🌻 TWiB September 26, 2022
I'm back, and despite it being my first trip out where there was a lot of people around, I didn't pick up COVID. I know this, because I've been taking repeated tests this week and whatever it is that's making the house spin, it isn't COVID.
I've relied on the automatic systems entirely for this week's email, as the only work I've done it turning up to Zoom meetings to cough or sneeze at people. The Silphium / Silphion story in National Geographic caught my eye. It's one I'd like to be true, but I'm not convinced. It looks like an interesting example of a good scientist doing good modern science, but not taking on board that the ancient sources aren't scientific documents. But it's not a mad idea, and I'll be planning to read more once I can focus my eyes for long enough.
In the meantime, I hope to be back working this week, if slowly, so there should be another newsletter with you next week - unless the COVID tests are lying. Until then, take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
In Botany One
New open source software for identifying candidate genes — botany.one Introducing cageminer, an R/Bioconductor package to prioritize candidate genes by integrating GWAS and gene coexpression networks
News & Views
Why your local park is so vital in the fight against climate change Millions of people rely on city parks to recharge, cool off and connect. But climate change is threatening the very spaces that help us cope with the stresses of living on a hotter planet.
JXB Series: How and why do bees buzz? Implications for buzz pollination | The Society for Experimental Biology (SEB) In this talk, Mario Vallejo-MarÃn will present a talk on his paper "How and why do bees buzz? Implications for buzz pollination " which was accepted by the Journal of Experimental Botany on 19 September 2021
‘This is what a river should look like’: Dutch rewilding project turns back the clock 500 years
Europe’s largest river restoration is making changes across the entire landscape, bringing benefits to wildlife and people.
Pollination in a drier world: Even moderate drought alters floral scent — jecologyblog.com Coline Jaworski discusses her recent paper: Long-term experimental drought alters floral scent and pollinator visits in a Mediterranean plant community despite overall limited impacts on plant phenotype and reproduction. Find out more about how drought can affect floral scent and the implications of climate change for pollination.
UCC just announced it's renaming a building in honour of Ireland’s first female botanist — www.yaycork.ie Now University College Cork has announced a fitting tribute to Ireland’s first female botanist Ellen Hutchins, who made an incredible impression on the world of botany, despite her short years.
Applying to Grad School - A Q&A Session (September 20, 2022) Presented by the Early Career Professional Development Committee. This event was aimed at providing helpful information and guidance for students thinking about applying to graduate school in plant sciences. Panelists have a range of experience and come from a variety of institution types. After brief introductions and some initial questions from the host, an open and moderated Q&A was conducted.
Genome Spotlight: C-fern (Ceratopteris richardii) — www.the-scientist.com Sequences for the model organism and two of its kin reveal how these plants got their oversized genomes.
Unraveling the diversity of Caquetá-Colombia, where the Andes and Amazon meet: Four new species of the genus Piper — blog.pensoft.net Two of the species bear names inspired by the indigenous tribes that live in Caquetá, while the other two species honor Amazonian naturalists.
This miracle plant was eaten into extinction 2,000 years ago—or was it? — www.nationalgeographic.com Silphion cured diseases and made food tasty, but Emperor Nero allegedly consumed the last stalk. Now, a Turkish researcher thinks he’s found a botanical survivor.
Scientific Papers
Plant genome sequence assembly in the era of long reads: Progress, challenges and future directions Third-generation long-read sequencing is transforming plant genomics. Oxford Nanopore Technologies and Pacific Biosciences are offering competing long-read sequencing technologies and enable plant scientists to investigate even large and complex plant genomes. Sequencing projects can be conducted by single research groups and sequences of smaller plant genomes can be completed within days. This also resulted in an increased investigation of genomes from multiple species in large scale to address fundamental questions associated with the origin and evolution of land plants. Increased accessibility of sequencing devices and user-friendly software allows more researchers to get involved in genomics. Current challenges are accurately resolving diploid or polyploid genome sequences and better accounting for the intra-specific diversity by switching from the use of single reference genome sequences to a pangenome graph.
Macroevolutionary trends and diversification dynamics in Atripliceae (Amaranthaceae s.l., Chenopodioideae): a first approach — academic.oup.com
Brignone et al. introduce a first approach to the macroevolutionary patterns and diversification dynamics of the Atripliceae to understand how time, traits, speciation, extinction and new habitats influenced the evolution of this lineage.
Plant and prokaryotic TIR domains generate distinct cyclic ADPR NADase products
Bayless et al. generate auto-active Thoeris TIRs and test the converse hypothesis: do prokaryotic Thoeris TIRs also cross-activate plant TIR-immunity? Using in planta and in vitro assays, we find that Thoeris and plant TIRs generate overlapping sets of cADPR isomers, and further clarify how plant and Thoeris TIRs activate the Thoeris system via producing 3’cADPR. This study demonstrates that the TIR-signaling requirements for plant and prokaryotic immune systems are distinct and that TIRs across kingdoms generate a diversity of small molecule products.
Tonoplast-localized transporter ZmNRAMP2 confers root-to-shoot translocation of manganese in maize
Guo et al. identified a NRAMP (for Natural Resistance Associated Macrophage Protein) family member in maize (Zea mays), ZmNRAMP2, which localized to the tonoplast in maize protoplasts and mediated transport of Mn in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Under Mn deficiency, two maize mutants defective in ZmNRAMP2 exhibited remarkable reduction of root-to-shoot Mn translocation along with lower shoot Mn contents, resulting in substantial decreases in Fv/Fm and plant growth inhibition compared to their corresponding wild-type (WT) plants.
