THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY - SEB Autumn Magazine 2017

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Issue: Spring 2018

Deadline: 31 December 2017

SEB Executive Team:

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Chief Executive Officer Paul Hutchinson (p.hutchinson@sebiology.org)

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Head of Marketing, Communications and Member Engagement Sabina Baba (s.baba@sebiology.org)

Office Administrator

Esen Celepi (admin@sebiology.org)

Communications Assistant Conor Geoghegan (info@sebiology.org)

SEB Honorary Officers:

President Christine Raines (rainc@essex.ac.uk)

Vice President Craig Franklin (c.franklin@uq.edu.au)

Treasurer Martin Watson (admin@sebiology.org)

Publications Officer Martin Parry (m.parry@lancaster.ac.uk)

Plant Section Chair Kathrine Denby (kathrine.denby@york.ac.uk)

Cell Section Chair John Love (j.love@exeter.ac.uk)

Animal Section Chair Lynne Sneddon (lsneddon@liverpool.ac.uk)

SEB+ Section Chair George Littlejohn (george.littlejohn@plymouth.ac.uk)

SEB Journal Editors:

Journal of Experimental Botany Christine Raines (rainc@essex.ac.uk)

The Plant Journal Lee Sweetlove (lee.sweetlove@plants.ox.ac.uk)

Plant Biotechnology Journal Henry Daniell (henry.daniell@ucf.edu)

Conservation Physiology Steven Cooke (steven_cooke@carleton.ca)

Plant Direct Ivan Baxter (ibaxter@danforthcenter.org)

In association with ASPB

The Society for Experimental Biology is a registered charity No. 273795

As he leaves the SEB our CEO, Paul Hutchinson, reflects on his time at SEB.

BACKstAGE PERFORMANCE

BY PAUL HUTCHINSON, SEB CEO

those of you who are keen readers of the Bulletin will notice that the editorial is usually written by Sarah Blackford. Sarah left SEB at the end of July and I would like to thank her for her contribution to SEB over many years. My writing style is neither as fluent nor as fluid as Sarah’s and for that I apologise in advance. However, I shall be leaving the SEB in the near future so this editorial will not only be my first editorial but also my last.

I’ve had the privilege of being CEO for nearly seven years and SEB is the most recent of the membership organisations in which I have worked. At the SEB I have initiated, or been part of, many changes which I hope have improved the performance of the organisation and the way it delivers services to you our members, our most valuable asset.

The improvement in performance began in 2010 when SEB moved from its office in Southampton to Charles Darwin House (CDH) in London. The move marked a willingness for SEB to work with other Societies in a spirit of collaboration and mutual support.

Working in a friendly organisation means leaving is always going to be difficult but SEB has reinforced what I knew already to be true: a good organisation is so much greater than the sum of its parts. So I would like to end by thanking those people who made my time at SEB particularly enjoyable. Firstly the staff: Sabina, Oliver, Esen and Conor who keep the organisation running smoothly and who really take seriously the needs of members. Thanks also to Keith Lindsey, one of our former presidents, for employing me and to Martin Watson, our treasurer and Keith’s partner in crime at my interview! Thanks to Craig Franklin for his boundless enthusiasm and commitment which made my job much more fun. Thanks also to Patrick Hussey for all his support and commitment to making the SEB a more resilient organisation during his Presidency.

PREsidENt’s LEttER

CHRISTINE RAINES, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX, HONORARY PRESIDENT

It gives me great pleasure to write my first letter for the SEB bulletin as President. It was at our Annual Meeting in Gothenburg this year that I took over the Presidency from Patrick Hussey – thank you Patrick for your work over the last two years!

it is with some regret that I have to let you know that our CEO, Paul Hutchinson will be leaving us later this year. Paul joined us in January 2011 and has played an instrumental role in putting the SEB on a professional footing and in supporting Council to take bold steps to ensure our Society remains relevant to its members.

We are also saying goodbye to Sarah Blackford, after over 20 years with the Society. Sarah was our education link and worked closely with the SEB+ Section, produced the SEB Bulletin and organised Women in Science (now Diversity) events.

On behalf of Council and our membership I would like to thank both Paul and Sarah for their contributions and wish them well in the future.

researchers and providing opportunities for exchange of knowledge is at the core of what we are about, with a particular aim to support early career scientists. Our Annual Meeting and Symposia provide opportunities for scientists at all levels to come together to share their research and to develop new ideas. Another important communication strand is our five journals: The Plant Journal Plant Biotechnology, Journal of Experimental Botany, Conservation Physiology and our newest addition, Plant Direct. I encourage all of you as members of SEB to be engaged with your Society and if you have any ideas on how the SEB can do more for our membership please do let us know.

During my time with SEB we have: established a robust risk register and put in place processes to mitigate against risks; outsourced our finance functions to reduce costs and to enable SEB staff to be focused on service delivery; developed a new membership database to automate the joining, renewal and Annual Meeting registration processes and to enable us to understand how members use our services. SEB and the other Societies based in CDH also invested in another property which is currently generating income for the Society through tenant rental income and diversifies our income streams.

Our achievements have not been only internal. In the last three years, we have developed the content of the SEB Bulletin to feature more about member activities and to focus on key developments in science. We have launched a new brand, a new website, and expanded the activities of the SEB+ Section with groups focusing on Equality & Diversity, Careers, Science Communication, and Teaching and Learning. SEB built collaborations with the American Physiological Society and our collaboration with the American Society for Plant Biologists led to the launch of a jointlyowned journal, Plant Direct which opened for submissions in May this year.

In closing I’d like to wish all Council Members good luck for the future and to thank them for all the time they give to SEB out of their busy professional lives and for all the support they have given me during my time as CEO.

Finally, to all SEB Members whatever your discipline, I quote Douglas Adams in the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, “goodbye, and thanks for all the fish!”

WORKING IN A FRIENDLY ORGANISATION MEANS LEAVING IS ALWAYS GOING TO BE DIFFICULT

I have been involved with the SEB since my days as a PhD student and joined the Plant Section back in 2001, taking over as Section Chair in 2007 and then Vice President of the Society two years ago. My association with the Society has played an important role in the development of my career, from giving a talk at the Annual Meeting in York which led to an invite to apply for a lectureship – which I was appointed to at Essex in 1988 – to taking on the Editor in Chief role of JXB in 2012. Through these roles I have learned a lot about myself in addition to expanding my scientific knowledge and making new collaborations.

My research interests are in the area of plant molecular physiology, including the isolation and characterisation of photosynthetic genes, analysis of gene expression and production and analysis of transgenic plants. Current research is focused on improving photosynthesis by re-engineering leaf carbon metabolism and electron transport. I have been very fortunate in that my research has been supported by BBSRC, NERC, Leverhulme and, currently, through the Realising Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) project with the University of Illinois, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Taking over as President prompted me to think about the role of learned Societies such as SEB. By definition, a learned Society is a membership organisation the aims of which are to provide opportunities for exchange of ideas, crossing institutional and country boundaries to enable the continuing development of the discipline. Enabling connections between

In this time of rapid changes in technologies and in the world of publishing it is important that we continue to evolve as a Society. I am looking forward to the next two years as President and to working with you on ensuring that our Society continues to provide support for you as members and for the further growth of our discipline.

MY ASSOCIATION WITH THE SOCIETY HAS PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MY CAREER

Left Christine Raines

Left Paul Hutchinson

Photo credit: Gary Manhine

N E ws

s E B

Seb annual meeting 2018 florence Site viSit

new plant Journal –plant Direct

The SEB team recently travelled to Florence, Italy – the city that will host our 2018 Annual Meeting. We had a chance to visit the conference facilities at Firenze Fiera Congress and Exhibition Centre and more importantly to sample the exquisite cuisine that will be served during our conference (the toughest part of the job, we know...). We also got a feel of the vibrant culture complete with Romanesque architecture and beautiful sunshine.

With its authentic Italian cuisine, renaissance art and exceptional conference facilities Florence promises to be a great destination for our Masters of Biology. Keep an eye out on our website for tips on places to visit and how to make the most of your time in Florence. Don’t forget to check out abstract submission for the meeting which will open in November!

gooDbye to…

The SEB is delighted to announce the launch of Plant Direct , a new open access, science journal for the plant sciences. Published by Wiley in collaboration with the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) and the SEB, the journal will publish high-quality, peer-reviewed research, giving prompt and equal consideration to papers in areas such as genetics, biochemistry, development, cell biology, biotic stress, abiotic stress, genomics, phenomics, bioinformatics, physiology, molecular biology, and evolution. Dr Ivan Baxter (Danforth Plant Science Center, USA) is the editor-in-chief of the journal and has overseen the publication of its first paper in July which looked at the test of a genetic model for BR and GA interaction in maize. Read Plant Direct’s first paper online now: Phytohormone inhibitor treatments phenocopy brassinosteroid–gibberellin dwarf mutant interactions in maize - DOI: 10.1002/pld3.9

Journal impact factor upDateS

new Seb animal Section chair

BY ESEN CELEPI AND CONOR GEOGHEGAN

Paul Hutchinson, Chief Executive of the SEB, stepped down from his role at the end of October this year. Paul has been part of the SEB executive team since January 2011. During his time with the Society Paul has brought new processes and regularity to the Society. We would like to thank him for his great leadership over the past 7 years and all his contributions.

Sarah Blackford stepped down from her role as the Head of Education and Public affairs at the end of July 2017. She started working with the SEB’s newly formed Education Committee in 1998, when Council recognised the need for the SEB to support a wider community.

Sarah is continuing on with her support for early career researchers as she embarks on her new life as an independent career consultant and honorary teaching fellow at Lancaster University. For those who wish to stay connected, you can contact her on LinkedIn. We would like to thank Sarah for all her contributions to the SEB.

conServation phySiology – firSt impact factor

The Conservation Physiology Journal has received its first ever Impact Factor of 2.323. Launched in 2012 with Dr Steven Cooke (Carleton University, Canada) as editor-in-chief, Conservation Physiology publishes research on all taxa focused on understanding and predicting how organisms, populations, ecosystems and natural resources respond to environmental change and stressors. The impact factor of 2.323 sees the journal rank 12 out of 53 on the ‘Biodiversity Conservation’ index. The editors would like to thank all of the authors, reviewers, and readers for helping the journal to reach this important milestone.

The most recent Journal Citation Reports® saw an increase in impact factor for the other 3 journals published by the SEB. The Journal of Experimental Botany ’s impact factor has risen from 5.794 to 5.830. The Plant Journal ’s impact factor has increased from 5.468 to 5.901. Lastly, the Plant Biotechnology Journal has received an impact factor of 7.443, ranking the journal as 7th within the Plant Sciences section. The SEB would like to extend its congratulations and thanks to all of those involved in the continuing success of these publications.

new Seb preSiDent anD vice-preSiDent

The 2017 SEB Annual Meeting in Gothenburg in July signalled the end of Prof. Patrick Hussey’s 2 year term as President with Prof. Christine Raines (University of Essex, UK) taking over the role. Professor Raines is the first ever female President of the SEB and has served the Society in roles within the Plant Section and Council over the last 15 years. She is the Head of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Essex and is also editorin-chief of the Journal for Experimental Botany Prof. Craig Franklin (University of Queensland, Australia) has been elected to the position of SEB Vice-President. The acting Head of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, Craig spent 8 years as Animal Section Chair where he oversaw the creation of the Conservation Physiology interest group and subsequent launch of the Conservation Physiology journal. Professor Franklin will serve as Vice-President for 2 years before taking on the role of SEB President in July 2019.

Dr Lynne Sneddon (University of Liverpool, UK) has been elected as the new SEB Animal Section Chair. Lynne is the current Deputy Chair of the Animal Section as well the Neurobiology Group convenor. She will take over from current chair, Prof. Craig Franklin, at the November Section meeting. Lynne’s research addresses mechanistic and functional questions in behavioural ecology and welfare using aquatic models. Her research into animal welfare has led to significant changes in government and experimental regulations as well as receiving media attention.

new Seb plant Section chair

Professor Katherine Denby has been elected as the new SEB Plant Section Chair. Currently the convenor for SEB’s Plant Biotic Interaction Group, Katherine has been an active and involved member of the SEB community for over 8 years. A Professor at the University of York and Academic Director of the N8 AgriFood Resilience Programme, Katherine’s research focuses on plant disease resistance and plantpathogen interaction, and in novel approaches for enabling and enhancing breeding of crop varieties tolerant to environmental stress and disease.

Right and top right Florence

Top Dr Lynne Sneddon

Middle Prof. Craig Franklin

Bottom Katherine Denby

Photo credit: Gary Manhine

MEdiCiNE CONFERENCE ANd EXPO 2016

BY ESEN CELEPI

n November 2016, four members of the SEB – Craig Franklin, Lucy Hawkes, Michael Scantlebury and Lewis Halsey – attended the World Extreme Medicine Conference in Edinburgh. This meeting provided a platform for medical practitioners to meet and learn about the challenges of practising medicine under extreme conditions, including disaster and humanitarian medicine and expedition and wilderness medicine. The SEB members brought some additional diversity to the meeting by presenting talks about the physiology of animals operating under extreme conditions and discussing how we can gain insight into the human condition from taking a comparative approach.

the maSterS of Submergence:

crocoDilian carDiovaScular intricacieS anD tricKS

aDaptationS to altituDe: the uniQue avian Solution

coulD Scott have SurviveD? a century of learning about the phySiological DemanDS of antarctica

Lucy Hawkes gave a talk in collaboration with Professor Chris Imray, a consultant vascular and renal transplant surgeon who is a key member of the Xtreme Everest medical research expeditions to altitude in the Himalayas and has summited Mount Everest multiple times.

Lucy and Chris highlighted the differences between the mammalian and avian lung and the consequences for blood gases at real and simulated altitude. Lucy detailed the work carried out on bar-headed geese on hypoxia tolerance and how bar-headed geese appear to be champions of extreme altitude, thanks in part to a range of physiological adaptations throughout the oxygen transport cascade.

Craig Franklin spoke about the diving feats and physiology of aquatic animals, including estuarine crocodiles which are able to stay submerged for at least 7 hours. Craig compared the diving ability of crocodiles with the diving capacity of humans, who struggle to dive unaided for more than a few minutes. He then detailed the remarkable cardio-respiratory and metabolic adaptations of crocodiles that enable them to remain underwater for extended periods.

Captain Scott’s tragic death during his 1911 expedition to Antarctica was a story told by Dr Lewis Halsey in his talk about environmental adaptations. Scott and his men man-hauled from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole, but perished on the return journey. This sad tale highlights the stresses and demands placed on the human body when weight loss is combined with low temperatures and high altitudes. It is in stark contrast to the successful lives of emperor penguins inhabiting the Antarctic continent. This juxtaposition between two species was used as a study of comparative physiology between the adaptations of penguins to the harsh Antarctic environment and the lack of suitable adaptations possessed by humans, who have evolved mainly in an equatorial environment. Combining empirical data, energetics models and the detailed diaries of the expedition, Lewis assessed what ultimately killed Scott’s team, and in what respect Antarctic travel is equally as treacherous for the modern explorer as it was a century ago when people first trekked across the continent.

SEB and World Extreme Medicine teamed up once again for the HumaNature Symposium which took place at the Natural History Museum, London on the 11–12 November 2017. The meeting brought together experimental biologists and comparative physiologists together with medical practitioners and researchers to explore the links between extreme life and human performance and health. Make sure you keep an eye out for a full update of the meeting on our website!

EVidENCE MAttERs!

BY ESTHER ODEKUNLE, SEB PHD STUDENT, QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

“Before you make up your mind, open it.”

These words from Mairead McGuinness (MEP) exemplify the best way citizens and politicians can work together to ensure evidence is used in policy making.

On 21st June 2017 citizens travelled from all over Europe to the European Parliament, Brussels for the Evidence Matters EU event organised by Sense about Science1. They spoke on why evidence matters to them by sharing their engaging, thought-provoking stories. One ‘capturing’ element was that each citizen spoke in their preferred language, providing a real authenticity to the stories.

One story in particular was from Tobias Goecke, a food waste campaigner from Germany who runs the Real Junk Food Project 2 in Berlin. The mission of this project is to reduce food waste by turning surplus fruit and vegetables that would normally be thrown away into desserts and healthy meals for the local community. A shocking piece of evidence from his story is that according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization 3 , almost a third of globally produced food is either lost or wasted; that is approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food per year. His take home message was

that such evidence-based data should be used to present strong arguments to those in positions of authority who can influence policy.

Eline Vedder, a dairy farmer from the Netherlands also shared her story on why evidence matters, particularly in her profession. Crops need a certain amount of nutrients which can (in part) be obtained from a farmer’s stock of manure, with the remaining nutrient demand met from mineral fertilizers. Agricultural legislation also allows nutrients extracted from human excrement to be used, while nutrients extracted from cattle’s manure (presumably on the same land) cannot be used. This means farmers export manure and import mineral fertilizers, a seemingly inefficient practice when all the necessary resources are available on the same land. Eline concluded by saying scientific evidence should be used when making agricultural policies so that farmers can be more efficient. The stories from other citizens, ranging from biologists, mothers and even a hunter, shared one common powerful theme: decisions that affect the lives of many need to be made based on evidence rather than being influenced by emotion and belief.

A video of the event including more stories can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=BQtKmTZ4fOo.

In response, Carlos Moedas and Frans Timmermans spoke to the citizens on behalf of the commission along with six ministers of the European Parliament (MEPs): Marco Affronte, Julie Girling, Jan Huitema, Ricardo Serrão Santos, Eva Kaili and Mairead McGuinness. The general consensus from the panel was that evidence is essential in policy making, with Carlos Moedas saying; “I’m very happy that you’ve come because you are telling me exactly what I’m fighting everyday, telling my colleagues that they cannot take any decision without that evidence.” There were however disagreements (or healthy debate!) among the panel members on how evidence should be embedded into policy. Marco Affronte suggested that where scientific data do not “permit the complete evaluation of the risk”, the precautionary principle should be applied. This principle could involve the banning of certain products from the market.

Julie Girling, on the other hand, was of the view that many decisions are not binary or simplistic but rather involve grey areas due to conflicting evidence. She asserted that the real issue is trying to combat confirmational bias, that is, the tendency to interpret and favour evidence in a way that confirms

ALMOST A THIRD OF GLOBALLY PRODUCED FOOD IS EITHER LOST OR WASTED

trying to eliminate confirmational bias could make a big difference.

Due to time constraints the event wrapped up after an hour, however the conversation between citizens and MEPs continued informally afterwards. Everyone was engaged and motivated to discuss their views. I got the chance to talk to Ingeborg Senneset, a journalist from Norway who had shared her story on the importance of evidence in the media, amidst the ever growing stockpile of fake news or ‘alternative facts’. I asked for her comments on the event as a whole to which she replied: “I appreciated the good conversations on difficult topics, and found this much more important than simply agreeing with each other.”

I also caught up with Jan Huitema (MEP) from the panel. As a partner in a family-owned dairy farm with an MSc in Animal Production, Jan is fully aware of how public perceptions can be skewed when people are not presented with accurate evidence. This strongly motivated him to go into politics and, “naively” to him, but optimistically to me, try to change the world! Speaking on his focus as a politician, Jan said, “It’s tremendously important that we are transparent and have good links with our voters.”

Sense about Science also shares this sentiment; not only through organising this event, but announcing a citizen-led review to monitor the ‘best and worst’ of MEPs responses over the next year. This will hopefully encourage MEPs to engage more with citizens and vice versa.

If evidence matters to you and you want to find out more, go to their website or contact Sense about Science about how to get involved.

1. https://senseaboutscience.org

2. Real Junk Food Berlin: https://realjunkfoodberlin.wordpress.com/about/

3. UN Food and Agriculture Organization: http://www.fao.org/home/en/

your own pre-existing bias/beliefs. As an example of this Julie asked how many of the citizens drink coffee. A substantial number of hands (including my own) were raised. She then presented us with some interesting evidence: “You’d be interested to know that caffeine in coffee according to IARC could be carcinogenic.” She paused. Then she asked, ‘How many of you are going to stop drinking [coffee]?” We all looked around. Hardly anyone raised their hands. Even after hearing that piece of evidence, we weren’t quite ready to give up our source of energy, comfort and joy! However, Julie pointed out that if there were the tiniest piece of evidence that a chemical used in agriculture could be harmful, many of us would be calling for it to be banned. There doesn’t seem to be a one size fits all solution, but weighing up the available evidence and

Top right

Below

Top left Esther Odekunle speaking with Jan Huitema (MEP)

The citizens who shared their stories at the event on why evidence matters

The director of Sense about Science EU, Sofie Vanthournout (left) along with the panel of MEPs; (left to right) Marco Affronte, Ricardo Serrão Santos and Mairead McGuinness

Photo credit: Frank Pittoors

PARLiAMENtARY LiNKs dAY 2017: UK sCiENCE ANd GLOBAL OPPORtUNitiEs

BY JONATHAN SMITH AND ZOë LONSDALE (PHD

STUDENTS, UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER)

Science in the UK is going through an unprecedented time of uncertainty, with both recent political instability and the challenges of Brexit after the triggering of Article 50 this year. Amid this concerning tide of events, how can UK science stay at the forefront of global research and innovation?

