This message was sent to ##Email## To advertise in this publication please click here September 30, 2021 .ASPB SPOTLIGHT Are You an ASPB Member? Would You Like to Serve on an ASPB Committee? With the active participation of its members, ASPB becomes a more effective society. Interested in having an impact on ASPB? Consider applying to serve on one of our standing committees by logging in to the member portal and completing the form linked above. We will keep your application open for 3 years; however, you can update your information and preferences by editing your member profile. Announcing the ASPB Centennial Challenge 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! .FROM ASPB & PLANTAE Plant Physiology Is Recruiting Assistant Features Editors for 2022 Plant Physiology is recruiting Assistant Features Editors to join the Editorial Board in January 2022. If would like to be considered for this program, please submit your application materials by October 11, 2021. Your application should include a cover letter, CV, first-authored publication, contact information for two referees, and a sample News and Views highlighting a paper from a list provided.  SPONSORED CONTENT Promoted by PhytoTech Labs 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 U.S. DOE Now Accepting Pre-proposals for the 2022 Early Career Research Program The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is accepting proposals for the 2022 DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program to support the research of outstanding scientists early in their careers. The program will support over 60 early career researchers for five years at U.S. academic institutions and DOE National Laboratories. Learn more and submit a pre-application by October 21, 2021. Plant Physiology Article of the Week: Spatiotemporal cytokinin response imaging and ISOPENTENYLTRANSFERASE 3 function in Medicago nodule development The spotlight is on Paolo M. Triozzi, Thomas B. Irving, Henry W. Schmidt, Zachary P. Keyser, Sanhita Chakraborty, Kelly Balmant, Wendell J. Pereira, Christopher Dervinis, Kirankumar S. Mysore, Jiangqi Wen, Jean-Michel Ané, Matias Kirst, and Daniel Conde for their research article which demonstrates that precise spatial and temporal characterization of cytokinin responses reveals the function of the cytokinin biosynthesis gene ISOPENTENYLTRANSFERASE 3 during nodule development in Medicago truncatula.  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 The Plant Cell Article of the Week: Molecular mechanisms of endomembrane trafficking in plants The spotlight is on Fernando Aniento, Víctor Sánchez de Medina Hernández, Yasin Dagdas, Marcela Rojas-Pierce, and Eugenia Russinova. In their review article, they summarize the current knowledge on plant endomembrane trafficking with a focus on ER-to-Golgi transport, endocytosis, the trans-Golgi network-to-vacuole transport, and autophagy. Their article has an Altmetric score of 27 and over 40 mentions in the past week. Plant Direct Article of the Week: Posttranscriptional regulation of cellulose synthase genes by small RNAs derived from cellulose synthase antisense transcripts The spotlight is on Daniel B. Nething, Abhijit Sukul, John W. Mishler-Elmore, and Michael A. Held. Their research data supports the hypothesis that CESA antisense transcripts function through an RNA-induced silencing mechanism to degrade cis transcripts; they may also trigger trans-acting silencing on related genes to alter the expression of cell wall gene networks.  SPONSORED CONTENT Promoted by Agrisera Save 15% off Environmental stress antibodies Free Posters! Respiration, PSII, Rubisco Save 25% off On epitope tag antibodies: FLAG, GFP, YPF, HA, 3xHis, 6xHis Find the antibody for Arabidopsis thaliana, algae, barley, rice, maize and many more Short videos about Western blot and antibodies .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. Ten Simple Rules for Supporting Historically Underrepresented Students in Science From PLOS Comput. Biol. Strategies that aim to dismantle barriers in science must ultimately come from all levels of the scientific community. As scientists and science educators, we believe that there are steps we can take to empower historically underrepresented students to succeed and persist in science. We derive these rules from our own lived experiences navigating our science educations as historically underrepresented and early-career scholars, as well as from the large body of science equity literature. The Gender-Bias Calculator Did you know that people on average use different word choices when writing a letter of reference for male and female referees, and that these choices have an effect on hiring? The results of a study published in 2007 led to the creation of an online tool into which you can paste your letter to check if you're using gender-biased language. Give it a try! The original research article is cited on the tool website. Springboard to Science: The Institutions That Shaped Black Researchers' Careers From Nature Historically Black colleges and universities offer personal and professional support that predominantly white