Inspiring the Botanists of the future
Part of the goal of Plant Cuttings items is to share news of botanical research with the wider plant-minded community, the better to advertise that wonderful example of human scientific endeavour. And that’s fine for promoting the work of established plant scientists. But what about the not unimportant – i.e. very important – matter of trying to ensure ‘continuity of supply’? How do we enthuse the new botanists to replace those who will eventually retire, etc. (and whose own future discoveries and contributions to botanical knowledge may one day be shared via a Plant Cutting)? To help with that, and another aim of these items, is to inform the current crop of plant practioners of ‘tools’ and resources that they can use to inspire the next generation of plant biologists. So, here’s a round-up (no glyphosate[1]-related pun intended; these items are intended to ‘cause to flourish’ rather than kill…) of some that caught my eye recently.
First – although in no particular order of importance– is the initiative of Prof. Lena Struwe (of the USA’s Rutgers University[2])*. Called Botany Depot[3,4], this resource aspires to be “a global website for creative ideas and materials for teaching botany in the 21st century for all ages and levels”. Whilst the focus of most of those resources is on existing students and inspiring plant knowledge and understanding within that important audience, it is equally necessary to reach out to the general public and help them to appreciate the importance of plant science and plants more generally. Developing projects and activities to achieve that admirable aim[5] was part of the outcomes of the ASPB Conviron Scholars Program[6,7]. Organised by the ASPB (the American Society of Plant Biology[8]), the programme’s participants were drawn from a global pool of talented and aspiring plant scientists from the USA, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, and Belgium[6]. Many of the projects are suitable not only for informing but also enthusing the general public with plant science. They should also work well with students (who, after all, until they commit to a plant science career, are also members of the general public…), and can be explored here[5].
A personal interest of mine is exploring the inter-relatedness of plants and people. That is catered for by Herbaria 3.0[9]. Although it’s arguably less ‘academic’ in focus than some of the other resources considered in this item, it encourages the sharing of stories about plants and people, especially those that cause us to recall and reflect upon the important role that plants play in all our lives. The more such stories are shared, the more people might realise how important plants are. This in turn might also help to inspire a desire to study them further. All of the resources mentioned have the goal of sharing the excitement and joy that one gets from knowing about plants. If that helps to enthuse, inspire, and create the next generation of plant biologists, that is a job well done.
At the other end of the spectrum of ‘outreach’ and spreading the message that plants are cool (too!… [10]) and worthy of study, a quick mention of Plant Roots and Light[11], a blog by Dr Kasper van Gelderen (Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands[12]). Kasper is an established plant scientist whose research focusses on the integration of shade avoidance signals from the shoot to the root and vice versa. His blog concentrates on those aspects of his professional life, with the intention to introduce this work to a broader audience. Real plant scientists blogging about their work (or using other social media platforms), with passion, is another great way of inspiring more and future plant scientists – and is another free resource to use and share. Blog on, Kasper – et al.[13]!**
* Regular readers of Plant Cuttings might recognise this name[14], for it’s the same person that runs the Better Botanical Business Bureau, which appears as the Botanical Accuracy blog site[15]. The latest item to appear there [when this Cutting was written] was a surgical dissection of a press release from the University of Bristol (Bristol, UK)[16]. Entitled “Plants colonized the earth 100 million years earlier than previously thought”, it purports to report the science behind Jennifer Morris et al.’s paper “The timescale of early land plant evolution”[17]. However, rather than just itemise the perceived deficiencies and inaccuracies in the press release (and explain why they are deficient and/or inaccurate…), Prof. Struwe also helpfully provides a reworked version of the press release. In that way she is attempting to educate those who report on the work of botanists. After all, it is important to have the important work of botanists reported in the most accurate way possible.
** One was tempted to say ‘High Five’[18] to Kasper, as an appreciative pun that alludes to his work with the HY5 transcription factor[19]. But that might be far too specialist for the more generalist audience a Plant Cutting item is trying to reach. So I resisted the temptation…
Image from: Wikimedia Commons
References
When plant biology meet physics…
Great things are possible when disciplines that may be studied separately and distinctly are brought together. For example, and famously, when botany, zoology, bacteriology, mycology, protistology, virology, chemistry, physics, and anthropology (and maybe a few more ‘-ologies’ and non-ologies…) come together we get the new(-ish) discipline of ecology. More modestly, this item is concerned just with two sciences, botany and physics*. And its sole declared intention is to alert the readers of Plant Cuttings – who are a switched-on plant-minded bunch – to a special issue of Physics World. Although this is a journal that may not be on their radar as far as plant-related reading goes, April 2018’s issue featured many articles that take a physics perspective on plant matters[1]. And, because Plant Cuttings is about service to the botanical community, I’ve done the hard work for you (and it took quite a while to do…) and tracked down freely-available copies of that issue’s plant physics articles. So, you can now read about: Cornell University (USA) botanist Karl Niklas[2,3]**; the issues of growing plants in space[4]; nano-strategies used by flowers for colour and pollinator-attraction[5]; discover the connection between transpiration and cooling vehicles that travel at hypersonic speeds[6]***; gain insights into how electric fields can affect root growth and regeneration[7]****; and discover whether – or not – photosynthesis is ‘quantum-ish’[8]. Happy to help put some ‘fizz’ back into your botany.
* More examples of ‘when botany meets physics’ can be found in the following Cuttings item, Flowers (it’s what angiosperms are all about!). For a good source of plant (and other lifeforms) and physics investigations, we recommend the Journal of the Royal Society Interface[9], which publishes “cross-disciplinary research at the interface between the physical and life sciences”.