This question was on the minds of representatives attending this year’s Parliamentary Links Day, an annual gathering of Members of Parliament and representatives of learned scientific societies. Organised by the Royal Society of Biology and packed with attendees, this year’s Links Day addressed the theme “UK Science and Global Opportunities”.

Over the day, distinguished politicians, scientists and other experts took part in panel discussions, offering their advice and answering concerns voiced by academic and industrial representatives. The four main topics this year were the financial state of publicly-funded science, the effects of Brexit on international collaborations and the influx of talented workers, and finally the importance of science education and outreach to UK industry and research.

uK SpenDing on Science: how much anD where?

Since the recent election, the UK government is placing more emphasis on science. Sir John Kingman KCB, Chair Designate of the upcoming UK Research Institute (UKRI), outlined the current government’s pledge to increase its science budget from 1.7% to 2.4% of the UK Gross Domestic Product within 10 years. “This time last year we were considered radical for suggesting this increase in the face of pressure on government spending”, said Director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, Dr Sarah Main. Sir John Kingman detailed the role of the new

Political representatives were keen to reassure attendees that the UK is still in the game. Jo Johnson and Sir John Kingman stressed that the UKRI and government are working with “ferocious intensity” to prevent any adverse effects of Brexit on international collaborations. Furthermore, Jo Johnson announced the government’s ongoing support post-Brexit for the Joint European Torus (JET) project, the focal point of the European nuclear fusion research programme. “Although Brexit may bring its challenges, we are leaving the EU, not Europe,” asserted Stephen Metcalfe MP, Former Chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee.

Keeping SKilleD worKer immigration

UKRI in managing these increased funds, and encouraged the attendees by saying: “You too must think about how we can best spend these resources”.

Minister for Universities, Research, Science and Innovation, Jo Johnson MP, followed on by stating that the UK cannot become complacent with its excellent research track record: “A massive 16% of citations come from the UK’s 1% of the world’s population; we are genuinely world class”, he noted.

“However, there are areas we still need to improve on with regards to our competitors including addressing regional imbalances in research output, increasing capital science funding to the level of global competitor nations and better commercialisation of scientific advances in the UK”.

brexit: implicationS for european collaborationS

“It is important to show that the UK is open for business”, enthused Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell. This sentiment, aimed to counter fears of the UK withdrawing from industrial collaborations in the EU after Brexit, was echoed throughout the day’s discussions. “To demonstrate this openness”, added Chris Hale of Universities UK, “we need to secure the UK’s commitment to collaboration frameworks with other EU countries such as Horizon 2020, and keep up this commitment in future projects”.

this sentiment by saying,“Of the 500,000 young people choosing A-levels per year, only 30,000 choose to study maths or physics.” This skills shortage indicates a pressing need for better engagement in STEM subjects.

Many possible solutions were discussed for addressing the issue: “The purpose of the old is to encourage the young”, asserted Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow MP, who has helped local schools to raise money to modernise their science facilities. Dr Sarah Main suggested improving teacher confidence in STEM subjects and nominating one teacher per primary school as an official STEM engagement coordinator. Dr Elizabeth Bell, in the audience representing the UK National Commission for UNESCO, advocated that scientists appeal to the aspirations of young people, saying: “By choosing STEM subjects, they will save the world from crises such as global climate change and health issues!”

futureS interlinKeD

Throughout the Links Day, the overall feeling was one of cautious optimism. Political representatives emphasised their dedication to nurturing UK science, and honoring collaborations with the EU. Skilled workers from the EU and the rest of the world remain welcome in the UK amidst the uncertainty following the Brexit vote. Furthermore, the UK needs a talent pipeline; engaging the young in the science journey is vital. No matter the outcome of Brexit and other issues, Stephen Metcalfe argued that the UK has a vision for its research ecosystem: “A vision that will deliver the UK’s ambition to tackle and solve some of the greatest problems our world faces.”

With Brexit looming, another concerning trend is that talented workers from the EU – which include 17% of the UK academic workforce, according to Chris Hale – are reconsidering whether to work in the UK. Dr Lorenzo Melchor and Professor Roberto di Lauro, Science Attachés of the Embassies of Spain and Italy, respectively, voiced their concerns over how many UK-based academics from their countries now feel unwelcome. It was clear that reassuring EU scientists of their employment rights in the UK should be a priority.

“We are an innovation nation, and innovation depends on the free flow of ideas and people”, stated Chi Onwurah MP, Shadow Minister in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Her comment helped demonstrate the motivation of policy makers to keep talent from overseas inside the UK post-Brexit and recognition of the need for more voters to understand our dependence on skilled migrants: “Seventy-five percent of people who voted in the referendum see no problem with skilled immigration to the UK”, said Stephen Metcalfe. “We have to work with the remaining 25% to convince them of the benefits to this country.”

young people

anD uK Science

“Without a talent pipeline for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, we won’t have a future”, lamented the audience, pointing to the lack of STEM engagement with young people, with a resultant skills shortage in the UK. Chair of Engineering UK, Malcolm Brinded, compounded

WE ARE AN INNOVATION NATION, AND INNOVATION DEPENDS ON THE FREE FLOW OF IDEAS AND PEOPLE

Below Panel discussion.

Pallab Ghosh (BBC Science Correspondent) and Parliamentary Links day panel

Photo credit: Royal Society of Biology

MEMBER NE ws

BY CONOR GEOGHEGAN

n each issue of the member magazine, we like to highlight some of the fantastic achievements and research from our members. Here are some of the people we would like to congratulate this time round.

ishape and motility evolve independently in this class of bacteria. It was also found that neither the ability to cause disease nor bacterial lifestyle is affected by shape. These results suggest that, for this group of bacteria at least, there is even greater evolutionary flexibility than previously thought.

penny hawKinS (rSpca Science group, animal reSearch)

Dr Penny Hawkins, along with her colleague Dr Eliot Lilley, have received the 2017 Swiss Laboratory Animal Science Association (SGV) prize for major contributions in the field of the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement of laboratory animal use).

Dr Hawkins and Dr Lilley received the award in recognition of their outstanding and pioneer research on refinement and humane endpoints. The SGV board believes that their contribution has, and will have, a huge impact on animal experimentation practices. Dr Hawkins and Dr Lilley will present their research in a keynote address at the SGV annual meeting in Zurich in November.

holly ShielS (univerSity of mancheSter, uK)

Dr Holly Shiels, who is the convenor of the SEB’s Thermobiology group, recently joined an international group of physiologists on an expedition to the Arctic Circle to study the Greenland shark. This animal can live for up to 500 years and the team’s research focussed on collecting data on how the Greenland shark’s physiological behaviours contribute to this amazing longevity.

You can read about the highlights of the expedition online in Dr Shiels ‘Shark diary’: https://physocblogs.wordpress. com/2017/06/14/1250/

fouaD el baiDouri (univerSity of lincoln, uK)

Dr Fouad has recently published work on the independent evolution of shape and motility in Firmicutes bacteria. Contrary to strong theoretical predictions, Dr Fouad found that

Read the full paper: Independent evolution of shape and motility allows evolutionary flexibility in Firmicutes bacteria, Nature Ecology & Evolution DOI: 10.1038/s41559-016-0009.

gail taylor (univerSity california, DaviS, uSa)

Professor Gail Taylor has been appointed as Department Chair of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis. Professor Taylor leaves her post at the University of Southampton for the new position where she will oversee 68 faculty and 650 employees. We wish Professor Taylor the best in her new position.

DenniS KoloSov (mcmaSter univerSity, canaDa)

Congratulations to Dr Dennis Kolosov, who has recently won the Faculty of Graduate Studies Dissertation Award which is given to the most outstanding PhD dissertation in Biology at York University, Canada. His PhD dissertation is entitled “The Role of Tight Junction Proteins in Regulating Epithelial Permeability in Fishes”. Dr Kolosov has subsequently been nominated for the following dissertation awards by York University: the

2017 Canadian Society of Zoologists Cameron Award (awarded to the best Zoology thesis in Canada), the 2017 International Council of Graduate Studies Distinguished Dissertation Award and the 2017 National Canadian Association of Graduate Studies /PROQUESTUMI Distinguished Dissertation Award. We wish Dennis the best of luck as his work is reviewed for these awards.

Read more about his dissertation here: http://www.fasebj.org/content/30/1_ Supplement/1223.26

maDeline mitchell (cSiro, auStralia)

Dr Madeline Mitchell has been selected as 1 of 80 women worldwide to take part in the second Homeward Bound leadership initiative for women with a background in STEM. The aim of this program is to heighten the leadership capability of women so as to enhance their influence and impact on policy and decision making as it shapes our planet. Dr Mitchell will take part in a year-long program to develop leadership, strategic and communication capabilities culminating in a 3-week intensive leadership and professional development course in Antarctica. Learn more here: homewardboundprojects.com.au

olga panagiotopoulou (univerSity of QueenSlanD, auStralia)

Dr Olga Panagiotopoulou recently joined an international research team testing the theory, made popular by the novel

Moby Dick , that sperm whales could sink ships by ramming them with their skulls. The researchers used structural engineering principles and computer models to test how the sperm whale’s head might withstand ramming impacts. Results showed that ramming events could cause fatal fractures, although tissue partitions within a compartment of the sperm whale forehead known as “junk” may function as a shock absorber. Her research team hope that this study may lead to further research into mechanical function of the head during head-butting events in other species. Due to this research, Dr Panagiotopoulou will appear in a documentary from the Smithsonian Institute on Extinct Animal Predators airing in September.

Read the paper here: https://peerj.com/ articles/1895/

chriStopher grefen (univerSity of tuebingen, germany)

Research from Dr Grefen, published in PNAS, has uncovered a root hair phenotype that is dependent on putative Arabidopsis orthologs of the Guided Entry of Tail-anchored (TA) proteins (GET) pathway, which facilitates membrane insertion of TA proteins in yeast and mammals. The study shows that plants have evolved multiple paralogs of specific GET pathway components, albeit in a compartment-specific manner. In addition, it was shown that differential expression of pathway components causes pleiotropic growth defects, suggesting alternative pathways for TA insertion and additional functions of GET in plants. Read the paper: http://m.pnas.org/content/114/8/E1544.full

firSt time publiSherS

Congratulations to the following members who have had their first papers published!

mariam awilia (King abDullah univerSity of Science anD technology (KauSt), SauDi arabia)

High-Throughput Non-destructive Phenotyping of Traits that Contribute to Salinity Tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana – Frontiers in Plant Science https://doi. org/10.3389/fpls.2016.01414

miriam fenKeS

(univerSity of mancheSter, uK)

Sperm in hot water: direct and indirect thermal challenges interact to impact on brown trout sperm quality – Journal of Experimental Biology 2017 220: 2513-2520; doi: 10.1242/jeb.156018

annet weSthoeK

(univerSity of oxforD, uK)

Policing the legume-Rhizobium symbiosis: a critical test of partner choice – Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 1419(2017) doi:10.1038/s41598-017-01634-2

partha taluKDar

(univerSity of aberDeen, uK)

Biallelic and Genome Wide Association

Mapping of Germanium Tolerant Loci in Rice (Oryza sativa L.). PLoS ONE 10(9): e0137577. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0137577

buzi raviv

(ben gurion univerSity, iSrael)

The dead, hardened floral bracts of dispersal units of wild wheat function as storage for active hydrolases and in enhancing seedling vigor. PloS ONE, 12(5), e0177537. The dead seed coat functions as a longterm storage for active hydrolytic enzymes. PloS ONE, 12(7), e0181102

Won an award or had your research in the news? We want to hear about it! Contact info@sebiology.org

Far left Holly Shiels

Photo credit: Holly Shiels

Left Dennis Kolosov at the SEB meeting

Photo credit: Simon Callaghan

YOUNG sCiENtist AwARds 2017

BY ALEX EVANS AND CAROLINE WOOD

Each year at the SEB Annual Meeting, young scientists submit their abstract to the Young Scientist Award Session and compete for the award of ‘best research presentation’. Here is the research of our 2017 winners.

Seeing iS believing

Dynamic changeS

SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY PRESENTS:

AdVANCEs iN PLANt REPROdUCtiON –FROM GAMEtEs tO sEEds

SEBIOLOGY.ORG #FGTS18

Animals use their eyes to gather visual information about the world, but it’s the brain that is crucial to interpreting these signals. This year’s winner of the Animal Section Young Scientist Award, Dr Anna Stöckl (Aalto University, Finland), presented her fascinating PhD work on the visual processing mechanisms in hawkmoths. Hawkmoths have special neural adaptations that allow them to see well in dim light. “These moths neurally pool visual information in space and time to improve their visual sensitivity beyond the capacities of their eyes, but it was previously unclear which neurons are responsible for this processing,” said Anna. During a talk filled with impressive images and videos, Anna explained how she identified the neurons responsible as lamina monopolar cells. “This not only answers a decades old question in insect visual processing, it can also allow us to study these mechanisms in more detail and compare them to strategies used in vertebrate visual systems and artificial visual systems,” said Anna. Of the Young Scientist Award Session, Anna commented: “It was fantastic to feel my work being acknowledged. It gave me a real boost to believe in what I am doing.” She especially enjoyed the chance to communicate her work with a range of researchers outside of her usual audience. “It is a great exercise in presenting your work for non-specialists and a wonderful opportunity to discuss with researchers you don’t often get to meet.” Finally, Anna offered some advice for future YSAS applications: “Don’t hesitate to apply as the process in itself is a very rewarding learning experience, regardless of the outcome of the competition!”

“S-acylation: What the FLS2 is going on?!” That’s the question Charlotte Hurst (University of Dundee, United Kingdom) aims to answer. S-acylation, the addition of long chain fatty acids to cysteine residues, is the only known reversible lipid modification of proteins in plants. Over 1000 proteins in plants can be S-acylated and disrupting S-acylation causes grossly abnormal phenotypes in Arabidopsis Charlotte’s work focusses on S-acylation of FLS2, a receptorlike kinase that activates plant defences in response to the bacterial flagellin protein. But investigating when and how FLS2 is S-acylated proved far from easy, and in the end Charlotte had to completely overhaul many traditional protocols that turned out to be unsuitable for S-acylated proteins. Her persistence paid off however, and she has now demonstrated that S-acylation of FLS2 is a dynamic process and speculates that S-acylation helps target activated FLS2 for degradation, thus preventing hyperactivation of defence responses. “I was absolutely delighted to have been selected for the SEB Young Scientist Award as I knew the standards would be very high” Charlotte said. “I was very nervous beforehand as it was probably the largest audience I have ever presented to, but everyone was really encouraging and I actually enjoyed it once the fear had died down.” Given the troubleshooting and difficulties she has had to overcome, winning the award has been a real encouragement for Charlotte’s ambitions to continue in research after completing her PhD. “Winning this award has reminded me how much I enjoy what I do and it’s really great to get recognition for all the hard work I’ve done” she said.

dEtAiLs

30 JUNE – 1 JULY 2018

FIRENZE FIERA CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION CENTRE, FLORENCE, ITALY

sEEds OF CHANGE

CONFERENCE HiGHLiGHts

• Hear about tHe Hottest topics in plant

REPRODUCTION INCLUDING:

1. OVULE DEVELOPMENT

2. GERMLINE DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTION

3. POLLEN GERMINATION AND POLLEN TUBE GROWTH

4. FERTILISATION AND POLYSPERMY BLOCK

5. EMBRYOGENESIS AND ENDOSPERM DEVELOPMENT

6. SEED AND FRUIT DEVELOPMENT

• talKs FroM renoWneD KeYnote anD inViteD speaKers

• opportunities For talKs anD posters FroM SUBMITTED ABSTRACTS

ORGANisEd BY SÍLVIA COIMBRA, ANA LÚCIA LOPES (UNIVERSITY OF PORTO, PORTUGAL) ANA MARTA PEREIRA (UNIVERSITY OF MILAN, ITALY)

NEw BREEdiNG tECHNOLOGiEs iN tHE PLANt sCiENCEs

BY SARAH JOSE, GLOBAL PLANT COUNCIL

New gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 have the potential to revolutionise the fields of biology and medicine, from cancer treatments to biofuels. On the 7th and 8th of July, 70 researchers and policymakers from 17 countries met to discuss the application and implications of these technologies in plant breeding at a SEB satellite meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, organised in collaboration with the Global Plant Council and GARNet.

top tipS for SucceSS

Gene-editing technologies are the latest development in thousands of years of plant breeding, enabling the rapid but precise modification of genomes. While these techniques are theoretically relatively simple to use, in reality they can be challenging to apply effectively. Thankfully for the workshop’s delegates, several of the speakers explained how they had successfully used the CRISPR-Cas9 system in a wide range of plant species, and gave some top tips and resources to tackle the potential challenges.

Like many of the speakers, prolific genome editor Laurence Tomlinson (The Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich, UK) has developed a suite of new tools to help other researchers. She recommended combining manual and web-based tools to design guide RNA, which specifies the target to the CRISPR-Cas9 system, and said that she’d had better results

when combining the use of two guide RNA sequences for a single target gene. She also recommended carefully considering which of the various Cas9 alleles to use, as they can break the target DNA in different ways, leading to varying types of mutation.

regulatory challengeS

Gene-editing technologies often do not fit into current policies regulating the genetic modification of plants because they can be used to produce varieties that are indistinguishable from those generated by conventional breeding methods, and therefore cannot be tested. Despite the rapid progress in the use of new breeding technologies around the world, many researchers and crop breeding companies are unwilling to begin using tools such as CRISPR-Cas9 because of uncertainty over their regulation. No-one wants to start a multi-year plant breeding project only to find they won’t be allowed to grow their new crop varieties at the end of it.

At the workshop, we were given an insight into the current and potential regulation of new breeding technologies around the world. Wayne Parrot (University of Georgia) gave an entertaining

WHEN THEY ARE COMMONLY GROWN IN THE FUTURE, WE WILL BE ABLE TO SAY WE ATE SOME OF THE FIRST GENE-EDITED CROPS IN THE WORLD!

tour of the complex regulatory landscape of the USA, which involves three different federal agencies who all have partial control over new breeding technologies, depending on the way the gene editing is achieved. We heard from Barry Pogson (Australian National University) how subtly different readings of a 1996 policy defining genetic modification in New Zealand meant that although new breeding technologies were initially not regulated as GMOs, the decision was later overruled. Piet van der Meer (Ghent University) explained that, for many countries, the specific wording of regulations is important; for example, does a “novel” trait mean that it has not been seen before in nature, or that it is highly unlikely to arise naturally?

Researchers in the European Union (EU) are still waiting for a decision on CRISPRCas9 regulation, which has been delayed by fierce lobbying by both sides. Until then, European countries are free to interpret the 2001 legislation on genetic modification regarding new breeding technologies as they see fit, although most have not expressed an official decision.

One promising exception is Sweden. Workshop organiser and Umeå University researcher Stefan Jansson worked with the Swedish Board of Agriculture to receive a positive outcome; some gene-edited plants are currently not considered to be covered by GMO regulation in Sweden. Government representative Staffan Eklöf walked us through their decision-making process, which resulted in the key decision that, if the final gene-edited plant contains a mutation that could have arisen naturally, it should receive

equal treatment to plants generated with conventional mutagenesis techniques. These gene-edited plants are therefore not regulated by GM legislation,unless the EU decides to regulate them in the future. We saw how each word in a policy is loaded with meaning that can sometimes be ambiguous, so while it was fascinating to see the decision-making process, I don’t envy the policymakers and regulators!

After the development of a new biotechnology comes the legislation to regulate it, which means policies are always a few steps behind the leading edge of new advances. The workshop attendees discussed how we might influence the regulation of new breeding technologies by framing them as a method for rapidly providing solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face. As a result of the meeting, the Global Plant Council has worked with a team of experts to develop a consensus statement on new breeding technologies, which we hope will be used internationally as a recommendation for future policy decisions regarding these techniques.

Know your au Dience

Science communicator Craig Cormick (Think Outside The1) warned attendees of the meeting not to be complacent about public opinion. We must learn from the mistakes made in communicating genetic modification to the public, remembering that most people’s opinions of biotechnology differ greatly from those of scientists.

