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The delineation of protein–lipid interfaces is essential for understanding the mechanisms of various membrane-associated processes crucial to plant development and growth, including signalling, trafficking, and membrane transport. Due to their highly dynamic nature, the precise characterization of lipid–protein interactions by experimental techniques is challenging. Molecular dynamics simulations provide a powerful computational alternative with a spatial–temporal resolution allowing the atomistic-level description. In this review, we aim to introduce plant scientists to molecular dynamics simulations. We describe different steps of performing molecular dynamics simulations and provide a broad survey of molecular dynamics studies investigating plant protein–lipid interfaces. Our aim is also to illustrate that combining molecular dynamics simulations with artificial intelligence-based protein structure determination opens up unprecedented possibilities for future investigations of dynamic plant protein–lipid interfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As plant research generates an ever-growing volume of spatial quantitative data, the need for decentralized and user-friendly visualization tools to explore large and complex datasets becomes crucial. Existing resources, such as the Plant eFP (electronic Fluorescent Pictograph) viewer, have played a pivotal role on the communication of gene expression data across many plant species. However, although widely used by the plant research community, the Plant eFP viewer lacks open and user-friendly tools for the creation of customized expression maps independently. Plant biologists with less coding experience can often encounter challenges when attempting to explore ways to communicate their own spatial quantitative data. We present 'ggPlantmap' an open-source R package designed to address this challenge by providing an easy and user-friendly method for the creation of ggplot representative maps from plant images. ggPlantmap is built in R, one of the most used languages in biology, to empower plant scientists to create and customize eFP-like viewers tailored to their experimental data. Here, we provide an overview of the package and tutorials that are accessible even to users with minimal R programming experience. We hope that ggPlantmap can assist the plant science community, fostering innovation, and improving our understanding of plant development and function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tissue dissociation results in single-cell datasets with limited spatiotemporal context. The predictive power of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) can be improved by complementing with methods that 'anchor' cells in space and time. We assess how the information content produced by various spatial technologies can be used to integrate spatial information into scRNA-seq datasets. We reflect on the initial promises of scRNA-seq and whether complementary spatial data can bring us closer to truly observing plant biology at cellular resolution. Plant scientists are rapidly integrating single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) into their workflows. Maximizing the potential of scRNA-seq requires a proper understanding of the spatiotemporal context of cells. However, positional information is inherently lost during scRNA-seq, limiting its potential to characterize complex biological systems. In this review we highlight how current single-cell analysis pipelines cannot completely recover spatial information, which confounds biological interpretation. Various strategies exist to identify the location of RNA, from classical RNA in situ hybridization to spatial transcriptomics. Herein we discuss the possibility of utilizing this spatial information to supervise single-cell analyses. An integrative approach will maximize the potential of each technology, and lead to insights which go beyond the capability of each individual technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tight regulation of protein composition within the plasma membranes of plant cells is crucial for the proper development of plants and for their ability to respond to a changing environment. Upon being endocytosed, integral membrane proteins can be secreted, sorted into multivesicular bodies/late endosomes, and degraded in the lytic vacuole, or recycled back to the plasma membrane to continue functioning. The evolutionarily conserved retromer complex has attracted the interest of plant cell biologists for over a decade as it has emerged as a key regulator of the trafficking of endocytosed integral plasma membrane proteins. Recently, a related recycling complex that shares a subunit with retromer was described in metazoan species. Named "retriever", homologs to the proteins that comprise this new recycling complex and its accessory proteins are found within plant lineages. Initial experiments indicate that there is conservation of function between metazoan and plant retriever proteins, suggesting that it is prudent to re-evaluate the available plant retromer data with the added potential of a plant retriever complex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As genomes of many eukaryotic species, especially plants, are large and complex, their de novo sequencing and assembly is still a difficult task despite progress in sequencing technologies. An alternative to genome assembly is the assembly of transcriptome, the set of RNA products of the expressed genes. While a bunch of de novo transcriptome assemblers exists, the challenges of transcriptomes (the existence of isoforms, the uneven expression levels across genes) complicates the generation of high-quality assemblies suitable for downstream analyses. Results: We developed Trans2express – a web-based tool and a pipeline of de novo hybrid transcriptome assembly and postprocessing based on rnaSPAdes with a set of subsequent filtrations. The pipeline was tested on Arabidopsis thaliana cDNA sequencing data obtained using Illumina and Oxford Nanopore Technologies platforms and three non-model plant species. The comparison of structural characteristics of the transcriptome assembly with reference