Sadly, we don’t have time machines that would permit us to go back and see ancient evolution in action. So we have to make do with such devices and stratagems as inference, surmise, speculation, good honest-to-goodness old-fashioned guesswork, and investigating modern-day equivalents that might mimic the original phenomenon. Take for instance colonisation of the land by ‘plants’. Arguably, this was one of the most important events in creation of the modern-day planet we call home, but how could ‘terraphyte’s’ ancestors survive a much drier land-living existence and thus pave the way for a terrestrial take-over? Trying to get a handle on early plant adaptation to land, Linda Graham et al. have studied how well assumedly obligately aquatic algae could survive an ‘aeroterrestrial’ existence (i.e. living on and in soil, or covering surfaces such as rocks and tree barks; http://www.algaterra.org/AT5.htm). The group used ‘two species of the experimentally tractable, complex streptophyte algal genus Coleochaete’, chosen because it is one of the extant green algal genera most closely related to the embryophytes – the so-called ‘land plants’ ( see Burkhard Becker and Birger Marin’s Botanical Briefing in Annals of Botany)  – and therefore a plausible putative palaeological plant progenitor. What they discovered suggests that ancient complex streptophyte algae could grow and reproduce in moist subaerial habitats, and persist through periods of desiccation – as you’d need to in order to occupy a drier habitat. Consequently, land colonisation could be envisaged by ancient Coleochaete-like organisms (which are freshwater aquatics). Which is good to know, and also accords with the very latest ideas in terms of identifying the nebulous ‘crucible of creation’, which may not have been the oceans – as long thought – but freshwater ponds, according to work by Armen Mulkidjanian et al. (PNAS). Whilst this may upset the apple-cart of received wisdom in that field in challenging firmly held, long-cherished beliefs, at least it’s still arguing for an important aquatic dimension (even though it can be argued that it proposes that life on Earth originated on land – but let’s leave further deliberation thereon to the semanticists…). But! – and as pointed out by others – this 21st Century idea is reminiscent of the notion that evolution may have begun in a ‘warm little pond’, posited by a certain Mr C. Darwin in 1871. Which only goes to show that there’s practically nothing in biology that has not already been created by CD (and that ideas about evolution just keep evolving!).

[Mr Cuttings thought he’d invented the word terraphyte in penning this item. Well, he had, but not originally it would seem. In a ‘covering his backside’ moment, an internet search has revealed that the term has been used previously by ‘aquetus’ – interestingly in an article that has a strong warning about plagiarism – Ed.]

“The 2012 edition of the FAO Statistical Yearbook presents a visual synthesis of the major trends and factors shaping the global food and agricultural landscape and their interplay with broader environmental, social and economic dimensions.

In doing so, it strives to serve as a unique reference point on the state of world food and agriculture for policy-makers, donor agencies, researchers and analysts as well as the general public.

The book is subdivided into four thematic parts:

The setting measures the state of the agricultural resource base, by assessing the supply of land, labour, capital, inputs and the state of infrastructure, and also examines the pressure on the world food system stemming from demographic and macroeconomic change

Hunger dimensions gauges the state of food insecurity and malnutrition, measuring the multitude of dimensions that give rise to and shape undernourishment

Feeding the world evaluates the past and present capacity of world agricultural production and the role of trade in meeting changing food, feed and other demands

Sustainability dimensions examines the sustainability of agriculture in the context of the pressure it exerts on the environment including the interaction of agriculture with climate change, and how it can provide ecosystem services in relation to the bio-based economy”

See on www.fao.org

The family Balsaminaceae, which contains the species-rich genus Impatiens and the single-species genus Hydrocera (H. triflora), is essentially herbaceous and is nested into a largely woody clade of Ericales. Lens et al. compare a molecular phylogeny of Balsaminaceae with wood anatomical observations to determine whether the woodier species are derived from herbaceous relatives (i.e. secondary woodiness), or whether (primary) woodiness represents the ancestral state. The data show that secondary woodiness has evolved at least five times in parallel within Impatiens; however, these parallel shifts are indistinct because of the continuous variation in wood development between herbaceous and woody species.

Satellite DNA is a genomic component present in virtually all eukaryotic organisms and is an important element in genome organization and evolution in plants. Rosato el al. assess the presence and physical distribution of the repetitive DNA E180 family in 70 accessions from Medicago and allied genera. The results suggest that recurrent and independent evolutionary episodes of amplification appear to have been produced in both annual and perennial Medicago species as well as in basal and derived clades, and hence the use of repetitive DNA families as phylogenetic markers in this genus should be viewed with caution.