MANY RESEARCHERS AND CROP BREEDING COMPANIES ARE UNWILLING TO BEGIN USING TOOLS SUCH AS CRISPR-CAS9 BECAUSE OF UNCERTAINTY OVER THEIR REGULATION

Both Andersson and Jansson have been very open about their work with CRISPRCas9 in Sweden, and, promisingly, neither has received any negative feedback from the public. A journalist from a Swedish newspaper even attended the workshop to learn more about the benefits of these techniques! We still have time to make the right impression.

conference Dinner

A summary of the New Breeding Technologies satellite meeting would not be complete without mentioning the wonderful conference dinner. Stefan Jansson not only organised a three-course meal at a Michelin star restaurant, but he provided CRISPR-edited cabbage for the main course! (I’ve never seen scientists so excited!). Although we all understood that the cabbage was no different to a conventionally bred variety, eating CRISPR-edited food still felt like an amazingly unique experience. When they are commonly grown in the future, we will be able to say we ate some of the first gene-edited crops in the world!

1. www.thinkoutsidethe.com.au

Above The conference dinner featured CRISPR-edited cabbage

Photo credit: Sarah Jose

tHE FLOOR is OPEN FOR BiOMECHANiCs

BY SOPHIE REGNAULT, ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE

The Open Biomechanics session at the SEB Annual Meeting showcases a diversity of research questions, techniques and species. The latest event, in Gothenburg, was no exception, with oral presentations highlighting previously unappreciated complexity in animal anatomy and behaviours.

the rich inner worKingS of the lizarD inner ear

In lizards, the outer ear is absent and the ear canals are linked to the throat and to each other in an open system. In some species, the linked inner ears allow you to look straight through the head! Although there isn’t a lot to see, the hearing and balance organs of the inner ear are more complex than they seem. Bruce Young and Dawei Han (A.T. Still University and Truman State University, USA) specifically focused on the hearing capabilities of the Asiatic water monitor lizard (Varanus salvator), and were surprised to find that its auditory system is more dynamic and responsive than previously thought. They found several features that show monitor lizards are able to control and change how sound is perceived by the ear. The ear drum itself contains a muscle that can be voluntarily contracted to alter its vibrational characteristics. The drum is also divided into upper and lower regions with different mechanical properties, with the stiffer lower portion up to 12 times more sensitive to certain sounds. These features are similar to those found in the ear drum of humans and other mammals, suggesting lizards have independently evolved a similar sophisticated setup. In addition, the lizards are also able to pump air through the throat and pressurise the shared canal system as another way of altering how the ear drum processes sound waves. “Our experimental results challenge some of the basic assumptions of previous ear models”, says Young. Several other SEB Open Biomechanics presentations explored how the lizard inner ear correlates with size or ecology, and how it aids the body’s stabilisation on uneven ground. The newly-

appreciated complexity of the lizard ear may prove relevant to other research questions and fields.

DiSSecting multifunctional muScle mechanicS

Continuing the theme of anatomical and functional complexity, Chris Tijs (Harvard University, USA) and colleagues explored the mechanical properties of pennate muscles. These are muscles whose contractile fibres attach to the tendon at a slanting angle, rather than parallel to it. When a pennate muscle contracts, the fibre angle increases – and the larger the change in angle, the faster the whole muscle can shorten as it contracts. Previously, estimates of the changes in fibre angle that are used to characterise different pennate muscles have been based on measurements from only one part of the muscle, and so assume that the whole muscle has the same mechanical properties. However some muscles have regions with different muscle fibre arrangements. The medial gastrocnemius is one example; the large muscle of the inner calf is split into upper and lower portions with fibres of different lengths and attachment angles.

Tijs asked “How do these regions differ?”

By stimulating the muscle in anaesthetised rats, the researchers found that that the upper, shorter fibres underwent greater overall change in their angle of attachment.

Tijs thinks that these regional variations in muscle fibre properties might be satisfying different mechanical needs within the muscle.

“The calf muscle has less leverage at the level

OUR EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS CHALLENGE SOME OF THE BASIC ASSUMPTION OF PREVIOUS EAR MODELS

BRUCE YOUNG

of the knee joint, compared to the level of the ankle. Having shorter contractile fibres means more of them can be packed into this region, increasing muscle force and compensating for the lower leverage here.” The results suggest that the mechanical properties of pennate muscles rely on a complex interplay of factors, not reflected by measurements taken from just one region.

chewing it over

Some presentations showcased familiar behaviours in unfamiliar species. Egon Heiss (Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena) and colleagues investigated chewing in amphibians, challenging perceptions in these species. These animals supposedly do not chew, except for some salamanders – mechanical analyses suggest the stresses would be too great for their jaws – but the researchers noticed that the newt T. carnifex displayed chewinglike behaviours after catching its maggot prey. It would bob its head up and down, repeatedly open and close its mouth and move its tongue. Was this some form of chewing? And if so, how were these newts processing the maggots, given their weak jaws? Heiss and colleagues used high speed x-ray videos to study the behaviour. Their videos reveal that the newts were not simply repositioning food; the hapless maggot remained in the same place, pushed against the roof of the mouth by the tongue. In fact, these newts possess small teeth actually embedded in the roof of the mouth, and the cyclical movements of their tongue act to grind the food object against these teeth. Maggots had grazes and lesions in their outer cuticle, suggesting newts’ chewing prepares

these tough titbits for easier digestion. Chewing is well-studied in mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish and results of this most recent experiment suggest chewing behaviour may be even more widespread than thought. “I was very surprised how well the tiny palatal teeth worked to rasp prey.” Heiss says, “Further studies will show whether chewing might have evolved much earlier in a shared ancestor, perhaps as part of the process of coming to live on land.”

frogS’ hipS Don’t lie… but Do Deceive

Other researchers revealed unexpected functional versatility between animals with different anatomy and lifestyles. The pelvic bones of frogs are generally one of three recognised shapes, each correlated with walking-, jumping- or swimming-specialists. However, some frogs are capable of a range of behaviours. The red-legged running frog ( Kassina maculata) is just one such animal, famed for its walking and running, but also as good a jumper as any specialist. Its ‘walkingtype’ pelvis rolls from side to side, allowing the frog to take large strides, but this doesn’t happen during jumping. Amber Collings and colleagues (Royal Veterinary College, UK) asked why Kassina isn’t constrained by its walking-type pelvis and how it manages to achieve such multi-functionality. The team recorded the frogs’ movement and fed the data into their anatomical computer model to understand how the muscles were contributing to each type of behaviour. Collings says “Being such radically different movements, requiring very different postures, we were

expecting the muscles to change position in ways that enhanced leverage for either walking or jumping.” But they were surprised to find that this was not the case. Instead, it seems that the secret is all in timing of pelvic muscle contractions. By only contracting muscles on one side, the pelvis can roll freely during walking, whereas coordinated bilateral contractions stabilise the pelvis to allow such impressive jumping.

Next year’s SEB Open Biomechanics sessions will continue to provide a presentation venue for rich and varied biomechanics research, with 1.5 days of oral presentations scheduled at the Annual Meeting in Florence, 3–6 July 2018.

I WAS VERY SURPRISED HOW WELL THE TINY PALATAL TEETH WORKED TO RASP PREY… CHEWING MIGHT HAVE EVOLVED MUCH EARLIER IN A SHARED ANCESTOR, PERHAPS AS PART OF THE PROCESS OF COMING TO LIVE ON LAND

SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY PRESENTS:

tHE HEiGHt, BREAdtH ANd dEPtH OF PHYsiOLOGiCAL diVERsitY: VARiAtiON ACROss LAtitUdiNAL, ALtitUdiNAL ANd dEPtH GRAdiENts

SEBIOLOGY.ORG #PHYDIV18

dEtAiLs

1 JULY 2018

FIRENZE FIERA CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION CENTRE, FLORENCE, ITALY

OCEAN dEEP MOUNtAiN HiGH

CONFERENCE HiGHLiGHts

• explore coMMon principles across latituDe, ALTITUDE AND DEPTH RELATED GRADIENTS

• sYntHesise current tHinKing on patterns OF PHYSIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

• iDentiFY pHYsical anD biological Factors AFFECTING PHYSIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

• Horizon scan Future researcH priorities

• explore HoW noVel tools HaVe aDVanceD tHe FielD

• opportunities For talKs anD posters FroM SUBMITTED ABSTRACTS

MiCROsURGERY tRAiNiNG COURsE

BY NICHOLAS WU, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA

FOR ME THIS WAS ONE OF THE MOST CHALLENGING BUT REWARDING COURSES

For a PhD student from Australia, a country with strict ethical laws on the use of live animals for training purposes, opportunities for learning surgical techniques outside of your expertise are rare to come by. However, an opportunity arose after attending the Society for Experimental Biology’s successful Annual Meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, when the University of Gothenburg, in collaboration with Sahlgrenska University Hospital, hosted a 4 day workshop entitled ‘Experimental microsurgery’. Professor Michael Axelsson, along with three surgical instructors, guided eight PhD students from around the world through various theoretical and practical aspects of experiment microsurgery. The main focus of the course was the practical aspect, with around 75% practical training and 25% theory. This course was introductory for students (like myself) with limited or no previous experience in surgical and microsurgical techniques.

Microsurgery is defined as surgical procedures requiring the use of microscopes, such as working at the level of blood vessels and nerves. Thus, it requires high quality facilities

and equipment for success, for example goldplated forceps that can cost around €400 each. The practical aspect of the course started with 2 days of macro- and microsurgical exercises with inanimate models (such as gauze, latex membrane and chicken thigh), before two days on tissue- and vessel microdissection on anaesthetized rats. The exercises included suturing techniques, cannulation and basic microvascular surgery (end-to-end anastomosis) of various vessels (femoral arties and veins, carotid arteries and vena cava).

For the theoretical aspect, much of the focus was on the ergonomics of the surgical environment, adjustment of the operative microscope, basic anatomy of rats, anaesthesia, pre-, intra- and post-operative care, aseptic technique and surgical instruments.

For me this was one of the most challenging but rewarding courses. All attendees were required to learn the surgical techniques quickly and efficiently within a short time span. However, because of the instructor to student ratio, the learning experience was personalised for each of us. One surprising technique we learnt during the course was the use of a modified Nintendo Wii controller in a game to practice hand-eye coordination that can be applied to surgery. It was an interesting and fun mechanism that some of us got to practise on. Overall, the microsurgery course was an unforgettable experience. I would highly recommend this course for anyone in experimental biology that requires invasive procedures. It has greatly assisted me with the efficiency and output of my experiments, stressing the importance of the 3R concepts (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement), with the emphasis on refinement of techniques and reduction of animals. While not all techniques learnt may apply to all students, Michael highlights the importance of good laboratory practice and that can be applied to all lab settings.

Thank you Michael Axelsson, the three instructors, and the other seven attendees for creating a wonderful training environment.

ORGANisEd BY SIMON MORLEY (BRITISH ANTARCTIC SURVEY, UK); JOHN SPICER (PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY, UK); FRANCISCO BOZINOVIC (PONTIFICAL CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF CHILE, CHILE)

Photo

Left Dr. Min Jong Song (Mary’s Hospital, the Catholic University of Korea & Sahlgrenska Academy) watching carefully over a cannulation procedure on an anesthetised rat

credit: Michael Axelsson

MAstERs OF BiOLOGY

SEB 2018 ANNUAL MEETING – FLORENCE, ITALY

BY OLIVER KINGHAM

Next year’s Annual Meeting will provide the perfect combination of research, new ideas and collaborative connections so come and join other masters in biology, and immerse yourself in extraordinary science in the home of the Italian Renaissance.

with over 800 experimental biologists making their way to Florence, the Annual Meeting is promising to be a fascinating conference with an exciting programme packed with scientific sessions covering animal, cell, plant and SEB+ education topics. There will also be a number of cross-disciplinary sessions on offer to stimulate the exchange of research. Find out more below about the sessions and science that will take place from our Section Chairs.

cell biology programme

The Cell Section continues to present a series of cross-kingdom sessions highlighting new thinking and technologies in Experimental Biology. From innovations in sequencing, through metabolism, analyses of multicellular complexity and synthetic biology, we aim to explore a multi-scale, quantitative approach to understanding cell biology. Cells are not simply sources of “big data”, and we will also focus on the new developments used to unravel the intricate structures and mechanisms that underlie the function of the nuclear periphery. Algal biology meets applied research in the shape of “green microbes”; not just the colour, but also their potential for advances in the Bioeconomy. We are also pleased to participate in sessions from our colleagues in the Plant and Animal sections, and believe that this integrated programme will interest and inspire all who attend.

John Love, Cell Section Chair

plant biology programme

A core theme of this year’s plant sessions is the intersection between development and environment, and interdisciplinary approaches and new technologies for tackling complex decision-making in the plant; a theme of major significance in this era of

rapid technical advances, awareness of the need for integrative, multi-scale biology and our changing climate. “Shaping root architecture” will focus on the developmental and environmental factors that determine root architecture from lateral roots to whole plant responses, while “Plant temperature responses: shaping development and enhancing survival” will stimulate discussion between researchers working on low and high temperature changes, early signalling events and longer term adaptive responses.

“Epigenetic memory and environmental adaptation” picks apart epigenetic gene regulation in the context of environmental adaptation, growth and development, metabolism and novel products, linking to “From genome to genomes” which will address complex genomes, population genomics and facilitate uptake of genome scale research via a hands-on workshop, and “Plant Biotechnology” on new plant products for health and nutrition. Synthetic engineering will also be an aspect of the “Enhancing plant photosynthesis with biophysical CO2 concentrating mechanisms” session. More unusual topics of climate adaptation in urban and natural forests, as well as a session on development and morphology of non-flowering plants round off an exciting scientific offering.

Katherine Denby, Plant Section Chair

animal biology programme

The Animal Section will be focussing on current hot topics in experimental biology specifically: how physiology underpins whole animal behaviour and how this can influence intraspecific variation within groups of animals; biomechanics linked to climate change; the thermal biology of animals in the face of global warming and ocean acidification; and in collaboration with the Cell Section the measurement of stress from cells through to non-invasive monitoring of stress as a

conservation tool. Adaptation to environmental variation linked to climate change naturally means animals will have to alter their cellular, stress, locomotory and behavioural responses in order to overcome changes in their natural habitats. Therefore, these topics are at the cutting edge of understanding the impact of environmental fluctuation on animal phenotype and the programme will keep you engaged for the duration of the conference.

Lynne Sneddon, Animal Section Chair

Seb+ programme

Every SEB member is an SEB+ member. The SEB+ section exists to support you in developing your career in academic science or beyond and extending the reach of your science by providing expertise and opportunities in Science Communication and Teaching and Learning. This year, we have increased our focus on Science Policy and Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity, which is informing the way in which sessions are organised at the Annual Meeting.

There will be a range of SEB+ sessions which will provide you with discussion and opportunities to enhance your practice as a rounded scientist. We will be continuing with a popular series of Teaching and Learning sessions with “Teaching biology at different scales: Challenges, opportunities and strategies” which will focus on scalability of teaching methods and how educational impact can be maintained when teaching at different scales. We will also be working with the Animal section to deliver a session on “Embracing your animal care, welfare and use committee – a win-win situation” as it is important to increase knowledge of animal welfare and care requirements. Experts from an international community will give their views on the importance of effectively communicating and providing a good Culture of Care to benefit animals, staff and science. In addition, there will also be career development workshops for young

researchers to learn more about outreach and publishing pedagogical research and a “meet the academics” lunchtime careers session offering advice to those pursuing an academic career. The diversity dinner on Day 2 will discuss inclusivity, diversity and equality with an invited expert sharing their expertise and good practice.

George Littlejohn, SEB+ Section Chair

your time to Shine

Each year at the Annual Meeting, the SEB celebrates, recognises and awards the achievements of young scientists in the Experimental Biology community:

YOUNG SCIENTIST AWARD (YSAS)

The YSAS Award is open to all postgraduates and post docs, who are within 5 years since completing their PhD, to showcase their talents and cutting-edge research. There are three prizes per section (i.e. Animal-Cell and PlantCell) and the deadline for YSAS application is 23 March 2018.

IRENE MANTON POSTER PRIZE

The Irene Manton poster prize competition is open to students and early career researchers and a prize is awarded to the best poster in each section (animal biology, plant biology, cell biology and SEB+).

A preliminary review of abstracts received for the Annual Meeting will determine which abstracts have been accepted for poster presentation. Accepted authors will be required to submit a final PDF of their poster by 31 May 2018.

For more information on the awards and prizes and to start planning your abstract submission, visit www.sebiology.org/events/event/sebflorence-2018/abstract.

travel grantS

There a number of grant opportunities available to student and early career scientists to assist with their travel to the Annual Meeting through the Company of Biologists travel grant and Annual Meeting travel grant.

For eligibility criteria and information on applying for a travel grant, visit www. sebiology.org/grants-and-funding.

We hope to see you in Florence and keep an eye out on the Florence 2018 website page (http://www.sebiology.org/events/event/ seb-florence-2018) for all the information on programme, registration, abstract submission and all the “see and do” things that should not be missed in Florence!

See you there!

Top right Florence

Right Young scientist presenting at SEB Gothenburg 2017

Photo credit: Simon Callaghan

ENtER tHE CARNiVOREs

BY CAROLINE WOOD

“Every time I look at these plants, I find something new and fascinating”, so said Charles Darwin of carnivorous plants. Since his time, these captivating species have inspired countless botanists and plant scientists.

despite this, there hadn’t been a dedicated session on carnivorous plants at an SEB meeting for nearly 40 years, the last being in 1980. “Carnivorous plants – Physiology, ecology, and evolution” at the 2017 SEB Annual Meeting put this right. Touching on all manner of fields from ecology, biomechanics, biomaterials and developmental biology, there was plenty of cutting-edge research for the delegates to get their teeth into.

marvellouS moverS

The most iconic carnivorous plant has to be the Venus Flytrap, Dionaea muscipula which Darwin called “the most wonderful plant in the world”. Even today, the swift closing action of the lobed trap is mesmerising: “I was fascinated by the Venus Flytrap as a child and have been stuck to carnivorous plants ever since”, said Simon Poppinga, of the Plant Biomechanics Group at University of Freiburg, Germany. Indeed, Simon’s passion for carnivorous plants led him to research how these organisms can move so quickly without muscles. It’s now known that the Venus Flytrap employs a snap-buckling instability, as Simon describes: “The lobes of the trap are doubly curved and

can rapidly flip from a convex to a concave configuration in as little as 100 milliseconds”.

Yet the Venus Flytrap is woefully slow compared to its aquatic sister, Aldrovanda vesiculosa, otherwise known as the Waterwheel Plant, whose underwater snap traps can close in only 20–50 milliseconds. Despite its morphological similarity to Dionaea , Simon and PhD student Anna Westermeier (both from the Plant Biomechanics Group Freiburg, Germany) have found that Aldrovanda uses a completely different mechanism to close its traps. Using high-speed cameras mounted on stereo microscopes, Anna analysed the movement of traps placed between two electrodes that were triggered to close using electrical impulses. This demonstrated that the process relies on movement amplification, where a small deformation of the central midrib is magnified into the lobes. It is presumed that the initial deformation is driven by a loss of turgor pressure in the cells adjacent to the midrib, similar to other hydraulically-driven plant movements, such as the closing of guard cells in stomata. But the sheer speed of closure suggested that this wasn’t the complete answer. As Anna explained: “Trap closure in Aldrovanda is almost as fast as plant movements that rely on elastic instabilities, rather than purely hydraulic forces. Therefore, the question arose if Aldrovanda also incorporates pre-stresses to boost its speed.” To investigate this further, Anna had to team up with colleagues that had expertise in computer simulations. “We used a method called Finite Element Analysis, where the trap is reduced to the minimum elements necessary for the movement”, she said. “We can then manipulate certain components and recalculate the stresses and compressions acting on the trap. It’s very powerful as you can perform manipulations you could never do on a real trap”. Using this approach, they developed a physical model where the plant actively incorporates pre-stresses into the trap before it is triggered.

“You can think of the midrib like an inverted bow”, explained Simon. “Normally,

a bow is pre-stressed into a curved state and then the elastic energy is released when we fire it. In Aldrovanda it is the other way around: the trap is kept open using turgor pressure and when this is released, the midrib relaxes into a curved state and forces the lobes to move towards each other, closing the trap”.

Indeed, such is the elegance of Aldrovanda’s trap mechanism that its kinetics have inspired a new adaptive shading device: the Flectofold. This biomimetic façade shading system was developed and built in the framework of the Collaborative Research Centre 1411 with engineers and architects from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. The stiff flaps are connected to the midrib along curved fold lines. The closing movement is driven by a pneumatic cushion which induces bending in the midrib that causes an amplified folding movement of the shading flaps2 .

getting SucKeD in

However, when it comes to trap speed, Aldrovanda would only get the silver medal. The fastest known carnivorous plant is the humble Bladderwort, Utricularia , an aquatic plant that captures zooplankton in tiny suction traps. “They are so easy to overlook – they look just like green snot”, said fluid mechanist Ulrike Muller (California State University Fresno, United States). Yet her work has found that the tiny traps pack a suction force mighty enough to break the cohesive forces of water.

