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SchoolofBiosciences

NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2017

From the Editor……

A happy Christmas and scientifically productive New Year to all our readers

Kevin

RECENT SUCCESFUL PhD STUDENTS IN THE PLANT AND CROP SCIENCES DIVISION Jenn Yang Chee - supervisors Chiew Foan Chin, Teng Jin Kho and Grantley Lycett. Thesis entitled “ In vitro transformation of Capsicum frutescens for the production of vanillin”. Nurniwalis Abdul Wahab - supervisors Festo Massawe and Jerry Roberts. Thesis entitled “Physiological, biochemical and molecular analyses of fruit development in oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.)” Aliyu Siise Abdullah Bamba - supervisors Festo Massawe and Sean Mayes. Thesis entitled “ Beyond landraces : framework for the genetic improvement of Bambara groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.] for global food security”. Adeelah Alvi,– supervisor Matt Dickinson. Thesis entitled “ Characterising populations of Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) using molecular markers”. Behzad Talle – supervisor Zoe Wilson. Thesis entitled “ Manipulating male fertility in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)”. Paul Waldron – supervisors Greg Tucker, Ian King and Julie King. Thesis entitled “The generation of dual purpose wheat that is high yielding, adapted to climate change and provides straw that is specifically adapted for bio-refining.”

CHRISTMAS FUDDLE IN THE DIVISION

12.30 – 2pm on Thursday 14th December 2017

Come along to Plant Science Foyer To share a lunch with one another Just bring a plate of food to “The Do” The intention is for all to share it with you Just like last year and if not sure what to bring Bring Food of your choice – bring anything!!!

SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM PLANT AND CROP SCIENCES STAFF

(in no particular order) Liu, HR; Cao, XM; Liu, XH; Xin, R; Wang, JJ; Gao, J; Wu, BP; Gao, LX; Xu, CJ; Zhang, B; Grierson, D; Chen, KS (2017) UV-B irradiation differentially regulates terpene synthases and terpene content of peach. Plant Cell and Environment 40: 2261-2275. Pound, MP; Atkinson, JA; Townsend, AJ; Wilson, MH; Griffiths, M; Jackson, AS; Bulat, A; Tzimiropoulos, G; Wells, DM; Murchie, EH; Pridmore, TP; French, AP (2017) Deep machine learning provides state-of-the-art performance in image-based plant phenotyping. Gigascience 6: 10.

Norton GJ; Travis AJ; Danku JMC; Salt DE; Hossain M; Islam MR; Price AH (2017) Biomass and elemental concentrations of 22 rice cultivars grown under alternate wetting and drying conditions at three field sites in Bangladesh. Food and Energy Security 6: 98-112. Wang, XH; Chen, YL; Thomas, CL; Ding, GD; Xu, P; Shi, DX; Grandke, F; Jin, K; Cai, HM; Xu, FS; Yi, B; Broadley, MR; Shi, L (2017) Genetic variants associated with the root system architecture of oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) under contrasting phosphate supply. DNA Research 24: 407-417. Chai, HH; Massawe, F; Mayes, S (2016) Assessment of a segregating population for the improvement of drought tolerance in Bambara groundnut. (Onus, N; Currie, A eds.) XXIX International Horticultural Congress On Horticulture: Sustaining Lives, Livelihoods And Landscapes (Ihc2014): International Symposium On Plant Breeding In Horticulture. Book Series: Acta Horticulturae 1127: 339-345. Subramanian, NK; White, PJ; Broadley, MR; Ramsay, G (2017) Variation in tuber mineral concentrations among accessions of Solanum species held in the Commonwealth Potato Collection. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 64: 1927-1935. Manzeke, MG; Mtambanengwe, F; Nezomba, H; Watts, MJ; Broadley, MR; Mapfumo, P (2017) Zinc fertilization increases productivity and grain nutritional quality of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp.) under integrated soil fertility management. Field Crops Research 213: 231-244. Gonzalez-Carranza, ZH; Zhang, XB; Peters, JL; Boltz, V; Szecsi, J; Bendahmane, M; Roberts, JA (2017) HAWAIIAN SKIRT controls size and floral organ number by modulating CUC1 and CUC2 expression. PLOS ONE 12: 9 Article Number: e0185106.

Figure 1. Rescue of fertility by DEX induction of MYB26. A, myb26 mutant carrying the MYB26pro:MYB26-GR-YFP transgeneline before DEX treatment showing short, sterile siliques due to a lack of self-fertilization as a result of a failure of anther de-hiscence. B,myb26mutant carrying theMYB26pro:MYB26-GR-YFP transgene line after DEX treatment, showing rescued fertilityand elongated, filled siliques on the upper region of the inflorescences (arrows); below the rescued fertile siliques were malesterile short, seedless siliqueswhich developed before theDEX treatment. C, Close-up of the inflorescence from the transgene linebefore DEX treatment, showing short siliques (arrow), which do not contain seeds. D, Close-up of the inflorescence from thetransgene line showing rescue of fertility and elongated, filled siliques (arrows) after DEX treatment. E, Wild-type flower showinganther dehiscence and pollen release. F, Flower from the myb26 mutant carrying the MYB26pro:MYB26-GR-YFP transgenebefore DEX treatment, showing a lack of anther dehiscence and pollen release. G, Flower from the myb26mutant line carryingtheMYB26pro:MYB26-GR-YFP transgene line after DEX treatment, showing rescue of anther dehiscence. H to J, Confocal imagesof anthers after ethidium bromide/acridine orange staining for secondary thickening. H, Wild-type anther showing lignified

336 Plant Physiol. Vol. 175, 2017

Yang et al.

www.plantphysiol.orgon October 3, 2017 - Published by Downloaded from Copyright © 2017 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved.

