It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
A new species of the Japanese lily known as sukashiyuri has been identified for the first time since 1914 by a research team led by Dr. Seita Watanabe, a specially appointed assistant professor at the Botanical Gardens and the Graduate School of Science at Osaka Metropolitan University.
Dr. Watanabe questioned the classification used up to now for sukashiyuri group, which usually has orange flowers. These lilies have high ornamental value, having been exported from Japan for more than two centuries. There have been only four taxonomic groups, but Dr. Watanabe and his team sought evidence to prove that there were more.
Traveling across Japan to observe the lilies, record images, gather specimens, and obtain DNA from plant materials, the research team members conducted a detailed analysis of the form and structure of the plants and their DNA. The results of their extensive work revises the conventional classification into eight taxons, including what they have named Lilium pacificum, the first new species of Japanese lily in 110 years.
Lilium pacificum grows on coastal areas facing the Pacific Ocean on Honshu from Ibaraki Prefecture south to Shizuoka Prefecture and the Izu Islands.
“It has an interesting characteristic: the tips of its leaves are curved into a claw-like shape,” Dr. Watanabe enthused. “Based on the new understanding of these eight taxonomic groups, we found that seven are endemic to Japan, each adapted to its environment, whether coastal or mountainous, and evolving unique traits.”
Dr. Watanabe added: “Our research shows that these plants have differentiated through complex processes, and we hope that our work will provide clues for speciation studies. In the past, individual differences may have been overlooked because of the apparent simplicity of the plants. Through this research, I was reminded of the importance of morphological observation.”
Established in Osaka as one of the largest public universities in Japan, Osaka Metropolitan University is committed to shaping the future of society through “Convergence of Knowledge” and the promotion of world-class research. For more research news, visit https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/ and follow us on social media: X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.
Biosystematic studies on Lilium (Liliaceae) II. Evolutionary history and taxon recognition in the L. maculatum–L. pensylvanicum complex in Japan
Nature publishes the largest "tree of life" of flowering plants to date
UCO researcher Manuel de la Estrella is part of an international team, which has developed the "tree of life" of flowering plants as a tool with a multitude of uses, from the classification and identification of plants, to conservation
UCO researcher Manuel de la Estrella is part of an international team, led by the Kew Botanical Gardens, which has developed the "tree of life" of flowering plants as a tool with a multitude of uses, from the classification and identification of plants, to conservation in the face of climate change
Charles Darwin, the father of the Theory of Evolution, was haunted by a certain quandaryuntil his death: the sudden appearance and rapid diversification of plants that have flowers and fruits, angiosperms, which represent 90% of the plants on the planet. For him it was an "abominable mystery" that numerous subsequent studies have sought to clarify. An international study published in the journal Nature, and in which Manual Estrella, a researcher in the Department of Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology at the University of Cordoba Manuel de la Estrella, has participated, sheds a little more light on the mystery by generating a large tree of life of angiosperms after analyzing 9,500 species, 200 fossils and 1.8 billion "letters" of genetic code.
The study, spearheaded by the Kew Botanical Garden an institution that houses one of the largest collections of plants, involved 279 scientists from 139 organizations and 27 countries. This broad participation facilitated access to collections around the world to analyze DNA, compare different sequences and establish relationships between different plant species. Thus, they have worked both with recently collected samples (with well-preserved DNA), and with samples preserved in herbaria, some more than 200 years old, and whose DNA was degraded.
Technological development is what has made it possible to analyze so much information and reconstruct the history of flowering plants' evolution. Previous studies focused on obtaining genetic information from chloroplasts, a part of plant cells related to photosynthesis and which appear in high quantities in plant cells. The problem is that they offered information on just a few genes. Now, thanks to a molecular analysis tool (Angiosperms353), the team has been able to focus on revealing the information of the nuclear genome, another part of cells that, unlike chloroplasts, is not numerous, but rather unique, offering more information. With this tool they have managed to sequence 353 genes from the DNA of each plant. This information, 15 times greater than that from previous studies, has resulted in the development of the largest tree of life so far for angiosperms.
