Alun SaltAll of Wednesday’s (a half-day) tweets in one post.
| “ | Great to see the #ibc18 delegates out and about the Gardens! | |||
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…and so is the blog. There’s a slight delay to today’s recap as I was asked to sort out a page for AoB at the IBC. Here it is. You can also read Tim Entwisle’s blog post on the conference so far. There’s also a reminder about tomorrow’s or possibly today’s meet up depending on which time zone you’re in and when your’re reading it.
| “ | #IBC18 Social Media Social Meet + Tweeters anon & Annonaceae addicts @AnnBot/OUP stand c.8pm Thursday after Peter Bernhardt | |||
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The day opened with Tetsuya Higashiyama: Live cell analysis of plant fertilisation.
| “ | Tetsuya Higashiyama – Nagoya – live cell imaging. LURE peptides as pollen tube attractants, now shown in Arabidopsis #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Higashiyama: plant reproduction the final frontier. Nifty movie of pollen tube attraction. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Settled in now, just in time to see ‘frustrated’ pollen tube video from Higashiyama. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18 plenary. Tetsuya Higashiyama on live cell analysis of plant fertilization… Is there anything we shouldn’t know about Arabidopsis? | |||
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| “ | Higashiyama: "rapid and drastic" evolution of genes involved in pollen tube attraction, possibly involved in species differentiation. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18 oh no! Tetsuya Higashiyama showing home movies of live double fertilization. 🙂 #botanysseedyside #audienceshocked | |||
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| “ | Higashiyama: synthesis of great live microscopy / imaging technology with mutants and molecular biology. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Such difficult terrain. Higashiyama using every technology he can to see what really happens in angiosperm double fertilisation. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Animated in sense of moving time-lapse images, not faked! RT @Jim_Croft: #ibc18 Tetsuya Higashiyama’s animated photomicrography … stunning | |||
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| “ | for the sad #ibc18 tweeps who missed Tetsuya Higashiyama’s plenary, some animations are available on his website. | |||
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| “ | Higashiyama: Movie library of plant reproductive processes available on website http://j.mp/qyR4ze #ibc18 #nsfw? | |||
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| “ | http://www.youtube.com/user/higashiyamaERATO Aaah, the conference centre blocks our access to youtube so we cant see videos again #ibc18 | |||
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Next we have Zander Myburg: The Eucalyptus grandis genome sequence.
| “ | Eucalyptus grandis #genome preview by Alex”Zander” Myburg (32 pubs, H-index 10) @ #ibc18 (links to browser/preprint @ http://www.eucagen.org) | |||
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| “ | #ibc18 Tetsuya Higashiyama: "singlecellomics" #becausetheworldcannotthavetoomanyomics | |||
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| “ | Zander Myburg project background from 2006 in proposal at http://bit.ly/pMeOYl Now the outcome in genome sequence #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Myburg: Eucalypts have great diversity in form and habitat. Even if to a phycologist they all look the same 🙂 #arenttheyonespecies? #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | @TimEntwisle to a phycologist they all look the same 🙂 #arenttheyonespecies? #ibc18 <= trees just a terrestrial unicellular algal colony? | |||
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| “ | All trees are immortal colonial organisms (see Hallé). RT @Jim_Croft #ibc18 <= trees just a terrestrial unicellular algal colony? | |||
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| “ | Myburg: 20 million hectares of eucalypts planted around the world. More popular than the Wollemi Pine! #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Myburg "There are a lot of genes and they are in a linear order" – not a trivial statement, apparently. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | I’m sure the last slide (Myburg) was what I get when I defrag my computer – a eucalypt genome? #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Some unlinked scaffolds still to be incorporated into chromosomes – Myburg #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Myburg – eucalyptus last genome (?) to be sequenced using only Sanger and a good assembly came out of it. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | http://www.phytozome.net/ has JGI genome sequences, with phylogenetic positions of the species they have worked with inc Eucalyptus. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Blocks of heterozygosity in eucalyptus show regions of different genetic load. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Myburg: Theobroma cacao used to reconstruct ancestral eudicot sequence. Chocolate solves everything. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | great data showing burst of retrotransposon activity giving larger size of E. grandis genome – 10% of genome. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | A piece the size of the entire Arabidopsis genome apparently! RT @Pathh1: burst of retrotransposon activity 10% of genome. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | I’ll be talking about similar study of differences between Brassica sp. tomorrow – hope you all understood Myburg’s dot plots. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Systems genetics approach – compare transcriptomes across populations – Myburg #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Very cool use of integrated genomics and genetic tools in study of eucalyptus biology by Myburg #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | after a morning of making wood and double fertilization, it’s time for coffee. Bet you wish you were at #ibc18 now, don’t you? | |||
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After a break in which I’ll briefly plug Green love talks; cell–cell communication during double fertilization in flowering plants by Tomokazu Kawashima and Frederic Berger in the open access journal AoB PLANTS, it’s time for the keynote symposia, opening with Perspectives on climate change and adaptation.