Arabidopsis genome revealed the high quality of assembled transcriptome with 86.1% of Arabidopsis expressed genes assembled as a single contig. We tested the applicability of the transcriptome assembly for gene expression analysis. For both Arabidopsis and non-model species the results showed high congruence of gene expression levels and sets of differentially expressed genes between analyses based on genome and based on the transcriptome assembly. Conclusions: We present Trans2express – a protocol for de novo hybrid transcriptome assembly aimed at recovering of a single transcript per gene. We expect this protocol to promote the characterization of transcriptomes and gene expression analysis in non-model plants and web-based tool to be of use to a wide range of plant biologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Johann Emanuel Pohl (1782–1834) was a Bohemian‐born Austrian botanist who, together with Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, traveled to Brazil from 1817 to 1821. He described several new plant species from Brazil, including those in the genus Vellozia (Velloziaceae). The material analyzed by Pohl was deposited mainly at herbarium W; however, part of the collection was destroyed by war accidents, including most of the types of Vellozia. Vellozia is a Neotropical genus with its main distribution in the Brazilian vegetation named campos rupestres. Vellozia is among the most abundant and species‐rich vascular‐plant genera in the campos rupestres with 125 recognized species. Pohl described 14 new species of Vellozia. We designate lectotypes for the names V. gardneri (a synonym of V. glauca), V. graminea, V. phalocarpa, V. pusilla, and V. triquetra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flowering plants (angiosperms) are the dominant and defining group of the Earth ecosystems today. However, from which group and by what way flowers, especially their gynoecia (the key characteristic organs of angiosperms), are derived have been key questions in botany, and have remained unanswered despite botanists' efforts over centuries. Such an embarrassing situation can be attributed to the lack of plants with partially enclosed ovules, which are supposed fill a position between gymnosperms and angiosperms. Here, we report a fossil plant that has apparent coniferous vegetative and reproductive characters but has a single seed partially wrapped by the subtending bract. Such a morphology suggests that a carpel of some angiosperms is equivalent to a lateral appendage (a bract plus its axillary seed) of this fossil. Such a non-traditional interpretation of the homology of angiosperm carpels is compatible with various new progresses made in botany and is in line with Tomlinson's recent hypothesis. Together with other fossil evidence reported recently, it appears that gynoecia in angiosperms are derived in multiple ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an essential food for half of the global population and is vital in maintaining global food security. Climate change, increasing population and recent incident of COVID pandemic has generated financial burden and threaten the global food security. Due to theses factors rice cultivation also has to face significant challenges. frequent weather changes pose a considerable challenge to agricultural planning, which was previously relaying on consistent seasonal variations. In this context, rice cultivation is particularly sensitive to cold, where its development and productivity inhibited by low temperatures (< 18 °C). Developing rice varietes with low temprature tolerence and good yield potential is one of the major goals of current breeding efforts of plant scientists. For this purpose, short duration and early rice varieties are most favorable to avoid cold stress and yield more in less number of days. this study was designed to investigate the effect of low temperatures on different rice varieties. the study was designed to identify low temprature tolerent genotypes with early and regular cultivation. For this, thirty-four genotypes were evaluated in two gorwing seasons (2018–2019) with four different sowing times. Statistically sowing time showed significant interaction between all yield contributing parameters. The data indicate that exposure to low temperatures during the reproductive phase prolongs the maturation period of the crop, also length of the panicle and the fertility of the spikelets drops, resulting in a significant decrease in the production of sensitive varieties. Some varieties are more sensitive to cold stress compared to others. In the Egyptian context, Giza176, Sakha104, and Sakha107 are recommended for early cultivation, while the genotypes Giza 179, Sakha101, Sakha104, and GZ 9730-1-1-1-1 are indicated for the normal cultivation period. The Sakha104 variety is particularly notable, as it is recommended for both purposes. In addition, the data obtained in this study provide valuable information for selecting rice varieties suitable for double cropping in the North Delta of Egypt. This study also contributes to the existing literature, providing insights into the resilience of rice cultivation in the face of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Automated pollen analysis is not yet efficient on environmental samples containing many pollen taxa and debris, which are typical in most pollen‐based studies. Contrary to classification, detection remains overlooked although it is the first step from which errors can propagate. Here, we investigated a simple but efficient method to automate pollen detection for environmental samples, optimizing workload and performance.We applied the YOLOv5 algorithm on samples containing debris and c. 40 Mediterranean plant taxa, designed and tested several strategies for annotation, and analyzed variation in detection errors.About 5% of pollen grains were left undetected, while 5% of debris were falsely detected as pollen. Undetected pollen was mainly in poor‐quality images, or of rare and irregular morphology. Pollen detection remained effective when applied to samples never seen by the algorithm, and was not improved by spending time to provide taxonomic details. Pollen detection of a single model taxon reduced