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Oct. 8, 2020
 
 
 
 
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ASPB SPOTLIGHT
 
 
Seeking Community Comments on a Proposal for Revising the Nominations and Ballot Process
ASPB has developed two different nomination processes that are now open for comment. We welcome input on the relative merits of each option, feedback that you may offer via a survey. Your comments will help us develop a more robust process in which we can all participate and support. The nominations process that emerges following community input will be put to the membership for formal approval in the 2021 election as proposed changes to the Society's constitution. Deadine for responses is October 11, 2020.
 
 
Plantae Presents: Claudia Köhler and Sunil K. Kenchanmane Raju
Join us October 14 for this live webinar. Claudia Köhler, Professor of Molecular Cell Biology in the Department of Plant Biology and Forest Genetics at The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, will speak on "Epigenetic regulation in the endosperm drives plant speciation." Sunil K. Kenchanmane Raju, postdoc at MSU, ASPB Ambassador, and Plant Cell Assistant Features Editor, will speak on "DNA methylation signatures of duplicate gene evolution in angiosperms." Moderated by Matthias Benoit, a Plant Cell Assistant Features Editor and a postdoc at Cold Spring Harbor Lab working with Zach Lippman.
 
 
 
 
FROM ASPB & PLANTAE
 
 
Plant Physiology Article of the Week
The spotlight is on María Flores-Tornero, Frank Vogler, Marek Mutwil, David Potěšil, Ivana Ihnatová, Zbyněk Zdráhal, Stefanie Sprunck, and Thomas Dresselhaus. Their article "Transcriptomic and Proteomic Insights into Amborella trichopoda Male Gametophyte Functions" has an Altmetric score of 15 and 26 mentions last week.
 
 
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The Plant Cell Article of the Week
The spotlight is on Fen Liu, Weiming Hu, Faqiang Li, Richard S Marshall, Xavier Zarza, Teun Munnik, and Richard D. Vierstra. Their article "AUTOPHAGY-RELATED14 And Its Associated Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Complex Promotes Autophagy In Arabidopsis" has an Altmetric score of 20 and 30 mentions last week.
 
 
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    Plant Direct Article of the Week
    The spotlight is on Scott A. Harding, Christopher J. Frost, and Chung‐Jui Tsai. Their article "Defoliation‐induced Compensatory Transpiration is Compromised in SUT4 ‐RNAi Populus" has an Altmetric score of 5 and 10 mentions in the past week.
     
     
    ARPA-E Announces Energy and Carbon Optimized Synthesis for the Bioeconomy Program
    The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) released a $25 million funding opportunity for new technologies to improve the carbon efficiency of bioconversion platforms. The Energy and Carbon Optimized Synthesis for the Bioeconomy (ECOSynBio) program seeks to establish pathways for low-, zero-, or negative-carbon fuels, chemicals, and materials for a robust and secure U.S. bioeconomy. Awards may range between $250,000 and $7 million with a period of performance not exceeding 36 months. Concept papers are required by October 26.
     
     
    SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT
     
     
     
     
    EDIC Workshop report: Effecting Institutional Change — Discussion on Institutional Racism
    Promoting a culture that values diversity and inclusion (D&I) has become a goal shared across the scientific community. During the 2020 Plant Biology Summit, the ASPB Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee (EDIC) hosted a workshop on July 29 discussing institutional racism. The panel was chaired and moderated by Dr. Cris Argueso, Associate Professor at Colorado State University and Dr. Miguel Vega-Sanchez at Bayer and the incoming ASPB EDI committee chair.
     
     
    Taproot S5E0: Join Us for Season 5 and Let Us Know How You've Been Navigating These Chaotic and Unusual Times!
    It has been quite a few months since our last episode! We intended to have a new season out by now, but as you might imagine, a few things got in the way. We are, however, back to working on topics and guests for Season 5, so stay tuned for new episodes this fall! In the meantime, we want to hear from you! Tell us how you're navigating these chaotic and unusual times. Or, if what you're doing can't really be characterized as "navigating," tell us about that instead!
     
