This message was sent to ##Email## To advertise in this publication please click here November 11, 2021 .ASPB SPOTLIGHT Welcome to Our New Plantae Fellows! As part of our ongoing commitment to creating a vibrant and engaging community for plant scientists, we launched the Plantae Fellow Program in 2016. We are pleased to welcome 26 new Plantae Fellows to the program to nurture and grow the Plantae community. Follow the link above to learn more about our newest class of Plantae Fellows. Call for Workshop Proposals for Plant Biology 2022 This year, the conference will be a joint meeting with the Canadian Society of Plant Biologists, and this year's program committee is pleased to invite members of the plant science community to submit proposals for workshops to be held during the conference. Proposals are solicited for workshops in three primary focus areas: (1) technical development and innovation, (2) professional development and (3) equity, diversity and inclusion. Proposals are due by November 22, 2021. .FROM ASPB & PLANTAE Update Your ASPB Member Profile — We'll Make It Worth the Time! As you may have heard, ASPB has implemented a new database to track memberships and other activities within ASPB. This database is also the source for our member-facing directory, so it's a vital tool in ensuring society members can find each other. To make this database as accurate and useful as possible, we are inviting ASPB members to update their profile information — and offering an incentive to encourage you all to do so.  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 Plantae Webinar: Translational Plant Science: We All Want to Achieve It, but How? Plant biologists are inundated with the message to develop "translational" research but given little guidance on how to achieve that. This panel, representing nonprofit and commercial agricultural research, will provide expertise on how the translation from fundamental to applied research works, what the applied needs are, and how to shape a career for translational work. Join us Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at 3 PM EST for an interesting discussion! Plantae Webinar: A Guide to Political Activism for Early Career Plant Scientists Join us Monday, November 15, 2021 at 1 PM EST for a webinar and discussion that focuses on how Early Career Researchers can get involved with their communities through political action or activism. Guest speaker Hallie Thompson will share her experiences recently running for United State House Representative and distribute resources to help webinar attendees understand the opportunities and resources available for them to become more politically active.  PRODUCT SHOWCASE Proven Performance Get your best research results with SciBrite colored LEDs: · Unparalleled uniformity · Up to 8 evenly mixed colors No other colored lighting measures up to SciBrite! LEARN MORE Plantae Webinar: Highlighting Plant Physiology Focus Issue on Architecture and Plasticity Join us Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 11 AM EST for a special webinar to celebrate the this month's Plant Physiology Focus Issue on Architecture and Plasticity. The webinar will be hosted by the Focus Issue editors, Ronald Pierik, Christian Fankhauser, Lucia Strader, and Neelima Sinha; and it will feature talks from three of the authors whose work is included in the issue, Jiani Yang, Sebastian Soyk, and Miyo Morita. 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!  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 Applications Now Open for Plant Biology 2022 Travel Grants and Women's Young Investigator Travel Awards ASPB is offering a limited number of awards in each of these two programs to attend Plant Biology 2022 in Portland, Oregon, July 9-13, 2022. Read more about both programs on the ASPB Funding page. Deadlines for both are in early December. Plant Physiology Article of the Week: Strigo-D2 — a bio-sensor for monitoring spatio-temporal strigolactone signaling patterns in intact plants The spotlight is on Changzheng Song, Jiao Zhao, Marjorie Guichard, Dongbo Shi, Guido Grossmann, Christian Schmitt, Virginie Jouannet, and Thomas Greb. Their article demonstrates that Strigo-D2 is a genetically encoded sensor visualizing spatio-temporal patterns of strigolactone signaling levels in intact plants based on the activity ratio of two fluorescent marker proteins. The Plant Cell Article of the Week: Membrane nanodomains modulate formin condensation for actin remodeling in Arabidopsis innate immune responses The spotlight is on Zhiming Ma, Yanbiao Sun, Xinlu Zhu, Liang Yang, Xu Chen, and Yansong Miao. They demonstrate that plant plasma membrane compartmentalization condenses actin 17 nucleator-type-I formins to remodel actin cytoskeleton during immune signalling. Plant Direct Article of the Week: Comparative proteomics of thylakoids from Arabidopsis grown in laboratory and field conditions The spotlight is on Sarah E. Flannery, Federica Pastorelli, William H. J. Wood, C. Neil Hunter, Mark J. Dickman, Philip J. Jackson, and