annotation workload, but was only efficient for morphologically differentiated taxa.We offer guidelines to plant scientists to analyze automatically any pollen sample, providing sound criteria to apply for detection while using common and user‐friendly tools. Our method contributes to enhance the efficiency and replicability of pollen‐based studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past and present status of Grapholita pallifrontana in Cambridgeshire has been investigated. The species was discovered in Cambridgeshire by William Warren, most likely in 1887; the next published record was in 2021. Its sole larval foodplant, Wild Liquorice Astragalus glycyphyllos has been well-documented by botanists since 1660. We visited the 15 monads with post-1985 records and relocated plants in 11 of them, plus one new adjacent monad. We subsequently revisited these 12 monads during the season when larvae are detectable within the seedpods, and found G. pallifrontana in six of the monads, concentrated in the southeast and southwest of VC29. The botanical history of these sites suggests that Wild Liquorice has probably only been present in these locations for the last half-century, and that both foodplant and moth must therefore be quite mobile. Records from adjacent vicecounties demonstrate an overall L-shaped G. pallifrontana distribution, with the Cambridgeshire colonies at its eastern extremity, and raise the question of whether most may belong to a single meta-population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Denis of Portugal's "Ai flores, ai flores do verde pino" [Oh flowers, oh flowers of the green pine] is the medieval monarch's most famous cantiga de amigo and one of the best-known songs of the Galician-Portuguese tradition. Many have read Denis's "pine song" as an allusion to the Pinhal de Leiria, the pine forest that he planted—or so the story went. Though Portuguese historians and paleobotanists have debunked the Leiria forest's origin story, a preponderance of documentary evidence from Denis's reign suggests that the monarch recognized forests as poetically generative sites of political and social tension. In this article, I chart ecocritical and new materialist paths through the "pine songs" of Denis and other Galician-Portuguese troubadours by examining the medieval forest in its cultural, commercial, and poetic dimensions. I contend that Denis's pines and his poems are affectively and acoustically co-constituted, concluding that the Galician-Portuguese troubadour tradition, particularly in its woman's-voice compositions, encodes important ecological knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor Dr. Pieter Baas, a distinguished scientist in plant anatomy and wood anatomy, passed away in Leiden, the Netherlands, on April 29th, 2024. He was an emeritus professor at Leiden University and a life and honorary member of the IAWA. Throughout his career, he made significant contributions to plant anatomy, forestry, wood science, and wood anatomy, and was recognized internationally for his work. He was known for his generosity, mentorship, and dedication to promoting the field of wood anatomy. His passing is a great loss to the IAWA community. [Extracted from the article]

The 10th International Conference on Serpentine Ecology was held in Nancy, France on 12–16 June, 2023. As a major international scientific forum in the field of serpentine (ultramafic) ecology, this conference brings together botanists, zoologists, microbiologists, physiologists, geneticists, geologists, soil scientists, and other applied specialists studying the ecology of ultramafic rocks and soil. A notable aspect of these meetings is the multidisciplinary nature of research on ultramafic biota, including diversity, ecology, evolution, physiology, and applied research in phytotechnologies and conservation. The main goals of the conference were to create a platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences and to promote scientific dialogue among scientists from numerous fields who share expertise in the study of ultramafic habitats worldwide. In this Special Issue we present the major topics and provide some highlights of the contributions to the 10th International Conference on Serpentine Ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal Impact Statement: Plant biology is an essential discipline for addressing global challenges from food security to climate change. In order to achieve this, we need to educate plant biologists who can contribute to research, enterprise, policy, public engagement and beyond. This article explores the potential of competency‐based education, which emphasises what students can do rather than what we know. A flexible and adaptable model of competency based plant biology education is presented, along with practical suggestions and examples. This provides a framework through which we can educate plant biologists equipped to address major scientific and societal challenges of the future. Summary: Plant biology is an essential discipline for addressing global challenges from food security to climate change. In order to achieve this we need to educate plant biologists who can contribute to research, enterprise, policy, public engagement and beyond. In this article, I explore some of the issues and challenges facing plant biology education from authentic research driven curricula to the impact of AI. In order to effectively educate the plant biologists of the future I propose moving to a competency based approach to education. Competency based education emphasises what students can do rather than what they know. I present a three‐domain competency model for plant biology, structured around (i) knowledge and information literacy (ii) disciplinary and professional experience and (iii) self‐awareness and personal development as three interdependent aspects of competency. I accompany this with twelve proposed competencies for plant biologists. The model is flexible, robust and adaptable to specific local requirements and future demands of plant biology education. In reimagining plant biology education in this way we can present our discipline as exciting and relevant to students, and equip them with the capabilities required