Fishing Lake Hawassa, Ethiopia: Rift Valley lakes and catching Tilapia and Catfish

Fishing boats on the side of Lake Hawassa, Awassa in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia. Opening with a view of lake from a park next to the shoreline where fish is landed, the film shows the landing, folding of nets, gutting and preparing of hte fish.

Drug-making plant blooms

Approval of a ‘biologic’ manufactured in plant cells may pave the way for similar products.

First Drug from GM Plant Approved

This week (May 1), the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug for humans produced by a genetically modified plant. Made by Israeli biotech Protalix Biotherapeutics and licensed in the US by Pfizer, Elelyso is an enzyme replacement therapy for Gaucher disease, a rare genetic disorder in which individuals do not produce enough of an enzyme called glucocerebrosidase, resulting in the buildup of fatty materials in the spleen, liver, and other organs.

Ecosystem effects of biodiversity loss could rival impacts of climate change, pollution

Loss of biodiversity appears to impact ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of environmental stress, according to a new study. The study is the first comprehensive effort to directly compare the impacts of biological diversity loss to the anticipated effects of a host of other human-caused environmental changes.

Theobrominated: Is biology zoonormative?

A geneticist colleague once told me a story about hiking with another biologist. The forest was quiet and still, from the emergent podocarps and the tawa canopy right down to the ferns and mosses on the forest floor (sadly often the case in New Zealand forest since introduced mammals ate most of our native birds). The other biologist's reaction to this was to say, "It's so quiet; there's nothing alive here!" To what extent is our thinking and teaching in biology zoonormative?

Why taxonomy is important for biodiversity-based science

Taxonomy usually refers to the theory and practice of describing, naming and classifying living things. Such work is essential for the fundamental understanding of biodiversity and its conservation. Yet the science behind delimiting the natural world into “species” is often neglected, misunderstood or even derided in some quarters.

The paper give the example of rattans of Africa, leading to the publication of a taxonomic monograph of these climbing palms. Taxonomic work of this kind is not purely an academic exercise. It is an essential basis for the conservation, development and management of the resource itself. It is important that the differences between species are clearly understood so that we know which species are of commercial importance and how they can be distinguished from other species that are not utilised and why. This knowledge is essential in order to undertake meaningful inventories of commercially important species and to be able to assess the potential of each species for cultivation and sustainable management. A structured taxonomic framework also ensures that any experimental or development work undertaken is replicable.

Sperm racing: the tortoise and the hare

Once they conquered the land, the earliest land plants (the bryophytes) were like the amphibians: they can live on dry land, but they need water for mating. The seed plants acquired a kind of internal fertilization, because they use pollen grains to deliver their sperms right to the stigma or the ovule, where a pollen tube can take it the last few millimetres to the egg. In this, the seed plants resemble the mammals. However, this is an analogy. These plants are doing similar things to the animals for similar reasons, but in completely different ways.

Science of the Invisible: Google+? It’s very simple

f you’re interested in science communication, or learning about science, Google+ is the hot place to be. In January 2012, Google changed the game when it introduced “Search plus your world”, adding a social element to search results. Talk to any publisher and they will tell you that Google is still by far the biggest player in search, so if you want people to read about your science, you need to pay attention

IWMI : CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems – Overview

Worldwide research initiative launched to tackle global crises in water, food and the environment

An ambitious new research program, launched by the world’s largest consortium of international agricultural researchers, aims to address some of the world’s most pressing problems related to boosting food production and improving livelihoods, whilst simultaneously protecting the environment.The program focuses on the three critical issues of water scarcity, land degradation and ecosystem services, as well as the CGIAR System Level Outcome of sustainable natural resource management. It will also make substantial contributions to the System Level Outcomes on food security, poverty alleviation and, to a minor extent, health and nutrition.

RuSource: Economic evidence for investing in the environment

There are many examples where green infrastructure offers much better value for public investment than the alternative, for example natural water filtration and natural flood defence.

Alan Spedding over at RuSource had identified and summarized an important report with the less-than-exciting title "Natural England Research Report NERR033 ‘Microeconomic Evidence for the Benefits of Investment in the Environment – review’.

