This message was sent to ##Email## To advertise in this publication please click here June 24, 2021 .ASPB SPOTLIGHT Early Career Professionals on ASPB Committees ASPB has an exciting opportunity for early career plant scientist members to get involved in ASPB and, in the process, help shape the future of the Society by becoming an Early Career Representative (ECR) on ASPB standing committees. Application deadline is July 26, 2021. .FROM ASPB & PLANTAE Apply for the Post of Editor-in-Chief of Plant Direct ASPB, SEB and Wiley invite applications for the post of Editor-in-Chief of Plant Direct. This is an exciting opportunity, and applications are welcomed from individuals working in any area of plant science. Detailed information is at https://bit.ly/2SjjB3D. The closing date is 15 August, 2021. Applications for the PlantingScience 2021-2022 Master Plant Science Team Are Now Open! Are you a graduate student or post-doctoral researcher interested in a chance to get involved and trained in K-12 outreach? Would you like to mentor student research teams, without ever leaving your desk? Do you have a handful of hours per week to commit during BOTH the Fall and Spring PlantingScience Sessions? Now is your chance to be more than a mentor! Applications for the 2021-2022 Master Plant Science Team are now open. Learn more and apply by August 16, 2021.  SPONSORED CONTENT Promoted by PhytoTech Labs Save up to 60% off - On over 400 plant tissue culture components, media, and equipment Media Optimization - Optimize your formulation with our Media Optimization Kit. Click here to get started! Bulk Savings – Complete the form to tell us more and save on your bulk components Antibiotics – Save big on high quality antibiotic powders and sterile filtered solutions Plant Growth Regulators – We have the largest selection of cytokinins, auxins, gibberellins and much more The ASPB Centennial Challenge: Help ASPB Reach Its Goal In 2024, ASPB will celebrate its 100th Anniversary! To ensure that the Society will thrive for the next 100 years, we aspire to raise $3 million in donations by the Plant Biology 2024 meeting. Learn more and donate today to help us achieve this goal! Funding Opportunity for Post-Bac Research NSF has released a Dear Colleague Letter highlighting an RFP for PIs on active awards. This new program — Research Experience for Post-Baccalaureate Students (REPS) — is intended specifically to repair opportunities for undergraduate research lost to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please note: The deadline for submissions is July 2, 2021.  PRODUCT SHOWCASE PlantScreen™ Phenotyping Systems Fully automated plant phenotyping Robotized plant maintenance and delivery High resolution digital scoring Multi-sensoric imaging modules Real-time data analysis LEARN MORE Plant Physiology Article of the Week: Fluorescent biosensors illuminating plant hormone research The spotlight is on Martin Balcerowicz, Kartika N. Shetty, and Alexander M. Jones. Their article "Fluorescent biosensors illuminating plant hormone research" has an Altmetric score of 29 and 43 mentions in the past week. Their article demonstrates that a growing repertoire of fluorescent biosensors is revealing the inner workings of plants at high resolution. The Plant Cell Article of the Week: The mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) complex mediates one of three pyruvate-supplying pathways that sustain Arabidopsis respiratory metabolism The spotlight is on Xuyen H. Le, Chun-Pong Lee, and A. Harvey Millar for their article "The mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC) complex mediates one of three pyruvate-supplying pathways that sustain Arabidopsis respiratory metabolism" which demonstrates that pyruvate is supplied by three independent processes that act synergistically to maintain metabolic flux and support plant respiration in a variety of circumstances. The article has an Altmetric score of 16 and 32 mentions in the past week.  SPONSORED CONTENT Promoted by Agrisera Anti-FLAG, GFP, His, Myc, 25 % discount for anti-Tag antibodies Epigenetic research antibody promotion, 15 % Antibody Search by Model Species: Arabidopsis, Algae, Brachypodium, Diatoms, Oryza sativa, Zea mays and more Western blot tips you did not know about Plant Direct Article of the Week: slim shady is a novel allele of PHYTOCHROME B present in the T-DNA line SALK_015201 The spotlight is on Linkan Dash, Robert E. McEwan, Christian Montes, Ludvin Mejia, Justin W. Walley, Brian P. Dilkes, and Dior R. Kelley. Their article "slim shady is a novel allele of PHYTOCHROME B present in the T-DNA line SALK_015201" has an Altmetric score of 11 and 18 mentions in the past week. .CHANGING CULTURES AND CLIMATES The mission of Changing Cultures and Climates is to provide information that supports and promotes diversity, inclusivity, and equity in the international plant science community so that it grows to more accurately reflect that of our larger, global society. Promoting Inclusive Metrics of Success and Impact to Dismantle a Discriminatory Reward System in Science From PLOS Biology A new article authored by 24 women scientists calls for the scientific community, in particular those in positions of power and privilege, to take strong action towards helping ensure safe and healthy work environments for scientists from diverse backgrounds, while supporting a more inclusive value system in science that embraces the multifaceted nature of scientific impact. The article also proposes a "multidimensional mentorship model" that emphasizes mentee wellbeing in academia. .