to contribute to plant biology activity from research to public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origin of biological rhythms goes back to the very beginning of life. They are observed in the animal and plant world at all levels of organization, from cells to ecosystems. As early as the 18th century, plant scientists were the first to explain the relationship between flowering cycles and environmental cycles, emphasizing the importance of daily light-dark cycles and the seasons. Our temporal structure is controlled by external and internal rhythmic signals. Light is the main synchronizer of the circadian system, as daily exposure to light entrains our clock over 24 hours, the endogenous period of the circadian system being close to, but not exactly, 24 hours. In 1960, a seminal scientific meeting, the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Biological Rhythms, brought together all the biological rhythms scientists of the time, a number of whom are considered the founders of modern chronobiology. All aspects of biological rhythms were addressed, from the properties of circadian rhythms to their practical and ecological aspects. Birth of chronobiology dates from this period, with the definition of its vocabulary and specificities in metabolism, photoperiodism, animal physiology, etc. At around the same time, and right up to the present day, research has focused on melatonin, the circadian neurohormone of the pineal gland, with data on its pattern, metabolism, control by light and clinical applications. However, light has a double face, as it has positive effects as a circadian clock entraining agent, but also deleterious effects, as it can lead to chronodisruption when exposed chronically at night, which can increase the risk of cancer and other diseases. Finally, research over the past few decades has unraveled the anatomical location of circadian clocks and their cellular and molecular mechanisms. This recent research has in turn allowed us to explain how circadian rhythms control physiology and health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Miyakea integrifolia Miyabe and Tatew. was considered to be an endemic genus and species to Sakhalin Island, Russia, but the monotypic genus Miyakea was later subsumed into Pulsatilla as P. integrifolia (Miyabe & Tatew.) Vorosch. This taxonomic treatment has been supported by many botanists. At present, there are two opinions on the systematic position of P. integrifolia within the genus Pulsatilla: i) a separate monotypic subgenus Miyakea situated at the last position; ii) a close relative of P. patens and P. vernalis in ser. Patentes within the species-rich subgen. Pulsatilla. Since palynological evidence might be promising morphological traits for clarifying the systematic position of Miyakea, a table summarizing the pollen morphological traits within the genus Pulsatilla was prepared using the previous appropriate palynological reports. Hitherto, the morphology of Miyakea pollen supports the second opinion i.e., a close relative of P. patens and P. vernalis. Moreover, we pointed out the issues that should be focused on in future research on the pollen morphology of Pulsatilla s.l. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document titled "Thank you to Reviewers and Editors for 2023" is an editorial published in the Plant Cell journal. It expresses gratitude to the reviewers and editors who contributed to the journal's success by reviewing manuscripts from January 1 to December 31, 2023. The document also acknowledges the Senior Editors, Reviewing Editors, Guest Editors, and Assistant Features Editors who provided their expertise and service to the journal. The article is an open access publication distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. The given text is a list of names of individuals, presumably researchers or contributors, in the field of plant biology. The list includes a diverse range of names from various cultural backgrounds. It is not clear what specific topics or research areas these individuals are associated with. [Extracted from the article]

This study aims to analyze indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants used by traditional healers to treat gastrointestinal disorders in the Oued Souf region. Data were collected through open-ended, semi-structured interviews. Various statistical indices, such as UV and ICF, were employed to evaluate quantitative data. The findings reveal that traditional healers utilize 47 medicinal plant species from 22 families for treating gastrointestinal disorders. Lamiaceae and Asteraceae emerge as the most dominant families, with 9 and 7 species, respectively. The most frequently used plant parts were leaves (35%), and the predominant method of preparation was infusion (55%). Among the most popular plants used by local healers were Artemisia herba alba Asso (UV = 0.85) and Juniperus communis (UV = 0.75). The study highlights the significant number and variety of medicinal plants employed by traditional healers to address digestive disorders. Consequently, this research can aid scientists in identifying plants with medicinal properties that may contribute to the development of new medications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identification of natural hybrids considered as endangered species is of vital importance in taxonomy and biodiversity conservation, as natural hybrids will usually waste the conservation resource and efforts. During field surveys in the Sanqing Mountain, we found the endangered endemic species, Ilex sanqingshanensis, strictly co-occurred with I. ficoidea and I. pernyi and then hypothesized a hybrid origin for this taxon. Combing molecular analyzes of the nrDNA ITS and cpDNA (petA-psbJ + psbA-trnH) with morphological analyzes of eight leaf characters, we confirmed that this taxon is truly a hybrid between I. ficoidea and I. pernyi and we therefore to rename it as I. × sanqingshanensis. Despite the presence of intermediate morphological characteristics, this hybrid is sharply distinct from the two parents in almost all tested traits, misleading botanists who treated it as a species. Considering the inadequacies of morphological distinctions in distinguishing