There’s a danger with scanning social media so much for stories that you get exposed to the worst of what’s going on many times over So I’ve made a deliberate effort to make a note of good news this week.
New Phytologist has an interesting paper on how a tree may have adapted to be struck by lightning. You’ll notice I haven’t linked to it here or below because I was planning to blog it. Wiley has had one of their hiccups with DOIs meaning links weren’t working, but that seems to be fixed again, so that’s something for next week.
I’ve also remembered I hope to visit BIFoR FACE on Friday. This is the Birmingham Institute for Forest Research Free Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment, effectively a time machine to see how plants will cope with higher carbon dioxide concentrations. If it turns out the time machine element is more than just a metaphor, then I’ll also aim to return with some lottery numbers.
Assuming I don’t win the lottery, there’ll be another email of the papers you’re sharing on Mastodon, Bluesky, and Twitter. Until next time, take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
Wolffia globosa and its potential for space agriculture
Have you ever wondered what space food looks like? A recent study published in Scientific Reports by Romano and collaborators, explores the adaptive responses of duckweed to space-simulated conditions and confirms its potential as a sustainable food source for space missions.
Cracking the Code of Hazelnut Tree Architecture
A new model of hazelnut enhances our understanding of its growth and development.
Renske Onstein: A Passion for “Big” Plant Questions
Botany One interviews Dr Renske Onstein, a researcher passionate for the evolution of plants and their characteristics on a global scale.
Scientists Find a Gene That Enables a Plant to Become a Vampire
From Petals to Pollinators: How Bauhinia galpinii Adapts to Its Butterfly Visitors
A deep dive into how the unique floral structures of Bauhinia galpinii have evolved to attract and interact with swallowtail butterflies.
Unlocking crop efficiency: A practical guide for Rubisco Assays
Researchers describe a new method for accurately measuring the activation state and quantity of Rubisco.
The Genetic Secret Behind Wasabi’s Defensive Kick
Scientists hope hungry weevils from Louisiana can tackle South Africa’s invasive water plants
Dozens of tiny black weevils cling onto a fern plant as it is tossed onto a leafy green mat coating the surface of South Africa’s Crocodile River. Those weevils aren’t tossed into the river by accident: scientists hope that the insects and their larvae will munch their way through the green mat, which is made up of an unwanted, invasive South American aquatic plant called Salvinia minima.
Treeplanter is a woodland simulation game where every sale helps plant actual trees
We can probably all agree that planting trees is pretty much universally good, right? I can’t really imagine a scenario where planting a tree is a bad thing, we need them to live after all. (Note: Rock Paper Shotgun is a games site)
Huge Trees Hiding in Plain Sight May Be a Species Totally New to Science
A species of old-growth tree that is totally new to science has been hiding out in a narrow slice of mountain rainforest in Tanzania. Scientists have named the canopy-piercing tree Tessmannia princeps, and they suspect it could live for as long as 3,000 years.
New technique helps boost longan flower yields
The Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute’s Chiayi Agricultural Experiment Branch has developed an advanced flower induction technique using potassium chlorate to boost longan production during warmer winters.
Smart sensor pokes plants’ leaves to let farmers know if they’re stressed
The sooner a farmer knows that their crops are suffering, the faster they can take action to prevent major crop failure. A new plant-leaf-poking sensor could soon help them do so, by sending an alert as soon as the plant gets stressed.
How to predict the order that trees and shrubs in your garden will bloom
Did you know you can predict the order in which the trees and shrubs in your garden will bloom this spring? All you need is the secret password: Phenology.
A Look At New York’s Ambitious Goal To Plant 25 Million Trees
New York has a new interactive web tool to track the state’s progress in an ambitious goal by Gov. Kathy Hochul to have people plant 25 million trees within a nine-year period.
Tallest tree in England receives makeover
The tallest tree in England has received a makeover to get more visitors to come see it. New signage has been put in place and the paths were made more accessible around some of the country’s tallest trees on Exmoor near Dunster.
Global patterns in seed plant distribution over millions of years
Why do some plants thrive in specific regions but not in others? A study explores the factors shaping plant distributions and how these patterns have changed over millions of years. Analyzing nearly 270,000 seed plant species worldwide, the research highlights the roles of environmental conditions and dispersal barriers in influencing global plant diversity.
Now’s the time to step inside the most beautiful private gardens in and around L.A.
Garden tours are a sure sign of spring in Southern California, and this year there are 16 to choose from.
Moving biodiversity from an afterthought to a key outcome of forest restoration ($)
Brancalion et al describe the reforestation approaches and forest restoration methods currently used and how they affect biodiversity; summarize the current evidence, main determinants and knowledge gaps of biodiversity outcomes of forest restoration; and describe the emerging opportunities for planning, financing and monitoring biodiversity-centred forest restoration.
Read free via https://rdcu.be/efImJ
Recent gains in global terrestrial carbon stocks are mostly stored in nonliving pools ($)
Approximately 30% of the carbon emitted by human activity has been taken up on land, but exactly how and where that uptake has been achieved has been an open question. Bar-On et al. examined existing observational records of terrestrial carbon pools and found that live biomass has stored only a small fraction of that carbon, the bulk having been incorporated into nonliving organic matter.