| “ | Guy Midgley introducing perspectives on climate change and adaptation Keynote Session. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Is it just me or is the term ‘natural experiment’ in relation to climate change one of the most scary and reckless things imaginable? #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Guy Midgley: CO2 levels – pushing soon towards those not seen since the eocene, a world very different to today. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Midgley: ‘Ecosystems Uncertain’ = where climate rules (water & temp) don’t work well. It’s 33% of global biomes and fire is important #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Midgley on fire: "Saplings can spend decades stuck in a fire trap – escape to trees rare and episodic". #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Midgley growing trees at CO2 levels like those prior to when human industry led to 33% increase. "Startling results" on root biomass. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18 keynote talk. midgley gets two rounds of laughter from the audience in one slide. impressive. | |||
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| “ | #ibc18. Guy Midgely. role of (subambient) CO2 in carbon allocation. Pre industrial African ‘Acacia’ root growth *much* less than now. | |||
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| “ | Midgley says we need to take more interest in the impact of high CO2 levels themselves and not just impact on climate. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18. now, William Bond on environmental change and the rise of flowering plants in evolutionary time. | |||
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| “ | William Bond: "Fire is a charismatic mega herbivore". #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18 William Bond: "fire is cool" #phraseoftheday | |||
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| “ | William Bond: Bioboundaries occur over one or two metres; these are the evolutionary theatres where speciation occurs #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Bond: Mike Crisp et al (2009), phylogenetic biome conservatism with few clades crossing biome boundaries, for "dumb ecologists" #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18: Bond – woody plants increasing in S Africa and many other parts of the world. #ligninjuggernaut | |||
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| “ | Bond:Is the rise of angiosperms an ‘open ecosystem’ success story? They have attributes of weedy species. Fire? Dino(saur)turbation? #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18 Bond: during their initial spread in Cretaceous, angiosperms were ‘small’ and fast-growing. ‘Dinoturbation’ = stomped by a ‘saur. | |||
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| “ | Bond: angiosperms as the ultimate weeds and dinosaurs as dispersal agents? "Dinoturbation" my new favourite word. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Bond: Hard to model oxygen levels & fire over geological timescale. Cretaceous oxygen was 25% higher than now fires would spread more #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18. Bond: angiosperms created understory fuel at a faster rate than the conifers they replaced. Charcoal evidence of Cretaceous fires. | |||
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| “ | Bond: if we reach IPCC predictions we may be faced with "a world covered with dreary forests" – the Eocene Scenario! #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Thoughts on Bond & modelling. Must be feedback: more fires–>less O2–>less fires–>more O2 . How much O2 needed to burn all forests? #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Bond: forests widespread by Eocene. Analogue to present? #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Bond: Before carbon levels were interesting, albedo and reflection were studied more. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | Wendy Foden questioning the analysis of how many species will succumb to climate change and then, what do we do with this data? #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18. William Bond: Invasive species as an example of biodiversity innovation. | |||
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| “ | Bond – end comment on invasives and GMOs ….. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18. now, Wendy Foden on climate change susceptibility and adaptability. | |||
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| “ | Foden: Quiver Tree (Aloe dichotoma) declining by 80% in some areas, up by 100% in others, but not expanding into predicted new range #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18. Wendy Foden, climate driven changes in distribution of African Quiver Tree, Aloe dichotoma. Visible to the naked eye! | |||
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| “ | Foden: Analysis of species sensitivity, adaptability and exposure (eg sea level rises) shows Amazon at risk for birds and amphibians #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18 Wendy Foden: susceptibility = sensitivity + unadaptability + exposure. Global risk map based on birds, amphibians, corals. | |||
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| “ | Interesting (from Foden work) that priority areas for rare species not always same as for ‘sensitive/exposed/unadaptable’ species. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18. For some reason, the Coral Triangle turns up in analyses of climate change risk/threat for corals. #surprisesurprise #wellbuggerme | |||
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| “ | Fascinating and well argued talk by Wendy Foden. Nice mix of science, realism and action. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | +1 RT @TimEntwisle: Fascinating and well argued talk by Wendy Foden. Nice mix of science, realism and action. #ibc18 | |||
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| “ | #ibc18. Wendy Foden: would love to extend CC susceptibility studies to plants. Seeking engagement/support from/for the botanical community. | ||
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