Month: September 2022

ROSE COMPACTNESS. "Mechanical stress given to the upper part of the order 1 axis of young rose plants resulted in a reduction in axis length and an increase in the number of branching, leading to the compactness of the bush, a favorable horticultural trait." https://lnkd.in/dDuN9mZ View in LinkedIn

PREDATOR DEFENSE STIMULATED. "Repetitive touching enhanced resistance to fungus (Botrytis cinerea) infection and cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni) infestation in a defense phytohormone jasmonate-dependent manner." https://lnkd.in/dDuN9mZ View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR IMPACT. "Gentle mechanical sweeping of leaf surfaces induced a rapid increase in cytosolic Ca2+ concentration and a release of reactive oxygen species, and then enhanced resistance to B. cinerea in a jasmonate-independent manner." https://lnkd.in/dDuN9mZ View in LinkedIn

GENETIC IMPACT. "Here we begin to address the genetic pathways by which a repeated mechanical stimulus leads to a developmental change during plant thigmomorphogenesis, a stereotypical developmental alteration in the plant body plan that can be induced by shaking, rubbing, bending, or brushing leaves or stems." https://lnkd.in/dv9swtZ View in LinkedIn

RNA AND TENSION WOOD. "Here, we report our genome-scale identification and characterization of lncRNAs differentially expressed in the xylem of tension wood, opposite wood and normal wood in Populustomentosa, by high-throughput RNA sequencing. We identified 1,377 putative lncRNAs by computational analysis, and expression and structure analyses showed that the lncRNAs had lower expression levels and shorter lengths than protein-coding transcripts in Populus." (LncRNAs = long, non-coding RNAs). https://lnkd.in/dZRGrAT View in LinkedIn

TENSION AND COMPRESSION WOOD. "In angiosperms reaction wood is called tension wood. Tension wood forms on the side of the part of the plant that is under tension, pulling it towards the affecting force (upwards, in the case of a branch). It has a higher proportion of cellulose than normal wood. Tension wood may have as high as 60% cellulose. In gymnosperms it is called compression wood. Compression wood forms on the side of the plant that is under compression, thereby lengthening/straightening the bend. Compression wood has a higher proportion of lignin than normal wood. Compression wood has only about 30% cellulose compared to 42% in normal softwood. Its lignin content can be as high as 40%." https://lnkd.in/dVbW4mM View in LinkedIn

THIGMOMORPHOGENESIS in trees, a summary. "Influence of mechanical stimuli on plants recognized at least since Theophrastus (300 B.C.E.)." https://lnkd.in/dDZREnK View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first weekend case study about knowledge from other cultures that has been very slow to diffuse: in this case, the beneficial effects of physical stimulation in plants. This Japanese case mirrors that of the uses of bacteriophages as antibiotics in Russia: in both cases, the original reports lay obscure for decades in publications written in Japanese and Russian respectively. And when eventually discovered, were treated with overt skepticism or hostility by western scientists. View in LinkedIn

INFORMATION STORAGE IN ARTIFICIAL DNA. "With the use of polymerase evolution and design, we show that genetic information can be stored in and recovered from six alternative genetic polymers based on simple nucleic acid architectures not found in nature [xeno-nucleic acids (XNAs)]." https://lnkd.in/dbgtZme View in LinkedIn

ARTIFICIAL POLYMERS EVOLVE. "We also select XNA aptamers, which bind their targets with high affinity and specificity, demonstrating that beyond heredity, specific XNAs have the capacity for Darwinian evolution and folding into defined structures. Thus, heredity and evolution, two hallmarks of life, are not limited to DNA and RNA but are likely to be emergent properties of polymers capable of information storage." (XDNA = xeno-nucleic acids). https://lnkd.in/dbgtZme View in LinkedIn