     
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    Do You Evo-Devo? Open Call for Plantae Presents Short Talk Submissions
    In an effort to provide more speaking opportunities in the Plantae Presents virtual seminar series, we've scheduled four "open calls." Anyone can submit a seven-minute video on the designated research topic, and four speakers will be selected to contribute to a panel discussion. The next submission deadline is Monday, October 19, on the topic of Evo-Devo as a discovery tool. The live event will take place on Wednesday, October 28, at 10 a.m. EDT.
     
     
    Community for Early Career Computational Modeling
    The unique challenges faced by modelers in increasingly interdisciplinary and niche research areas has motivated early career researchers to start a new community of their own. Those actively working in fields such as bioinformatics, statistical, computational, mathematical, and other areas are encouraged to join. Community activities include webinars, collating resources such as software and papers; peer review of code and mentoring; practice to improve interdisciplinary communication; and sharing relevant opportunities. Visit the post on Plantae to learn more.
     
     
    Call for Papers: Plant Physiology Will Publish a Focus Issue on Transport and Signaling in May 2021
    This Focus Issue will highlight the recent advances in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind membrane transport, its integration with signaling, and its roles in homeostasis. A selection of Update Reviews, included within the Issue, will address new and transformative insights that are driving research beyond the traditional boundaries of transport physiology. We encourage submissions that address quantitative frameworks in understanding membrane transport, transport proteins, and the integration of transport and signaling across scales. Submission deadline: November 2.
     
     
    Call for Papers: Plant Physiology Will Publish a Focus Issue on Digital Agriculture in June 2021
    This focus issue will include reviews that synthesize the current state of the art and future prospects in sustainable precision agriculture, including but not limited to phenotyping, artificial intelligence and deep learning, robotics, databases and data sharing, pangenomics, genomic selection, and neodomestication. Submission Deadline: December 1.
     
     
    #WeAreASPB
     
     
    National Academy of Sciences 2020 Member Highlight — Barbara Valent
    This year, nine plant scientists were elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. We asked the newly elected plant scientists about how the news of their election to the NAS reached them, what inspires their research, and for their advice for early career researchers. Today, we feature Barbara Valent.
     
     
    First Author Profiles
    Recognizing Plant Direct authors: Pulkit Kanodia, first author of Control of Translation during the Unfolded Protein Response in Maize seedlings: Life without PERKs.
     
     
    Career Snapshot — Conversation with Chelsea Marcho
    After completing her PhD, Chelsea Marcho applied to the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship program and was awarded a placement in the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security at USAID (United States Agency International Development). Plantae Fellow Yun-Ting Kao interviewed Chelsea to learn about her experiences working with this organization. Interested? The deadline for applying to the AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow is November 1 (U.S. citizenship required).
     
     
    Are you a member of ASPB, active on Plantae, and have something to celebrate in the #WeAreASPB Spotlight? Contact Shoshana Kronfeld (shoshana@aspb.org) and send her the details.
     
     
    PLANTAE JOBS
     
     
    UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
    AMHERST
    Post-doctoral Researcher
    Amherst, Massachusetts
    MORE INFO
    AUBURN UNIVERSITY
    Assistant or Associate Professor Plant Developmental Biology
    Auburn, Alabama
    MORE INFO
    USDA, ARS
    Interdisciplinary Scientist (Research Botanist; Res Plant Physiologist; Res Plant Geneticist)
    Houston, TX
    MORE INFO
     
     
    PLANT SCIENCE EVENTS
     
     
    OCTOBER 14, 2020
    Plantae Presents: Claudia Köhler and Sunil K. Kenchanmane Raju
    Virtual
    JULY 17-21, 2021
    Plant Biology 2021
    Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
     
     
    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
     
     
    Best-Ever Lockdown Reading: Araucaria – The Monkey Puzzle by David Gedye
    From Plantae
    Book reviewed by Andrew D. Hanson. COVID-19 has bitten into health and healthcare, economies, education, social interactions, travel, and plans for the future. So nothing could be more welcome than a book that transports us to another world — especially to a forward-looking, plant-loving world from which we can bring back confidence, hope, and joy. David Gedye has written such a book.
     