Matthew P. Johnson. Their article discusses the significance of certain alterations in the thylakoid proteome considering the unique set of challenges faced by plants growing under natural conditions. Building Resilience Challenge Kaust (King Sbdulah University) in Saudi Arabia has recently launched a Global Challenge about "Building Resilience": They are looking for technology-based solutions that help build resilience in local ecosystems facing rising challenges such as climate change, disasters, epidemics, food insecurity, and environmental degradation. They are accepting proposals until December 9 under four tracks: health, environment, food, water, and energy and digital, connectivity, and cybersecurity. The challenge is opened globally to individuals or teams (with scientific, engineering, or technical background) interested in building resilience through technology-based solutions. WTI, supporting diversity and inclusion, encourages women to participate and to demonstrate their potential! For more information, please visit the challenge platform linked above. Position Available: Program Facilitator for NSF RCN:LEAPS:ROOT&SHOOT Thanks to NSF funding, ASPB has a five-year, full-time position available for a Program Facilitator to support the ROOT&SHOOT initiative. Apply by Dec. 13 at this link. This is an exciting, pan-plant science initiative to address inequities in our field. Click here to learn about ROOT&SHOOT. PRODUCT SHOWCASE Reach Your Prospects Every Week Thousands of industry professionals subscribe to association news briefs, which allows your company to push messaging directly to their inboxes and take advantage of the association's brand affinity. Connect with Highly Defined Buyers and Maximize Your Brand Exposure   LEARN MORE   Plant Genetic Engineering Services CRISPR/CAS9 TALENs ZFNs RNAi VIGS Gene Overexpression   LEARN MORE   .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. Recognition Travel Awards for Plant Biology 2022 ASPB's Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee is offering a limited number of Recognition Travel Awards for students, postdocs, and faculty who are themselves members of groups minoritized in the US scientific workforce and/or who are directly supporting the education and professional development of students in such groups. The goals of the program are to increase diversity among the annual meeting attendees and to provide access to the science and networking opportunities available at a major society meeting to those that might not otherwise have been able to attend. Undergraduate students are strongly encouraged to apply, as are graduate students, postdocs, and faculty. ASPB membership is not a requirement to apply. .#WeAreASPB Recognizing Plant Physiology Authors Meet Jorge Rencoret, first author of "Flavonoids naringenin chalcone, naringenin, dihydrotricin, and tricin are lignin monomers in papyrus." Jorge is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology of Seville (IRNAS-CSIC, Spain) and is an expert in structural elucidation of lignins by 2D-NMR, DFRC, thioacydolysis, Py-GC/MS and GPC. At present, his research is aimed at the characterization and valorization of lignins for their improved industrial use and also the development of biotechnological tools for plant cell-wall deconstruction. In his free time, Jorge enjoys spending time with family, traveling, and soccer. Recognizing The Plant Cell Authors Meet Joke De Jaeger-Braet, first author of "Heat stress reveals a specialized variant of the pachytene checkpoint in meiosis of Arabidopsis thaliana." Joke is a PhD Student at IPM (University of Hamburg, Germany) where she works on the effect of heat stress on the meiotic progression, as reported in her recent Plant Cell paper, as well as the translation control in maize to explore unknown translational regulatory mechanisms in plant meiosis. Since childhood, Joke has adored being outside in nature and has been fascinated by plants. She also enjoys running, hiking, planning lab events and photography. 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. Postdoc in Plant Molecular Biology   USDA ARS Food Quality Lab Beltsville, MD Learn more Postdoctoral Scholar in Soybean Physiology and Transcriptomics of Global Change   Auburn University Auburn, AL Learn more Postdoctoral Associate   University of Florida Gainesville, FL Learn more Research Biologist/Plant Physiologist/Geneticist GS-0401/0435/0440-12/13   USDA Dairy Forage Research Center Madison, WI Learn more .PLANT SCIENCE EVENTS 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 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 Please Share Information About a Citizen Science Project for the ABRC The ABRC is the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center. Many of you might have ordered seeds from the ABRC for your research. This project aims to provide ABRC with new information about some of its seed lines by asking citizen scientists to quantify the number of mutant phenotypes and dead seeds in photos of different seed samples. This citizen