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.ASPB SPOTLIGHT
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.FROM ASPB & PLANTAE
Submissions Open for Plant Physiology Focus Issue on Evolution of Plant Structure and Function
Plant Physiology seeks research article submissions by January 1, 2022, for inclusion in a Focus Issue on the topic of Evolution of Plant Structure and Function. Recent progress in understanding the proximate basis of plant evolution has revealed a myriad of underlying mechanisms, ranging from the genetic and epigenetic to the biophysical and micro-biotic. This focus issue calls for review or research articles, short letters, and reports that provide novel insights into evolutionary mechanisms underpinning plant phenotypic variation.
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The Plant Cell Article of the Week: Evolutionary systems biology reveals patterns of rice adaptation to drought-prone agro-ecosystems
The spotlight is on Simon C. Groen, Zoé Joly-Lopez, Adrian E. Platts, Mignon Natividad, Zoë Fresquez, William M. Mauck III, Marinell R. Quintana, Carlo Leo U. Cabral, Rolando O. Torres, Rahul Satija, Michael D. Purugganan, and Amelia Henry. Their research shows that rice varieties from drought-prone agro-ecosystems show adaptive genetic and phenotypic variation in drought resistance traits that are integrated across above- and belowground tissues.
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Plant Direct Article of the Week: Tomato and cotton G protein beta subunit mutants display constitutive autoimmune responses
The spotlight is on Thi Thao Ninh, Wei Gao, Yuri Trusov, Jing-Ruo Zhao, Lu Long, Chun-Peng Song, and Jose Ramon Botella. Their article shows that, despite the autoimmune response observed in slgb1 mutants, SlGB1 is a positive regulator of the pathogen-associated molecular pattern (PAMP)-triggered immunity (PTI) response in tomato. They speculate that the phenotypic differences observed between Arabidopsis and tomato/cotton/rice/maize Gβ knockouts do not necessarily reflect divergences in G protein-mediated defense mechanisms.
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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!
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.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.
Building Better Together: Strategies for a Healthy and Inclusive Research Community
The past two years have highlighted underlying pervasive systemic vulnerabilities in our scientific communities: marginalization of historically-excluded groups; assaults on mental health within our research networks; disproportionate stresses and job insecurities for early-career/junior scientists due to the pandemic. So, where do we go from here? Returning to a "new normal" requires us to be reflective, envisioning a more equitable and supportive future by engaging all members of our community.
The Maize Genetics Cooperation (MGC), in collaboration with Achieve More LLC, through an NSF-funded Research Coordination Network, invites all maize researchers, collaborators and friends to attend a two-day webinar on this topic! A schedule for the event and a link to register are available at the link above. Registration is required but is free, and all are welcome to attend. The event will be held virtually on January 20 and 21, 2022, from 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. EST.
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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
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- Variety of Techniques
- Modern Breeding Methods
- Wide Range of Plant Species
- Skilled Scientists and Experts
- From Traditional Breeding to Modern Molecular Breeding
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.#WeAreASPB
Recognizing Plant Physiology Authors
Meet Su-Ying Yeh, co-first author of "Maize Golden2-like transcription factors boost rice chloroplast development, photosynthesis and grain yield." Su-Ying is a postdoctoral fellow at Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, where she has been working on a rice improvement project under the supervision of Dr. Wen-Hsiung Li (Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica) and Dr. Maurice S. B Ku (Bioagricultural Science, National Chiayi University). In her free time, Su-Ying likes traveling and jogging.
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Recognizing The Plant Cell Authors
Meet Marcos Ariel Tronconi, co-first author of "Respiratory and C4-photosynthetic NAD-malic enzyme coexist in bundle sheath cell mitochondria and evolved via association of differentially adapted subunits." Marcos is currently a Research Associate at the Center of Photosynthetic and Biochemical Studies (CEFOBI), National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Rosario, Argentina. His fascination with enzyme biochemistry and protein evolution has inspired his studies for more than ten years. The major focus of his research is the disclosing of the molecular players underlying the adaptive advantages of the accumulation of four-carbon organic acids such as fumarate and malate. In his free time, Marcos enjoys reading, being with people, going dancing, exercising and being physically fit.
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Recognizing Plant Direct Authors
Meet Meng-Rong Chuang, first author of "Chloroplast import of an intermembrane space protein is facilitated by translocon components Toc75 and Tic236." Meng-Rong is currently a Research Assistant at the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology of National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan, where she studies the functions of polysaccharides important in agricultural products. Meng-Rong strives to remain curious about everything she encounters in science and endeavors to establish the underlying mechanism. She shares, "It has been an illuminating journey for me so far." Meng-Rong also is interested in cooking, gardening, photography, and indie rock.