Control of anther secondary thickening in Arabidopsis As recently published by Yang, CY; Song, J; Ferguson, AC; Klisch, D; Simpson, K; Mo, R; Taylor, B; Mitsuda, N; Wilson, ZA (2017) Transcription factor MYB26 is key to spatial specificity in anther secondary thickening formation. Plant Physiology 175: 333-350.

AND MORE RECENT PUBLICATIONS Ge, H; Zhang, J; Zhang, YJ; Li, X; Yin, XR ; Grierson, D; Chen, KS (2017) EjNAC3 transcriptionally regulates chilling-induced lignification of loquat fruit via physical interaction with an atypical CAD-like gene. Journal of Experimental Botany 68: 5129-5136. Kenobi, K; Atkinson, JA; Wells, DM; Gaju, O; De Silva, JG; Foulkes, MJ; Dryden, IL; Wood, ATA ; Bennett, MJ (2017) Linear discriminant analysis reveals differences in root architecture in wheat seedlings related to nitrogen uptake efficiency. Journal of Experimental Botany 68: 4969-4981. Jeger, M; Bragard, C; Candresse, T; Chatzivassiliou, E; Dehnen-Schmutz, K; Gilioli, G; Gregoire, JC; Jaques Miret, JA; MacLeod, A; Navajas Navarro, M Niere, B; Parnell, S; Potting, R; Rafoss, T; Rossi, V; Urek, G; Van Bruggen, A; Van der Werf, W; West, J; Winter, S; Dickinson, M; Marzachi, C; Hollo, G; Caffier, D (2017) Pest categorisation of Palm lethal yellowing phytoplasmas. Group Authors: EFSA Panel Plant Health PLH. EFSA Journal 15: 10 Article Number: UNSP 5028. Pest categorisation of Witches' broom disease of lime (Citrus aurantifolia) phytoplasma Jeger, M; Bragard, C; Candresse, T; Chatzivassiliou, E; Dehnen-Schmutz, K; Gilioli, G; Gregoire, JC; Jaques Miret, JA; MacLeod, A; Navarro, MN; Niere, B; Parnell, S; Potting, R; Rafoss, T; Rossi, V; Urek, G; Van Bruggen, A; Van der Werf, W; West, J; Winter, S; Dickinson, M; Marzachi, C; Hollo, G; Caffier, D (2017) Group Authors: EFSA Panel Plant Health PLH. EFSA Journal 15 Issue: 10 Article Number: UNSP 5027. Rozado-Aguirre, Z; Adams, I; Fox, A; Dickinson, M; Boonham, N (2017) Complete sequence and genomic annotation of carrot torradovirus 1. Archives of Virology 162: 2815-2819. Barreto, P; Yassitepe, JECT; Wilson, ZA; Arruda, P (2017) Mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 overexpression increases yield in Nicotiana tabacum under drought stress by improving source and sink metabolism. Frontiers in Plant Science 8 Article Number: 1836. von Wangenheim, D; Wells, DM; Bennett, MJ (2017) Adding a piece to the leaf epidermal cell shape puzzle. Developmental Cell 43: 255-256. Tardieu, F; Cabrera-Bosquet, L; Pridmore, T; Bennett, M (2017) Plant phenomics, from sensors to knowledge. Current Biology 27: R770-R783. Postma, JA; Kuppe, C; Owen, MR; Mellor, N; Griffiths, M; Bennett, MJ; Lynch, JP; Watt, M (2017) OPENSIMROOT: widening the scope and application of root architectural models. New Phytologist 215: 1274-1286.

NEW MASTERS STUDENTS IN THE PLANT AND CROP SCIENCES DIVISION

The new cohort of Masters students taking the Crop Improvement MSc, with Erik Murchie, Rumiana Ray and Mike Holdsworth.

Masters students from the new MSc in Biotechnology taking the plant science route, with Ranjan Swarup, Mike Holdsworth and Tim Robbins.

ThisNewsle+erwasediteden1relybyKevinPyke,soanymistakesareKevin’sfault.ItisavailableonlineonthePlantandCropScienceswebpageatwww.noDngham.ac.uk/biosciences/subject-areas/plantcrop/index.aspx

Contribu1onsforthenextissuebyJanuary21st2018tobepublishedJanuary22nd2018.

VIEW FROM THE SHED

Work on the new growth rooms in the South Lab Annex is scheduled to commence in January 2018. The last experiments in the existing growth rooms, will be ending before the Christmas break. With Christmas approaching we will soon be requiring your holiday watering instructions if you wish for us to take care of your watering over the festive break we will need your instructions by the 12th of December. Please note there will be no watering on the 25th of December. The Arabidopsis user group will hold a meeting on the 28th November to discuss issues affecting the Arabidopsis growing community. Please let your group’s representative know any issues you would like to raise. The glasshouse team have recently been busy with two training courses. We are now qualified to use fogging equipment in the glasshouses which should allow us to disinfect glasshouses without the need for using a knapsack sprayer, hopefully speeding up the process. Two more of the team also gained their fork lift truck licences, enabling us to move heavy objects around the campus more efficiently. Finally we would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. The Glasshouse Team