Hendriksenbeebe4675
Present-day land temperatures simulated by state-of-the-art global climate models exhibit considerable uncertainty. Generally it is assumed that these temperature biases do not affect the projected warming in response to rising greenhouse gas concentrations (i.e. drop out by subtracting projected and present-day temperatures), but for specific regions and seasons this assumption is invalid. Here we show that, on the contrary, for large continental regions, such as Europe, state-of-the art global climate models with a warm summer bias project a relatively strong warming. This is because continental summer temperatures depend chiefly on soil drying in response to spring and summer solar radiation increase models that dry fastest (due to the interaction of clouds, convection and soil hydrology) exhibit the strongest reductions in evaporation and consequently a more pronounced end-of-summer warming. These physical mechanisms acting on a seasonal timescale also govern the long-term climate response to greenhouse forcing over continental regions in summer. Combining these findings, we use the current model biases to reduce the uncertainty range in the projected warming over Europe from 3.6-8.6 °C to 4.6-7.3 °C (a reduction of about 50%). Given the huge potential impacts of the warmest projections on health, agriculture and water management, constraining the range of future summer climate change is imperative for relevant mitigation and adaptation strategies.Hornworts comprise a bryophyte lineage that diverged from other extant land plants >400 million years ago and bears unique biological features, including a distinct sporophyte architecture, cyanobacterial symbiosis and a pyrenoid-based carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM). Here, we provide three high-quality genomes of Anthoceros hornworts. Phylogenomic analyses place hornworts as a sister clade to liverworts plus mosses with high support. The Anthoceros genomes lack repeat-dense centromeres as well as whole-genome duplication, and contain a limited transcription factor repertoire. Several genes involved in angiosperm meristem and stomatal function are conserved in Anthoceros and upregulated during sporophyte development, suggesting possible homologies at the genetic level. We identified candidate genes involved in cyanobacterial symbiosis and found that LCIB, a Chlamydomonas CCM gene, is present in hornworts but absent in other plant lineages, implying a possible conserved role in CCM function. selleck kinase inhibitor We anticipate that these hornwort genomes will serve as essential references for future hornwort research and comparative studies across land plants.Understanding the systems-level actions of transcriptional responses to hormones provides insight into how the genome is reprogrammed in response to environmental stimuli. Here, we investigated the signalling pathway of the hormone jasmonic acid (JA), which controls a plethora of critically important processes in plants and is orchestrated by the transcription factor MYC2 and its closest relatives in Arabidopsis thaliana. We generated an integrated framework of the response to JA, which spans from the activity of master and secondary regulatory transcription factors, through gene expression outputs and alternative splicing, to protein abundance changes, protein phosphorylation and chromatin remodelling. We integrated time-series transcriptome analysis with (phospho)proteomic data to reconstruct gene regulatory network models. These enabled us to predict previously unknown points of crosstalk of JA to other signalling pathways and to identify new components of the JA regulatory mechanism, which we validated through targeted mutant analysis. These results provide a comprehensive understanding of how a plant hormone remodels cellular functions and plant behaviour, the general principles of which provide a framework for analyses of cross-regulation between other hormone and stress signalling pathways.Most scholarship on the closely-watched case of genetically modified Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton in India has focused on short-term impacts and has also ignored other major changes in India's cotton agriculture. This Perspective combines several data sources over a 20-year span to provide long-term comparisons of Bt adoption with yields and other inputs at both countrywide and state-specific scales. Bt cotton adoption is shown to be a poor indicator of yield trends but a strong indicator of initial reductions in pesticide use. Yield increases correspond to changes in fertilizer and other inputs. Bt cotton has continued to control one major cotton pest, but with Bt resistance in another pest and surging populations of non-target pests, farmers now spend more on pesticides today than before the introduction of Bt. Indications are that the situation will continue to deteriorate.In the upcoming United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global challenge for scientists and practitioners will be to develop a well-functioning seed production sector on the basis of a sound species-selection process1. To balance crop production with biodiversity functions in Mediterranean woody crops, agroecological practices2 suggest the need to move towards the establishment of herbaceous ground covers3-5. However, establishing such plants requires a supply of suitable native seeds, which is currently unavailable. Here, we present a comprehensive process for selecting regionally adapted species that also emphasizes considerations for seed production6. Using olive groves as a target system, we found that research on ground covers for regenerative agriculture has largely overlooked native species at the expense of commercial and ill-suited varieties. Our assessment of native annuals showed that 85% of the grasses and forbs evaluated exhibit a suite of ecological and production traits that can be tailored to meet the requirements of farmers, seed producers and environmental agencies. These findings suggest that many native species are neglected in agronomic research, despite being potentially suitable for ground covers and for supporting a nature-based solution7 in restoration practice. The framework used here may be applied in other agroecosystems to follow global greening initiatives and to support native seed production to scale up restoration8-10.