US institutions do not. Nature spoke to five scholars who work at or attended an HBCU about why the institutions are key to increasing the Black STEM workforce. One of the interviewees, Taylor Harris, is a PhD student specializing in bacterial pathogenesis in cotton at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Postdoctoral Fellowships to Contribute to Diversity and Equal Opportunity in Higher Education Several US universities have created a program to help promote faculty diversity by supporting postdocs interested in faculty and research careers who will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in higher education through their teaching, research, and service. Most of the programs have applications due by November 1. Check out the opportunities at the Universities of California, Colorado, Michigan, Maryland, and more. 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 Transformation Gene Isolation and Cloning Vector Construction Plasmid Transformation T0 Generation Culture Positive Seeding Screening Acclimation Transplant   LEARN MORE   .#WeAreASPB Recognizing Plant Physiology Authors: Carsten Voelkner Meet Carsten Voelkner, first author of "Two plastid POLLUX ion channel-like proteins are required for stress-triggered stromal Ca2+ release." Carsten is a PhD student, at the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University. During high school, he intended to become a physician but soon realized that his passion was the physiology of life, and he studied biology in at the University of Cologne. After finishing his PhD, he intends to find employment in challenging academia or industry projects which aim at creating a more sustainable future. According to coworkers, Carsten does a fine enough job as the resident lab DJ, but he also enjoys football (either one), spikeball, reading, hiking, backpacking, cooking, and politics. Recognizing The Plant Cell Authors: Youping Li Meet Youping Li, first author of "The CRY2-COP1-HY5-BBX7/8 module regulates blue light-dependent cold acclimation in Arabidopsis." Youping earned her PhD in Botany from China Agricultural University, where she focused on the interaction between light and low temperature signals, finding that the cryptochrome2 (CRY2)-COP1-HY5-BBX7/8 module regulates blue light-dependent cold acclimation. Youping enjoys pop music and painting in her free time and considers herself a "foodie." 33 New HHMI Investigators Announced The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has appointed a new cohort of HHMI Investigators. Although HHMI primarily funds biomedical research, a few of the new investigators are ASPB members and/or have published in The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. Please join us in congratulating all the new HHMI Investigators, with a special recognition to Martin Jonikas (Princeton) who is working with his team to engineer working pyrenoids (CO2-concentrating compartments) into plants, and Jochen Zimmer (Virginia), whose lab investigates cellulose synthesis in plants and microbes. 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. Assistant Professor   Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK Learn more Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor of Biology   Furman University Greenville, SC Learn more Assistant Dean, Agriculture & Natural Resources/Community Economic Development   The University of Tennessee Extension Knoxville, TN Learn more Assistant/Associate/Full Professor in Plant Biology   University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN Learn more Postdoc in Plant Growth and Development   University of Massachusetts - Amherst Amherst, MA Learn more Postdoctoral Fellow Position in anti-fungal RNAi technologies   Postdoctoral Fellow Position in anti-fungal RNAi technologies Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Learn more .PLANT SCIENCE EVENTS October 20, 2021   AG2PI Industry Event - Industry Showcase Field Day Learn more October 30, 2021   ASPB Northeastern Section 2021 Virtual Meeting Learn more November 8-11, 2021   XIX National Plant Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Congress, XII Joint Symposium Mexico-USA, and the 2nd ASPB Mexican Section Meeting Virtual Learn more November 17, 2021   AG2PI Industry Event - Industry Collaborations Field Day Applications due October 1, 2021 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 Shadowy World of Nocturnal Moth Pollinators From the New Zealand Journal of Ecology via Cosmos Most flowering plants need animals to facilitate pollination and, globally, most studies have focused on daytime insect — honeybees are the best known — and bird pollinators. Other critters playing a hand include bats, butterflies, beetles, flies and small mammals. The role of moths, in contrast, hasn't attracted much attention. "There's a lot we don't know about moths, although this is beginning to change and we're beginning to understand more about their importance," says New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research botanist Max Buxton, lead author of a soon-to-be-published paper in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology. "As