Structure-guided insights into the biology of fungal effectors (FREE)
Le Naour-Vernet et al highlight the contribution of structural analyses to deepen our understanding of the function and evolution of fungal effectors. They also discuss prospects offered by advances in structural modeling for predicting and studying the virulence targets of fungal effectors in plants.
Soil resource acquisition strategy modulates global plant nutrient and water economics ($)
Natural selection favors growth by selecting a combination of plant traits that maximize photosynthetic CO2assimilation at the lowest combined carbon costs of resource acquisition and use. Cheaib et al quantified how soil nutrient availability, plant nutrient acquisition strategies, and aridity modulate the variability in plant costs of nutrient acquisition relative to water acquisition (β).
Algal perspectives: The algal phyla (FREE)
What are algae? United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said of pornography, “I shall not today attempt further to define [it]… but I know it when I see it”. Something similar could be said of algae.
♻️ Transition from positive to negative indirect CO2 effects on the vegetation carbon uptake (FREE)
Chen et al investigate how the impacts of eCO2-driven climate change on growing-season gross primary production have changed globally during 1982–2014, using satellite observations and Earth system models, and evaluate their evolution until the year 2100. They show that the initial positive effect of eCO2-induced climate change on vegetation carbon uptake has declined recently, shifting to negative in the early 21st century.
The Response of Carbon Uptake to Soil Moisture Stress: Adaptation to Climatic Aridity (FREE)
The coupling between carbon uptake and water loss through stomata implies that gross primary production (GPP) can be limited by soil water availability through reduced leaf area and/or stomatal conductance. Ecosystem and land-surface models commonly assume that GPP is highest under well-watered conditions and apply a stress function to reduce GPP as soil moisture declines. Optimality considerations, however, suggest that the stress function should depend on climatic aridity: ecosystems adapted to more arid climates should use water more conservatively when soil moisture is high, but maintain unchanged GPP down to a lower critical soil-moisture threshold. Mengoli et al use eddy-covariance flux data to test this hypothesis.
Gene networks are conserved across reproductive development between the fern Ceratopteris richardii and the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana(FREE)
Seed-bearing plants arose from within seedless vascular plants, with ferns as their closest relatives, but how the seed developmental programme first originated has remained intractable through comparative morphology or the fossil record. To investigate this question at the level of gene network evolution, Plackett & Catoni established a transcriptional expression atlas across sporophyte and gametophyte reproductive development of the fern Ceratopteris richardii and compared reproductive-associated genes to those of Arabidopsis thaliana.
Membranous translation platforms in the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (FREE)
To characterize the membranous platforms for translation and the biogenesis of thylakoid membranes, Sun et al profiled membranes during chloroplast development, using the yellow-in-the-dark1 mutant, and carried out proteomic analyses on two membrane types proposed previously to support translation in the chloroplast of C. reinhardtii: “low-density membrane” (LDM) and “chloroplast translation membrane” (CTM).
A highly efficient and environmentally friendly strategy to obtain transgene-free genome-edited progeny in flowering plants ($)
By using TGAC system Cheng & Sun were able to produce transgene-free gametes consistently for fertilization, resulting in transgene-free offspring in only one generation. The greatest advantage of the TGAC system is that there is no need for artificial Cas9 segregation; this saves both labor and time compared to current methods.
Note: These are posts that have been advertised around the web. They are not posts that I personally offer , nor can I arrange the visa for you to work internationally.
Head of Pest & Pathogen Surveillance, Belfast
AFBI is now seeking an enthusiastic, internationally recognised scientist with a high level of expertise and knowledge of plant pest and/or plant pathogen surveillance. The post holder will have oversight and responsibility of a diverse range of scientific work programmes based at AFBI Newforge Lane, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Research Assistant / Research Associate, Cambridge
An exciting opportunity is available for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the group of Prof. Jake Harris at the Department of Plant Sciences. The laboratory is situated on the Downing Site in Cambridge and houses state-of-the-art facilities. The project is part of a pioneering new effort to generate fully synthetic plant chromosomes, funded by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency.
Research Laboratory Technician (Fixed Term), Cambridge
We are looking for an enthusiastic and highly motivated research technician to join the Kromdijk and Hibberd labs at the Department of Plant Sciences. The post will specifically focus on development of a new Nested Association Mapping population in the orphan crop and model species for C4 photosynthesis Gynandropsis gynandra.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Oxford
This project aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underpinning extracellular manipulation of the host during infection. You will use co-immunoprecipitation to verify predicted protein-protein interactions and establish enzymatic assays and activity-based labelling to demonstrate the effect of target manipulation. You will use reverse genetics to deplete the components from both plant and pathogen to demonstrate their importance in pathogen virulence and plant immunity.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Exeter
The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to participate in research focused on nature restoration and rewilding projects in farming landscapes in Cornwall. The successful candidate will undertake qualitative and quantitative research into the relationship and trade-offs between food production and nature restoration, understanding the different roles of farming and other businesses, policymakers and civil society organisations, such as nature conservation groups – as well as nonhuman species.
