Here's a round up of the top 20 papers you've been sharing this week on Bluesky. Papers behind a paywall are marked 💰otherwise they're free to access at time of checking.

There's a bit of a different look this week. I'm trying to write a program that helps editors format the article for email and web, so someone who isn't me can do this in the future. The process isn't quite finished yet.

A Recipe for a Good π. How to Properly Estimate Population Genetics Summary Statistics and Why we Should Systematically Report Them
Brault, M. et al. · Genome Biology and Evolution

In the context of questioning the utility of producing such a large amount of genomic data, whether for ecological or economic reasons, we argue that data publication should be standardized to ensure long-term reusability. Based on a literature review and key examples, we emphasize that despite the growing volume of available data, the lack of methodological documentation and the absence of metadata make most published polymorphism datasets incomparable, preventing the calculation of meaningful statistics and the application of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles.

Extracellular Antagonists: Offense and Counter-Defense in the Apoplast 💰
Armer, V. J., van der Hoorn, R. A. L. · Annual Review of Phytopathology

Extracellular interactions are pivotal in the plant–pathogen arms race. Fungal, bacterial, and oomycete pathogens manipulate the apoplast to control pH, water soaking, sugar levels, and nutrient availability. Plants respond to infection with an oxidative burst and secrete toxic metabolites and harmful hydrolases, but adapted pathogens have evolved intricate ways to disarm reactive and toxic plant metabolites and inhibit or degrade hydrolases. Pathogens also avoid their recognition by hiding, degrading, or modifying their elicitors and disabling cell surface receptors in various ways. In this review, we summarize our current knowledge on fascinating offense and counter-defense mechanisms in extracellular plant–pathogen interactions.

Reducing variability in habitat condition assessments is critical if nature‐market metrics are to represent true biodiversity change
Salamanca Leon, I. et al. · Conservation Science and Practice

The need for standardized metrics for measuring losses and gains in biodiversity has resulted in many countries and private sector initiatives looking to adapt England's Statutory Biodiversity Metric for mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG). BNG requires a minimum 10% uplift in biodiversity units out of infrastructure development, and the number of biodiversity units depends in part on field‐based habitat condition assessments. We carried out simulations to explore the influence of uncertainty in condition assessments and found that there is inherent variability that introduces bias, even when a habitat's true condition remains unchanged.

Biotic interactions biogeography: A framework for understanding how species interactions shape biodiversity patterns across scales
Galiana, N., Araújo, M. B. · PLOS Biology

The integration between biogeography and ecology has been historically limited due to the lack of data on biotic interactions across large spatial scales. The emergence of new methods and high-quality ecological network data at biogeographical scales are paving the way for a deeper integration of biogeography and ecology. This Essay examines this integration through three interconnected research areas: the effects of biotic interactions on species distributions; the influence of environmental gradients on biotic interactions; and the effects of biotic interactions on the environment. Recent progress and primary challenges are discussed, and suggestions provided on how to advance understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes across scales.

Discussed on Bluesky by @bjenquist.bsky.social.

Crop fields complement biodiversity in permanent grasslands across European landscapes
Boetzl, F. A. et al. · Nature Communications

Using 86 paired permanent grasslands and oilseed rape fields in five European countries, we assess how habitat type shaped plant, butterfly, wild bee, and carabid assemblages and whether increasing grassland amount in surrounding landscapes fosters the spillover of grassland-associated biodiversity to oilseed rape fields. We find habitat type rather than landscape-level grassland amount determines diversity and shapes species assemblages: plants and butterflies are more diverse in grasslands, while wild bees and carabids are equally or more diverse in oilseed rape fields.

Fabian A. Boetzl @fboetzl.bsky.social · on Bluesky

Fresh off the press! 📄We find that crop fields and semi-natural grasslands support complementary #biodiversity across #Europe. Semi-natural habitats alone are insufficient to ensure farmland biodiversity - biodiversity-friendly management of crop fields is essential. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Improving beach natural debris management for biodiversity conservation 💰
Gómez-Serrano, M. Á. · Trends in Ecology & Evolution

Natural debris deposited by the sea is essential for the functioning of the beach ecosystem. As tourist demands on the coast grow, aesthetic values become more important, and the indiscriminate cleaning of debris spreads from urban to natural beaches. A change in beach debris management is needed to ensure that organic debris plays its role where the sea has deposited it.

Miguel A Gómez Serrano @gomezserrano-ma.bsky.social · on Bluesky

Los restos mareales son esenciales para la conservación de las aves que crían en las playas: www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
Los pollos de Chorlitejo patinegro se esconden en ellos cada vez que se acerca un peligro, lo que incluye paseantes y bañistas. Mantener los restos en su sitio es vita para ellos

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Integrated analysis of fossils and molecular divergence time estimates a latest Jurassic origin of angiosperms
Wu, R. et al. · Nature Plants

Molecular timescales are based on the calibration of molecular evolution to geological time using fossil constraints, but conventional calibration strategies use limited and often subjectively interpreted fossil data. Here we used the Bayesian Brownian Bridge model to derive data-driven calibration densities on the basis of extensive fossil occurrence data. This approach integrates the uncertainty on extant and historical diversity to estimate clade age.

Nature Plants @natplants.nature.com · on Bluesky

New OA Article: "Integrated analysis of fossils and molecular divergence time estimates a latest Jurassic origin of angiosperms" rdcu.be/foNXh

... suggest a Late Jurassic origin of flowering plants, indicating a cryptic early history of angiosperms.