#WeAreASPB Recognizing Plant Physiology Author Neha Rai Meet Neha Rai, first author of "Perception of solar UV radiation by plants: photoreceptors and mechanisms." Neha is a postdoc in Prof. Roman Ulm's lab at the Department of Botany and Plant Biology at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Her interest in plants began in her childhood as she wondered why some plants grow and flower better than others under different environmental conditions. Now she is studying transcriptional regulation by UV radiation through the UVR8 photoreceptor in plants. Neha enjoys traveling and travel-blogging, reading, photography and music. Recognizing The Plant Cell Author Fernando Baile Meet Fernando Baile, first author of "EAR domain-containing transcription factors trigger PRC2-mediated chromatin marking in Arabidopsis." Fernando is a PhD student at the University of Seville in Spain, working on deciphering the role that different transcription factors involved in developmental processes have in recruiting these complexes for histone marking. He would like to understand more about the histone code's implication in plant development and in stress responses. Fernando loves traveling, reading, regional dances and growing and designing bonsais, as well as looking after his garden. PRODUCT SHOWCASE SciBrite LEDs less energy, more uniformity SciBrite® LED lighting, one of Percival Scientific’s latest innovations, gives you significantly more features and benefits for your research. Our proprietary LED system provides more flexibility than lighting systems offered by other growth chamber manufacturers. Using our IntellusUltra Controller, you can control the intensities for each color to produce specific light wavelength ratios for your experiments.   LEARN MORE   Plant Genetic Engineering Services CRISPR/CAS9 TALENs ZFNs RNAi VIGS Gene Overexpression   LEARN MORE   Recognizing Plant Direct Author Mohit Kumar Swarnkar Meet Mohit Kumar Swarnkar, Ph.D. Candidate (GNDU, Amritsar) and Senior Technical Officer at the Division of Biotechnology, CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology in Palampur India. Mohit is first author of "Prickle morphogenesis in rose is coupled with secondary metabolite accumulation and governed by canonical MBW transcriptional complex" and his general interests lie in understanding the molecular mechanisms that trigger the differentiation of epidermal cells in plants. In his free time, he enjoys music, watching cricket and sci-fi and taking nature walks and hikes. Share Your Moment in the Spotlight with ASPB Members! ASPB would like to highlight news coverage about plant science. If you or your research is being highlighted in newspapers, magazines, television, radio, movies, online, or other sources, please let us know! Just send a quick note, URL, and other relevant information to ASPB News production manager, Diane McCauley, at diane@aspb.org. .PLANTAE JOBS The Plantae Job Center offers job seekers and employers a great resource for finding the right match of people to careers. Job seekers get free access to a searchable list of jobs specific to science careers, as well as access to the Mentoring Center and to a list of available internships. Employers who post a job get access to over 500 searchable profiles of job seekers. With over 140,000 unique page views in 2020, the Plantae Job Center is your resource for finding your next opportunity or your next hire. Below are just a few of the jobs currently listed on the site. Postdoctoral Research Associate   University of North Texas - BioDiscovery Institute Denton, TX Learn more Research (Plant) Geneticist (Postdoctoral Research Associate)   USDA-ARS Salinas, CA Learn more Assistant Professor-Tenure System   Michigan State University East Lansing, MI Learn more Postdoc Associate in Calcium Signaling and Environmental Response   Jian Hua Ithaca, NY Learn more Graduate Research and Teaching Assistantships Available   University of Nevada Reno, NV Learn more .PLANT SCIENCE EVENTS July 19-23, 2021   Plant Biology 2021 Worldwide Summit Abstract Submissions Now Open Virtual Learn more September 25-27, 2021   Plant Synthetic Biology 2021 Registration and Abstract Submissions Now Open Virtual Learn more For plant science events, make sure to check out the Global Plant Science Events Calendar. Also, check the calendar for the latest cancellations and postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as webinars and online events you can join. .FROM THE FIELD Purdue Plant Biologists Solve Major Cell Puzzle on Path to Leaf