holly hybrids, we have emphasized the necessity of molecular evidence for erecting Ilex species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article correlates James Augustus Grant's (1827–92) career as an explorer and botanist with the imagery in his memorial in the crypt of St Paul's. It highlights the fact that Barkentin & Krall's depiction of the Nile marks a shift in iconography away from pyramids and sphinxes that coincided with Britain's territorial expansion in Egypt and Sudan and an associated rise in tourism and travel to the region. It also demonstrates how this particular landscape prioritizes Grant's botanical discoveries over his military career. The article thus usefully expands notions of empire in the St Paul's pantheon to include scientific discovery and exploration as well as emphasizing the importance of botanical life in sculpture studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food production and food security depend on the ability of crops to cope with anthropogenic climate change and successfully produce seed. To guarantee food production well into the future, contemporary plant scientists in Latin America must carry out research on how plants respond to environmental stressors such as temperature, drought, and salinity. This review shows the opportunities to apply these results locally and abroad and points to the gaps that still exist in terms of reproductive processes with the purpose to better link research with translational work in plant breeding and biotechnology. Suggestions are put forth to address these gaps creatively in the face of chronic low investment in science with a focus on applicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional knowledge of medicines gets transferred from generation to generation among the tribal people verbally. Since recent past some ethnobotanists started scientific documentation of it. Beside other plants, orchids also kept their deep footprint in traditional medicines. India is a country of orchid richness with 1300 orchid species, out of those approximately 250 orchid species are being used in tribal, Ayurvedic and Unani system of medicine. In spite of having high medicinal potential, very often orchids are ignored as medicinal herbs, and emphasized as ornamental plants in India. Use of orchids in the field of medicine can draw a lot of economic benefits to the drug development industries and socioeconomic benefits to the orchid farmers. For that a compiled source of information about traditional knowledge on medicinal potential of orchids can be a good source of reference. The present review can serve the purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a concise review of the floristic studies in Bulgaria since the first fragmentary notes by foreign travelers and researches (on the turn of the 18th century) and up to the publication of the Flora of Bulgaria by Nikolay Stoyanov and Boris Stefanov (1924-1925) a century ago. The book had stirred then a wide-ranging response and great interest among the European botanists. It was the first work of the kind on the interesting and rich flora of the northeastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Flora was also of great importance for the Bulgarian botanists for rendering a strong impetus to the development of floristic, phytogeographical, phytocoenological and other botanical studies in Bulgaria. By 1966, the Flora of Bulgaria by N. Stoyanov and B. Stefanov had undergone three supplemented and improved editions, while in its fourth edition (1966-1967) participated Boris Kitanov. It has retained its importance ever since for determination of the plant species occurring in Bulgaria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the Italian contribution to the description and treatment of parkinsonism following encephalitis lethargica (EL): postencephalitic parkinsonism (PEP). Special attention is devoted to the description of postencephalitic symptoms by Giuseppe Panegrossi (1871–1953) and to the treatment based on Atropa belladonna introduced in Italy and extensively supported by Arturo Nannizzi (1887–1961), who was charged by the queen of Italy with conducting research into this plant and advocating its cultivation for healing purposes. This article gives us the unique opportunity to revisit the figure of this distinguished botanist, providing a summary of his biography, interests, and achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

French Minim friar Charles Plumier (1646−1704), well known for his work as a botanist and for his observations made during three expeditions to the West Indies between 1687 and 1697, produced an enormous body of iconographic material held by the Bibliothèque centrale du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. Among Plumier's nearly 6,000 separate images of plants and animals made in the Antilles, birds are represented by 215 drawings, including whole specimens but also numerous detailed views of anatomy, osteological as well as internal soft parts. The bird drawings are here identified, described, and fully catalogued for the first time, and selected drawings are reproduced. Evidence is presented to emphasis the originality and scientific accuracy of Plumier's accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant phenotype is a complex entity largely controlled by the genotype and various environmental factors. Importantly, co-evolution has allowed plants to coexist with the biotic factors in their surroundings. Recently, plant endophytes as an external plant phenotype, forming part of the complex plethora of the plant microbial assemblage, have gained immense attention from plant scientists. Functionally, endophytes impact the plant in many ways, including increasing nutrient availability, enhancing the ability of plants to cope with both abiotic and biotic stress, and enhancing the accumulation of important plant secondary metabolites. The current state of research has been devoted to evaluating the phenotypic impacts of endophytes on host plants, including their direct influence on plant metabolite accumulation and stress response. However, there is a knowledge gap in how genetic factors influence the interaction of endophytes with host