In addition, they have analyzed data from 200 plant fossils, which served to reconstruct the temporal range of kinship relationships between species and verify that plants underwent very rapid diversification, giving rise to more than 80% of the main lineages that exist today, shortly after their origination.
UCO professor Manuel de la Estrella worked with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie scholarship at the Kew Botanical Garden, studying Detarioideae, abundant plants in the tropical area of Africa and belonging to the Leguminosae (pea or carob) family. He states that the tree "will serve as a foundation for many more subsequent studies, thanks to the large amount of information it offers." These studies that can range from the classification and identification of plants, to the discovery of new medicinal compounds, bioengineering, genetic improvement, and the conservation of plants in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Reference:
Zuntini, A. R., Carruthers, T. et al, Phylogenomics and the rise of the angiosperms, Nature (2024). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07324-0, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07324-0
A team at the University of Cordoba has developed a methodology that defines the cultivable space between two-axis photovoltaic modules, with the aim of promoting the conversion of existing plants over to agrivoltaic production
In Alcarras de Carla Simón, the Solé family glimpses the end of its traditional and not-very-profitable peach plantation due to the arrival of solar panels. The conflict between land use for sustainable energy vs agricultural production is a hot topic that is reflected in cultural products, and also in research.
Agrivoltaics, which is defined as the shared use of land for agricultural and photovoltaic production, is presented as a strategy to resolve this conflict, and the TEP215 - Physics for Renewable Energies research group at the University of Cordoba seeks to promote these types of plants through its research. In one of their latest works they have developed a model that is able to gauge the cultivable space between two-axes solar collectors at existing photovoltaic plants. This type of two-axis module moves following the sun, like a kind of sunflower, to maximize its performance.
"In this work, we chose a type of photovoltaic installation that already existed to see whether we could redirect it and integrate crops for agricultural production into these existing facilities," said Rafael López, a Professor of Applied Physics.
The methodology was developed based on a theoretical simulation of solar astronomy and the spatial geometry of a photovoltaic plant with this type of two-axis solar panel, and indicates the areas in which crops could be located without interfering with the movement of the solar panels or creating shadows; that is, without reducing photovoltaic production.
Another of the authors, a researcher at the Department of Electrical and Automatic Engineering Luis Manuel Fernández, points out that "the work also takes into account backtracking, which is a methodology developed by the group based on a process that prevents the panels from casting shadows on each other during their movement."
Using an actual photovoltaic installation located in Cordoba, "El Molino," with two-axis solar trackers and backtracking, the model reveals the cultivable areas between panels. The simulation at that plant revealed that 74% of the land between the panels is cultivable by crops less than 1.4 m high.
This model could be applied, refining and adjusting parameters, to other existing plants to understand the possibilities of shifting over to agrivoltaic; that is, combining photovoltaic and agricultural production, "both of which are productive and profitable," stated Rafael López.
"This work represents an advance in the possible conversion and agrivoltaic use of existing large photovoltaic plants, improving their sustainability, contributing to the necessary deployment of agrivoltaics, and advancing the fight against climate change," the researchers said.
This system entails a win-win relationship since the crops would also benefit from the panels' shading, especially in extreme climates, maintaining soil moisture for longer.
The establishment of legislation on agrivoltaics and field trials with different types of crops are the next steps to be taken for this type of land use to be implemented.
Reference
Varo-Martínez, M. & Fernández-Ahumada, L.M. & Ramírez-Faz, J.C. & Ruiz-Jiménez, R. & López-Luque, R., 2024. "Methodology for the estimation of cultivable space in photovoltaic installations with dual-axis trackers for their reconversion to agrivoltaic plants," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 361(C). DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.122952
CREDIT: CRAIG CHANDLER/UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATION AND MARKETING;/UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN
Plant life first emerged on land about 550 million years ago, and an international research team co-led by University of Nebraska–Lincoln computational biologist Yanbin Yin has cracked the genomic code of its humble beginnings, which made possible all other terrestrial life on Earth, including humans.
The team — about 50 scientists in eight countries – has generated the first genomic sequence of four strains of Zygnema algae, the closest living relatives of land plants. Their findings shed light on the ability of plants to adjust to the environment and provide a rich basis for future research.