you can imagine, studying anything at night is made even more difficult by the lack of light. This makes logistics and health and safety considerations a challenge and even more so when the plants are in remote and isolated areas." On Course for Healthier, More Sustainable Soil From Horizon: The EU Research & Innovation Magazine If we want to transition to a greener, healthier and more climate resilient Europe, it is important to ensure our soils are in good condition. However, the quality of soils is worsening because of unsustainable management practices, depletion of resources, climate change and pollution. Soil hosts a quarter of our planet's biodiversity and is home to about a quarter of all living species. But how many of us give this precious resource a second thought? Machine Learning Helps Scientists Pinpoint 'Genes of Importance' in Plants From Nature Communications via UPI Humans and plants have thousands of genes. Traditionally, studying the function of a single gene or group of genes required extensive experimentation. Computers and access to large databases of genomic data, however, allow researchers to study gene functionality more efficiently. Still, mining massive amounts of genomic data is difficult for even the most powerful computer. In a new breakthrough, researchers in the United States and Taiwan have developed a machine learning algorithm to more efficiently identify "genes of importance" in agriculture and medicine. The Defensive Arsenal of Plant Roots From the University of Geneva via EurekAlert Plants adapt to their nutritional needs by modifying the permeability of their roots through the production or degradation of a cork-like layer called suberin. By studying the regulation of this protective layer in Arabidopsis thaliana, an international team led by scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, has discovered four molecular factors responsible for the genetic activation of suberin. African Researchers Say They Face Bias in the World of Science. Here's One Solution From National Public Radio Researchers often find themselves getting rejections with no feedback. That's the way many journals work. But researchers in Africa believe they face an additional hurdle: prejudice within the scientific community about the caliber of research on the continent. And now there's a new journal whose mission is to tackle this prejudice. Scientific African launched in 2018 to provide a prejudice-free platform for research from Africa. Research Aims to Increase Crop Drought Tolerance Using Biotechnology From the University of Nevada, Reno As droughts are becoming more frequent and severe and crop productivity is declining at an accelerated rate, the University of Nevada's John Cushman is conducting work on a synthetic biology approach to allow the transfer of drought-tolerant traits from certain plants to major crops. The goal of his research team in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology is to create drought-tolerant crops to aid global food production during periods of intense drought. Specifically, Cushman and his departmental colleague Assistant Professor Won Yim, and international collaborator Assistant Professor Sung Lim at Sanji University, South Korea, are aiming to use an alternative form of photosynthesis known as crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). Plants and Pollinators Use Electric Fields to Find Each Other From the National History Museum Pollinators and flowers can attract each other with electric fields to maximize the benefits for both, researchers have found. Some insects, such as hoverflies, are able to detect flowers using these electric fields, while some flowers can use them to sense pollinators and release targeted bursts of scent to draw more of them in. The findings demonstrate another way in which flowers and pollinators have evolved together. With pollinators around the world under threat from a range of factors, this research can help scientists better understand the roles they play. Pennsylvania State University's Herbarium Houses Centuries of Dead Plants and History From Onward State Located in Whitmore Laboratory's basement is Pennsylvania State University's herbarium. Sarah Chamberlain, the curator of Pennsylvania's Agricultural College (PAC) herbarium at Penn State, has spearheaded the program since 2015. Chamberlain takes care of the 107,000 specimens and seed collection right in the heart of campus. "Part of my job is taking care of the specimens. One of our big projects is to create digital images of the whole collection," Chamberlain said. "That is where all-natural history collections are going."   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. Jason Zimmerman, Director of Publishing, Multiview, 469-420-2686 | Download media kit Tory Barringer, Assistant Executive Editor, Multiview, 469-420-2660 | Contribute News Click here to unsubscribe.  Learn how to add us to your safe sender list so our emails get to your inbox. ADVERTISE SUBSCRIBE PAST ISSUES   7701 Las Colinas Ridge, Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063