“For small organisms, the main property of water that affects movement is its viscosity, caused by the attraction between water molecules”, explained Ulrike. This attraction causes water molecules to form a layer around objects that move through it, generating viscous forces. Because Bladderwort traps are only a few millimetres in size, they ought

to be subject to viscous forces; as Ulrike said “for this to be otherwise would be a special achievement”. To make the suction flow visible, she added small tracer particles to the water surrounding Utricularia and illuminated them with a narrow laser beam. The traps were then filmed using high-speed cameras operating at 50,000 frames per second. “From this, we could see that the traps generate flow patterns that look exactly the same as the flow predicted by inviscid flow models”, said Ulrike. “Basically, the speed of the trap overcomes the viscous force of water, meaning that the water molecules simply don’t have time to stick to one another”.

This means that compared to animals that feed using suction forces, Utricularia are in a league of their own. “Bladderwort traps are the same size as fish larvae, which also feed using suction forces”, explained Ulrike. “But whilst the Bladderwort reaches peak pressure in less than a millisecond, it takes fish larvae up to 10 milliseconds. To pardon the pun – fish suck at sucking!” But how the Bladderwort achieves this is currently a mystery. “Our best hypothesis at the moment is elastic energy storage”, said Ulrike. “But we have no proof for this, so we are now investigating the structures and materials in the trap to see if there are any candidates for storing elastic energy”. Like Anna, Ulrike plans to use Finite Element Analysis on computer models of the Utricularia trap to manipulate the stiffness and thickness of different components.

THE SPEED OF THE TRAP OVERCOMES THE VISCOUS FORCE OF WATER, MEANING THAT THE WATER MOLECULES SIMPLY

DON’T HAVE TIME TO STICK TO ONE ANOTHER

Slippery cuStomerS

Speed isn’t the only mechanism carnivorous plants use: in many species, the traps do not move at all and passively wait for their victims to stumble into them. Perhaps the most wellknown are the Pitcher Plants of the genus Nepenthes , whose traps consist of a fluidfilled cavity containing digestive enzymes. Nectar-secreting glands entice insects to the rim (known as the peristome), from which many fall to their doom. Understanding how the peristome is so slippery is the focus of research being conducted by Ulrike Bauer (University of Bristol, UK). “The surface of the peristome is unusually wettable”, she said. “Instead of forming beads, water droplets that fall on the surface spread out as an even layer”. Under a Scanning Electron Microscope, it can be seen that the peristome is made up of regular microscopic ridges of smooth overlapping epidermal cells, separated by grooves3. Water spreads along these ridges through a natural capillary action, forming a homogenous thin film. The microstructures of the peristome cause the solid and liquid surface energies to be closely matched, holding the overlying water film in a highly stable state. By placing Weaver Ants on the peristome that were connected by a thread to a tiny strain gauge force transducer, Ulrike’s colleague Holger Bohn confirmed that the combination of surface topography and overlying liquid film prevents the claws and adhesive pads of the ants from getting a grip, similar to a car aquaplaning.

These adaptations are inspiring new biomaterials in the form of Slippery LiquidInfused Porous Devices (SLIPs). Traditionally, water-repelling surfaces use microstructures to repel liquids directly, however SLIPs mimic Nepenthes by using a microporous substance to lock in an intermediary film of liquid which itself becomes the repellent surface. It is hoped that this could be used in applications as varied as medicine, fluid transportation and selfcleaning materials for extreme environments4

fighting bacK

With such sophisticated traps, it’s easy to feel sorry for the insects and other prey species that coexist with carnivorous plants, but it seems that they have their own ways of fighting back. Indeed, during the session, Sebastian Kruppert (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany) presented the first known case of a plant driving an inducible defence in an animal species. “We already knew that the presence of animal predators can induce Daphnia water fleas to change their morphology and increase

their carapace’s stiffness up to two times”, he said. A chance meeting with Simon Poppinga during the Biomechanics Session at the 2015 SEB Annual Meeting in Prague inspired him to investigate whether predation by Utricularia could have the same effect. However, their initial results were surprising, as it appeared that Ceriodaphnia dubia that were raised in the presence of Utricularia were actually smaller than the controls. “This was curious because Utricularia can only catch organisms that fit within the trap, so prey species should aim to be bigger not smaller”, Sebastian said. However, it transpired that measuring Daphnia the traditional way – diagonally from the eye to the tail spine – was giving misleading data. “We then used a 3D-modelling system with confocal laser scanning microscopy developed by my colleague Martin Horstmann”, continued Sebastian. “This projects a point cloud onto the image which maps the surface”. Using this method, it became clear that Ceriodaphnia raised with Bladderworts were becoming broader with a larger cross-sectional area. In addition, they developed lateral fornices (spine-like structures) on the head, further increasing the lateral width. “These changes would make it more difficult for the Ceriodaphnia to physically fit in the trap”, Sebastian explained. This was confirmed using predation trials: morphologically adapted Ceriodaphnia were significantly less susceptible to Utricularia predation than non-adapted controls raised in predator-free conditions.

OVER 4,000 MICROORGANISMS CAN BE FOUND IN UTRICULARIA’S TINY TRAPS — A DIVERSITY ON A PAR WITH THE SOIL RHIZOSPHERE

Left page

The humble Bladderwort, Utricularia

Photo credit: Ulrike Muller

This page

The Flectofold – a biomimetic shading device based on the trap closure mechanism of Aldrovanda , the WaterWheel plant

Photo credit: ITKE, University of Stuttgard

How Daphnia detect the presence of Utricularia is currently a mystery. “Possibly, Utricularia give off a chemical signal because we know that daphniids respond to chemicals released by animal predators. It needs more research, and my colleagues are currently working on this pathway”, said Sebastian. “We are also currently investigating whether the presence of Utricularia induces behavioural changes in Daphnia as these would be quicker to use than morphological changes, which take a couple of days”.

more of a vegetarian after all?

Despite this apparent arms race between Bladderworts and their Daphnia prey, carnivory may actually only play a minor role in nutrient acquisition for these plants. “Studies suggest that the rate of invertebrate prey capture is not enough to sustain the growth of Utricularia at many locations” said Dagmara Sirova (University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic). Instead, Bladderworts may rely on the complex and interconnected ecosystem of algae, bacteria and protozoan species contained within their traps. But analysing this system is no easy task, as Dagmara explained: “As the

traps are so small, we had to develop a suction system with a thin glass capillary tube attached to a peristaltic pump. It took hundreds of trap samples to get 1 ml of fluid.” Using a variety of approaches, including epifluorescence microscopy, stable isotope labelling, metagenomics and metatranscriptomics, the results suggested that over 4,000 species can be found in the tiny traps, a diversity on a par with the soil rhizosphere. Despite this complexity, computer modelling and clustering analysis has shed light on the key players within this soup. In particular, the trap’s communities show some similarities to the guts of mammalian ruminants, including an abundance of various bacterial species able to degrade complex plant polymers. This suggests that most of Utricularia ’s nutrition may actually be algal in origin.

“Various algal species grow on the submerged leaves of Utricularia , and disturbances can cause them to fall into the trap”, explained Dagmara. “However, the nutrients released from this captured organic matter don’t benefit the plant directly as they are first used by the trap-colonizing bacteria”. It seems that the recently described ciliate Tetrahymena utriculariae is a grazer that is key for completing the cycle, as it acts as a nutrient regenerating machine. “Using fluorescently labelled bacteria, we found that Tetrahymena utriculariae can overturn the entire standing stock of bacteria five times a day”, said Dagmara. “It’s a very efficient but sloppy feeder, which releases nutrients in mineral form, readily available for plant uptake”. Further evidence for the importance of these microbial communities comes from the fact that young traps (which are initially sterile), exude up to 25% of their photosynthates into the trap lumen to attract bacteria. According to Dagmara, this makes sense when one considers the nutrient-poor areas where Utricularia thrives: “In these places, metazoan prey is often scarce but the supply of algae is continuous and abundant. As such, Utricularia-microbe systems should be considered as synchronized, mutually dependent biological and ecological units”.

a perfect little SyStem to aSK big QueStionS

in a single metre squared, each one being a single replicate”, he said. “For an experimental ecologist interested in aquatic systems, it’s a very attractive system. Pitcher Plants also have the advantage that their food webs can be built from the bottom up. This means we can ask what factors control the structure of a food web: is it how much space there is, the amount of resources or key stone predators?”

Similar to Utricularia , Pitcher Plants also contain multi-trophic communities of microorganisms which make “good systems for asking the big questions that have preoccupied ecologists for hundreds of years”, according to Aaron Ellison (Harvard University, United States). “We can think of Pitcher Plants as small experimental lakes that can be manipulated. You can have several hundred Pitcher Plants

Above right

More recently, Aaron has used the carnivorous Northern Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia purpurea to examine how healthy lakes change to oxygenpoor, eutrophic systems. “At the moment, it takes 40 years advanced warning to prevent a state change in a lake, but Pitcher Plants allow us to investigate these dynamics on a much quicker time-scale”, he said. In unfed plants, the concentration of dissolved oxygen shows a regular diurnal cycle with levels high during the day when photosynthesis occurs, and lower at night when the plants respire. As soon as prey is introduced, these regular

cycles are disrupted due to the decomposing activity of the microorganisms within the trap. By comparing plants with different rates of prey addition, Aaron demonstrated that the rate of prey decomposition and the biological oxygen demand were the primary drivers that triggered the transition to an anaerobic state5 “We found that this transition could be induced in as little as 70 hours”, said Aaron. “Our hope now is to develop biomarkers for tipping points so that we can anticipate these changes more rapidly in lake systems”.

looKing to the future…

A final use for carnivorous plants that should not be overlooked is their capacity to captivate audiences across the globe and inspire the public and even the next generation of plant scientists. “Carnivorous plants are a good entry point to get the public talking about science”, said Aaron, who helped develop a freely-available downloadable teaching resource on carnivorous plants with the Linnean Society 6 Many rare carnivorous plants are monitored as part of citizen science programmes, where members of the public record sightings to online databases. A new species of Drosera sundew was even discovered on Facebook in 2015, spotted by PhD student Paulo Gonella in a photo of Brazilian plants posted on a friend’s newsfeed7. Given that so many carnivorous species are threatened by habitat loss, it is vital that more people are inspired to help protect them. As SEB researchers have shown, they deserve to be seen as a ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ rather than the ‘Little Shop of Horrors’.

PITCHER PLANTS MAKE “GOOD SYSTEMS FOR ASKING THE BIG QUESTIONS THAT HAVE PREOCCUPIED ECOLOGISTS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS”

Hungry for more? The last SEB Carnivorous Plants session led to the publication of ‘The Carnivorous Plants’, by Juniper, Robins and Joel (Academic Press, 1988). Fittingly, many of the speakers for the 2017 session have contributed to the forthcoming book ‘Carnivorous Plants: Physiology, ecology, and evolution’, edited by Aaron Ellison and Lubomír Adamec. It is scheduled to be published in January 2018 by Oxford University Press.

1. http://www.trr141.de/

2. Poppinga, S.; Körner, A.; Sachse, R.; Born, L.; Westermeier, A.S.; Hesse, L.; Knippers, J.; Bischoff, M.; Gresser, G.; Speck, T. Compliant mechanisms in plants and architecture. In: Knippers, J.; Nickel, K.G.; Speck, T. (eds) Biomimetic Research for Architecture and Building Construction: Biological Design and Integrative Structures. Springer book series “BiologicallyInspired Systems”, vol. 9. Springer International Publishing AG, Switzerland (2016), pp 169–19.

3. Bohn, Holger F., and Walter Federle. “Insect aquaplaning: Nepenthes pitcher plants capture prey with the peristome, a fully wettable waterlubricated anisotropic surface.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101.39 (2004): 14138–14143.

4. Wong, Tak-Sing, et al. “Bioinspired selfrepairing slippery surfaces with pressure-stable omniphobicity.” Nature 477.7365 (2011): 443.

5. Sirota, Jennie, et al. “Organic-matter loading determines regime shifts and alternative states in an aquatic ecosystem.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110.19 (2013): 7742–7747.

6. https://www.linnean.org/education-resources/ secondary-resources/darwin-inspired-learning/ murderous-plants

7. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/ southamerica/brazil/11762745/New-plant-speciesdiscovered-on-Facebook.html

Above The sophisticated trap of Aldrovanda vesiculosa

Photo credit: PBG

The trap of Bladderwort, Utricularia – the fastest carnivorous plant on record!

Photo credit: Ulrike Muller

it’s ALL ABOUt PERFORMANCE

FROM A HUMAN PERSPECTIVE, THIS IS LIKE RUNNING A MARATHON WITH EASE, AFTER NEVER TRAINING AT ALL

Below left

Bar-Headed Geese make one of the most demanding migrations known on earth

Photo credit:

Nyambayar Batbayar

BY CAROLINE WOOD

As wildlife documentaries show, many animals undertake astonishing feats in order to survive, migrate or win themselves a mate. Even when it appears effortless, these behaviours are typically supported by a whole complex of intrinsic adaptations at the genetic, cellular, physiological and behavioural level. Around the world, research is slowly picking apart how these animal athletes interact with their environment, some of which is showcased here from the SEB Annual Meeting in Gothenburg.

flying high

For humans, perhaps the ultimate challenge is to conquer Mount Everest, a feat that demands months of training and preparation. Yet, for Bar-headed Geese ( Anser indicus) to make such an ascent, they can, quite literally, ‘wing it’. These birds perform one of the most demanding migrations on earth as they travel across the Tibetan plateau between their breeding grounds in Mongolia and China, and their wintering grounds in the Indian subcontinent. Paradoxically, flight is one of the most metabolically demanding forms of locomotion, yet these birds perform it in an extremely oxygen-poor environment. “The geese ascend to the highest part of their migration, which can be over 5,500 m in the Himalayas, in under 8 hours giving them no opportunity to acclimatise”, said Lucy Hawkes (University of Exeter, United Kingdom).“In contrast, humans that arrive at Everest base camp at 5,400m struggle to sleep well and eat properly until they have acclimatised over several weeks”. Given that they have no time to adapt raises the question: do Bar-headed Geese need to undergo training before they are ready to migrate?

To investigate this possibility, Lucy and her colleagues implanted logger devices into four wild Bar-headed Geese captured in Western Mongolia.

“This allowed us to look for changes in heart rate that might indicate increased physiological fitness; a reduced heart rate, for instance, could indicate a higher stroke volume”, said Lucy. “The loggers also included accelerometers to measure activity, including intense, demanding activities such as groundbased flapping which might represent power training. You could call them a ‘Fit-Bit’ for geese!”

The results showed that, prior to migrating, the geese demonstrated no significant differences in heart rate or activity patterns. “The geese don’t seem overtly to prepare for migration, other than eating a lot more grass and putting on weight”, said Lucy. “From a human perspective, this is like running a marathon with ease, after never training at all – apart from the pre-race pasta party. It may also apply to other birds that make spectacular migrations, such as Arctic

Terns, Bar-tailed Godwits and Great Snipe, but this has yet to be demonstrated.”

One possible explanation is that, for migratory birds, endogenous muscle development can occur without the need for power training. This stems from the observation that migratory birds experience large fluctuations in muscle mass each year: muscle is consumed to fuel their long journeys and rebuilt again during their stopovers in wintering and breeding grounds. As an example, Barnacle Geese lose approximately a third of their flight muscle mass when they moult their wing feathers. But in studies where Barnacle Geese were kept captive, deprived of the ability to fly freely, their wing muscles still regrew to pre-moult levels1 suggesting that muscle development is regulated by other mechanisms, rather than activity levels. It has been hypothesised that changing photoperiods could trigger

the release of hormones that upregulate genetic pathways for muscle growth and fuel mobilisation. In support of this, WhiteThroated Sparrows ( Zonotrichia albicollis) have been found to increase gene expression of Fatty Acid Binding Proteins (FABPs) and Fatty Acid Translocase proteins by 1000% during their migratory season: proteins that are critical for transporting fatty acids through the muscle membrane 2

Surely it must be every bodybuilder’s dream to unlock the secret of bulking up their muscles without spending hours in the gym…but as for Lucy, she is already getting ready for her next line of enquiry: “We are now investigating how geese deal with the temperature changes they experience during migration, from extremely cold air in the Himalayas to extremely warm air down in India, all whilst wearing the equivalent of a duvet!”, she said.

Diving Deep

It’s not just up high where we see incredible animal performances, other creatures are capable of plunging down to the ocean depths, seemingly without harm. In mammals, the current record for the deepest dive belongs to a Cuvier’s Beaked Whale ( Ziphius cavirostris), which has been recorded diving to a depth of 2992 m, during a 137-minute dive 3

In comparison, the current record for a human free-diver is merely 121 m in a dive lasting four minutes and 24 seconds 4 One of the key reasons behind this difference is the incredible resilience of diving mammals to hypoxia, particularly in the brain, as Andrej Fabrizius (Institute of Zoology, University of Hamburg, Germany) explained: “In most terrestrial mammals, lack of oxygen results in irreversible damage to the brain in a few minutes, but the brains of diving mammals can survive recurrent and extended periods of hypoxia”.

OUR RESULTS COULD INDICATE A COMMON ADAPTATION MECHANISM THAT EVOLVED CONVERGENTLY IN DEEP-DIVING

WHALES AND SEALS

The brain is particularly vulnerable to damage from hypoxia due to its high metabolic activity, which requires a constant supply of oxygen. In humans, for instance, the brain comprises only 2% of our body weight yet accounts for 20% of the body’s oxygen demand. Many physiological and anatomical adaptations that increase oxygen delivery to the brain in diving whales and seals are already known, including increased blood volumes, high levels of haemoglobin and myoglobin, and constriction of blood vessels to peripheral areas during dives. But the cellular and molecular mechanisms that protect against hypoxia remain largely unknown.

To investigate this, Andrej took brain tissue samples from the visual cortex of the Hooded Seal (Cystophora cristata), a species which has been recorded diving for up to an hour and reaching depths of over 1000 m. These were compared with visual cortex samples from ferrets, the closest terrestrial relative to Pinnipeds (seals and walruses), having diverged 38–40 million years ago. “We used RNA-sequencing analysis as a first ‘shot in the dark’ to see if we could find any genes showing significant differences in regulation between seals and ferrets”, said Andrej5 The results showed no evidence of enrichment for enzymes relating to anaerobic respiration, such as lactate dehydrogenase, in the seal brains. However, genes relating to aerobic energy metabolism and translation (the production of proteins from amino acids) were significantly overrepresented in the ferret brain. “This suggests that, rather than having a higher anaerobic capacity, the seal brain may be adapted to low oxygen conditions by having a lower aerobic energy metabolism which would reduce the energy demand”, said Andrej.

Besides this, two other genes showed unusually high expression in the seal brain, making them potential candidates for a hypoxia-adapted mechanism. The most highly expressed gene, clusterin, is thought to interfere with programmed cell death (apoptosis), thus promoting cell survival.

“The high level of clusterin in the seal brain could be interpreted either as a pre-adaptation to protect it from damage or as a consequence of the hypoxic conditions encountered during a dive”, said Andrej. Interestingly, in humans clusterin is thought to prevent the build-up of amyloid-ß plaques that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. The gene with the largest difference in expression between seals and ferrets was S100B, a calcium-binding protein that regulates a number of processes, including the activation of astrocytes (cells which support the function of the central nervous system) following brain damage.

“Interestingly, when we compared our results with brain transcriptomes of other mammals, we also found high S100B expression in Minke and Bowhead whales, but low expression in terrestrial mammals”, said Andrej.

“Therefore, S100B could be a component of a common adaptation mechanism that evolved convergently in whales and seals.”

Besides uncovering the secrets of these extraordinary divers, Andrej hopes that his results could also have applications for landlocked humans: “Millions of individuals die or become ill each year as a result of diseases that reduce the blood supply to oxygen sensitive tissues, such as strokes”, he said. “Potentially, clusterin and S100B could be suitable targets for drug therapies to treat these conditions”.

meet the new neighbourS

Perhaps one of the greatest impacts on successful performance is the sudden arrival of an exotic, superior competitor. Across the globe, there are countless examples of introduced invasive species competing directly with the natives, often with devastating consequences. Take the American Signal Crayfish, for instance, introduced into Europe in the 1960s, partly through farming for the restaurant trade. Larger and more aggressive than native European White-clawed Crayfish, the Signal Crayfish monopolises food resources and shelter, besides transmitting a fungus that is deadly against the White-clawed Crayfish6 In cases such as these, it is inevitable that the subordinate, native species will be outcompeted.