plants, pathogens, and other plant microbial communities, eventually controlling the extended microbial plant phenotype. This review will summarize how host genetic factors can impact the abundance and functional diversity of the endophytic microbial community, how endophytes influence host gene expression, and the host–endophyte–pathogen disease triangle. This information will provide novel insights into how breeders could specifically target the plant–endophyte extended phenotype for crop improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the intricate dynamic impact of combined stresses on plant growth and productivity amidst escalating climate change is one of the most prevalent challenges for today's plant stress biologists. This commentary emphasizes the necessity of employing a centralized resource to collect and analyse scattered data on combined and individual abiotic and biotic stresses in plants. Introducing the Stress Combinations and their Interactions in Plants Database, we underscore its role in consolidating and comprehending diverse omics datasets and facilitating interdisciplinary research efforts to advance agricultural research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species identification is fundamental to all aspects of biology and conservation. The process can be challenging, particularly in groups including many closely related or similar species. The problem is confounded by the absence of an up-to-date taxonomic revision, but even with such a resource all but professional botanists may struggle to recognise key species, presenting a substantial barrier to vital work such as surveys, threat assessments, and seed collection for ex situ conservation. Genus Erica: An Identification Aid is a tool to help both amateurs and professionals identify (using a limited number of accessible characteristics) and find information about the 851 species and many subspecific taxa of the genus Erica. We present an updated version 4.00, with new features including integrating distribution data from GBIF and iNaturalist, links to taxonomic resources through World Flora Online, and a probability function for identifications, that is freely available for PCs. It remains a work in progress: We discuss routes forward for collaboratively improving this resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Winged, autorotating seeds from the genus Acer, have been the subject of study for botanists and aerodynamicists for decades. Despite this attention and the relative simplicity of these winged seeds, there are still considerable gaps in our understanding of how samara dynamics are informed by morphological features. Additionally, questions remain regarding the robustness of their dynamics to morphological alterations such as mass change by moisture or area change by damage. We here challenge the conventional approach of using wing-loading correlations and instead demonstrate the superiority of a classical aerodynamic model. Using allometry, we determine why some species deviate from interspecific aerodynamic behavior. We alter samara mass and wing area and measure corresponding changes to descent velocity, rotation rate, and coning angle, thereby demonstrating their remarkable ability to autorotate despite significant morphological alteration. Samaras endure mass changes greater than 100% while maintaining descent velocity changes of less than 15%, and are thus robust to changes in mass by moisture or damage. Additionally, samaras withstand up to a 40% reduction in wing area before losing their ability to autorotate, with the largest wings more robust to ablation. Thus, samaras are also robust to wing damage in their environment, a fact children joyfully exploit. Winged, autorotating seeds from the genus Acer can autorotate despite significant morphological alteration, enduring mass changes >% while maintaining descent velocity changes of <%. A classical aerodynamic model well predicts descent velocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This data descriptor presents a novel dataset collected using the quadrupedal robot ANYmal C in the Mediterranean coastal dune environment of the European Union (EU) habitats 2110 and 2120 in Sardinia, Italy. The dataset mainly consists of photos, videos, and point clouds of the coastal dunes, providing valuable information on the structure and composition of this habitat. The data was collected by a team of robotic engineers and plant scientists as result of a joint effort towards robotic habitat monitoring. The dataset is publicly available through Zenodo and can be used by researchers working in both the fields of robotics and habitat ecology and conservation. The availability of this dataset has the potential to inform future research and conservation efforts in the EU habitats 2110 and 2120, and it highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of habitat monitoring. This paper serves as a comprehensive description of the dataset and the methods used to collect it, making it a valuable resource for the scientific community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The herbarium Trèmols, preserved in the Botanical Institute of Barcelona (IBB), was created during the second half of the 19th century by the Catalan chemist and botanist Frederic Trèmols Borrell (Cadaqués 1831–1900). He was a member of important scientific institutions, including the Real Acadèmia de Ciències i Arts de Barcelona, the Societat Botànica Barcelonesa, the Société Botanique de France, and the Société Helvétique pour l'Échange des Plantes. The value of this herbarium lies in the large volume of specimens that it preserves (12,953) and the high percentage (61.9%) of material of foreign origin that it contains. The Trèmols herbarium was completely digitised in 2019 as part of a wider study that is aimed to classify, digitise, document, review, and, finally, make the IBB historical herbaria available to the scientific community. Herein, we provide a general overview of the almost 13,000 specimens of this collection, which can give valuable insight into the flora that existed more than 100 years ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laboratory automation can boost precision and reproducibility of