Publications by authors named "D Nicholas McLetchie"

Increasing frequency and intensity of global warming pose a profound threat to plant species persistence. Most investigations on plants' resilience to heat events focus on few genotypes of model species. Novel insights into resilience mechanisms will be gained by focusing on natural variation in thermotolerance and its relationship to local-abiotic factors.

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Plants have evolved strategies to maintain photosynthesis and mitigate tissue-damaging high light. In some dioecious seed plants, these strategies are sexually dimorphic and are linked to spatial segregation of the sexes (SSS) along light gradients. In vascular tissue-free plants (bryophytes) with separate sexes, SSS is common, but how light gradients, sexual dimorphisms, and SSS correlate is not well understood.

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Article Synopsis
  • Monitoring electrical signals in plants helps analyze their physiological changes and reactions to environmental stimuli, particularly focusing on how roots respond to chemical cues for resource acquisition.
  • Exposure to L-glutamate has been shown to impact root growth and change calcium ion flux, which can be tracked through electrical signal alterations.
  • A new method for testing root sensitivity to different compounds includes monitoring electrical responses while applying stimuli in a controlled flow system, demonstrating varied sensitivities in different plants to glutamate and potassium chloride.
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Electrical activity is widely used for assessing a plant's response to an injury or environmental stimulus. Commonly, a differential electrode recording between silver wire leads with the reference wire connected to the soil, or a part of the plant, is used. One method uses KCl-filled glass electrodes placed into the plant, similar to recording membrane/cell potentials in animal tissues.

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Many desiccation-tolerant plants are widely distributed and exposed to substantial environmental variation across their native range. These environmental differences generate site-specific selective pressures that could drive natural variation in desiccation tolerance across populations. If identified, such natural variation can be used to target tolerance-enhancing characteristics and identify trait associations within a common genetic background.

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