But recent research indicates that invasive species can exert much more subtle influences as well, even when they do not appear to challenge native species. “In the absence of direct competition or predation pressure, invasive species can still affect populations of native species, for example by influencing environmental complexity and stochasticity”, said Jörgen Johnsson (University of Gothenburg, Sweden). His studies have focused on the interaction between native Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) and invasive Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis); a species introduced in early 1900s to enhance sport fishing. “Previous studies have shown that Brook Trout have negative effects on growth,

survival and reproduction of Brown Trout, but the mechanism is not well understood, as the ecological niches of these species have previously been found to be partly segregated”, said Jörgen. “In addition, Brown Trout tends to dominate Brook Trout in direct interactions.”

One hypothesis is that invasive species can break down adaptive phenotypic syndromes, where functionally related traits show patterns of variation. In fish, for instance, territorial individuals are typically aggressive, highly active and have high metabolic rates.

“Potentially, novel selection pressures induced by the non-native species break down the associations among phenotypic traits in the native species”, said Jörgen. To investigate this, Jörgen and his colleagues compared groups of Brown Trout living either alone or together with Brook Trout in a stretch of Ringsbacken, a small stream in southern Sweden. Besides measuring physical traits such as body length and mass, the fish were also fitted with electronic tags so that their activity levels could be recorded. Fin samples were also subjected to isotope analyses to estimate each fish’s dietary composition. “Our study is the first to integrate morphological, behavioural and physiological traits in a lab setting with performance in the wild to investigate the influence of non-native species”, said Jörgen.

The results showed that “integration of phenotypic traits was substantially reduced when Brown Trout live with Brook Trout” said Jörgen7. “Whereas before, we saw strong relationships between, for instance, metabolic rate and activity, in the presence of Brook Trout there was almost no association between these traits”. The trout showing such trait dissociation also had reduced growth rates, a proxy for fitness, underlining how the integration of related traits has adaptive value. Furthermore, Brown Trout living with Brook Trout showed a shifted ecological niche, with smaller home ranges, stouter body shapes and a higher proportion of terrestrial prey (e.g. earthworms that fall into the stream).

If the Brook Trout are not directly competing with the Brown Trout, how are they exerting these effects? Jörgen speculates that they may disrupt circadian feeding patterns in the native species: “Preliminary results suggest that the presence of Brook Trout alters activity patterns in Brown Trout: from being mainly nocturnal, they start to become more active during the day, shifting to the temporal pattern of the Brook Trout. There may also be social information being exchanged between the species, particularly at the younger stages when they appear very similar morphologically”.

Potentially, “breakdown of adaptive phenotypic syndromes may help explain other deleterious effects of non-native species in the absence of direct competition with the native species” Jörgen concludes.

Right Hooded seals have been recorded diving down to depths of over 1000m

Photo credit: Lars P Folkow

Above The Brown Trout – a native species threatened by invasive Brook Trout

Photo credit: Bart Adriaenssens

the high coSt of Sex

Sometimes it is not invasive species that are the main worry, but members of your own species – particularly during the mating season. Black Grouse, for example, perform some of the most energetic behaviours in their bid to win females. “Grouse are very much like decathletes in that they have to excel at a whole composite of different behaviours, known as ‘lekking’”, said Carl Soulsbury (University of Lincoln, United Kingdom). This includes long-distance calls, rookoing (vibrating their air sacs), holding their tail fans erect, vertically leaping 2–3 feet into the air, beating their wings and brutal fights. “They look like little wind-up toys as they are always on the go. It’s a good example of multiple sexual signals from both phenotype and behaviour providing information about male quality”, said Carl.

On the largest leks, up to 50 male grouse congregate at traditional grounds each year, where they attempt to defend a small territory: the closer this is to the centre of the lek, the more attractive they are to females. “It’s a system driven entirely by female choice, so it is very skewed towards exceptional males”, said Carl. “Typically, one male will dominate and, across their entire lives, more than half of the males will never mate at all”. But these incredible displays come at a high price: lekking males typically lose 12–20% of their body mass and, of those that do reproduce successfully, nearly three quarters subsequently die. As a result, grouse are relatively short-lived compared with most bird species, with few surviving beyond four years.

IN THE ABSENCE OF DIRECT COMPETITION OR PREDATION PRESSURE, INVASIVE SPECIES CAN STILL AFFECT POPULATIONS OF NATIVE SPECIES, FOR EXAMPLE BY INFLUENCING ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLEXITY

Given that they may only have one shot at success, timing is critical. Most male grouse start lekking in their second year, with only a handful attempting it in their first year. But how do the grouse decide when to enter the battle arena? “That decision is complex”, said Carl. “Ultimately, we think it is a combination of both internal factors, such as parasite load and immunity, and external factors, including population density. But we don’t know the balance of these”.

As part of a project that has been observing grouse at traditional lekking sites in Central Finland over 15 years, Carl and his colleagues are starting to put together the pieces of the puzzle. “We know that when the population is higher, the poorer quality males start lekking earlier” he said. “This could be due to there being fewer older, heavier males in relation to yearling males when populations are increasing”.

Curiously, it appears that the grouse also have a sense of whether they are likely to survive until the next year’s lek. “As they enter their final year, male grouse

GROUSE ARE VERY MUCH LIKE DECATHLETES IN THAT THEY HAVE TO EXCEL AT A WHOLE COMPOSITE OF DIFFERENT BEHAVIOURS

often develop black spots on the tips of the their white undertail feathers”, said Carl. “Males also increase their lekking effort – a phenomenon we call ‘terminal investment’”. It is thought that the white tail fan plays an important role in female choice, as previous studies which experimentally cut these feathers found that this reduced male mating success 8 . Possibly, the black spots are similarly interpreted as a sign of damage, as Carl explained: “It takes active effort and control for a male grouse to produce white feathers, so the appearance of black spots is clearly an indication that something is wrong at the physiological level. Oxidative stress or a deficiency of antioxidants may be involved, but at this stage we don’t know the cause. Yet these birds seem to understand some aspect of this, and that drives them to invest in their final lekking attempt”.

“In the future, we hope to characterise the fitness costs of lekking behaviour and link this with the genetic and epigenetic underpinnings of sexual traits” said Carl. “As more techniques develop, there are more questions we can ask. As an example, we hope to use comet assays in the future to assess the role of DNA damage in aging for these birds”.

Clearly, extraordinary performances in the animal world are the result of complex factors responding to ever-changing and extreme environmental theatres. Research is only just beginning to unravel these mechanisms to help us to understand how these animal actors perform, as well as giving us insights into how we could exploit this new knowledge.

1. Portugal, Steven J., et al. “Testing the use/disuse hypothesis: pectoral and leg muscle changes in captive barnacle geese Brantaleucopsis during wing moult.” Journal of Experimental Biology 212.15 (2009): 2403–2410.

2. McFarlan, Jay T., ArendBonen, and Christopher G. Guglielmo. “Seasonal upregulation of fatty acid transporters in flight muscles of migratory white-throated sparrows (Zonotrichiaalbicollis).” Journal of Experimental Biology 212.18 (2009): 2934–2940.

3. Schorr, Gregory S., et al. “First long-term behavioral records from Cuvier’s beaked whales (Ziphiuscavirostris) reveal record-breaking dives.” PloS one 9.3 (2014): e92633.

4. Freediving world record set by William Trubridge with 122m dive. The Guardian, 02/05/2016. https://www. theguardian.com/world/2016/may/02/freediving-worldrecord-set-william-trubridge-122m

5. Fabrizius, Andrej, et al. “When the brain goes diving: transcriptome analysis reveals a reduced aerobic energy metabolism and increased stress proteins in the seal brain.” BMC genomics 17.1 (2016): 583.

6. Invasive Crayfish Species. Published by The Environment Agency and Buglife https://www.buglife.org.uk/sites/ default/files/Invasive%20crayfish%20species%20-%20 Profiles_0.pdf

7. Závorka, Libor, et al. “Co-existence with non-native brook trout breaks down the integration of phenotypic traits in brown trout parr.” Functional Ecology (2017).

8. Höglund, Jacob, et al. “Context-dependent effects of tailornament damage on mating success in black grouse.” Behavioral Ecology 5.2 (1994): 182–187.

Top left Brook Trout – an invasive species in Swedish waters…

Photo credit: Joacim Näslund Above Black Grouse perform some of the most energetically costly behaviours known in their bid to win a mate

Photo credit: Gilbert Ludwig

cultural DiffuSion

ANCiENt MYstERiEs – tHE wORLd OF PALAEOGENOMiCs

BY CAROLINE WOOD

“Contrary to what many people think, it’s not all about recreating Jurassic Park!”, so said one of

the opening speakers at the session Palaeogenomics and Ancient DNA at the SEB 2017 Annual Meeting in Gothenburg. Nevertheless, ancient DNA is proving to be the master key for unlocking a whole host of mysteries,including human migrations, the spread of disease, the disappearance of mammoths and the environmental effects of past climate change. Crucially, lessons from the past may even help us adapt to the rapidly changing world for the future.

One of the greatest cultural revolutions in the history of modern man was the transition from hunter-gatherer to agriculturalist, but how this occurred is far from straightforward. “The merging of hunter gatherer and farming cultures in Europe unfolded over thousands of years and in different ways in different areas”, said Ryan Schmidt (University College Dublin, Ireland). “Besides migration, cultural processes such as trade and exchange, as well as assimilation, were also at work. For example, in the Late Mesolithic (9600 – 4000 BC), prior to the migration of agricultural populations from Anatolia, the dental plaques of hunter-gatherers show evidence of domesticated cereal consumption, meaning some aspects of agriculture must have traded via social networks.”

Ryan’s current focus is the agricultural transition of the Cucuteni-Trypillian people (c. 5200 to 3500 BC), who lived in modern day Ukraine, Romania and Moldova. This culture is distinct for producing highly stylized anthropomorphic figurines and for establishing a number of ‘proto-cities’, with estimated populations of over 10,000. Despite this, human Trypillian remains are rare as few burial sites are known. An exception is Verteba Cave in Western Ukraine, where the remains of 12 individuals were recovered from a single chamber and radiocarbon dated to 3950–2573 BC. The DNA extracted from these remains was assessed for genome-wide Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs: genetic variations involving a single DNA nucleotide base) to compare against other ancient European populations. The results demonstrated that “most of the samples were closely related to Early Neolithic farmers (4000–2900 BC) from Iberia, Central Europe and Anatolia. This suggests that hunter-gatherers in this area were replaced by migrating farmers from Southern Europe and the Near East, contrary to previous studies which indicate biological continuity with local hunter-gatherers”. Curiously, the DNA extracted from the only female sample showed greater similarity with Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. “This indicates that sociocultural forces likely attracted many hunter-gatherers to join farming communities”, said Ryan. “Perhaps some of the late foragers decided they could improve their social position by adopting the Neolithic way of life”.

unintenDeD traDe

Human migrations spread more than just ideas and, during the session, Ammielle Kerudin (University of Manchester, United Kingdom) demonstrated how palaeogenomics can be used to assess the role of human activity in transmitting diseases to new populations, including Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy. To source ancient M. leprae samples, Ammielle used tibiae and fibula bone samples recovered by the Biological Anthropology Research Centre (University of Bradford) from a medieval hospital in Chichester, UK (dated 1300 to 1700 AD) and Raunds Furnells, an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Northamptonshire, UK (dated 900–1100 AD). “These bone samples showed new bone formation indicative of leprosy infection”, she said.

THE MERGING OF HUNTER GATHERER AND FARMING CULTURES IN EUROPE UNFOLDED OVER THOUSANDS OF YEARS AND IN DIFFERENT WAYS IN DIFFERENT AREAS

Left Recovering samples from Verteba Cave, a burial ground of the Neolithic Trypillian race Photo credit: Ryan Schmidt

Interestingly the samples from Chichester contained M. leprae subtype 3I, which is associated with most leprosy cases in North, Central and South America today. “This suggests that the introduction of leprosy to America was most likely the result of European immigrants or colonizers, rather than early humans via the Bering Straits”, said Ammielle. However, the sample from Raunds Furnells contained the first known UK sample of the 3K subtype, now modernly associated with China, Japan and SouthEast Asia. “This suggests that the northern route of M. leprae transmission followed the Silk Road trade route to China and subsequently to Japan”, said Ammielle. Curiously the Black Death, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, is also thought to have been transmitted along the Silk Road but in the other direction, having originated in China.

“For leprosy, these results indicate an opposite route of transmission, with the 3K subtype originating in Europe and then spreading via trading routes to the Far East”, concluded Ammielle.

marine-ateD Dna

MARINE ENVIRONMENTS ARE LIKE NATURE’S FRIDGE FOR PRESERVING DNA

Skeletal remains have limited value in reconstructing complete prehistoric environments so one alternative is to use sedimentary DNA, where free ancient DNA is trapped in lake sediments deposited over millennia in seas and lakes. “Marine environments are like nature’s fridge for preserving DNA”, said Roselyn Ware (University of Warwick, United Kingdom). “Water is densest at 4°C, and thus sinks to form stratification of the marine environment by temperature, meaning that deposited sediments show great thermostability which is ideal for DNA preservation”. However, care has to be taken when dating such samples as Roselyn explained: “Normally, characteristic DNA breakdown patterns, including strand fragmentation and cytosine deamination, are used to authenticate the age of the ancient DNA. But recent work has found that this fragmentation process is not linear: it starts relatively fast then subsequently slows”. Part of Roselyn’s work involves understanding how different abiotic and biotic conditions, such as salinity, affect this breakdown process so that sedimentary DNA can be aged more accurately. In the meantime, “it is imperative that sedimentary DNA work is carried out with parallel evidence from geology to understand the environments they represent.”

Peter Heintzman (UiT – The Arctic University of Norway), explained how this can be done: “Along with DNA, lots of small plant and animal fragments are also deposited in the sediments” he said. “These small fragments can

be radiocarbon dated, and we can use this information to understand the age of the sediment at each depth.”

Using this approach, Peter has used lake sediment cores to determine when exactly one of the last surviving populations of Woolly Mammoths went extinct. Long after these mighty behemoths disappeared from the mainland 11,500 years ago, small populations remained isolated on tiny islands. The longest known surviving group was that of Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean, which endured until 4,000 years ago, coinciding with the arrival of humans. However, another late-surviving population existed on St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea, which, according to dated fossil remains, endured until 6,500 years ago, long before the island was first occupied by humans in the 1700s. As the time of extinction was based on a limited number of fossils, the mammoths could have potentially survived much longer than the available fossil evidence suggests. To find out when exactly they disappeared, Peter’s team used radiocarbon dating to develop a precise age-depth model for a sediment core from the largest and oldest lake on the island. DNA samples were extracted, sequenced and compared against the Woolly Mammoth genome, which was itself only sequenced in 2015. “Our results show that mammoth DNA disappears from the sediment record 5,600 years ago, around a millennium later than the youngest published radiocarbon date from a St. Paul island mammoth fossil.”, he concluded. This result was neatly confirmed by the marked disappearance of coprophilous (dung-loving) fungi from the sediment at exactly the same time as the mammoth ancient DNA and with radiocarbon dates from newly discovered fossils1

Meanwhile, Roselyn herself hopes to use sedimentary DNA to study an otherwise very inaccessible landscape; the Doggerland, a submerged landscape in the North Sea basin. This is part of the ‘Lost Frontiers Project’, a European collaboration between various research institutes to understand the formerly heavily-populated landscapes that were lost to rising seas at the end of the last Ice Age. “This area was inundated very rapidly within 70 years following a tsunami and we hope to use sedimentary DNA for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, and particularly the detection of organisms associated with Neolithic activity. The fact that fishing trawlers have brought up hand axes suggests that humans were active here and it could have been an important area in the transition between hunter-gathering and farming”.

a view to the future

Besides solving riddles of the past, DNA in sediment cores could help us predict how the environment will respond to our changing climate, particularly when sourced from areas that have experienced pronounced climatic changes in the past. One such site is Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky, a treeless island in the Arctic Ocean, one of the few areas of the former Beringian landbridge between Eurasia and the Americas that is not covered by the sea today. “Climate models project an annual average temperature increase of about 3–5°C in the terrestrial Arctic until the year 2100, which corresponds to the reconstructed temperatures of the last interglacial period (130–110 kyr BP)”, said Heike

Zimmerman (Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany). “Our goal was to reconstruct the interglacial vegetation on Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky to provide an analogue for the future”. Heike extracted DNA from four permafrost sediment cores and performed PCR to select sequences containing a universal plant plastid marker.“The results showed that during the last interglacial period, this region supported evergreen spruce, deciduous larch and poplar trees”, said Heike. She explained how the movement of trees northwards could result in a positive feedback cycle: “In treeless tundra, the wind flows freely, leading to very shallow snow cover. However, trees and shrubs act as a barrier, allowing snow to accumulate on the ground.” A thicker snow layer insulates the soil, so that it does not freeze so much in winter. This means that during the summer months, warmer temperatures can penetrate further into the soil. “If this happened, then organic matter frozen within the deeper layers of the soil may begin to thaw and be decomposed by microorganisms. This would release methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, accelerating climate warming” said Heike.

Left Mikkel Pedersen lowers the coring system into a lake

Photo credit: Mikkel Winther Pedersen

Above Sampling lake sediment cores for Woolly Mammoth DNA

Photo credit: Andre Soares

OUR RESULTS SHOW THAT MAMMOTH DNA DISAPPEARS FROM THE SEDIMENT RECORD

AROUND A MILLENNIUM LATER THAN THE YOUNGEST PUBLISHED RADIOCARBON DATE FROM THE FOSSIL RECORD

on the move

Like most sediment studies so far, Heike used DNA metabarcoding amplification, which identifies specific species of interest from short, standardised sections of the genome. But a more recent alternative called shotgun sequencing could allow researchers to capture the full range of genomic data from their samples as Mikkel Pedersen (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) explained:

“In shotgun sequencing you do not amplify up and only analyse specific genes, but the full pool of DNA is completely and blindly sequenced. It is more unbiased as you have no a priori assumption about which organisms should be there, so it can reveal the whole diversity of taxonomic groups present”. Mikkel has already used this pioneering approach to address a highly debated scientific question: the route by which early humans entered America from Beringia (modern Siberia). It has long been thought that humans migrated along a 1,500 km long ice-free corridor formed by retreating ice sheets in Western Canada. But for this to have been possible, the landscape must have supported enough plant and animal life to sustain a roving human population.

To assess this, Mikkel used shotgun sequencing on lake sediment cores which measured back to the glacial retreat. “The data surprised us as it captured not only organisms living within the lake but also terrestrial species from plants to small insects and even Woolly Mammoths”, he said. Crucially, the results indicated that plants and animals only began to appear in the region 13,000 years ago. “It was only 400 years later that the tundra was properly established, including sagebrush, bison and mammoths, an environment that could have sustained human migration”, said Mikkel. However, recent archaeological evidence indicates that humans were present in the South Americas as early as 14,000 years ago. “This route therefore could not have been used by the first humans coming to America south of the retreating ice. They must have used an alternative route, probably along the Pacific Coast”, concluded Mikkel 2

Above

Lake Hill, a freshwater lake on St Paul Island that used to be visited by Woolly Mammoths, now yields clues to their disappearance through DNA captured in sediment cores

Photo credit:

Peter Heintzman

Below

Lake sediment cores retrieved from Lake Hill, St Paul Island

Photo credit:

Peter Heintzman

a burning iSSue?

Yet even the most sophisticated techniques are limited by the quality of the starting material. For those researching the development of prehistoric agriculture, this remains a problem as Terry Brown (University of Manchester, United Kingdom) explained: “In arid environments, plant remains such as seeds can be preserved by desiccation, however virtually all ancient crop remains in Europe are charred material, having been preserved by burning, for example the accidental combustion of a grain store”. Up to now, such charred samples have been unsuccessful in sequencing studies, with most reads being identified as bacterial in origin, and assumed to be contaminants. But Terry’s work suggests this may not be the case: “We really don’t understand the charring process so we performed simple ‘cooking experiments’ by heating barley seeds in an oven at over 200 °C for up to 5 hours. Over time, the barley sequences started to fragment and accumulate miscoding lesions”. Given that genomic databases contain thousands of bacterial sequences, these errors can cause the barley sequences to be mis-assigned as contaminants. “A better understanding of these degradation processes could enable palaeogenomic material to be obtained from charred material, which could be of real interest to modern plant breeders” said Terry. “The spread of agriculture can be thought of as ‘enforced climate change’ for crops. When plants were moved from the Fertile Crescent in South West Asia to Northern Europe, they had to adapt to a colder, wetter climate with a longer growing season”. Understanding the changes which facilitated this, including changes in both coding sequences and gene expression levels, could help to breed crops with resilience to modern climate change. “If we could follow the genetic changes in charred grain samples in real time from different ages and parts of Europe, we could go a long way towards understanding the breeding and genetic engineering that needs to be done with modern crops” said Terry.

As techniques for extracting and sequencing ancient DNA improve, even more riddles of the past may become open for investigation. Besides satisfying our curiosity about mass migrations and prehistoric beasts, this could be invaluable towards helping us prepare for the future.

As the old English proverb says: “You don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been”.