science project is valuable to the ABRC, and the plant science community, because it allows them to gather data for a large number of seed lines that they might not otherwise have the time to analyze themselves. Cell Division in the Shoot Apical Meristem Is a Trigger for miR156 Decline and Vegetative Phase Transition in Arabidopsis From PNAS In plants, the progressive decline in miR156 triggers the appearance of adult traits. Here, Cheng et al. show that cell division in the apical meristem is a trigger for miR156 decline. The transcriptional decline in MIR156C along with cell division in the apical meristem contributes to plant maturation. This simple model explains why the developmental transitions of a plant are unidirectional and inevitable under normal growth conditions. Camouflage Plant Stealth Helps to Preserve High-Altitude Fritillary Populations From Northrop Grumman An endangered plant having the ability to hide from people searching for it seems like something out of a science fiction movie. But research published in Current Biology suggests that fritillary species may be using camouflage plant stealth to avoid being picked. ScienceNews describes how Fritillaria delavayi plants growing in easily accessible mountain sites blended in more with the background, becoming almost invisible to the human eye. Mechanisms of Temperature-Regulated Growth and Thermotolerance in Crop Species From Current Opinion in Plant Biology Temperature is a major environmental factor affecting the development and productivity of crop species. The ability to cope with periods of high temperatures, also known as thermotolerance, is becoming an increasingly indispensable trait for the future of agriculture owing to the current trajectory of average global temperatures. From temperature sensing to downstream transcriptional changes, here, Chen et al. review recent findings involving the thermal regulation of plant growth and the effects of heat on hormonal pathways, reactive oxygen species, and epigenetic regulation. Plants with Electronic Roots Act As Energy Storage Devices From New Atlas An interesting new research project out of Sweden's Linköping University has demonstrated how plant roots can be used as energy storage devices. The scientists see the process, which requires the plants to be watered with a special solution to make their roots electrically conductive, as as proof-of-concept for a root-based supercapacitor, as well as for biohybrid systems that meld biological processes with electronic functionality. The Scientific Process of Creating the Flame Thrower Redbud From North Carolina State University While the Flame Thrower redbud displays a complexity of colors while blooming, the process of creating the plant follows basic genetic principles that many may recall from a high school biology class, Dennis Werner said. Werner was interested in crossing a purple-leaf redbud with a gold-leaf redbud. Based on similar crosses in other plant species (e.g., orchids), Werner expected to eventually create a redbud that expressed bronze leaves. But his results surprised him. Comparing Photosynthetic Differences Between Wild and Domesticated Rice From the University of Illinois Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology Millions of people in Asia are dependent on rice as a food source. Believed to have been domesticated as early as 6000 BCE, rice is an important source of calories globally. In a new study, researchers compared domesticated rice to its wild counterparts to understand the differences in their photosynthetic capabilities. The results can help improve future rice productivity. New Research Informs Treatment of Sudden Oak Death, a Killer of Millions of Trees From the American Phytopathological Society via Phys.org Sudden oak death is one of the most ecologically devastating forest diseases in North America and particularly California, where it has killed millions of oaks and tanoaks along the coast. The disease has altered species composition and impacted carbon pools and fire risk. To curb the impact of this disease, scientists need to better understand the basic biology of the causal pathogen Phythophthora ramorum, including how well it sporulates on common plants. Your Garden Isn't Winding Down: It's Still Lichen Season From The New York Times What are lichens? They are neither plant nor animal. If that doesn't make them inscrutable enough, there is also this: A lichen might, at first glance, be mistaken for an errant wad of chewing gum or a misplaced splatter of paint. But they are very much living creatures and are thought to be one of the earliest land-dwelling forms of life. They are among the most widespread, too, present on every continent, covering an estimated 8% of the planet's land. They inhabit even Antarctica and the harshest deserts, including some places where plants and animals cannot thrive.   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. Hailey Golden, Director of Publishing, Multiview, 469-420-2630 | 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