PlantChatter

Science is difficult, but not for the reason you think. It’s not that conceiving a research program is difficult. It’s not that planning and performing an experiment or observational st…

leading scientists and educators since 1893

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Hummingbird hawk moths - often mistaken for small birds - are being spotted in the West Midlands.

Rhynchospora tenuis undergoes obligate, genome-wide achiasmy in both male and female meiosis.

Job Opening: Data Scientist (Bioinformatics), IS- 1560- 11 at Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

From a stunning new voice in popular science, a beguiling invitation to discover the hidden power of one of Earth’s most mysterious landscapes., Bogland, The Secret World That Defies Death and Protects Life, Merritt R Turetsky, 9781324086536

The pop psycholgist’s new book seems to betray a lurking fear of others’ criticism – about his Epstein links, his manosphere admirers and his discredited former field of study, writes Virginia Heffernan

Can confirm: this is INCREDIBLY rare. “Photographer and bird enthusiast Alexander deBarros captured a photo of a coyote with a greater roadrunner in its mouth.” KTLA: Rare, real-life coyote and roadrunner drama unfolds in L.A. https://ktla.com/news/local-news/los-angeles-birder-photographs-coyote-roadrunner/amp/ #canislatrans #coyote #urbanwildlife

An international team led by André Marques at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne has shown that the Brazilian beak-sedge Rhynchospora tenuis reproduces sexually - producing pollen, fertilising its egg cells and sets seeds - but has completely lost the reshuffling of DNA between the chromosomes from each parent.

Help find Britain's rarest grassland fungi this autumn. No ID skills needed, just download the free app and record waxcaps near you. Join Waxcap Watch.

W2 Professorship

Welcome! Our research focuses on the evolutionary process at the molecular level. In particular, we investigate how a mixture of natural selection and non-adaptive forces create and maintain the amazing diversity in genome size, structure, and function that exists across the tree of life. Much of

Almost 600 climate scientists, health professionals and conservationists have warned against approving the Rosebank oil field

DNA methylation is an important epigenetic mechanism involved in gene regulation. Most methods focus on analysing DNA methylation averaged from multiple reads, yet these average methylation profiles obscure heterogeneity between individual DNA molecules and coordinated methylation states across loci. Native Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT) sequencing directly captures long, native DNA molecules together with their base modifications, allowing methylation to be studied at single-molecule resolution. Here, we present a scalable framework for genome-wide methylation analysis using ONT sequencing at single-molecule resolution, focused on two features that site-level summaries cannot recover. First, it quantifies molecule-to-molecule heterogeneity in DNA methylation by detecting Variable Methylated Domains (VMDs) and Variable Methylated Regions (VMRs). Second, it identifies coordinated methylation, as co-methylated positions (CMPs) and regions (CMRs), from the states observed on the same individual DNA molecules. Using data from human LCL cells, we demonstrate that substantial molecule-level methylation heterogeneity is masked by site-level summaries. Co-methylation analysis reveals coordinated patterns between CpG sites and genomic regions, including shared and sex-specific patterns, uncovering methylation organisation not apparent from average methylation levels. We also show that CMPs can be used to detect TF-pairs that are predicted to have coordinated binding. This framework is integrated within the DMRcaller R/Bioconductor package. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

To cause rice blast disease, the filamentous fungus Magnaporthe oryzae develops a specialised infection cell called an appressorium, which generates enormous turgor to breach the rice leaf cuticle. Although key regulators of appressorium development have been identified, it is not known how they drive the extensive transcriptional reprogramming required for infection-related morphogenesis. Here, we show that the Pmk1 MAP kinase orchestrates plant infection by regulating a transcriptional network controlled by the Mst12 and Bip1 transcription factors. Bip1 is regulated both by Pmk1-dependent phosphorylation and at the transcriptional level, while Mst12 binds to a cis-acting element upstream of BIP1 essential for pathogenesis. Bip1 and Mst12 are both necessary for regulating a set of Pmk1-dependent appressorium-specific genes, including transcriptional regulators, cell wall-degrading enzymes, and effector proteins. In addition, Mst12 specifically regulates functions required for appressorium-mediated penetration, while Bip1 controls a distinct sub-set of effector genes deployed during invasion of plant tissue. When considered together, these findings define a Pmk1-dependent transcriptional network required for plant infection by the blast fungus. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Gatsby Charitable Foundation, https://ror.org/0290hax27 Biotechnology and Biological Sciences research council (BBSRC), BB/T008717/1

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A perfect storm of weather conditions has seen South Australia's north erupt into a sea of colour with a super bloom of Sturt's desert peas.

Het kabinet moet niet wachten tot volgend jaar met extra klimaatmaatregelen, stelt de adviesafdeling van de Raad van State in een jaarlijkse beschouwing. Maandag bleek uit een doorrekening van het Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving dat Nederland de eigen klimaatdoelen niet haalt en dat de verwachtingen voor 2030 al drie jaar op rij niet verbeteren. „We hebben niet de illusie dat Nederland het…

Researchers identify CAIR1 as a redox-responsive regulator that promotes catalase localization and activity, helping plants maintain hydrogen peroxide balance and cellular redox homeostasis.

A group of Devonport locals are taking legal action against the government after a multi-storey development in their suburb was referred to the fast-track process.

Most organisms are well adapted to the environment they have been exposed to for many generations. However, changing environments pose existential threats to populations, unless they are able to adapt. Hence, a central challenge in evolutionary genetics is to understand the adaptation to complex environmental changes. As most traits are controlled by a large number of loci with varying effects on a trait, it is challenging to understand the explicit role of genetic changes during such polygenic adaptation. We use forward-in-time simulations to investigate the evolutionary dynamics of phenotypic and genetic adaptation in populations facing different environmental shifts. Specifically, we simulated sudden, gradual, and fluctuating environmental shifts for multiple trait architectures. Our results show distinct evolutionary paths across different types of environmental shifts and a higher extinction risk during sudden and fluctuating environmental shifts than during gradual shifts. Comparing the contribution of mutations from different sources highlights the critical role of standing genetic variation in driving phenotypic adaptation. We summarize allele frequency trajectories by clustering them by their temporal pattern and reveal how large- and small-effect mutations jointly shape the successful adaptation to changing environments. Additionally, we trained a convolutional neural network (CNN) on "genetic architecture matrices" of populations to jointly infer the type and magnitude of environmental changes and the mutational effect size distribution. The CNN was able to predict all three input parameters with very high accuracy, even on unseen parameter combinations. Our results demonstrate the impact of ecological change on the evolutionary outcome and the assorted mutational changes that enable successful adaptation. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, https://ror.org/018mejw64, 456082119 – TRR 341 subproject B6

Special Information This position is an on-site position which requires the incumbent to complete their work primarily at an NAU site, campus, or facility with or without accommodation. Opportunities for remote work are rare. This position is subject to the availability of funding. The incumbent is not eligible for Service Professional non-renewal notice, or Classified Staff layoff or recall status. To be considered for this position, please provide the following in your application: Curriculum vitae Cover letter describing interest in the project and qualifications relevant to the position Contact information for at least 3 professional references (can be included in...

Official Pollen Count data and 7-day forecast of pollen count levels for sufferers of hay fever and other pollen-related allergies generated by the School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne.

PP Systems 2026 Innovator’s Travel Award: $1000 each to deserving postdocs/grad students using instruments for innovative photosynthesis or soil CO2 research.