science workflows. However, current laboratory automation systems are difficult to modify for custom applications. Automating new experiment workflows therefore requires development of one-off research platforms, a process which requires significant time, resources, and experience. In this work, we investigate systems to lower the threshold to automation for plant biologists. Our approach establishes a direct connection with a generic motion platform to support experiment development and execution from a computational notebook environment. Specifically, we investigate the use of the open-source tool-changing motion platform Jubilee controlled using Jupyter notebooks. We present the Duckbot, a machine customized for automating laboratory research workflows with duckweed, a common multicellular plant. The Duckbot comprises (1) a set of end-effectors relevant for plant biology, (2) software modules which provide flexible control of these tools, and (3) computational notebooks which make use of these tools to automate duckweed experiments. We demonstrate the Duckbot's functionality by automating a particular laboratory research workflow, namely, duckweed growth assays. The Duckbot supports setting up sample plates with duckweed and growth media, gathering image data, and conducting relevant data analysis. We discuss the opportunities and limitations for developing custom laboratory automation with this platform and provide instructions on usage and customization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climatic changes, exhaustion of resources, air and water pollution are the detrimental consequences of mismanaging the use of fossil fuels. Likewise, the low performance of the traditional energy-conversion plants encourages scientists to replace these plants with hybrid systems. Accordingly, this study suggests a biomass-based combined system encompassing a gasifier, a gas turbine, a S–CO 2 unit, along with a hot water heater. This system will be analyzed from exergy, and economic point of view also using the genetic algorithm optimization tool multi-objective optimization is carried out. The parametric analysis to evaluate the influences of various variables on the plant operation. It was found that the changing r p of the compressor have a small impact on the efficiencies while it increases the total exergy efficiency and cost. The largest exergy destruction rate of the plant was for the compressor unit with 7391 kW. After that the combustion chamber with 2124 kW represents the worst performance from exergy destruction rate point of view. The optimization is done according to five decision parameters of moisture content, compressor pressure ratio, T 9 , T 14 , and P 36. The objective functions were energy efficiency, exergy destruction rate, and total product cost rate. According to the results of multi-aspect optimization in the optimum point the energy efficiency, exergy destruction and cost of electricity are 33.44%, 12448.1 kw and 130.57 $/h, respectively. • Introduce a multi-generation plant integrated with biomass-feed gasifier. • Gasifier among all components has the highest exergy destruction with 7391 kW. • ANN optimization of system suggests different optimize states for introduced plant. • The optimized system efficiency and cost rate determined as 33.44% and 130.57 $/h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop improvement efforts have exploited new methods for modeling spatial trends using the arrangement of the experimental units in the field. These methods have shown improvement in predicting the genetic potential of evaluated genotypes. However, the use of these tools may be limited by the exposure and accessibility to these products. In addition, these new methodologies often require plant scientists to be familiar with the programming environment used to implement them; constraints that limit data analysis efficiency for decision-making. These challenges have led to the development of Mr.Bean, an accessible and user-friendly tool with a comprehensive graphical visualization interface. The application integrates descriptive analysis, measures of dispersion and centralization, linear mixed model fitting, multi-environment trial analysis, factor analytic models, and genomic analysis. All these capabilities are designed to help plant breeders and scientist working with agricultural field trials make informed decisions more quickly. Mr.Bean is available for download at https://github.com/ AparicioJohan/MrBeanApp. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premise: Leaf epidermal cell morphology is closely tied to the evolutionary history of plants and their growth environments and is therefore of interest to many plant biologists. However, cell measurement can be time consuming and restrictive with current methods. CuticleTrace is a suite of Fiji and R‐based functions that streamlines and automates the segmentation and measurement of epidermal pavement cells across a wide range of cell morphologies and image qualities. Methods and Results: We evaluated CuticleTrace‐generated measurements against those from alternate automated methods and expert and undergraduate hand tracings across a taxonomically diverse 50‐image data set of variable image qualities. We observed ~93% statistical agreement between CuticleTrace and expert hand‐traced measurements, outperforming alternate methods. Conclusions: CuticleTrace is a broadly applicable, modular, and customizable tool that integrates data visualization and cell shape measurement with image segmentation, lowering the barrier to high‐throughput studies of epidermal morphology by vastly decreasing the labor investment required to generate high‐quality cell shape data sets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the life and contributions of Douglas Ernest Yen, a renowned ethnobotanist and archaeobotanist known for his groundbreaking work in the Pacific and Asia. Topics include his accidental entry into ethnobotany, his significant research on the origins and dispersal of the sweet potato, and his collaborations with anthropologists and archaeologists to study agricultural practices across various regions, ultimately reshaping our understanding of Pacific history and culture.

