Preadipocyte-induced upregulation of IGFBP5 enhances ovarian cancer tumorigenesis via CREB signaling.

Dissemination of ovarian cancer cells during metastasis is heavily influenced by omental cells from the adipose tumor microenvironment. We previously found that omental adipocyte precursors, or preadipocytes, promote stress tolerance and tumorigenesis of ovarian cancer cells and this was correlated with upregulation of insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 5 (IGFBP5). Here, we tested whether IGFBP5 mediates stress tolerance and tumorigenesis.

A thinner jacket for frosty and windy climates? Global patterns in leaf cuticle thickness and its environmental associations.

Plant cuticles protect the interior tissues from ambient hazards, including desiccation, UV light, physical wear, herbivores and pathogens. Consequently, cuticle properties are shaped by evolutionary selection. We compiled a global dataset of leaf cuticle thickness (CT) and accompanying leaf traits for 1212 species, mostly angiosperms, from 293 sites representing all vegetated continents.

Paleobiome dynamics shaped a large Gondwanan plant radiation.

Theories of adaptive radiation propose predictable trajectories in which diversity accumulates rapidly in newly formed or colonized environments with underexploited niche space and few competing species, before slowing down as competition intensifies, and speciation and extinction rates approach equilibrium. This historical perspective on diversity may be more important than current environmental variation for explaining today's biodiversity, but this has been difficult to determine because of the complexity of diversification dynamics and the challenges of relating diversification processes to past environmental change. Here we unravel the complex and heterogenous diversification dynamics of Proteaceae (subfamily Grevilleoideae), a large Gondwanan plant clade, to investigate how the expansion and contraction of biomes since the Cretaceous has shaped its current megadiversity across the Sahul region (Australia and New Guinea).

Chemotherapy Enriches for Proinflammatory Macrophage Phenotypes that Support Cancer Stem-Like Cells and Disease Progression in Ovarian Cancer.

High-grade serous ovarian cancer remains a poorly understood disease with a high mortality rate. Although most patients respond to cytotoxic therapies, a majority will experience recurrence. This may be due to a minority of drug-resistant cancer stem-like cells (CSC) that survive chemotherapy and are capable of repopulating heterogeneous tumors.

The AusTraits plant dictionary.

Traits with intuitive names, a clear scope and explicit description are essential for all trait databases. The lack of unified, comprehensive, and machine-readable plant trait definitions limits the utility of trait databases, including reanalysis of data from a single database, or analyses that integrate data across multiple databases. Both can only occur if researchers are confident the trait concepts are consistent within and across sources.

Distinctive Arbutin-Containing Markers: Chemotaxonomic Significance and Insights into the Evolution of Proteaceae Phytochemistry.

Natural products isolation studies of eight endemic Tasmanian Proteaceae species - Agastachys odorata, Persoonia juniperina, Hakea megadenia, Hakea epiglottis, Orites diversifolius, Orites acicularis, Orites revolutus, and Telopea truncata - and three endemic Australian Proteaceae species Banksia serrata, Banksia praemorsa, and Banksia marginata were undertaken. Two previously unreported glycoside-derived natural products were identified, in addition to four other tremendously rare arbutin esters. The results of this study provide further evidence consistent with the proposal that these distinctive arbutin esters represent markers that can provide valuable insights into the chemical evolution of plant species within the family Proteaceae.

No cell is an island: characterising the leaf epidermis using epidermalmorph, a new R package.

The leaf epidermis is the interface between a plant and its environment. The epidermis is highly variable in morphology, with links to both phylogeny and environment, and this diversity is relevant to several fields, including physiology, functional traits, palaeobotany, taxonomy and developmental biology. Describing and measuring leaf epidermal traits remains challenging.

Natural products isolation studies of the paleoendemic plant species Nothofagus gunnii and Nothofagus cunninghamii.

The first natural product isolation studies of Nothofagus gunnii (Hook.f.) Oerst and Nothofagus cunninghamii (Hook.

Convergent tip-to-base widening of water-conducting conduits in the tallest bryophytes.

Premise: Tip-to-base conduit widening is considered a key mechanism that enables vascular plants to grow tall by decreasing the hydraulic resistance imposed by increasing height. Widening of hydraulic anatomy (larger conducting elements toward the base of the vascular system) minimizes gradients in leaf-specific hydraulic conductance with plant height, allowing uniform photosynthesis across the crown of trees. Tip-to-base conduit widening has also been associated with changes in conduit number.

Diversity and abundance of soil microbial communities decline, and community compositions change with severity of post-logging fire.

Understanding the effects of logging and fire on forest soil communities is integral to our knowledge of forest ecology and effective resource management. The resulting changes in soil biota have substantial impacts on forest succession and associated ecosystem processes. We quantified bacterial and fungal abundance, diversity and community composition across a logging and burn severity gradient, approximately one month after fire, in temperate wet eucalypt forests in Tasmania, Australia.

A Permeable Cuticle, Not Open Stomata, Is the Primary Source of Water Loss From Expanding Leaves.

High rates of water loss in young, expanding leaves have previously been attributed to open stomata that only develop a capacity to close once exposed to low humidity and high abscisic acid (ABA) levels. To test this model, we quantified water loss through stomata and cuticle in expanding leaves of . Stomatal anatomy and density were observed using scanning electron microscopy.

Links between environment and stomatal size through evolutionary time in Proteaceae.