Lecturer in Biological Sciences, Norwich
The School of Biological Sciences at UEA is a vibrant community committed to delivering excellent teaching that results in the highest levels of student satisfaction. We have an opportunity for a talented Lecturer to deliver inspired undergraduate teaching in the fields of ecology and biodiversity.
Post-doc scientist in protein engineering applied to glycosciences, Grenoble
A post-doctoral position (less than 4 years after PhD) is available for up to 36 months (1 year to be renewed) from June 2025 within the Applestorm project funded by the French national program PEPR B-BEST “Biomasses, biotechnologies et technologies durables pour la chimie et les carburants”. The project brings together 3 groups from CNRS and INRAe to decipher the fine structure of polysaccharides in plant cell walls.
Post Doctoral Researcher (Level 1) in Plant Microbiology, Limerick
The Post Doctoral Researcher will investigate complex environments and handle cutting edge molecular and microbial techniques of the plant phyllosphere and rhizosphere and contribute to agriculture related analytical methods.
Postdoctoral position in Chemical Ecology, Alnarp
We seek a motivated postdoctoral researcher for a new project on trophic interactions in systems of microbial induced plant resistance. The postdoc will be part of a collaborative research project entitled ‘Mechanisms and consequences of microbial induced resistance on trophic interactions and biocontrol efficacy’ funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Researcher in Phylogenetic Methods, Uppsala
A researcher position is available in Mariana Braga’s group at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Uppsala, Sweden. Research in the Evolving Networks lab centers around understanding how species interactions change over time and space, with a focus on butterfly caterpillar-plant interactions and development of phylogenetic methods. This is a permanent position bound to a time-limited project.
Research Officer in Environmental Sciences, Utrecht
Your role is to support research activities in the lab, field, and under controlled conditions (e.g., greenhouse experiments). You will be the interface between the GeoLab and the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development. This means that you will instruct and advise scientists and students from the Copernicus Institute on research methods, and develop and update protocols for sampling and analyses.
Postdoctoral researcher, Twente
As researcher in our team, you will have three main tasks in this project, each in collaboration with other institutes. The first is to help improve long-term global land cover maps with satellite data. The second one is to support Earth system modellers with tools to use satellite data of solar induced fluorescence (SIF) and other satellite data, by using and improving radiative transfer models. The third task is to develop theoretical knowledge about the response of photosynthesis to weather, climate and disturbances, using satellite data, the p-model developed at the Imperial College London and the model SCOPE developed at the University of Twente.
Project Researcher, Peatland and Soil Ecology, Joensuu
We are looking for a highly motivated Project Researcher in Peatland and Soil Ecology. The duties of the Project Researcher are related to research projects conducted in the Peat&Trees – Peatland and Soil Ecology Research Group (website), led by Professor Eeva-Stiina Tuittila, on the ecological restoration of peatlands, the role of peatlands as carbon sinks and the response of peatlands to climate change. The aim of the projects is to study changes in peatland species composition and ecosystem functioning in relation to climate change and peatland restoration.
PhD AI-based remote sensing for monitoring reforestation success in semi-arid region, Leuven
Are you passionate about using AI to make a real-world environmental impact? Do you want to work at the intersection of deep learning, remote sensing, and sustainability? We invite applications for a fully funded PhD position at KU Leuven, where you’ll develop AI-driven tools to monitor reforestation success in semi-arid regions. This interdisciplinary project offers hands-on fieldwork in Senegal, access to cutting-edge AI and remote sensing technologies, and collaboration with leading experts across multiple disciplines.
Post Doctoral fellow, Arkansas
The successful candidate will assist in leading agricultural soil health and soil-testing programs that support soil conservation and applied nutrient management research and extension programs. Specific responsibilities will include research data organization and statistical analysis, archiving soil samples, preparing and submitting research reports, publishing research papers, and assisting in planning and maintaining long-term field research trials.
Postdoctoral Fellow-Molecular Geneticist, Arkansas
A Postdoctoral Fellow/Research Associate position is available immediately in the Department of Food Science at the University of Arkansas System, Division of Agriculture in Fayetteville. This position is in collaboration with the USDA Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart, Arkansas. The primary research location will be in Stuttgart at the USDA Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center, with occasional activities in Fayetteville.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Texas
The Chakrabarti Lab in the School of Integrative Biological and Chemical Sciences (SIBCS) at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is looking for a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Scholar to work on a recently funded grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Postdoctoral Research Scholar will work on dissecting the roles of different RNA modifications in regulating responses to abiotic stresses in crop plants using Sorghum as a model.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Texas
The post-doctoral research associate to conduct research and extension programs on irrigation water and soil nutrient management practices on productivity and soil health in vegetable cropping systems. In addition, the successful candidate will be expected to contribute and assist with controlled environment hydroponic research trials.
Research Associate, Oregon
This position is for a Research Associate in the Department of Botany & Plant Pathology in the field of plant development and genetics. The incumbent will be expected to develop and implement field, laboratory and computational research in plant development and genetics and supervise undergraduate student researchers.
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