Massive crossover suppression by CRISPR–Cas-mediated plant chromosome engineering — www.nature.com
Recent studies have demonstrated that not only genes but also entire chromosomes can be engineered using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)–CRISPER-associated protein 9 (Cas9). A major objective of applying chromosome restructuring in plant breeding is the manipulation of genetic exchange. Rönspies et al. show that meiotic recombination can be suppressed in nearly the entire chromosome using chromosome restructuring.
ReadCube: https://rdcu.be/cVQOU
What is missing to advance foliar fertilization using nanotechnology? — www.cell.com Nanoparticles can translocate from exposed leaves to unexposed tissue. This highlights a clear potential for designing phloem-mobile nanofertilizers, containing nutrients that are currently immobile. Manipulating the phloem mobility of nutrients would constitute a major landmark within plant science.
Structural basis for directional chitin biosynthesis — www.nature.com
Chitin, the most abundant aminopolysaccharide in nature, is an extracellular polymer consisting of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) units. The key reactions of chitin biosynthesis are catalysed by chitin synthase, a membrane-integrated glycosyltransferase that transfers GlcNAc from UDP-GlcNAc to a growing chitin chain. However, the precise mechanism of this process has yet to be elucidated. Chen et al. report five cryo-electron microscopy structures of a chitin synthase from the devastating soybean root rot pathogenic oomycete Phytophthora sojae (PsChs1).
Machine learning bridges omics sciences and plant breeding — www.cell.com To bridge the gaps between basic research and breeding practice in plants, machine learning (ML) holds great promise to integrate biological knowledge and omics data, to ultimately achieve precision-designed plant breeding. Recent applications of ML in plant research and breeding include data dimensionality reduction, inference of gene-regulation networks, gene discovery and prioritization, plant phenomics analysis, and genomic prediction of plant phenotypes.
Careers
Plant Molecular 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 2023. The ideal candidate will address fundamental questions in Plant Molecular Biology; those who study metabolites or work in the context of systems biology are particularly encouraged to apply. The position will complement departmental strengths in cell and molecular biology, evolutionary biology, and ecology.
Plant Physiology is recruiting Assistant Features Editors for 2023 We are now recruiting a new cohort of Assistant Features Editors to join the Plant Physiology editorial board, replacing some of the current members who will step down from their roles with the journal at the end of 2022. This new cohort will work with the journal for 24 months beginning in January 2023.
Scientific Technician - Crop Transformation and Genome Editing in AL5 2JQ, Herts, UK - Rothamsted Research We currently have an opportunity for a Scientific Technician to join the Crop Transformation and Genome Editing Team. This part-time role (16 hours per week) supports the team in performing plant transformation (wheat, rice and Brassica napus)  in tissue culture, growing and genotyping of transgenic and genome edited plants.
Head of Metabolomics Facility (f/m/d) The IPB invites applications to fill the MetaCom-associated Senior Scientist position of Head of Metabolomics Facility (f/m/d) The successful candidate will lead the metabolomics laboratory and act as a co-speaker of the MetaCom Center jointly with the head of the Plant Computational Biochemistry Group (Dr. S. Neumann). The personnel of the metabolomics facility will consist of three senior scientists and five technical assistants.
Assitant Professor Tenure Track Duke University’s Department of Biology is planning to hire two Assistant Professors. We are looking for individuals who will develop a world-class research program in any area of Biology, using any mode of inquiry (experimental, field, or theoretical work), and enhance and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the biological sciences. We are broadly interested in individuals whose research integrates across biological scales such as the organization of and interactions among molecules, cells, organisms, species, and their environment
PhD on engineering plant circadian clocks for climate adaptation The lab of Prof. Devang Mehta (https://mehta-lab.com) conducts research in experimental plant systems biology in the Division of Crop Biotechnics (Department of Biosystems) at KU Leuven (Belgium). We have an open full-time PhD position in Bioscience Engineering to study and engineer the plant circadian clock for enhanced latitudinal adaptation due to climate change.
Tenure Track Position in Plant Pathology - Dundee To support our research in Plant Pathology we seek to employ a highly motivated, early career stage researcher, who is ready to develop a tenure track leadership role. We invite applications from ambitious researchers in areas linked to the key strengths of the Epidemiology and Disease Control Group within the Cell and Molecular Sciences Department.
Greenhouse/Nursery Research Professional Position Full-time A research professional position is available in the laboratory of CJ Tsai at the University of Georgia. The individual will join a poplar functional genomics research team to investigate molecular regulation of various agronomy traits. Primary duties will be greenhouse and nursery plant care, including propagation, weeding, fertilization, biocontrol application for pest control, plant monitoring during stress treatments, tissue sampling and record keeping
Privacy Policy
We store your email in order to know who to send the emails to. We have to share that list with Revue because they’re the company that actually sends the emails out. We get information about how many emails open, so it might be 50% one week, but we wouldn’t be able to tell if you were in the half that opens the email or the half that didn’t. Revue have their own longer privacy policy.
The email is funded by the Annals of Botany Company.