     
    Growing Black Roots: The Black Botanical Legacy
    From Holden Arboretum
    Join the Holden Forests and Gardens and the Black Botanists Week Committee for a year-long lecture series. The lecture series will take place entirely online, with a new speaker on the second Wednesday of the month from October 2020 to September 2021. This 11-part lecture series will cover a broad range of botanical disciplines, delve into the historical legacy of formally trained and self-taught Black Botanists who inspired others to pursue a career in plants, and highlight pathways toward diversity and inclusion in botanical sciences.
     
     
     
     
    Researchers get closer to the goal of flood-proof crops
    From PNAS via Anthropocene Magazine
    Increasingly extreme weather worldwide is causing flooding across parts of the planet, and that’s driving a parallel decline in growing area, since most crops can’t subsist in the low-oxygen conditions of waterlogged soil. Researchers writing in PNAS have investigated the structure and function of plant cysteine oxidases (PCOs), oxygen-sensing enzymes in plants that control hypoxia-dependent processes, including adaptive responses to flooding.
     
     
    Could the Amazon Save Your Life?
    From the New York Times
    Ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin writes about the pharmacopoeia of medicines that have been found in Amazonia. But, "our ignorance about Amazonian flora and fauna remains staggering. A recent study estimates there are about 16,000 species of trees in Amazonia, of which several thousand have not even been named by scientists, much less evaluated for medicinal potential."
     
     
     
     
    Kew report: State of the World's Plants and Fungi
    From Kew
    Kew has published the State of the World’s Plants and Fungi. The report takes a deep dive into how we currently use plants and fungi, what we are missing and what we risk losing. Plants and fungi are the building blocks of our planet, with the potential to solve urgent problems that threaten human life. However, they are being compromised by biodiversity loss and now, more than ever, we need to explore the solutions that plants and fungi could provide. Register for the free symposium that accompanies the report.
     
     
    Plant Science Research Weekly
    From Plantae
    Each week, the Plantae editors select new plant science research articles to highlight. The short summaries describe the question addressed and key findings, with links to the article. This week's highlights include a review of biomolecular condensates in photosynthesis (e.g., pyrenoids and carboxysomes), how vascular transcription factors guide plant epidermal responses to limiting phosphate conditions, and the evolutionary origins of cuticle.
     
     
    Efficient Pollen Identification
    From Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ via ScienceDaily
    From pollen forecasting, honey analysis and climate-related changes in plant-pollinator interactions, analysing pollen plays an important role in many areas of research. Microscopy is still the gold standard, but it is very time consuming and requires considerable expertise. Scientists have now developed a method that allows them to efficiently automate the process of pollen analysis.
     
     
    Evolution in Action: New Plant Species in the Swiss Alps
    From University of Zurich via EurekAlert!
    A new plant species named Cardamine insueta has appeared in the region of Urnerboden in the Swiss alps as the land has changed from forest to grassland over the last 150 years. The inheritance of two key traits from its parent plants enabled the newly emerged species to grow in a distinct environmental niche, as researches from the University of Zurich now show.
     
     
    Researchers Identify Gene Related to Seed Dispersal in Green Millet
    From News-Medical
    Elizabeth Kellogg, PhD, and her colleagues, along with researchers at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), have generated genome sequences for nearly 600 green millet plants and released a very high quality reference S. viridis genome sequence. Analysis of these plant genome sequences also led researchers to identify a gene related to seed dispersal in wild populations for the first time.
     
     
    Evidence of Drought Memory in Dipteryx alata Indicates Differential Acclimation of Plants to Savanna Conditions
    From Nature
    The remarkable phytogeographic characteristics of the Brazilian savanna (Cerrado) resulted in a vegetation domain composed of plants with high structural and functional diversity to tolerate climate extremes. Here researchers used a key Cerrado species (Dipteryx alata) to evaluate if species of this domain present a mechanism of stress memory, responding more quickly and efficiently when exposed to recurrent drought episodes.
     
     
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