The study was published May 1 in the journal Nature Genetics.
“This is an evolutionary story,” said Yin, who led the research team with a scientist from Germany. “It answers the fundamental question of how the earliest land plants evolved from aquatic freshwater algae.”
Yin’s lab in the Nebraska Food for Health Center and the Department of Food Science and Technology has a long history of studying plant cell wall carbohydrates, a major component of dietary fibers for humans and farm animals; lignocelluloses for biofuel production; and natural barriers to protect crops from pathogens and environmental stresses.
All current plant life on land burst from a one-off evolutionary event known as plant terrestrialization from ancient freshwater algae. The first land plants, known as embryophyta within the clade of streptophyta, emerged on land about 550 million years ago — their arrival fundamentally changing the surface and atmosphere of the planet. They made all other terrestrial life, including humans and animals, possible by serving as an evolutionary foundation for future flora and food for fauna.
The researchers worked with four algal strains from the genus Zygnema — two from a culture collection in the United States and two from Germany. Scientists combined a range of cutting-edge DNA sequencing techniques to determine the entire genome sequences of these algae. These methods enabled scientists to generate complete genomes for these organisms at the level of whole chromosomes — something that had never been done before on this group of algae. Comparing the genomes with those of other plants and algae led to the discovery of specific overabundances of cell wall enzymes, signalling genes and environmental response factors.
A unique feature of these algae revealed by microscopic imaging — performed at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, the Universität Hamburg in Germany and UNL’s Center for Biotechnology — is a thick and highly sticky layer of carbohydrates outside the cell walls, called the mucilage layer. Xuehuan Feng, the first author of the paper and a Husker postdoctoral research associate, developed a new and effective DNA extraction method to remove this mucilage layer for high purity and high molecular DNAs.
“It is fascinating that the genetic building blocks, whose origins predate land plants by millions of years, duplicated and diversified in the ancestors of plants and algae and, in doing so, enabled the evolution of more specialized molecular machinery,” said Iker Irisarri of the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change and co-first author of the paper.
The team’s other co-leader, Jan de Vries of the University of Göttingen, said, “Not only do we present a valuable, high-quality resource for the entire plant scientific community, who can now explore these genome data, our analyses uncovered intricate connections between environmental responses.”
The four multicellular Zygnema algae belong to the class Zygnematophyceae, the closest living relatives of land plants; it is a class of freshwater and semi-terrestrial algae with more than 4,000 described species. Zygnematophyceae possess adaptations to withstand terrestrial stressors, such as desiccation, ultraviolet light, freezing and other abiotic stresses. The key to understanding these adaptations is the genome sequences. Before this paper, genome sequences were only available for four unicellular Zygnematophyceae.
Yin said this research aligns with one of the National Science Foundation’s 10 Big Ideas — “Understanding the Rules of Life” — to address societal challenges, from clean water to climate resilience. The discovery also holds significance in applied sciences, such as bioenergy, water sustainability and carbon sequestration.
“Our gene network analyses reveal co-expression of genes, especially those for cell wall synthesis and remodifications that were expanded and gained in the last common ancestor of land plants and Zygnematophyceae,” Yin said. “We shed light on the deep evolutionary roots of the mechanism for balancing environmental responses and multicellular cell growth.”
The international research collaboration includes about 50 researchers from 20 research institutions in eight countries — the United States, Germany, France, Austria, Canada, China, Israel and Singapore. Other Husker researchers on the team are Chi Zhang, professor of biological sciences, and Jeffrey Mower, professor of agronomy and horticulture.
Funding for UNL’s portion of the research came primarily from Yin’s NSF CAREER award, the Nebraska Tobacco Settlement Biomedical Research Enhancement Fund, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. departments of Agriculture and Energy.
Land plants cover the surface of our planet and often tower over us. They form complex bodies with multiple organs that consist of a broad range of cell types. Developing this morphological complexity is underpinned by intricate networks of genes, whose coordinated action shapes plant bodies through various molecular mechanisms. All of these magnificent forms burst forth from a one-off evolutionary event: when plants conquered Earth’s surface, known as plant terrestrialization. Among those algae most closely related to land plants, diverse body types are found – ranging from single-celled algae to more complex cell filaments. From this group of relatives, an international group of researchers led by the Universities of Göttingen and Nebraska–Lincoln has now generated the first genome data of such complex specimens, on four filamentous “star algae” of the genus Zygnema. Their results were published in Nature Genetics.