1. Graham, Russell W., et al. “Timing and causes of mid-Holocene mammoth extinction on St. Paul Island, Alaska.” PNAS 113.33 (2016): 9310–9314.

2. Pedersen, Mikkel W., et al. “Postglacial viability and colonization in North America’s ice-free corridor.” Nature 537.7618 (2016): 45–49.

THE SPREAD OF AGRICULTURE CAN BE THOUGHT OF AS ENFORCED CLIMATE CHANGE FOR CROPS. IF WE COULD FOLLOW THE GENETIC CHANGES WE COULD GO A LONG WAY TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING THE BREEDING THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE WITH MODERN CROPS

Right Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island – formerly part of the Beringia land bridge between Europe and North America

Photo credit: Sebastian Wetterich

H i GHt ECH s C it ECH

Scientific conferences often function as showcases for the impressive new applications of technology from the frontiers of modern research. This year’s SEB Annual Meeting in Gothenburg was certainly no exception, and here are just a few of the innovative technologies and techniques that were on display.

Digital D-i-y

3D printers are rapidly becoming research lab staples for a diverse range of research groups due to their feasibility and almost unlimited options for custom-designed products.

3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the process of creating three-dimensional objects by ‘printing’ layer upon layer of mouldable plastic filaments, sometimes with impressively small resolutions at the micrometre scale. Many of this year’s delegates described in their talks and posters how they use 3D printers to create robust tools and experimental models to improve their research. One such delegate, Dr Yoshinobu Inada from Tokai University, described how his team uses a combination of 3D scanners and 3D printers to produce accurate models of his study organisms in an effort to better understand how they move around their environment. “We currently use

3D printing to make experimental models of animals such as fish and dolphins in order to investigate their fluid-dynamics in wind and water tunnels,” explains Dr Inada. By using an array of optical cameras, Dr Inada and his team can create digital 3D copies of scanned objects and animals, which are then processed using modelling software and sent to the 3D printer for physical fabrication. Affordable 3D printers and extensive online model repositories mean that almost anything is at the fingertips of today’s researchers, and even when working with large-scale and high-resolution designs, 3D printing is proving to be a rapid and costeffective method of producing custom objects.

Dr Inada further expresses his interest in the potential of 3D printers from an engineering research standpoint, suggesting that a combination of this fabrication process and light-weight materials could be used to make flying models of airplanes and other vehicles: “there are many interesting possibilities for 3D printing in the future.”

BY ALEX EVANS, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

Right 3D model of a ribbon halfbeak

Photo credit: Dr Yoshinobu Inada

the it crowD

It seems that the millions of cat videos uploaded to online video sites are useful for more than just our lunch-break amusement. During this year’s open biomechanics session, Dr John Lees from Linköping University in Sweden discussed his work investigating the scaling of preferential locomotion speeds of animals with a focus on the surprising source of his data. Video recording of animal locomotion for kinematic analysis is a fundamental tool of the animal biomechanics arsenal, but since Dr Lees’ project requires data from a wide range of animal species occupying all corners of the globe, traditional video data collection seems highly unfeasible. “It occurred to me that YouTube would be a great place to obtain the videos that I needed as there are already people in Africa filming lions and people in the Arctic filming polar bears,” said Dr Lees. “In effect I could simply outsource my data collection to the public from the comfort of my office.” Data crowdsourcing and citizen science have become increasingly popular methods of mass data accumulation in recent years, but this project provides an interestingly novel take on the technique: “I’ve always been fascinated by the power that the internet has given to the ‘crowd’” says Dr Lees. “People with interests in a particular product can drive its production through crowdfunding, and similarly, people with interests in science can unite and actively participate in research.”

By utilising these crowdsourced internet videos, Dr Lees can gather a great deal of video data quickly and efficiently. “Video sharing platforms like YouTube are easily searchable archives with an unimaginable amount of freely available content featuring a range of weird and wonderful species.” However, this new digital data source is not without issue,

as a distinct lack of scaling references and wobbly footage mean that only relatively simple kinematics can be extracted from public videos. Despite this, John is optimistic for the future of this promising technique: “Mobile phones and cameras are getting more advanced every year so their future potential is great. All we have to do now is convince people to take scale bars on safari with them.”

riSe of the robotS

Robotic automation is sometimes regarded as a threat to the labour industry, but there are some jobs that are best left to the machines. One such job is the dangerous and potentially lethal handling of deadly animals. Mouad Mkamel, a PhD student at Ben M’sik Hassan II University in Morocco presented a programmable robot prototype designed to extract venom from scorpions. Costing upwards of £6,000 per gram, scorpion venom is one of the most expensive liquids in the world and it is highly sought after for use in medical applications such as immunosuppressants, anti-malarial drugs and cancer research. Unfortunately, the manual extraction process is often dangerous for researchers and can be potentially lifethreatening. “The extraction of scorpion venom is a very difficult task and usually takes at least two experimenters,” says Mr Mkamel. “There are numerous risks, including potentially deadly scorpion stings and electric shocks from the stimulators used to extract the venom.” Mr Mkamel designed the robot in order to minimise the handling risks that accompany the traditional extraction methods. “This robot makes venom recovery fast and safe,” he explains, adding that he created the VES-4 ® device to be a lightweight

THE SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES DEMANDED BY INTEGRATING BIOLOGY AND ELECTRONICS PROVIDE INSIGHTS INTO AREAS SUCH AS BIOMIMICRY, SMART MATERIALS AND ORGANIC ELECTRONICS

and easily portable robot for researchers both in the lab or the field. Not only are traditional venom-extraction methods dangerous for the handler, they’re also harmful for the scorpion. “The VES-4 ® robot is designed to extract scorpion venom without injuring the animal, as well as providing safety for the experimenters,” says Mr Mkamel. One of the most impressive features of the robot is that it can be programmed by users to suitably tailor the extraction process for different scorpion species. As a biologist, Mr Mkamel acknowledges that the greatest challenges of the project were learning how to configure the electronics and programming necessary in order to complete the project. However, Mr Mkamel says that this prototype is just the start, and he is already planning future versions of the robot that will further increase safety for the user and potentially produce spin-off applications for other venomous creatures.

IT OCCURRED TO ME THAT YOUTUBE WOULD BE A GREAT PLACE TO OBTAIN THE VIDEOS THAT I NEEDED

SenSing the future

Personal healthcare is frequently at the forefront of scientific innovation and acts as an important driving force behind many of the technological developments that change the way we live our lives. During Professor Anthony Turner’s Cell Biology Plenary Lecture, we heard about his role in the creation of the first portable amperometric blood-glucose sensors in the early 1980s and how they drastically altered the way that we monitor and handle

diabetes. These revolutionary biosensors were the result of great technological innovations, including the impressive miniaturisation of electronic instruments and the use of the screen-printing process to effectively mass produce the products. Professor Turner, now working at Linköping University in Sweden, is still active in the field of biosensor technology, and continues to work with innovative interfaces between biology and electricity to produce effective and convenient healthcare technology. “Healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP is growing unsustainably worldwide and biosensors can contribute to providing better management of health more conveniently and at lower cost,” he explains. Alongside biosensors, there are alternative physical methods of collecting information about the body’s biochemistry, but they are often burdened with limited scope and accuracy. “Biosensors directly measure the chemistries of interest giving us vital information about our genomic, metabolomic and proteomic activity along with information about pathogens, our food intake and the environment that we are exposed to,” says Professor Turner. “This information will allow us to properly tailor lifestyles and treatments to maintain health.” Not only are bio-sensing devices useful for monitoring personal medical issues, they also have a range of applications outside of healthcare. “Biosensors have important roles in food safety and quality control, as well as environmental monitoring,” explains Professor Turner. “The scientific advances demanded by integrating biology and electronics also provide insights into areas such as biomimicry, smart materials and organic electronics.”

PO t L i GH t 3

J OURNAL s

maize criSpr/caS9 for mutageneSiS

An Agrobacterium-delivered CRISPR/ Cas9 system for high-frequency targeted mutagenesis in maize

Char SN, Neelakandan AK, Nahampun H, Frame B, Main M, Spalding MH, Becraft PW, Meyers BC, Walbot V, Wang K, Yang B (2016). Plant Biotechnology Journal doi: 10.1111/pbi.12611.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ pbi.12611/abstract

Maize genome editing using CRISPR/Cas9 has previously been reported at both high and low efficiency, but with limited access to publicly available systems. In this article Char et al. describe the ISU Maize CRISPR platform, a public sector platform for maize genome editing, which is highly efficient with >70% transgenic plants carrying targeted mutations. The system consists of an Agrobacterium-delivered CRISPR/Cas system, and the manuscript describes an Agrobacterium T-DNA plasmid design and associated results using this vector for targeted mutagenesis in maize when delivering Cas9 and guide RNAs. The vector is amenable for the cloning of up to four guide RNAs for multiplex targeting of genes in maize. The authors use this vectoring system to target two genes which are duplicated, Argonaute 18 and dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (DHFR), and report high frequencies of mutagenesis. The experiments direct mutagenesis using two guide RNAs in a single T-DNA to target each duplicate gene independently to maximize the probability of directing non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) mutations at two different sites in each allele. The authors then combine

paired guide RNAs (4 guide RNAs in total) to simultaneously mutagenize the duplicated genes (two Argonaute or two DHFR genes).

The authors go on to examine a limited number of progeny plants for inheritance of the mutations. When wildtype, unmutated genes are introduced through crossing with plants that contained Cas9-guide RNA T-DNA insertions, new mutations are identified which support the idea that Cas9-guide RNA remain active and are responsible for the generation of these newly identified mutations in progeny plants. The authors then outline a strategy to reduce the number of embryos per mutagenesis experiment by co-infecting with two different Agrobacterium strains. Together, the findings demonstrate that the ISU Maize CRISPR platform is an effective and robust tool for targeted mutagenesis in this important crop plant.

Jim Ruddock, Managing Editor

3-DimenSional biomechanical moDel for Stomata opening

A computational approach for inferring the cell wall properties that govern guard cell dynamics

Woolfenden HC, Bourdais G, Kopischke M, Miedes E, Molina A, Robatzek S, Morris RJ (2017). The Plant Journal 92, 5–18. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com /doi/10.1111/tpj.13640/full

In the face of climate change, it is crucial to understand how guard cells open and close stomata. How do changes in guard cell turgor

pressure translate into stomata opening? How important is guard cell shape? Does cell wall thickness matter? Is isotropic material sufficient? Are microfibrils important? The interdisciplinary study by Woolfenden et al. addresses these and other questions. They present a 3D biomechanical model of dicot guard cells and demonstrate how the key ingredients of pressure, geometry and material properties work together to enable guard cells to open and close stomata. They show that radial strengthening of the guard cells is required and that strain-stiffening of the cell wall contributes to the observed non-linear relationship between pressure and aperture size. The authors show how the kidney-shaped geometry of guard cells effectively limits the overall length change and thus promotes opening. Furthermore, by including their model within an optimization pipeline, they show how this approach can be used to interpret mutants with altered stomatal dynamics. This is an exciting first step in understanding the mechanics of guard cells. Future directions will include linking their biomechanical model to existing computational models for turgor pressure changes that were based on ion fluxes, and adapting the model to grass stomata, which have a different shape and likely a different underlying mechanism.

Sheila McCormick, Research Highlights Editor

feeDing in a humanDominateD worlD

Nutritional physiology and ecology of wildlife in a changing world

Birnie-Gauvin K, Peiman KS, Raubenheimer D, Cooke SJ (2017). Conservation Physiology 5, cox030. https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/cox030

In order to properly inform conservation measures and management approaches for wildlife, we must have a clear understanding of the extent to which animals are impacted by anthropogenic factors. Humans now dominate the world, with widespread and far-reaching consequences for many aspects of the animal kingdom. Wildlife nutrition is linked to both ecological (e.g. food availability) and physiological (e.g. ability to digest food) factors, which have been significantly altered as a consequence of human presence. BirnieGauvin et al. (2017) investigated the extent and consequences of nutritional modifications resulting from climate change, pollution, habitat alterations, invasive species, anthropogenic disturbances and human-provisioned food items. Their findings suggest that wildlife nutrition, in terms of both quantity and quality, is most affected by pollution and humanprovisioned food, though all anthropogenic

factors contribute to nutritional changes. The authors also suggest that these changes in nutritional physiology and ecology may have carry-over effects to other aspects of animal life histories such as reproduction, growth and survival, which may have important repercussions for population dynamics and even evolution through trait intake and assimilation as well as behavioral phenotypes. Birnie-Gauvin and her team (2017) emphasize the need to understand the long-term consequences of nutritional alterations for wildlife, especially as it pertains to conservation both in situ and ex situ.

Kim Birnie-Gauvin, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Denmark

the changing climate of plant membrane biology

Journal of Experimental Botany Special Issue

Corratg.-Faillie C, Lacombe B. 2017. Substrate (un)specificity of Arabidopsis NRT1/PTR FAMILY (NPF) proteins. Journal of Experimental Botany 68, 3107–3113.

Kriechbaumer V, Botchway SW, Hawes C. 2017. Localization and interactions between Arabidopsis auxin biosynthetic enzymes in the TAA/ YUC-dependent pathway. Journal of Experimental Botany 67, 4195–4207.

Damineli DSC, Portes MT, Feij JA. 2017. Oscillatory signatures underlie growth regimes in Arabidopsis pollen tubes: computational methods to estimate tip location, periodicity, and synchronization in growing cells. Journal of Experimental Botany 68, 3267–3281.

https://academic.oup.com/jxb/issue/68/12

The International Workshop on Plant Membrane Biology (IWPMB) 2016, was held in Annapolis (USA), and from this the special issue entitled “The Changing Climate of Plant Membrane Biology” was produced.

In this special issue one focus was on the emergent understanding that members of a single gene family often exhibit differential biochemical, or transport, activities despite a high degree of sequence similarity. Such diversity of function is exemplified by the NTR1/ PTR FAMILY (NPF) proteins, which have been shown to exhibit isoform-specific transport of substrates other than nitrate and oligopeptides reviewed by Corratgé-Faillie and Lacombe (pp, 3107–3113). Another hot topic was the need to identify the membrane-bound compartments in which biosynthetic enzymes and transporters function. A paper from Kriechbaumer et al.

(pp, 4195–4207) describes the localization of auxin biosynthetic enzymes to the plant endoplasmic reticulum. Advances in how to interpret and utilize complex data are exemplified by a new system, dubbed CHUKNORRIS, to interpret oscillatory signatures and transform them to quantitative data (Damineli et al. , 68, 3267–3281.). An accompanying Insight article assesses the value of such a system and its potential uses (Gilroy, 2017).

The 18th IWPMB will be hosted by Mike Blatt and the University of Glasgow in 2019. Angus Murphy, University of Maryland, Handling Editor

THIS IS AN EXCITING FIRST STEP IN UNDERSTANDING THE MECHANICS OF GUARD CELLS

Above Guard cells control stomatal opening. Top panel: Arabidopsis guard cells flanking a stoma, in closed (left) or open (right) configurations. Lower panel: engineering-style drawings of a guard cell

Photo credit: Michaela Kopischke Model credit: Hugh Woolfenden

SEB past President, Adam S

G Curtis, who has died aged 83 (3.1.1934 – 8.8.2017) was a scientist, diver, gardener, microscopist, husband, artist, ‘Querdenker’, father and friend. Coming from an artistic background, he became interested in science during a rainy holiday where a bored neighbour, at a table next to his, started educating him in chemistry.

AIN REMEMBRANCE OF

AdAM CURtis 1934–2017

fter studying in Cambridge he moved to Edinburgh where he did a PhD on the “Biophysics of Development” and met his future wife Ann. In his postdoc in London he worked with Michael Abercrombie developing a novel microscopy technique, interference reflection microscopy, that allowed one to measure the distance between a cell and the surface it adhered to. He was also a pioneer in applying stringent morphometric

to cell biology. In 1962 he became a Lecturer in Zoology at University College London and in 1967 he moved to Glasgow to become the first Professor of Cell Biology in the UK. By this time he and Ann had two daughters, Penelope and Susanna.

In Glasgow he continued to investigate the mechanisms and physical underpinnings of cells’ adhesion to each other and to materials. Working with sponges, which he sourced on his diving expeditions to the local reefs in the West of Scotland, he continued to study how cell –cell adhesion is controlled and how it is involved in morphogenesis. The biochemical and physical mechanisms and underpinnings of cells’ adhesion to each other and to materials continued to fascinate him. Shortly after his appointment he created an Honours course for Cell Biology, where he taught lively practical classes and lectured in his irreverent style. He was always exceedingly generous with his time where students were concerned, particularly at reading parties, one of his enthusiasms, and held, appropriately enough, at the Marine Biology station in Millport.

Always a keen gardener, he had an allotment where he got talking to Chris Wilkinson, another keen gardener and Professor of Electronic Engineering at Glasgow. This started their joint exploits in bioengineering, a highly productive time under BP ‘blue skies’ funding that allowed Adam and Chris to assemble a team of young scientists. Their first collaborative work was on designing electronic interfaces to ‘talk to nerve cells’, a

theme that would continue to occupy their joint work for decades to come. Another area of common interest was to apply the engineer’s ability to control surface structure at the micrometre and the nanometre level to biology. Adam was keen to use devices made with these techniques to investigate contact guidance, how cells respond to material topography, and use these to instruct cells to ‘do the right thing’.

Together they founded the Centre for Cell Engineering in 1997 as a collaborative centre cutting across Engineering, Chemistry and Biology with members from both Strathclyde and Glasgow Universities.

As part of several parallel and successive international grant consortia he built his reputation in bioengineering, tissue engineering and nanobiomaterials, attracting a string of talented researchers to Glasgow. All this was very much helped by the parties that Adam and Ann hosted when project meetings were in Glasgow, or to welcome new people and last, but not least, the celebrations they held for the Cell Biology Honours students after exams.

After becoming Professor Emeritus in 2004 Adam did not give up science – reading a paper on how cells ‘tiptoe’ around when they first adhere to a surface he came up with and established the proof of concept for nanokicking, a unique concept where a surface is subtly jiggled to instruct stem cells to differentiate into bone.

At the University of Glasgow Adam served as Head of Department, Head of Division, and Director of the Centre for Cell Engineering. He was particularly active on the University Library Committee.

Always a very dynamic member of scientific societies, he served on Cell Section and was President of the Society for Experimental Biology 1993–1995; as one of the founding fathers of the Tissue and Cell Engineering Society UK he was its president 2001–2003. Adam’s work has been recognised nationally and internationally with several prizes including the Cuvier Medal of the

Zoological Society of France in 1972, the President’s Medal from the UK Society for Biomaterials, the Chapman Memorial Medal, IMMM, 2008. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of Biology, and of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (World Biomaterials Society).

Outside the University Adam was a very active member of the Scottish Sub Aqua Club, heading out to the lochs, usually on the West Coast, whenever he could and in his late 60s starting to use a rebreather. Unfortunately, on a dive in the Mediterranean in 2001 he brushed against a fish, got stung, and acquired a recurrent bacterial infection. His other hobby was his garden and allotment, where he grew rare plants, food and thought.

As a supervisor Adam was generous, critical and inspiring. He gave guidance and a lot of freedom to develop, fostering people’s ideas and supporting their progress wherever he could, irrespective of origin or gender. His many scientific offspring in tenure track positions across the world from Canada to the UK and Glasgow are a credit to his style and leadership. It is notable that he was a very merit-based scientist, not interested in hierarchy but able to relate to all and support hard work and talent from whomever it came. As a scientist he was always interested in the latest developments, and being an original thinker, he pioneered several fields such as quantitive biophysical measurements on individual cells, bioengineering of interfaces, and nanobiotechnology among others.

Attending many meetings on cell and developmental biology, biomaterials or nanoscience Adam had the amazing capabilities to listen deeply to talks and lectures whilst obviously fast asleep; this often utterly surprised the speakers who did not reckon with a very pointed and always appropriate question from his corner.

Adam the scientist cannot be separated from the person who was generous, and kind, always interested and at times utterly

charming. He followed his artistic ancestry by sketching, drawing, painting for his own entertainment and making mosaic for display. Adam and Ann often entertained, and an invitation for dinner was to look forward to an evening with excellent food (with produce from the allotment), superb wines, and an entertaining chat about current and sometimes arcane topics.

We will miss him.

Adam is survived by Ann, Penelope and Susanna, and two grandchildren.

If you wanted to listen to Adam reminiscing about his life and science in a series of 15 tapes, start here at the first at the British sound archive oral history of British Science. (http://sounds.bl.uk/

Oral-history/Science/021M-C1379X0114XX0001V0 )

Donations may be made to Friends of Glasgow Botanic Gardens, if you wish. Please contact Friends of Glasgow Botanic gardens for details.