The size of plant stomata (adjustable pores that determine the uptake of CO and loss of water from leaves) is considered to be evolutionarily important. This study uses fossils from the major Southern Hemisphere family Proteaceae to test whether stomatal cell size responded to Cenozoic climate change. We measured the length and abundance of guard cells (the cells forming stomata), the area of epidermal pavement cells, stomatal index and maximum stomatal conductance from a comprehensive sample of fossil cuticles of Proteaceae, and extracted published estimates of past temperature and atmospheric CO.

Leaf hydraulic conductance is linked to leaf symmetry in bifacial, amphistomatic leaves of sunflower.

The hydraulic implications of stomatal positioning across leaf surfaces and the impact on internal water flow through amphistomatic leaves are not currently well understood. Amphistomaty potentially provides hydraulic efficiencies if the majority of hydraulic resistance in the leaf exists outside the xylem in the mesophyll. Such a scenario would mean that the same xylem network could equally supply a hypostomatic or amphistomatic leaf.

Distinct Drimane Chemotypes in Tasmanian Mountain Pepper (): Differences in the Profiles of Pungent Leaf Phytochemicals Associated with Altitudinal Cline.

This study assesses whether the distinct altitudinal cline in leaf morphology (decreased leaf width and length with increased altitude) in Tasmanian mountain pepper () is associated with changes in the leaf chemistry of wild populations from different ecological landscapes and altitudes. The presence of distinct pungent drimane sesquiterpenoid chemotypes was identified: subalpine woodland and wet sclerophyll forest chemotypes. Isolation studies and analysis of extracts revealed that wet sclerophyll forest populations featured polygodial as the principal terpenoid, with profiles similar to the commercial cultivars sampled.

The dimensionality of niche space allows bounded and unbounded processes to jointly influence diversification.

There are two prominent and competing hypotheses that disagree about the effect of competition on diversification processes. The first, the bounded hypothesis, suggests that species diversity is limited (bounded) by competition between species for finite ecological niche space. The second, the unbounded hypothesis, proposes that innovations associated with evolution render competition unimportant over macroevolutionary timescales.

Development of 15 nuclear EST microsatellite markers for the paleoendemic conifer (Podocarpaceae).

Premise Of The Study: Nuclear microsatellite markers were developed for population genetic analysis of the threatened paleoendemic conifer (Podocarpaceae).

Methods And Results: Fifteen variable loci were identified showing one to 13 alleles per population, with seven loci displaying at least four alleles in all populations, and the average number of alleles per locus ranging from 4.80 to 5.

Wheat leaves embolized by water stress do not recover function upon rewatering.

New techniques now make it possible to precisely and accurately determine the failure threshold of the plant vascular system during water stress. This creates an opportunity to understand the vulnerability of species to drought, but first, it must be determined whether damage to leaf function associated with xylem cavitation is reparable or permanent. This question is particularly relevant in crop plants such as wheat, which may have the capacity to repair xylem embolism with positive root pressure.

Similar geometric rules govern the distribution of veins and stomata in petals, sepals and leaves.

Investment in leaf veins (supplying xylem water) is balanced by stomatal abundance, such that sufficient water transport is provided for stomata to remain open when soil water is abundant. This coordination is mediated by a common dependence of vein and stomatal densities on cell size. Flowers may not conform to this same developmental pattern if they depend on water supplied by the phloem or have high rates of nonstomatal transpiration.

Arbutin Derivatives Isolated from Ancient Proteaceae: Potential Phytochemical Markers Present in Bellendena, Cenarrhenes, and Persoonia Genera.

Extensive phytochemical studies of the paleoendemic Tasmanian Proteaceae species Bellendena montana, Cenarrhenes nitida, and Persoonia gunnii were conducted employing pressurized hot water extraction. As part of these studies, six novel glycosides were isolated, including rare examples of glycoside-containing natural products featuring tiglic acid esters. These polar molecules may represent potential phytochemical markers in ancient Proteaceae.

Ferns are less dependent on passive dilution by cell expansion to coordinate leaf vein and stomatal spacing than angiosperms.

Producing leaves with closely spaced veins is a key innovation linked to high rates of photosynthesis in angiosperms. A close geometric link between veins and stomata in angiosperms ensures that investment in enhanced venous water transport provides the strongest net carbon return to the plant. This link is underpinned by "passive dilution" via expansion of surrounding cells.

Amphistomatic leaf surfaces independently regulate gas exchange in response to variations in evaporative demand.

The occurrence of amphistomatic leaves (stomata on both surfaces) versus hypostomatic leaves (stomata limited to the lower or abaxial surface) has strong associations with environment. Amphistomy provides the advantage of higher conductance of CO2 for photosynthesis, however, unless the stomata on both leaf surfaces can be independently controlled in response to environmental cues, amphistomy may lead to inefficient gas exchange. While previous studies have found evidence that stomata can operate independently across and between surfaces of dorsiventral leaves, we investigate whether an independent stomatal response can be induced for isobilateral leaves by largely natural conditions.

Vein density is independent of epidermal cell size in Arabidopsis mutants.

Densities of leaf minor veins and stomata are co-ordinated within and across vascular plants. This maximises the benefit-to-cost ratio of leaf construction by ensuring stomata receive the minimum amount of water required to maintain optimal aperture. A 'passive dilution' mechanism in which densities of veins and stomata are co-regulated by epidermal cell size is thought to facilitate this co-ordination.