** For a video of Prof. Niklas talking about plants and physics (and thereby promoting his book Plant Physics, co-authored with Hanns-Christof Spatz[10]), visit [11].
*** Since transpiration is primarily a xylem-related phenomenon, in the interests of balance we shouldn’t neglect that other long-distance vascular transport pathway – the phloem. For an update on the physics of phloem we recommend Kaare Jensen’s article[12].
**** For more about the phenomenon of electrical signals originating in the root of vascular plants, see Javier Canales et al.[13].
Image from: Wikimedia Commons
References
Flowers (it’s what angiosperms are all about!)
Although one shouldn’t, it is easy to accept that flowers (the defining feature of the angiosperms, the flowering plants[1]) are ‘just there’ and get on with life in their quiet, seemingly unremarkable way. If one subscribed to that view, hardly any study of floral biology would be carried out, and we’d miss a lot of really interesting stuff. To demonstrate just what we might have been missing, this item showcases several insights into aspects of the biology of flowers that have surfaced so far in 2018.
The intimate association between flowers and their pollinators provides many examples of ways in which flowers are adapted to specific pollinating organisms. In a study of field bean (Vicia faba, faba bean[2,3]), Emily Bailes et al.[4] investigated – among other aspects – the ‘operative strength’ of a flower. The operative strength is equivalent to the force a pollinator needs to exert to ‘trip’ a flower so that it can gain access to the pollen-containing interior. For the bean lines studied it ranged between 17.1 and 20.1 mN. Although those values might not mean all that much to the uninitiated it does imply that only certain insects will be powerful enough to open the flowers and therefore act as pollinators of this species. So, while this flower-accessing feat should be easily achieved by bees such as Bombus spp. (bumble-bees[5]) – which can exert over 200 mN force – it might prove problematic for weaker individuals of Apis mellifera (the honey bee[6]) which can only generate approx. 26 mN of force, and other smaller – and less powerful – bee species. This analysis therefore introduces another factor to bee (yes, ‘typo’ intended…) considered specifically in breeding field bean lines and varieties to suit available pollinators to maximise crop yield. It also has relevance more generally for other crops where insects must physically open the flowers to participate in pollinating activity.
But, having allowed a suitable pollinator to access the flower, what’s the best way to ensure the visitor gets coated with pollen, the better to pollinate the next flower it visits? Callin Switzer et al. examined this phenomenon in mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia[7,8]). This plant releases pollen in an explosive fashion when the anthers are triggered by appropriate insects. Although the pollen moves at only approx. 8 mph, its acceleration to achieve that is 400 times the acceleration due to gravity (!)[9]. Importantly, pollen-release appears only to be activated by insects such as bumble and honey bees, which are able to effectively transfer that pollen to other flowers. Combined with other aspects of the investigation, this study appears to settle the question of whether this pollen-release mechanism is for insect pollination (yes) or wind-dispersal of the pollen (apparently not).
Once flowers have been pollinated, and fertilised, and seed formed, there’s the issue of how to jettison the seed so it lands sufficiently far away from the parent to have a chance of establishing itself as a new individual. To achieve this feat, the wild petunia (Ruellia ciliatiflora[10]) also employs an explosive release mechanism to launch its seeds at velocities exceeding 30 mph[11], and which land up to 7 m away from the parent plant. But there’s more to this phenomenon than that, as Eric Cooper et al.[12] have revealed. In particular, using high-speed video of the seeds’ flight, they show that the seeds spin at 1600 revolutions a second. This ‘backspin’ stabilises the flight of the seeds in such a way that it reduces the energy costs for their dispersal by up to a factor of five. Not only that, but the spinning reduces drag enabling the seeds to travel further from the parent plant than if they didn’t spin.
Finally, we must appreciate that flowers are such a precious and all-important part of the angiosperm’s life-cycle that they need to be protected from those organisms that would eat them. We began this item with flower opening; we come full circle now and end with an example of floral closure (and, coincidentally, a third example of rapid movement in a plant related to floral biology). Investigating Drosera tokaiensis[13] – a sundew[14], which group of insectivorous plants are probably better-known for their mechanically-stimulated tentacles and leaves whose movements help to trap and wrap insect prey[15,16] – Kazuki Tagawa et al. report that its petals close rapidly in response to mechanical stimulation[17]. Petal closure was recognised and brought about artificially – by humans touching the flower with a pair of tweezers (e.g. [18]). However, the authors speculate that this phenomenon may function in nature as a defence against specialist florivores (organisms that consume flowers prior to seed coat formation[19]) that would eat the flowers rather than play a role in their pollination. Whether any such specialist sundew flower-eating organisms exist was not mentioned in the paper, but this remains an intriguing hypothesis that is ripe for testing. It could be further speculated, that sudden petal closure might startle or dislodge the florivore so that it falls off the flower on to the equally mechano-sensitive insect-trapping leaves of the plant and ends up as lunch itself; the would-be plant-predator plummets to be predated by the plant. Flowers, much more than meets the eye.
[Ed. – Mindful that there might be ‘communications’ complaining that what’s described above doesn’t reflect any single flower that’s known to exist in nature, we would like to emphasise that the above account is not based on a flower of any known single flowering plant species, but is a compendium of insights into aspects of floral biology from several different species (as indicated by the different taxa specified).]
Image from: Wikimedia Commons