Cytokinins (CK) are one of the most important classes of phytohormones that regulate a wide range of processes in plants. A CK receptor, a sensor hybrid histidine kinase, was discovered more than 20 years ago, but the structural basis for its signaling is still a challenge for plant biologists. To date, only two fragments of the CK receptor structure, the sensory module and the receiver domain, were experimentally resolved. Some other regions were built up by molecular modeling based on structures of proteins homologous to CK receptors. However, in the long term, these data have proven insufficient for solving the structure of the full-sized CK receptor. The functional unit of CK receptor is the receptor dimer. In this article, a molecular structure of the dimeric form of the full-length CK receptor based on AlphaFold Multimer and ColabFold modeling is presented for the first time. Structural changes of the receptor upon interacting with phosphotransfer protein are visualized. According to mathematical simulation and available data, both types of dimeric receptor complexes with hormones, either half- or fully liganded, appear to be active in triggering signals. In addition, the prospects of using this and similar models to address remaining fundamental problems of CK signaling were outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal Impact Statement: The human population is expected to reach 9.7 billion in the next 30 years, increasing the strain on our already precarious food system. Climate change is shifting weather patterns, leading to unpredictable and catastrophic events that further threaten the agronomic sector. Plant scientists are implementing biotechnological tools to sustainably increase both the production and nutritional content of our crops. Engineering GOLDEN2‐LIKE (GLK) transcription factors is a promising route to improve photosynthesis, as well as other important agronomical traits, to achieve food security for a growing population under an unpredictable climate. Summary: Using agricultural biotechnology to increase the photosynthetic efficiency of crops has been a focus of plant science research over the last two decades. Transcription factors coordinate the expression of gene networks that are the basis of plant development and physiological responses and, as such, are good targets to help improve photosynthesis. Among the known plant transcriptional regulators, GOLDEN2‐LIKE transcription factors (GLKs) may be ideal candidates to improve photosynthesis in crops, as they are master regulators of genes associated with photosynthesis and chloroplast biogenesis across a broad diversity of plant lineages. Moreover, recent work has revealed their involvement in environmental response, pathogen defence and development regulation across the plant's whole life cycle. Thus, manipulating GLK expression and activity, alone or likely in combination with other modifications, has clear potential to improve plant development and growth. Here, we review the research into GLK function and discuss the potential of these key transcription factors as biotechnological tools to enhance photosynthetic efficiency and stress tolerance in crops. Additionally, we take advantage of the vast plant genome and transcriptome datasets available to explore the evolutionary history of GLKs across the plant kingdom and discuss the implications for their adoption into crop engineering projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Automatically classifying plant leaves is a challenging fine-grained classification task because of the diversity in leaf morphology, including size, texture, shape, and venation. Although powerful deep learning-based methods have achieved great improvement in leaf classification, these methods still require a large number of well-labeled samples for supervised training,which is difficult to get. In contrast, relying on the specific coarseto-fine classification strategy, human botanists only require a small number of samples for accurate leaf recognition. Inspired by the classification strategy of human botanists, we propose a novel S²CL -- Leaf Net, which exploits multi-granularity clues with a hierarchical attention mechanism and boosts the learning ability with the supervised sampling contrastive learning with limited training samples to classify plant leaves as human botanists do. Specifically, to fully explore and exploit the subtle details of the leaves, a novel sampling transformation mechanism is combinedwith the supervised contrastive learning to enhance the network's perception of details by amplifying the discriminative regions with a weighted sampling of different regions. Furthermore, we construct the hierarchical attention mechanism to produce attention maps of different granularity, which helps to discover details in leaves that are important for classification. Experiments are conducted on the open-access leaf datasets, including Flavia, Swedish, and LeafSnap, which prove the effectiveness of the proposed S²CL -- Leaf Net . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]