The researchers worked with four algal strains in total, two from a culture collection in the USA and two that have been kept safe in the Algal Culture Collection at Göttingen University (SAG). The research involved more than 50 scientists from nine countries who combined a range of cutting-edge sequencing techniques to elucidate the entire DNA sequence of these algae. The advanced methods enabled them to generate complete genomes for these organisms at the level of whole chromosomes – something that had never been done before on this group of algae. Comparing the genes on the genomes with those of other plants and algae led to the discovery of specific overabundances of signalling genes and environmental response factors. Dr Iker Irisarri, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, explains: “Many of these genes underpin molecular functions that were important for the emergence of the first multicellular terrestrial plants. It is fascinating that the genetic building blocks, whose origins predate land plants by millions of years, duplicated and diversified in the ancestors of plants and algae and, in doing so, enabled the evolution of more specialized molecular machinery”.
Professor Jan de Vries, University of Göttingen, says: “Not only do we present a valuable, high-quality resource for the entire plant scientific community, who can now explore these genome data, our analyses uncovered intricate connections between environmental responses. This sheds light on one of land plants’ most important features: their ability to adjust their growth and development so that it aligns with the environment in which they dwell – a process known as developmental plasticity.”
Original publication: Feng X et al: “Genomes of multicellular algal sisters to land plants illuminate signaling network evolution”,Nature Genetics 2024. Doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-01737-3
Land plants cover the surface of our planet and often tower over us. They form complex bodies with multiple organs that consist of a broad range of cell types. Developing this morphological complexity is underpinned by intricate networks of genes, whose coordinated action shapes plant bodies through various molecular mechanisms. All of these magnificent forms burst forth from a one-off evolutionary event: when plants conquered Earth’s surface, known as plant terrestrialization. Among those algae most closely related to land plants, diverse body types are found – ranging from single-celled algae to more complex cell filaments. From this group of relatives, an international group of researchers led by the Universities of Göttingen and Nebraska–Lincoln has now generated the first genome data of such complex specimens, on four filamentous “star algae” of the genus Zygnema. Their results were published in Nature Genetics.
The researchers worked with four algal strains in total, two from a culture collection in the USA and two that have been kept safe in the Algal Culture Collection at Göttingen University (SAG). The research involved more than 50 scientists from nine countries who combined a range of cutting-edge sequencing techniques to elucidate the entire DNA sequence of these algae. The advanced methods enabled them to generate complete genomes for these organisms at the level of whole chromosomes – something that had never been done before on this group of algae. Comparing the genes on the genomes with those of other plants and algae led to the discovery of specific overabundances of signalling genes and environmental response factors. Dr Iker Irisarri, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, explains: “Many of these genes underpin molecular functions that were important for the emergence of the first multicellular terrestrial plants. It is fascinating that the genetic building blocks, whose origins predate land plants by millions of years, duplicated and diversified in the ancestors of plants and algae and, in doing so, enabled the evolution of more specialized molecular machinery”.
Professor Jan de Vries, University of Göttingen, says: “Not only do we present a valuable, high-quality resource for the entire plant scientific community, who can now explore these genome data, our analyses uncovered intricate connections between environmental responses. This sheds light on one of land plants’ most important features: their ability to adjust their growth and development so that it aligns with the environment in which they dwell – a process known as developmental plasticity.”
Original publication: Feng X et al: “Genomes of multicellular algal sisters to land plants illuminate signaling network evolution”,Nature Genetics 2024. Doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-01737-3
The filamentous streptophyte alga Zygnema growing in a cell culture flask
Microscope image of Zygnema circumcarinatum, a filamentous alga with a star-shaped chloroplast. Because of this feature, algae of the genus Zygnema are also called "star algae" (scale is 50 µm, corresponding to 0.05 mm)
Recent findings that plants employ a drought-survival mechanism to also defend against nutrient-sucking pests could inform future crop breeding programmes aimed at achieving better broadscale pest control.