By Mathis Riehle, University of Glasgow

Source: https://www.uofgcce.org/single-post/2017/08/17/ Adam-Curtis-1934-2017

Above Adam Curtis Photo credit: Malcolm Lochhead, Glasgow

Right Cancerous and normal fibroblasts.

Mosaic by Adam Curtis at the Centre for Cell Engineering, University of Glasgow

Photo credit: Mathis Riehle

Left ‘Adam and friend’

Photo credit: Pauline and Keith Waugh

analysis

Lee Sweetlove, Professor at the University of Oxford and recently appointed Editor in Chief at The Plant Journal talks to agricultural biotechnology consultant Angie Burnett.

ANGIE BURNETT IN CONVERSATION WITH...

LEE swEEtLOVE

AB: Your research1 aims to increase understanding of plant metabolism, to improve the productivity and quality of crop plant. What exactly is metabolism, and why is it so important?

LS: Metabolism is the hundreds of biochemical reactions that happen in cells to convert nutrient inputs into biochemical energy and build all the structural components of the cell required for growth. So, it’s pretty important! No metabolism, no growth. The most striking explanation I have heard of the importance of metabolism is that without metabolism, all reactions would reach their equilibrium position – and biochemical equilibrium is death.

AB: What first got you interested in metabolic engineering?

LS: It’s quite a long story, and it wasn’t what I originally wanted to do when I was an undergrad. But for various reasons and a bit of random chance, I did a sandwich year at a plant biotech company (then called Advanced Technologies Cambridge, now part of British American Tobacco) who were trying to engineer metabolism in potato to improve tuber yield and starch content. It was a massively important year in my life. Not only did I catch the research bug, but I also realised that we had nowhere near enough knowledge to engineer the complex metabolic network to do what we wanted. Nearly 30 years later, I am still trying to gather enough knowledge, but computational modelling has taken us a huge step in the right direction.

AB: You use both computational and experimental approaches in your research. How well do these approaches complement each other?

LS: Very well. We use computational models of metabolic networks to make predictions about how to make them more efficient, and then test those predictions using genetic engineering in a range of plant species.

AB: Tell me about the multinational consortium you are leading, SOURSI.

LS: SOURSI2 stands for source-sink and the full project title is “simultaneous manipulation of source and sink metabolism for improved crop yield” It’s a tri-national consortium, funded by the ERA-CAPS scheme, involving Ralph Bock and Ally Fernie at the Max-Planck Institute for

Molecular Plant Physiology, and Doris Rentsch at the University of Bern. We are trying to take a big step forward in plant metabolic engineering by combining multiple different transgenes to manipulate enzymes and transporters right across the plant from source to sink tissues. The total count is 20 transgenes and we are currently screening a library of transgenic tomato plants which we hope will show dramatic increases in fruit yield.

THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING A RESEARCHER IS BEING ABLE TO FOLLOW YOUR OWN CURIOSITY

AB: If you could answer one big question in your research field, what would it be?

LS: ‘What is metabolite channelling for?’ This is a phenomenon whereby the metabolite product of one enzyme is passed directly to the next enzyme in the pathway, without that metabolite diffusing away into the bulk aqueous phase of the cell. It occurs in all domains of life but there’s a lot of confusion about how it happens and what it is for. My theory is that it’s important for directing flux between alternative branches in the metabolic network.

AB: What’s the best thing about being a researcher?

LS: Being able to follow your own curiosity and set your own agenda. I think this is a rare privilege and it is hugely satisfying to spend your days pursuing the answers to questions that you want to ask. The other aspect of my job that I take great pleasure in is mentoring the young scientists that come through my lab. I have been very fortunate to have worked with some brilliant people and there is nothing that makes me happier than seeing them go off to establish their own careers using the skills they learnt with me.

AB: Tell me about your career path.

LS: Well, after the somewhat random start, once I knew that I wanted to research plant metabolism, it was pretty conventional. I was fortunate enough to get a PhD place at Cambridge in Tom ap Rees’ lab, co-supervised by Mike Burrell of Advanced Technologies who funded the studentship. From there I joined Steven Hill’s new lab at Oxford. Following that, I was taken under the wing of Chris Leaver who was hugely encouraging. He gave me the belief to try to make it on my own and supported me through the three attempts it took to finally get a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship that started me on my way. I am still at Oxford having climbed the career ladder via a lectureship, readership and now professorship.

AB: And you’ve recently become Editor in Chief at The Plant Journal 3 one of the four SEB journals. Congratulations! What will this involve?

LS: That’s a good question and one that I am still finding out the answer to! The main part of the job is to provide strategic leadership of the journal and the editorial board. But there are a lot of other things the editor in chief has to deal with on a day to day basis, including interviews likes this!

AB: Tell me about the journal. What makes it special?

LS: TPJ is a fantastic journal and I am very proud to be at the helm. It recently celebrated its 25th year and during that time it has been at the forefront of plant research, publishing leading papers that have made a significant impact on our understanding of all aspects of plant biology. It retains its reputation as one of the most authoritative journals for plant biology, largely due to the efforts of its outstanding editorial board. Unlike many other journals, we have a flat hierarchy in our board, meaning that your paper goes directly to the editor of your choosing (unless they are conflicted or away) and that editor alone decides whether to send your manuscript out to review, selects the reviewers and makes the decision. Our editors work really hard at all of this to make the process as fair, professional and constructive as possible.

AB: I see you have an extensive publication record. How will your work as an academic

author impact your new role at TPJ?

LS: As an author, I appreciate concise and fair reviewers’ comments, and a clear steer from the handling editor showing what to pay attention to if my paper is not immediately accepted. I also appreciate a streamlined and efficient submission process. So, these are priorities for me at TPJ.

AB: SEB has a strong focus on early career researchers. Do you have any tips for aspiring authors of scientific papers?

LS: Plenty! A good paper is one that tells a

story, so aspiring authors must first work out what their story is. Put the work in context. Explain why it’s important. And spell out what the advance is. But make sure your data actually support that story! The most common mistake I see young authors making is reaching for conclusions that are not fully supported by their data, or are only one interpretation of their data. The other thing that takes people a while to learn (and that includes me) is that good writing is much more about what you have to say than the style in which you say it. Keep it concise, avoid unnecessary jargon. Use short, direct

Below, left Lee Sweetlove

A GOOD PAPER IS ONE THAT TELLS A STORY, SO ASPIRING AUTHORS MUST FIRST WORK OUT WHAT THEIR STORY IS

sentences. It will make your paper a whole lot more digestible for the readers. The final piece of advice that I would give is to try not to get disheartened by rejection. All scientists, no matter how lofty their standing, regularly get papers rejected. If you get rejected, it doesn’t mean your research is rubbish, but rather that it needs fine-tuning and improving. Rejection is part of that process and your paper will be better for it in the end. Don’t take it personally!

1. Research and publications: https://www.plants.ox.ac.uk/ people/lee-sweetlove

2. SOURSI consortium: http://www.eracaps.org/joint-calls/ era-caps-funded-projects/era-caps-second-call-2014/ simultaneous-manipulation-source-and

3. The Plant Journal (TPJ): http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365–313X

Angie Burnett is a consultant in agricultural biotechnologies at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). She read Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge before being awarded the inaugural SEB PhD studentship to investigate source-sink limitations of growth in barley at the University of Sheffield (UK) and Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA), with Colin Osborne, Mark Rees and Alistair Rogers. She is passionate about food security, and has a keen interest and varied experience in science communication and policy.

Michael Axelsson, Professor at the University of Gothenburg and our local organiser and host for the recent Annual Meeting in Gothenburg talks to the SEB.

MiCHAEL AXELssON

SEB: You are long standing member of SEB. What attracted you to become and remain a member of SEB all these years?

MA: I have been a member probably since 1985. Prof. Stefan Nilsson was my supervisor and a member of SEB and he introduced me to the SEB conferences. When I started to attend the yearly SEB meetings I soon found out that, as a young PhD student, they gave me a platform to present my research, to meet the people that wrote all the papers that I read and to establish a network. Since then the Society expanded the topics and number of meetings. I especially like the Society’s interest in teaching and the 3R framework for more humane animal research, raising questions which are both very important and interconnected to the science presented. I also like the support for young scientists and that the Society is not only for us old guys.

SEB: How would you describe your research1 focus and interests?

MA: I have always been interested in technique and biology and have been able to combine these interests in my research. I started my career looking at cardiovascular regulation in an American salamander and then in the Atlantic cod where the focus was on the autonomic control of the heart and vascular system. As a side project I also looked at the cardiovascular system in crocodiles, not so much on the regulation in the beginning, more on the haemodynamic, trying to figure what use they have for the left aortic arch. My main line of research today is on fish cardiovascular physiology, with a focus on regional blood flow regulation, but I take any opportunity to look at other animal species and groups – anything that has a cardiovascular system.

SEB: How do you approach your science and research?

MA: I am not very good at keeping a red line in my research and have worked with a number of different people and groups on projects from spider cardiac output measurements to cardiovascular effects during rabbit ovulation. My main work is on different fish species, a very fascinating and diverse group of animals, and this line of work has taken me to both poles and to the tropics. I like the technical and surgical challenges and want to expand into areas

that have not yet been possible due to technical limitations and to develop or improve surgical procedures.

SEB: How has your research focus changed over your career?

MA: In my early career the focus was on the autonomic control of the cardiovascular system, but my main focus now is more on regional blood flow and the effects of various stimuli, both internal and external. I have tried to contribute to the understanding of the gastrointestinal

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED IN SURGICAL TECHNIQUES AND HAVE BEEN DEPENDING ON MICROSURGERY FOR MY OWN RESEARCH

blood flow in relation to stress, feeding, exercise and environmental temperature. I have also worked with coronary blood flow in fish: some fish do have coronary arteries but some don´t and, in the group that do, the dependency of the supply of oxygenated blood to the cardiac muscle varies from total (as in mammals) to little or none.

I have always been interested in surgical techniques and have been depending on microsurgery for my own research. I have taken several courses in surgery and microsurgery myself and realised that there was a demand for proficiency training for preclinical personnel. In 2010 I ran the first microsurgery course in Gothenburg and, in 2013, I initiated the microsurgery training facility here.

When we started the courses we were contacted by the hand and plastic surgeons at the local hospital who wanted to take advantage of the microsurgery laboratory that we set up, to run courses for clinically active surgeons that wanted to specialise in microsurgery.

Since 2013 we have been running two courses for pre-clinical personnel and two courses for

Right Angie Burnett

Far right Michael Axelsson

clinically active surgeons per year. I also work as an instructor at the microsurgical course arranged by the Karolinska Institute2

We are also starting to do some research projects within the area of microsurgery, with implications for both preclinical and clinical microsurgery. This new line of research (for me) is very interesting and at the same time challenging.

SEB: You are well known for developing new surgery techniques and instrumentation. Can you tell us a bit about the techniques and instrumentation that you developed?

when we interpret data from laboratory-based studies, especially in wild animals. We can also combine behaviour studies with measurements of physiological variables that are hard or impossible when the animals are hard-wired to the recording equipment and you have to keep them separated from each other and the individual cannot move and express a normal behaviour due to the tethering. Biotelemetry opens up new possibilities and will most likely force us to re-evaluate old results.

MA: Since my research always focused on integrative physiology using whole animal models, I have always been dependent on surgery to instrument the animals for the measurements. To get good results it is important that the anaesthesia and surgery is done according to best practise, forcing me to develop new protocols and techniques. For example, following laboratory based projects where we slowly dissected haemodynamics and regulation in crocodiles, it became clear that it would not be possible to solve the basic question about the function of the left aorta in the normal daily life of a crocodile. We needed a new type of biotelemetric system to measure blood flow and pressure at the same time, a development that took 10 years and was in itself an interesting process.

Lately I have initiated the development of a system for hand and finger motion analyses that will allow us to score participants in microsurgery courses in a more objective way. We are at the stage when we will test the system during one of the courses for the first time: it will be very exciting to see the results and find out what we need to take back to the drawing board – hopefully not another 10 year project.

SEB: What new discoveries have you made with the novel equipment that you have helped to design?

MA: We have used the biotelemetric system in studies of fish, giraffes and crocodiles and it has also been used in mammalian studies by other groups. It is evident in all animal groups that stress levels are lower in animals that can move around freely compared to hard-wired animals. This is not very surprising in itself but shows that we need to be very careful

BIOTELEMETRY OPENS

UP

NEW

POSSIBILITIES AND WILL MOST LIKELY FORCE US TO RE-EVALUATE

OLD RESULTS

SEB: You appear to have an interest in conservation physiology – what value can physiology and experimental biology have in conservation?

MA: In 1981, when I started my biology studies in Gothenburg, the concept of conservation physiology had not yet been defined: it was introduced in 2013 by Steve Cooke and a couple of other scientists interested in conservation biology. Since I have been interested in how both internal and external stimuli affect the cardiovascular system, some of my research fits into the concept of conservation physiology. In order to predict how a changing world will affect different species of animals from the individual to the population level it is important to understand the physiology of the whole organism, but we have to be careful in how we do this, we cannot simulate what will happen in 100 years in a few weeks in the laboratory. We need carefully designed studies in order to be able to predict the future.

sun is shining but it can also be cold and miserable – I of course hoped for sun and we were lucky.

With the professional SEB office and the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Center I did not have that much to do and could just enjoy the fact that for the first time I could commute by bike to the conference. I would encourage people to invite the SEB to their city, not that much work but a lot of fun!

1. Research and Publications: http://bioenv.gu.se/personal/ Axelsson_Michael

2. Microsurgery Courses: http://mikrokirurgi.se/

SEB: You have worked on a variety of animals in some exotic locations (e.g. Africa, Australia and Antarctica) – why these locations and what animals do you find particularly fascinating?

MA: It is not the locations as such, even though I cannot deny that the places that my work takes me to in many cases are attractive in their own, but the accessibility of animals living in these regions and their cardiovascular system that is the focus. How does the heart and cardiovascular system function at -1.9C, what purpose does the left aorta in crocodiles have, how is the shunt that guides the blood around the cardiovascular system in lungfish controlled etc. Comparative physiologists have the advantage that we can, and should, as far as possible, study the animals that we are interested in in their normal environment. The positive side effect is that we can travel to some very interesting places.

SEB: What is the big research question you next want to answer?

MA: We are working on a very interesting question at the moment and that is to link the gastrointestinal blood flow measurements that we, and others, have been doing in different fish species during different challenges with the oxygen uptake by the gut. It might sound trivial but it is an interesting question since the blood flow to the gastrointestinal tract is highly variable and affected by a number of both internal and external stimuli but we do not know how much oxygen the gut is extracting and what other purposes the blood flow has, since the gut is a multifunctional organ not only used for food processing

SEB: This year you have been our local organiser and host for the SEB Annual Meeting in Gothenburg and have made us feel really welcomed in this beautiful part of Sweden! How did you find the experience of co-organising our main event of the year?

MA: I was nervous, not for the organisation since I know that the SEB office is very good at organising these meetings and I fully trusted the organisation of the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Center Group, SECC, in Gothenburg, but none of us have control of the weather. Gothenburg can be very beautiful when the

Below Icefish

Photo credit: Michael Axelsson

SCIENCE

PICK

tiME tO tEACH?

BY CAROLINE WOOD

Has there ever been so much pressure on researchers who teach? Students expect more and more for their tuition fee, but time spent developing high-quality learning resources is time away from generating research outputs, publishing papers and writing grants.

During the SEB+ session

‘The Teaching-Research Nexus’, organised by Graham Scott and George Littlejohn at the SEB Annual Meeting in Gothenburg, we discussed inventive ways researchers can balance this see-saw of responsibilities.

when time is tight, it’s easy to pull a tried-and-tested practical off the shelf but, as Ros Gleadow (Monash University, Australia) argued, ‘follow a recipe’ protocols simply don’t prepare students for the real world. “We have to remember that our students grew up in the post-financial crisis so have very different attitudes to work and employability”, she said. Students focused on grades and qualifications can view practicals merely as exercises in ‘getting the right answer’ rather than opportunities to learn the theory of doing science properly. The challenge is to generate authentic experiences that develop both autonomy and the skills valued by employers. But preparing this sort of learning experience takes considerably more time – time that many researchers simply don’t have.

One solution could be to bring your own research into your practicals. Susan Rowland described the approach she uses at The University of Queensland, Australia to allow students to self-select between two different practical class streams. One of these, LEAPS (Laboratory Experience for Acquiring Practical Skills), contains ‘standard’ practicals that help students build confidence and proficiency in common laboratory skills. The other, ALURE (Authentic Large-scale Undergraduate Research Experience) gives students a degree of autonomy to conduct a project as part of a wider research programme – in this case, investigating venom protein toxicity from funnel web spiders. “These projects are part of authentic research initiatives with the results communicated to someone who actually cares”, explained Susan. Students with a real interest in research appreciated the opportunity to participate in a genuine project, including troubleshooting and overcoming failure1 There was also an unexpected benefit, with a decrease in complaints about the ‘standard’ practicals – presumably because LEAPS students recognised that they had been allowed to choose the ‘easier’ of the two streams!

Sara Brownell presented a similar type of project, which is increasingly common in undergraduate biology labs in the United States, called Course-based Undergraduate

Research Experiences (CUREs)2 . “We are not trying to get researchers to fight between teaching and research, but to celebrate their research in a CURE”, she said. For academics, the benefits of involving undergraduates in their current research include generating more meaningful data and even the possibility of running a pilot experiment too risky to offer a PhD student. But some feared that undergraduates could be exploited and used simply as an extra pair of hands, or that faculty members would select the most capable students over those who would benefit the most. However, Ros Gleadow demonstrated how authentic experiences can also be designed outside the lab by recasting

STUDENTS WITH A REAL INTEREST IN RESEARCH APPRECIATED THE

OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN A GENUINE PROJECT, INCLUDING TROUBLESHOOTING AND OVERCOMING FAILURE

field projects as work-integrated learning packages through partnering with external organisations. In her example, students worked with park rangers in the Victorian Alps to identify solutions to problems such as feral deer, climate change and invasive weeds. “The students’ field reports included an executive summary and management recommendations which were sent back to the rangers, who were really pleased to get real data”, she said.

But it’s not enough to simply replicate an authentic research experience: students need to recognise and articulate the skills they develop for these to be worthwhile.

However, research carried out by Dominic Henri (University of Hull, UK) has shown that undergraduates fall victim to the ‘moving goalposts model’ when it comes to evaluating their personal development. “We found no shift in the students’ self-perceived autonomy as they progressed throughout the course”, he said. According to Katharine Hubbard (University of Hull, UK), truly authentic research experiences are only completed by providing the opportunity to present the results and receive feedback. “Too often in student projects, dissemination of results is only done at the very end to a limited audience”, she said. To counter this, the Sport, Health and Exercise Science degrees at the University of Hull have introduced a ‘Student Thesis Conference’ event which involves students at all three levels of the course. Crucially, students of all abilities, not just the ‘high-achievers’, engaged fully with the event, with many reporting greater confidence in presenting their work to a public audience. “This was especially true of females, which indicates that this model can help to reduce the gender gap in perceived confidence that contributes to the ‘leakypipeline’ effect of women in STEM subjects”, said Katharine. Final year Animal Science students at Newcastle University have gone one step further, as Sara Marsham described: “The students organise their own conference, including inviting external speakers. Students participating in conference organisation commented that they enjoyed the sense of responsibility and felt proud to be part of a team that worked well together”.

Of course, some institutes take a different approach by splitting their faculty between teaching-focussed and research-focussed staff. But this brings its own problems, as Anne Tierney (Edinburgh Napier University, UK) explained. Her interviews with teachingfocused academics in the UK have revealed that many worry about becoming ‘de-skilled’ by no longer being active researchers in the discipline. “Some expressed doubts that the currency of their disciplinary expertise was enough to supervise a Masters project because they feel their knowledge is ‘time-bound”,

said Anne. One solution could be to offer teaching-focussed staff ‘research sabbaticals’ where they can return to the lab for a few months to get up to speed with the latest methods. Alternatively, teaching-focussed and research-focussed academics could form partnerships to design practicals that reflect current research practices.

During discussions, some argued that authenticity can only be predetermined to a limited extent, because students do not perceive laboratory learning the same way that academics do 3 . “Authenticity doesn’t always happen by design – it really should be an emergent property of the interaction between the students and their teachers”, advised Susan. “The most important thing is to give students the opportunity to perceive and articulate the authentic aspects of what they do”. Ultimately, whether our students become researchers or not, we should aim for them to be confident individuals who can embrace and manage failure – the key skills for success in any career.

1. Rowland, Susan L., et al. “Is the undergraduate research experience (URE) always best?: The power of choice in a bifurcated practical stream for a large introductory biochemistry class.” Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education 40.1 (2012): 46–62.

2. Bangera, G., & Brownell, S. E. (2014). Course-based undergraduate research experiences can make scientific research more inclusive. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 13(4), 602–606.