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Landscape quality drives ecological responses to habitat loss and fragmentation
Fletcher Jr, R.J. et al. · Nature Ecology & Evolution

Studies have suggested that the quality of the lands surrounding habitat patches can modify the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on species and influence biodiversity predictions across regions. As landscape matrices tend to be complex and vary with habitat change, isolating such effects is challenging. Here we disentangle the effects of habitat loss, fragmentation and surrounding landscape quality in a large, multiscale manipulative experiment on a plant–herbivore system.

Polychrome activity profiling distinguishes Cys proteases and their isoforms in plants
Zheng, K. et al.b · bioRxiv

Activity-based profiling with fluorescent probes is a powerful tool for the functional characterization of whole enzyme classes in crude proteomes. Here, we discovered that probe cocktails consisting of the E-64 warhead carrying different fluorophores via short linkers distinguishes the labeling of papain-like cysteine proteases and their isoforms because of their differential affinity to these probes. This causes polychrome labeling with specific apparent colors for different protease families and isoforms.

Anticipate, acclimate, recuperate and remember: How spatiotemporal signal integration controls flooding stress resilience in plants 💰
Rodriguez-Cisneros, C. et al. · Journal of Experimental Botany

Flooding is a major abiotic stress that restricts terrestrial plant growth and survival. A plant tissue’s ability to avoid or sustain critical oxygen deprivation (hypoxia) and subsequent re-oxygenation damage is vital for its survival. Submergence triggers rapid ethylene and hypoxia signalling that in turn control acclimation responses, promoting plant resilience. Interestingly, an extensive range of additional environmental and internal factors were shown to influence these canonical signalling pathways associated with flooding acclimation and tolerance. Here, we discuss how such integrative ethylene- and hypoxia-dependent signalling enables plants to anticipate and prepare for potential flooding-induced hypoxia stress, fine-tune acclimation according to the environmental and internal metabolic context, and effectively orchestrate re-oxygenation responses.

The plant immune receptor LORE binds agonistic and antagonistic 3-hydroxy fatty acid ligands via a dynamic loop in its G-type lectin domain
Shu, L. J. et al. · bioRxiv

Shedding light on plant proteolysis: genetically encoded fluorescent sensors as tools for profiling protease activities 💰
Fernández-Fernández, Á. D. et al. · The Plant Cell

Genome-wide modelling of plant transcription factor binding captures regulatory variants associated with phenotypic traits
Peleke, F.F. et al. · Nature Communications

Leibniz IPK @leibnizipk.bsky.social · on Bluesky

A team led by the @leibnizipk.bsky.social and @fz-juelich.de has developed an AI-model that predicts where regulatory proteins bind to plant DNA in order to switch genes on and off. The study has been published in "Nature Communications".

➡️Paper: tinyurl.com/mryxendn
➡️PR: tinyurl.com/37kpbpzh

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Imaging Double Fertilization in Maize
Calhau, A. R., Widiez, T. · bioRxiv

Thomas WIDIEZ @thomaswidiez.bsky.social · on Bluesky

Happy to share our protocol for imaging double fertilization in maize! 🌽🔬

📖 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We hope this resource will be useful for researchers studying plant reproduction, fertilization, and early seed development.

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Integrative analysis of CAM photosynthesis reveals its impact on primary metabolism in Yucca
Wickell, D. et al. · Journal of Experimental Botany

In planta haploid induction in maize and tomato through disruption of KOKOPELLI
Jacquier, N. M. et al. · bioRxiv

Thomas WIDIEZ @thomaswidiez.bsky.social · on Bluesky

The pre-print week 😅!.. Second MS now on BioRxiv

▶️ genome editing of KOKOPELLI confers haploid induction capacity in not one, but

TWO crops: 🌽 maize & 🍅 tomato

📖 doi.org/10.64898/202...

Huge thanks to everyone involved and our collaborators: @nathaliegonzalez.bsky.social, @inrae-bfp.bsky.social

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Heat stress induces the formation of unreduced male gametes by targeting translation in Arabidopsis meiocytes 💰
Schindfessel, C. et al. · The Plant Cell

Plastoglobules compartmentalize nitrogen assimilation in maize - Nature
Chen, D. et al. · Nature

Digitizing collections to unlock the full potential of palynology: A case study with the Smithsonian palynology collection
Jaramillo, C. et al. · PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET

Plants, People, Planet @plantspeopleplanet.bsky.social · on Bluesky

Digitizing collections to unlock the full potential of #palynology: A case study with the Smithsonian palynology collection

Methods & Techniques paper by Carlos Jaramillo, et al.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#LatestIssue #PlantScience

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When morphology stands still: constrained floral evolution in a mega-diverse legume genus
Maianne, M. et al. · Annals of Botany

Annals of Botany @annbot.bsky.social · on Bluesky

🎉 Good news! The paper ‘When morphology stands still: constrained floral evolution in a mega-diverse legume genus’ in @annbot.bsky.social by M. Maianne @mimomaianne.bsky.social is now #free for 2 weeks 🧵1/10

👉 doi.org/rbsb

@souzayagob.bsky.social
@fmachado.bsky.social
@aquitemcaqui.bsky.social

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Cover image: Driftwood by @abigalejachyms-team / Canva