Using an advanced fluorescent biosensor (ABACUS2) that can detect tiny changes in plant hormone concentrations at the cellular scale, scientists saw that abscisic acid (ABA), usually linked with drought response, started closing the plant’s entry gates within 5 hours of being infested with spider mites.
Microscopic leaf pores (stomata) are important for gas exchange but are also the major sites for water loss. When there is a water shortage, plants act to conserve water by producing the drought stress hormone ABA to close their stomata.
Coincidentally, the closure of stomata also obstructs the preferred entry points for nutrient-sucking pests like spider mites. The two-spotted spider mite is one of the most economically damaging pests – it’s not fussy and attacks a broad range of more than 1000 plants, including 150 crops. Barely visible to the naked eye, these tiny pests pierce and then suck dry plant cells. They can build up to enormous numbers very quickly and can be one of the most destructive pests in the garden and horticulture industry, spoiling house plants and reducing yields of vegetables, fruit and salad crops.
There has been debate about ABA's role in pest resistance. Initially, it was noticed that stomata close when plants are attacked by nutrient-sucking pests, leading to various hypotheses, including that this closure could be a plant response to losing water due to the pests' feeding or even that the pests act to close stomata to prevent plants from sending distress volatiles to pest predators.
In a collaboration between the Centre for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics (CBGP) in Spain and Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU), researchers studying how thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) responds to the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae) have determined the plant leaps into action almost immediately, employing the same hormone as for drought to also block spider mites from penetrating plant tissues and, as a result, significantly reducing pest damage.
The findings published in Plant Physiology found the peak closure of stomata is achieved within a time frame of 24 to 30 hours.
“Open stomata are natural apertures where pests like aphids and mites insert their specialised feeding structures, called stylets, to pierce and then suck out the nutrient rich contents from individual sub-epidermal cells”, said Irene Rosa-Díaz, who carried out the spider mite experiments at SLCU and CBGP during her PhD with Professor Isabel Diaz at the Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de Plantas, Universidad Polytécnica de Madrid, and National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (UPM-INIA) .
The plant leaps into action almost immediately, employing the same hormone as for drought to also block spider mites from penetrating plant tissues and, as a result, significantly reducing pest damage.
“We were able to show mite infestation induced a rapid stomatal closure response, with the plant hormone ABA rising in the leaf tissues – highest in stomatal and vascular cells, but also all other leaf cells measured. We showed through multiple different experiments that stomatal closure hinders mites. Plants that were pre-treated with ABA to induce stomatal closure and then infested with mites showed decreased mite damage, while ABA-deficient mutant plants where stomata cannot close well and plants that have a more stomata are more susceptible to mites.”
Alexander Jones’ research group at SLCU develops in vivo biosensors that are revealing hormone dynamics in plants at unprecedented resolution, including ABACUS2 that quantified cellular ABA in these mite experiments.
Dr Jones said the study highlights the important interactions between biotic and abiotic stresses in plants: “Early warning cues from mite feeding induces a cascade of immune signalling molecules, including jasmonic acid (JA) and salicylic acid (SA), among other chemical responses. Together, these results show that ABA accumulation and stomatal closure are also key defence mechanisms employed to reduce mite damage.
“The next step is to investigate what the initial mite-produced signal is that the plant is detecting that then results in ABA accumulation. The biochemical mechanisms being used by the plant as signals of pest attack could be anything, including mite feeding vibrations, mite salivary proteins, chemicals produced by the mites or mite activity, direct cell damage (wounds) or other molecules associated with the mites.
“Identifying the initial triggers could potentially be used to develop new crop treatments to arm the plants ahead of predicted pest infestations. Importantly, efforts to select for plants with altered stomatal traits, which already must balance a photosynthesis vs water conservation trade-off, could also consider resistance to damaging pests.”
Reference
Irene Rosa-Díaz, James Rowe, Ana Cayuela-Lopez, Vicent Arbona, Isabel Díaz, Alexander M. Jones (2024) Spider mite herbivory induces an abscisic acid-driven stomatal defense. Plant Physiology
