open at Umeå Plant Science Centre, Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology, SLU, Umeå, Sweden. The subject area is Genomics, with focus on data driven research on evolution, adaptation and biodiversity in trees.

Collections Manager, Botany — careers.drexel.edu The Botany Department of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University is searching for a Collection Manager for the Herbarium to manage specimen care, data, and daily operations. Research in areas aligned with the Collection Manager’s core responsibilities, e.g., biodiversity informatics, is encouraged.

Assistant Professor - Cell, Developmental and Organismal Biology New York University’s Department of Biology invites applicants for a tenure track position beginning ideally on September 1st 2022, pending budgetary and administrative approval. We are particularly interested in applicants whose research is in the area of Cell, Developmental and Organismal Biology. This search is for tenure track Assistant Professors. Candidates are expected to develop an externally-funded research program and to participate in the teaching mission of the Department.

Institute/Center Director-Management Michigan State University is a top-ranked research university in the plant sciences and provides a stimulating atmosphere with interactive colleagues who offer exceptional breadth and depth in the study of plant resilience to biotic and abiotic stress. We invite applications for the position of Director of the Plant Resilience Institute (PRI; https://plantresilience.msu.edu/), to be appointed at the level of Associate or Full Professor.

ASSISTANT/ASSOCIATE/FULL PROFESSOR IN PLANT BIOLOGY The Department of Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology (BCMB) at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position in the area of plant biology. Applications for Assistant, Associate or Full Professor will be considered. We are particularly interested in a colleague who uses experimental approaches to address fundamental questions about plants or other photosynthetic organisms from the molecular to the organismal level.

PhD position in Molecular Plant Science A PhD position (5 years) is open in the group of Prof. Yves Poirier at the Department of Plant Molecular Biology (DBMV) of the University of Lausanne. The DBMV regroups 8 laboratories dedicated to the study of plants from cellular and molecular perspectives (www.unil.ch/dbmv/en/home.html).

Tenure-Track Faculty job The Biology Department at Indiana University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position, beginning in fall 2022, in the broad area of plant growth and development. We seek candidates using molecular, cellular, biochemical and/or genetic approaches to understand developmental and/or physiological processes at a mechanistic level.

Botanist-Ecologist This position is located in Reno, Nevada. Information about Reno and the surrounding area can be found at Reno/Sparks Chamber of Commerce.

Postdoctoral Researcher- plant genomics and epigenetics

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join a multidisciplinary team studying the regulation of protein abundance in plants. The post holder will work very closely with a postdoctoral researcher (proteomics) based at Rothamsted Research and a postdoctoral researcher (pangenome construction and QTL analysis) based at University College London.

Plant Evolutionary Biologist The Department of Plant Biology, Ecology, and Evolution at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater (http://plantbio.okstate.edu) seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor to begin August 2022. The ideal candidate will address fundamental questions in Plant Evolutionary Biology, especially if using approaches that contain a genomic or genetic component.

Assistant Professor The Department of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Texas at Austin invites applications for tenure-track faculty positions at the Assistant Professor level, subject to the availability of funding.  The Department has a large number of faculty that span many disciplines, and a broad range of research areas will be considered including biochemistry, cancer biology, cell biology, developmental biology, microbiology and infectious disease, molecular biology and genetics, plant biology, structural biology (in particular cryo-electron microscopy and cryo-electron tomography), and synthetic and systems biology. 

Assistant Professor Tenure Track- Biology

We are seeking diverse candidates from all disciplines of biology who are using innovative approaches to teaching and research and can complement or expand existing strengths in the Department of Biology and across the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus. Applicants using traditional or nontraditional species or groups to investigate fundamental biological questions at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels will be considered. Preference will be given to those who work in research areas that are interdisciplinary and transformative. 

Editorial Assistant - Production Due to team expansion we are seeking an enthusiastic and proactive individual to join the New Phytologist Central Office team as an Editorial Assistant. You will provide administrative support in the publication of the journals New Phytologist and Plants, People, Planet, with primary focus on production processes for New Phytologist.

Assistant/Associate/Full Professor - Plant Evolutionary Biology/Director of the University and Jepson Herbaria The Department of Integrative Biology and the University and Jepson Herbaria at the University of California, Berkeley invite applications for a tenure-track (assistant rank) or tenured (associate or full rank) professor in Plant Evolutionary Biology. This position includes appointment as Director of the University and Jepson Herbaria, with the largest herbarium collection in the western US, 14 affiliated faculty curators, ten staff members, an active public outreach program, and a number of ongoing institutional research and informatics projects.

Artificial Intelligence Researcher Based at Kew Gardens, your work will focus on developing and applying innovative methods that combine machine learning techniques with plant trait and phylogenetic data, to facilitate the selection of plants to inspire future natural product drug discovery. This post is a one-year appointment, and the successful candidate will help expand the scope of research to harness artificial intelligence approaches that can facilitate new understanding of the potential uses of plants for humanity. 

Multiple PhD and postdoc positions The lab is currently recruiting multiple PhD and postdoc positions to work on various projects including studying the interactions between plant canopy structure and function, and developing new phenotyping tools to improve the modern plant breeding pipleline.

Postdoc in plant developmental biology We are recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to work on a two-year project (extension possible) aimed at manipulating plant development using microProtein engineering. MicroProteins are small single-domain proteins that have been shown to control diverse biological pathways (see e.g. Hong et al., PNAS, 2020). In the project we will employ a combination of genome-engineering approaches and protein engineering in tomato to modulate microProtein expression and activity.

Director of Texas Native Seeds Endowed Director of Texas Native Seeds.  Directs program at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville to promote restoration with native plants in Texas through seed source development, research, and outreach.  Administer a state-wide program of 10–15 staff.   Engage donors and secure program and projects with extramural funding.  Seeking natural resource professional with a strong presence and research and management experience who is passionate about native plant restoration.

Research Fellow in Forest Ecology The position is part of the UKRI-funded project MEMBRA, which aims to understand and quantify how trees acquire, retain, and transmit ‘memory’ of stress. The research fellow will coordinate the data collection and carry out exciting and crucial analyses on the response of trees to different stresses integrating information from forest dynamics, ecology, dendrochronology and molecular biology.

Recruiting for PhotoBoost! We are recruiting *2* postdocs to work with us and collaborators on the EU Horizon 2020 project PhotoBoost!

Researcher – Root Endosymbiosis The Department of Plant Sciences is seeking to recruit a Researcher in the Root Endosymbiosis Group.  The funds are provided by the John Fell Fund and is held by Dr Ronelle Roth. The work is to be conducted in her lab in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RB. The research topic is “Plant-fungal Communication in Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis’’.

LECTURER/SENIOR LECTURER (PLANT PATHOLOGY)

An exciting opportunity exists for a Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in Plant Pathology to join the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

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