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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.
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.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.
.PLANT SCIENCE EVENTS
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
A Tree That Was Once the Suburban Ideal Has Morphed into an Unstoppable Villain
From The New York Times
The Bradford pear, hugely popular when suburbs were developed, contributed to an invasion of trees conquering nearly anywhere it lands. The trees wound up an unwieldy menace, one that has vexed botanists, homeowners, farmers, conservationists, utility companies and government officials in a growing swath of the country across the East Coast and reaching into Texas and the Midwest. David Coyle, a professor of forest health at Clemson University, has developed a program to help homeowners replace these invasives with native trees.
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Plant Biodiversity and the Regeneration of Soil Fertility
From PNAS
Both plant biodiversity and soil fertility are in decline. In this study, Furey and Tilman find that restoration of plant biodiversity on a nutrient-poor, unfertilized soil led to greater increases in soil fertility than occurred when these same plant species grew in monocultures. The plant species in this biodiversity experiment fell along a trade-off surface in their nutrient content traits, precluding any one species, or any one type of species, from markedly increasing soil fertility. These results have implications for degraded agroecosystems, suggesting that increasing plant functional biodiversity may help restore their soil fertility.
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Representation and Participation Across 20 Years of Plant Genome Sequencing
From Nature
The field of plant genome sequencing has grown rapidly in the past 20 years, leading to increases in the quantity and quality of publicly available genomic resources. The growing wealth of genomic data from an increasingly diverse set of taxa provides unprecedented potential to better understand the genome biology and evolution of land plants. Here, Marks et al. provide a contemporary view of land plant genomics, including analyses on assembly quality, taxonomic distribution of sequenced species and national participation.
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Say Hello to the Scientist Harvesting Clues About Ancient Gourds and Maize
From Smithsonian Magazine
There's always that friend who goes gourd-crazy in the fall. But for some, this seasonal obsession is a lifelong profession. At the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, one scientist has made a career of studying ancient gourds and other crops to understand more about the roots of plant domestication. In this "Meet a SI-entist," archaeobotanist Logan Kistler shares how he became interested in plant and human relationships and the knowledge he's harvested along the way.
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Identifying Highly Recombinant Plants for Breeding
From Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf via Phys.org
For plant breeding, it is important to create as many combinations as possible of genetic variants within a short time to select the most suitable candidates between plants with many different characteristics. The working group of Prof. Dr. Benjamin Stich from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf has now developed a method for using natural variations to identify what are referred to as "highly recombinogenic individuals."
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SMART Researchers Develop Method for Early Detection of Bacterial Infection in Crops
From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Researchers from the Disruptive and Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) of Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT's research enterprise in Singapore, and their local collaborators from Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL), have developed a rapid Raman spectroscopy-based method for detecting and quantifying early bacterial infection in crops. The Raman spectral biomarkers and diagnostic algorithm enable the noninvasive and early diagnosis of bacterial infections in crop plants, which can be critical for the progress of plant disease management and agricultural productivity.
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Wood Wide Web: Scientists to Map Hotspots of Fungal Life
From the BBC News
Fungi form an underground network of connections with plant roots, helping to recycle nutrients and to lock up planet-warming CO2 in the soil. But little is known about this giant mesh of fungi and its role in fighting climate change. It is part of what's popularly known as the "Wood Wide Web." This is an underground network of plant roots and fungi that, among other things, allows trees to share nutrients. And scientists say this "underground conservation" has been long overlooked.
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You Should Collect and Plant Native Seeds. Here's How
From Popular Science
There might be a lot of plants out there you can get for your garden, but Ryan Godfrey, a representative from the North American Native Plant Society, recommends caution as ecosystems rely on a delicate balance. No matter how well-meaning they are, a small army of people that goes out and depletes the natural seed sources of a public area could be detrimental for the continuation of the species.
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The Signal
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ASPB is excited to announce that we're recruiting for a Program Facilitator to coordinate a plant science-wide NSF-funded 
Are you interested in science writing? Do you want to help people understand complex scientific issues? Apply for the ASPB/AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellows Program and learn how to increase public understanding of science and technology.
The spotlight is on Anish Kundu, Shruti Mishra, Pritha Kundu, Abhimanyu Jogawat, and Jyothilakshmi Vadassery from India's National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR). They demonstrate that Piriformospora indica-induced elevated putrescine biosynthesis in tomato roots stimulates the phytohormones auxin and gibberellin, resulting in growth promotion.