Natural climate control is much cheaper than the air-conditioning (or heating) it replaces. Natural air filtering is likely to be efficient compared to technical alternatives, particularly as trees provide so many other benefits. Access to greenspace and the promotion of active travel are extremely cost-effective ways to address Mental and physical ill-health.

From RuSource and Natural England

The timing and synchrony of male and female flowering in wheat is a crucial determinant of seed set and may be an important factor affecting gene flow and resilience to climate change. Lukac et al.  assess the anther and stigma activity of each floret on developing ears of wheat, Triticum aestivum, and find that synchrony between pollen dehiscence and stigma collapse within a flower is dependent on its relative position in a spike and within a floret. Modelling the observations indicates that the temporal and spatial variability of anther activity within and between spikes may influence the relative resilience of wheat to sudden, extreme climatic events.

The main function of plant latex is assumed to be defensive, preventing entry of pathogens into wounds. Bauer and Speck examine the role of coagulation of latex in restoring mechanical properties by measuring the tensile strength of bark samples of Ficus benjamina (weeping fig) at intervals after wounding. They find a significant increase in strength occurs during the first 30 minutes after injury, and this can be attributed to the coagulation of plant latex alone. This seals the lesion and may prevent cracks in the bark from spreading.

A Carnivorous Plant Fed by Its Ant Symbiont: A Unique Multi-Faceted Nutritional Mutualism. (2012) PLoS ONE 7(5): e36179. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036179
Scarcity of essential nutrients has led plants to evolve alternative nutritional strategies, such as myrmecotrophy (ant-waste- derived nutrition) and carnivory (invertebrate predation). The carnivorous plant Nepenthes bicalcarata grows in the Bornean peatswamp forests and is believed to have a mutualistic relationship with its symbiotic ant Camponotus schmitzi. However, the benefits provided by the ant have not been quantified. We tested the hypothesis of a nutritional mutualism, using foliar isotopic and reflectance analyses and by comparing fitness-related traits between ant-inhabited and uninhabited plants. Plants inhabited by C. schmitzi produced more leaves of greater area and nitrogen content than unoccupied plants. The ants were estimated to provide a 200% increase in foliar nitrogen to adult plants. Inhabited plants also produced more and larger pitchers containing higher prey biomass. C. schmitzi-occupied pitchers differed qualitatively in containing C. schmitzi wastes and captured large ants and flying insects. Pitcher abortion rates were lower in inhabited plants partly because of herbivore deterrence as herbivory-aborted buds decreased with ant occupation rate. Lower abortion was also attributed to ant nutritional service. The ants had higher d15N values than any tested prey, and foliar d15N increased with ant occupation rate, confirming their predatory behaviour and demonstrating their direct contribution to the plant-recycled N. We estimated that N. bicalcarata derives on average 42% of its foliar N from C. schmitzi wastes, (76% in highly-occupied plants). According to the Structure Independent Pigment Index, plants without C. schmitzi were nutrient stressed compared to both occupied plants, and pitcher-lacking plants. This attests to the physiological cost of pitcher production and poor nutrient assimilation in the absence of the symbiont. Hence C. schmitzi contributes crucially to the nutrition of N. bicalcarata, via protection of assimilatory organs, enhancement of prey capture, and myrmecotrophy. This combination of carnivory and myrmecotrophy represents an outstanding strategy of nutrient sequestration.

The potential for gene exchange between species with different ploidy levels has long been recognized, but only a few studies have tested this hypothesis in situ and most of them have focused on not more than two co-occurring species.

De hert et al  examine hybridization patterns in three species of the genus Dactylorhiza (Orchidaceae; diploid D. incarnata and D. fuchsii, and allotetraploid D. praetermissa). Morphometric and molecular analyses indicate that the majority of hybrids are F₁ hybrids.

Crossing experiments show strong post-zygotic barriers and high sterility of the hybrids; however, the presence of triple hybrids indicates that in some cases hybridization may extend the F₁ generation.

ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase), a key enzyme in starch biosynthesis, is comprised of large (LSU) and small (SSU) sub-units encoded by multiple paralogous genes in angiosperms. Corbi et al. investigate the patterns of molecular evolution of AGPase genes following duplications. They find that both coevolution among amino acid residues located in between-sub-unit interaction domains or within the highly constrained SSU, and repeated subfunctionalization events under the ‘Escape from Adaptive Conflict’ model have contributed to AGPase evolution.