Engineering From Purdue University New research from the lab of Dan Szymanski, a Monitoring Editor of Plant Physiology and a professor of Botany and Plant Pathology at Purdue University, provides important insights into how mechanical signaling at the cell periphery occurs and how it dictates local growth behaviors. Their work, published in Nature Plants, shows how the tensile force patterns in the cell wall are decoded by a cytoskeleton-cell wall system that determines how cells in the tissue interact and grow at maximal rates. Frontiers for Young Minds. From the Soil to the Club in the Roots: Clubroot From Frontiers for Young Minds Frontiers for Young Minds provides a collection of freely available scientific articles by distinguished scientists that are shaped for younger audiences by the input of their own young peers. Here, Edel Pérez-López, a professor at University Laval, Canada, introduces the clubroot pathogen of brassica (Plasmodiophora brassicae) and its impacts. Answers to These Botanical Mysteries Could Help a Climate-Stressed World From National Geographic Cultivated Brassica oleracea has intrigued researchers for centuries due to its wide diversity in forms, which include cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, and Brussels sprouts. A recent preprint explores the evolutionary history of "Wild, Domesticated, and Feral" Brassica oleracea. This fascinating and beatifully illustrated article in National Geogaphic summarized the importance of this work. The Lithium Mine Versus the Wildflower From Wired The deposit could power 400,000 clean-energy car batteries. There's just one roadblock: a rare, fragile species of buckwheat, which for a mine might mean extinction. Scientists Discover a New Plant Organ From Development via Smithsonian Magazine The thale cress may be a humble weed, but to science, it's an important model organism. Researchers use the plant as a proxy in experiments to represent other plants, animals and even humans — thanks to its relatively short lifecycle and simple genome. Scientists have even sent the thale cress to the International Space Station and the moon. But despite the fact that scientists have scrutinized the plant, Arabidopsis thalania, since the 16th century, the thale cress still manages to surprise. Gookin and his team have found that the thale cress produces a previously unreported plant organ. UCI Study Finds Climate Change Is Driving Plant Die-Offs in Southern California From the University of California Irvine A shift is happening in Southern California, and this time it has nothing to do with earthquakes. According to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Irvine, climate change is altering the number of plants populating the region's deserts and mountains. Using data from the Landsat satellite mission and focusing on an area of nearly 5,000 square miles surrounding Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the research team found that between 1984 and 2017, vegetation cover in desert ecosystems decreased overall by about 35%, with mountains seeing a 13% vegetation decline. "Plants are dying, and nothing's replacing them," said Stijn Hantson, a project scientist in UCI's Department of Earth System Science and lead author of the study. "It looks to be a striking loss for shrubs." 'Orchidelirium': How a Modern-Day Flower Madness Is Fueling the Illegal Trade From The Guardian John Deer runs a peculiar operation. As Kew Gardens' security manager it is his job to protect the 1.8 million people that visit every year. It is also his job to make sure plants and cuttings do not vanish from the botanical collection while the public are on the royal estate. To do so, members of one of the UK's oldest constabularies patrol the grounds and officers keep watch from a state-of-the-art control room. "We've had people climb over the perimeter walls to access the gardens. It's why we have 24-hour security," Deer says, noting that there is still the occasional breach. "But the orchids, I would say, are more protected." Rare Orchids Found in City of London Bank's Rooftop Garden From BBC A colony of rare orchids has been discovered growing on the rooftop of an office building in the City of London. It is the first time the small-flowered tongue-orchid has been seen in the UK since arriving in Cornwall in 1989. Serapias parviflora is generally found in the Mediterranean basin and Atlantic coast of France, Spain, and Portugal. The 15 plants growing in Nomura International's 11th-floor garden represent the entire known wild UK colony of the species.   The Signal Connect with ASPB American Society of Plant Biologists 15501 Monona Drive  |  Rockville, MD 20855-2768 USA  301-251-0560  |  Click here to access our Terms and Privacy Statement  |  www.aspb.org The Signal is produced in affiliation with Multiview, Inc. Disclaimer: The media articles and/or advertisements featured in The Signal do not express or reflect the opinions of the American Society of Plant Biologists or any employee thereof. 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