3. Rowland, Susan L, et al. Do We Need to Design Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences for Authenticity? CBE Life Sci Educ. (2016) Winter;15(4). pii: ar79.

IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO SIMPLY REPLICATE AN AUTHENTIC RESEARCH EXPERIENCE: STUDENTS NEED TO RECOGNISE AND ARTICULATE THE SKILLS THEY DEVELOP

Left Monash University plant ecology students assessing the damage caused by deer at Lake Mountain, Victoria, Australia

Photo credit: Ros Gleadow

COMMUNiCAtiNG YOUR PERsONAL BRANd

BY CAROLINE WOOD

In today’s competitive job market, knowing how to communicate effectively has never been more important – whether it’s your research results or your personal qualities. During our pre-conference careers day at the 2017 SEB Annual Meeting in Gothenburg, early career delegates received a masterclass in getting themselves seen, heard and above all remembered, on the international science arena.

“Think about it: a spider doesn’t start building its web when it sees the fly, it’s already in place to catch it”: perceptive words from careers expert, Sarah Blackford, who led the morning session on the power of networking and personal branding. Early career scientists can adopt the same pro-active attitude towards their career planning by starting to build a network of contacts as early as possible. At a recent employer event during the ESOF 2016 meeting, it was estimated that these days around 90% of jobs are secured through networking and personal recommendation, with 70% of jobs not even advertised at all. But it takes more than collecting connections to break in: when recruiters have hundreds of contacts, you have to give people a “lasting, memorable impression” to stand out. “You need a solid, personal identity – a ‘brand’ – to get on people’s radar”, advised Sarah. This goes far beyond having a business card (although these are starting to become more commonly used amongst the academic community). Sarah encouraged us to emulate successful companies that build an identity through the unique strengths of their product/service. Ask yourself some key questions: Who do you admire and why? What do you want to be known for? What are your key strengths?

THESE DAYS AROUND 90% OF JOBS ARE SECURED THROUGH NETWORKING AND PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION

Having identified your potential niche, it’s time to create a brand for yourself that will maximise your impact. Don’t fall into the trap of putting down everything you can think of, cautioned Sarah: “You need to focus otherwise it will be a bit of a ‘mishmash’”. Remember, industries often use search engines when hiring so think carefully about the key messages you are getting across and check that your job title means something to people outside your organisation: For example, think ‘Scientist’ rather than ‘Postdoc’. Little details count, so make sure your profile looks complete including a good head-shot photo: “A half-finished profile doesn’t give a good impression of you” said Sarah.

Once you have begun to establish your brand, where should you start marketing yourself? Online is

a good starting point, Sarah recommended, both researcher-specific networks (e.g. Research Gate) and mainstream social media, particularly LinkedIn. But your brand should be integral to your personality, not something you switch on or off, so consider how to present yourself at events such as meetings with industrial partners, conferences and seminars – even informal meetings. Numerous studies have demonstrated that body language and how we speak are much more important that the words we use. Everything from the colour scheme of your Twitter page to the way you dress communicates a subliminal message. Are you a fun, friendly person, easy to get on with? But can people also take you seriously? Ultimately, making a memorable brand for yourself should be a continual work in progress, to be tweaked continually to match the organisations you want to attract. But the potential benefits for your career make it a worthy investment of your time!

the ruleS of the game:

During the afternoon, Miguel Garcia-Yeste from the Department of Languages and Literature at the University of Gothenburg showed how effective communication relies on having a keen awareness of the rules for different genres: modes of communication specific for a certain purpose and audience, often developed by distinct scientific communities. These genres “bring pressure to conform to certain norms, but this can create friction between what the audience expect and being yourself” said Miguel. The real trick is to manipulate or bend the rules slightly to create a memorable message for the audience. As an example, he showed us an ingenious marriage proposal cleverly disguised as a scientific paper! He then gave us his tips for getting the most impact out of the ‘3 Ps’ of research: papers, posters and presentations.

you’ve

got to picK a paper or two…

whatever your DiScipline, the Key tenetS we uSe to JuDge whether or not to reaD a paper are alwayS novelty anD relevance. with thiS in minD, miguel recommenDeD uSing the carS moDel for the introDuction:

Getting the most from your poster

When your poster is one among hundreds of others, it takes real effort to stand out from the crowd. According to Miguel, “every aspect should be designed to attract and inform, with a structure that helps the audience to find and use information”, preferably in a few seconds! Everything should be formatted for focus, using boxes, arrows or even a timeline if it helps. Rather than cramming in every last bit of data, you should choose your information strategically. “For instance, graphs shouldn’t just repeat the data but emphasise what supports your argument. Remember, if the audience wants more information they can always ask you during the poster session”. Any extra data can always be put on printouts to give to those who are interested, he added.

eStabliSh the territory REVIEW WHY THE TOPIC IS RELEVANT AND YOUR OWN STANCE TOWARDS PREVIOUS RESEARCH eStabliSh a niche INDICATE A GAP IN ESTABLISHED RESEARCH OR QUESTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN RAISED. ARE YOU CONTINUING A TRADITION OR MAKING A COUNTER-CLAIM?

Speaking out

Even if you are showing the same data, oral presentations should be treated very differently to a paper, said Miguel. “Don’t just throw lots of information out there – your aim should be to encourage conversations with your peers and attract new followers” he said. He recommended using more conversational phrases, (“as you can see”, “and so on”, etc.) to interact with the audience and transition signals (first, next, therefore, etc.) to structure the delivery. For international students speaking in a nonnative language, he recommends forvo.com: an online pronunciation database with usergenerated sound clips.

occupy the niche OUTLINE THE PURPOSE/NATURE OF YOUR STUDY AND STATE ITS VALUE LIST YOUR RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND ANNOUNCE THE PRINCIPAL RESULT.

“BESIDES IMPROVING YOUR OWN PAPERS, KNOWING THIS MODEL CAN HELP YOU TO CRITIQUE MANUSCRIPTS AS A REVIEWER” SAID MIGUEL

With these tips in mind, there should be no excuses for not making the most out of communicating the best about yourself, whether it is your latest research findings or future ambitions.

Quotes from participants:

“Being encouraged to talk to each other really loosened boundaries. I found it surprising that what you say is less important than how you say it.”

Kati Michalek, Scottish Association of Marine Science, UK

“Extremely useful to have a point of view from a linguist on how to communicate – I picked up a lot of tips on how to make a poster for next time.”

Luca Telesca, University of Cambridge, UK

“Great way to start the conference because I met so many people and it showed how easy and fun networking can be.”

Uriel Urquiza García, University of Edinburgh, UK

“As a result of this session, I will be improving my online profiles to get the attention of possible partners and corporations.”

Rena Schott, State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, Germany

Right Careers day

Photo credit: Simon Callaghan

sCiENCE witH iMPACt: COMMUNiCAtiNG sCiENCE iN A POst-tRUtH ERA

BY ALEX EVANS, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

In today’s ‘post-truth’ society, where facts and rationale play second fiddle to political rhetoric and emotional manipulation, the ripples of ‘alternative facts’ are felt throughout all corners of society, including the science community. How can we discuss the facts of global topics such as climate change and GM crops when celebrities and politicians are trusted more than researchers?

thankfully, Science Communication Convenor

Anne Osterrieder and SEB+ Committee Members

Jenny Sneddon and Esther Odekunle put together a panel of experts from a range of scientific backgrounds to discuss this hot topic. “Interdisciplinary discussions are particularly valuable as they allow us to peek outside of our own ‘echo chamber’ and consider new perspectives,” said Anne. Alongside the session, Anne asked a series of questions online to gauge how confident scientists were at sharing their science with different online and offline audiences.

Tom Wakeford of Coventry University, UK, kicked off the session with a bold history lesson into the colonial roots of cultural bias and mistrust. By exploring today’s rising trends in xenophobia and the historical propagation of bigotry and racial discrimination by prominent figures in science such as Carl Linnaeus and Julian Huxley, Tom highlighted that far-right ideas haven’t always remained solely outside the scientific community. “There’s a link between post-truth ideology and colonialism that can’t be ignored,” explained Tom. Drawing on his experiences discussing the impact of GM crops with Indian farmers, Tom also emphasised the importance of allowing people who will be affected by scientific research to help shape the questions it asks.

Next up, Kristin Schirmer from the University of Waterloo, Canada highlighted the increasing mistrust the public feels towards scientists and commented on the conflicting role of the media as both helpers and hinderers

when it comes to interpreting scientific stories. “We have to rethink how we reach out to nonscientists,” said Kristin. “Our messages have to be clear, cut down to the bones and completely honest.” Using her own work using cells sourced from fish as an example, she stressed that clarity and openness about research is a good place to start for winning back the public’s trust. Following up on this, Kristin highlighted the increased popularity of ‘Famelab’-style events that encourage scientists to explain their work in interesting and understandable ways for lay audiences. “There’s a difference between making fun of your science, and having fun with your science,” said Kristin.

Alexandre Antonelli from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden agreed with many of Kristin’s points about explaining research clearly and honestly, adding that researchers should aim to explain how their research can be directly beneficial for the public, as well as the scientific community. This issue turned out to be especially relevant for Alex, as he explained how the surprisingly politically partisan treatment of climate change and evolution have effects on the perceptions of his work on species extinction in South America. To mitigate these issues, Alex recommended clearly explaining the relevant outcomes of his research to sceptical audiences to encourage positive and productive communication, especially when biological specimens are removed from the wild. To reach wider audiences, Alex suggested conducting outreach activities in public institutions to boost public awareness and education, noting that the botanical gardens in Gothenburg get over 2 million visitors every year, making it an ideal location for engaging with interested individuals.

Following the panellists’ talks,there was a thorough and lively discussion of topics that covered a range of additional issues from the handling of press appearances to the unique role of scientific artists and ‘creatives-in-residence’ to communicate science to the public in novel and inspiring ways. However, it appears that

PiCK ANd MiX! tHE POwER OF wORKiNG iN diVERsE GROUPs

BY CAROLINE WOOD

tackling the rise of ‘post-truth’ thinking won’t be easy and Anne acknowledged that even simply responding to ‘alternative facts’ with reasoning can often just bring harmful ideologies back into the spotlight. Ultimately, it will always be difficult to change the minds of the public and a lot of time

NO ONE EVER CHANGED THEIR MIND BY BEING CALLED ‘STUPID’

and energy can be wasted trying, especially when the discussions grow repetitive and sour. As Anne quoted during the session: “no one ever changed their mind by being called ‘stupid’. ”Afterwards, Anne was pleased with the outcome of the session: “I thought the session went really well, and it was interesting to see the audience’s response to the communication confidence questions.”

Formerly the ‘Women in Science’ dinner until 2015, the ‘Diversity Dinner’ has already become a fixture at the SEB Annual Meeting. This year in Gothenburg, the event saw record numbers of men attending, highlighting the growing awareness of the need for more inclusive workforces. Our guest speaker, Åsa Nilsson Billme, director of Diversity and Inclusion Strategies at Lectia1, gave a stirring talk on the theme: “When the Why is clear, the How is easy.”

“Even when I was six years old and learnt about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, I asked my parents, “How can it be that people can be valued differently because of skin colour?” No one could give me an answer beyond “It’s complicated”, so I decided I needed to become Pippi Longstocking2 and change everything because the adults simply didn’t ‘get it’”. Unlike Åsa however, many of us lose our childhood indignation over unfairness and instead “contribute to the culture of exclusion, often unknowingly, by supporting structures that favour some over others”. But in the modern world, organisations cannot afford to remain mired in traditional practices and ways of thinking. “In the 20th century, homogenous thinking was rewarded, for instance in the unions and collectives, but now society and demographics are changing so fast that if you don’t diversify, you will be passed by those who do it better”, said Åsa.

raised their hand. With this is mind, we were then tasked with brainstorming our ideas to promote inclusivity in our own workplaces. The suggestions touched on all areas of research life from breaking down meeting hierarchies, helping working mothers, making peer review more transparent and providing unconscious bias training for all. Even when the dinner formally drew to a close, the discussions continued… let’s hope the ideas born that evening are now bearing fruit in the workplace. As Åsa concluded, “rethinking our traditional cultures takes practice, but once we get started, we can move in the right direction”.

Delegate SuggeStionS

• Unconscious bias training for all, including Undergraduates and Masters Students

• Seminar series should include speakers on diversity issues

• Travel grants for students and researchers for under-represented countries

• Double-blind peer review

• Commission articles for blogs and journals from a more diverse range of writers, and include profile photographs

• Offer financial support for a carer to travel with a researcher to look after babies and toddlers

• Have a poster prize for minority groups

• Avoid using ‘male descriptors’ in job adverts that could dissuade women from applying

• Have more mentor/buddy schemes to help younger researchers progress in their careers

Above

Tom Wakefield and Anne Osterreider

Studies have already demonstrated “beyond reasonable doubt” the cost effectiveness of diversity policies, including greater creativity, increased employee retention, easier recruitment and improved client relations3. “Clearly, diversity is not just the right thing to do but the best thing to do, to improve societies and business in general”, Åsa summarised. However, simply putting policies in place only goes so far. “Cultures can ‘eat strategies for breakfast’ every day of the week, but the best tool to utilise diversity is inclusion, where everyone is respected and not just tolerated”, said Åsa. Ultimately, this is the key difference between simply understanding diversity, and truly ‘getting it’. As Åsa noted: “It’s the difference between counting the numbers and making the numbers count”. But true inclusivity requires us all to make the effort to question the structures that hold others back. To show how “we are all victims of the norm”, Asa invited us all to draw a cat on a postcard. “How many of you drew the same cat you drew when you were eight years old?” she challenged. Most of the audience

• Send out meeting agendas to everyone before the event so people can prepare, and all can take part in the discussion. Then introverted people can email their questions to the chair

• Remove the concept of ‘speciality’: include non-academic people in scientific discussions

• Icebreaker sessions at conferences for researchers from different disciplines.

• We are not all alcoholics – replace the wine trail with a chocolate one!

1. http://www.lectia.se/

2. https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/pippi-longstockingrebel-role-model/

3. Methods and Indicators to Measure the Cost- Effectiveness of Diversity Policies in Enterprises, Final Report. October 2003, Centre for Strategy & Evaluation Services.

with the ‘Post-Truth’ book

Photo credit: Simon Callaghan

Left Åsa Nilsson Billme

Photo credit: Simon Callaghan

tAKiNG A CLOsER LOOK At PEER REViEw is tHERE LiFE OUtsidE OF ACAdEMiA?

BY CAROLINE WOOD BY CAROLINE WOOD

the pace of research has never moved so fast, producing an estimated 1.5 million scholarly publications each year1 This brings considerable challenges for the academic publishing industry, from recruiting enough reviewers to finding the right journal for each manuscript. At our session ‘Meet the Academic publishers’ at the 2017 SEB Annual Meeting in Gothenburg, our panel of speakers, chaired by John Bothwell (SEB+ Section), offered their views on the challenges facing the industry and the key emerging trends for the future.

As more manuscripts are written, the burden on reviewers grows ever heavier; this can lead to established researchers delegating their reviews to PhD students and early career researchers – but is this always ethical? As Ulrike Müller (Associate Editor at Proceedings B) said, “I assume that the person to whom I assign the review is the person who wrote it, but so often I hear through the grapevine that it was handed on to someone else”. According to Lee Sweetlove (Editor-in Chief, The Plant Journal ), this is a valuable route for training but it depends on the involvement of the academic: “The academic should be helping the student to construct their comments and read the review before submission, not simply submitting it with their own name against it”. There was a general consensus that as long as the process is transparent, both parties can benefit from co-reviews. As one audience member noted: “PhD students often know more about their specific topic than anyone else, as they are the ones doing new work on it.”

For the early career researchers keen to start reviewing, a key question was how to know whether or not they are doing a good job. Christine Foyer (Associate Editor at The Biochemical Journal and Plant, Cell and Environment and Handling Editor at the Journal of Experimental Botany) described how most journals compile their own feedback to assist in future reviewing decisions, but this tends to remain in house. Lee agreed: “Giving feedback to each reviewer would be too much work for the editor, but I am sure that they would be willing to share the

scores with young reviewers who are looking for feedback”. According to Adam Wheeler (Senior Publisher, Wiley), a more effective approach might be to enlist the support of a colleague to check objectivity: “Even senior reviewers should do this – everyone has biases they don’t know about”.

“Could preprints be the future?” was another question posed during this short lunchtime discussion. This is where manuscripts are uploaded straight to a public domain and reviewed in the comments section. Despite being common in mathematics, physics and computer science, this is rarely done in the biological sciences. According to Christine, this wouldn’t be an effective screening process:

“The biosciences generate an awful lot of papers; if they all got into the system we could be in danger of missing the interesting ones”.

Adam also noted that such a system might allow the most competitive voices to dominate: “There are many brilliant researchers with good insights who are uncomfortable sharing their views in a wider space, whereas there are others who may not be so strong academically but would be provided with a platform that could disproportionately represent their voice”.

Despite its imperfections, it appears that the standard model of peer review will endure for the time being, as Adam concluded: “Whilst publishing bodies do spend a lot of time looking for potential solutions, peer review represents the most reliable method we have at present.”

1. Jinha, Arif E. “Article 50 million: an estimate of the number of scholarly articles in existence.” Learned Publishing 23.3 (2010): 258–263.

PHD STUDENTS OFTEN KNOW MORE ABOUT THEIR SPECIFIC TOPIC THAN ANYONE ELSE, AS THEY ARE THE ONES DOING NEW WORK ON IT

YOU HAVE TO TRANSFER YOUR DRIVES AND MOTIVATIONS SO KNOWING YOUR TALENTS AND PERSONAL VALUES IS ESSENTIAL

Given that only around 3.5 % of PhD’s land a permanent research position1, perhaps it would be more accurate to call academia the ‘alternative’ career. During our session ‘Is there Life Outside of Academia? ’ at the 2017 SEB Annual Meeting in Gothenburg, we heard from a range of speakers who had successfully made the break – and in some cases even transitioned back again.

“You gain fantastic skills throughout your PhD”, said Bennett Young (Assistant Editor at the Journal of Experimental Botany), skills that lend themselves to a whole range of industries. But according to global career coach, Tina Persson, to find a fulfilling career, “you have to transfer your drives and motivations, not just skills. Knowing your talents and personal values is essential to find an organisation where you complement the other roles within the team”. To get ideas, Tina advised “follow people you admire on social media, watch inspiring TED Talks and read books on personality”. You will need to look beyond the job titles when searching for your ideal match. For instance, “many jobs in publishing don’t actually involve much, if any, science writing”, said Bennett. Meanwhile Outi Vaarala, head of Translational Biology, Innovative Medicines (iMed) at AstraZeneca R&D, spoke of how industrial companies often have surprisingly large research operations. “An increasing amount of science is done in-house on our site and there is a surprising focus on publication”, she said. Yet even when you find your ideal role, you may need to be prepared for a culture clash at first. Erik Alexandersson, now Associate Professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and director for the research network PlantLink, recalled his 2-year break from research as an editor at BioMed Central: “It was quite a shock to me: an open plan office with scores of different departments, all integrated and not focused on different areas”. Outi agreed that “it may take time to understand how a complex organisation works so you need an open-minded attitude”. But it is still possible to find your crowd: “Nerds, aka brilliant minds, are everywhere, even outside academia”, Erik reassured us!

Perhaps the most critical attribute is flexibility and a willingness to take on new challenges. According to Bennett, even in the publishing world, “you will encounter a new scenario every day, some new quirk, which you have never done before, particularly when dealing with peer review”. Erik agreed: “I was really thrown in the deep end at BioMed Central: I was suddenly put in charge of four BMC journals, including nephrology which I knew absolutely nothing about. But my time outside academia reassured me that I can jump between fields more than I thought”. Yet that shouldn’t make you afraid to take a risk, as “it is when we are under pressure and out of our comfort zone that we develop the most”, said career consultant Sarah Blackford 2 former SEB head of Education and Public Affairs. As Outi added: “It’s OK to ask, ’What if I fail?’ Then simply make a plan B. See it as an experiment, not the place you need to be until you retire”. Tina agreed: “You shouldn’t expect to nail your dream job in one go. People arrive there because of all the ‘failures’ behind them”.

So don’t despair if you are considering leaving academia. Clearly there is a bright world waiting outside your laboratory window…

2. www.biosciencecareers.org

1. Taylor, Martin, Ben Martin, and James Wilsdon. The scientific century: securing our future prosperity. The Royal Society, 2010.

tRAVEL GRANts tO GO!

REPORTS FROM THE WINNERS OF THE COMPANY OF BIOLOGISTS EARLY CAREER SCIENTIST TRAVEL GRANTS

BY SABINA BABA

iSaac Kramer, ben-gurion univerSity of the negev, iSrael

Isaac ventured to the Namib Desert to take part in a field research workshop entitled Biophysical Filed Methods at Gobabeb Research and Training Centre in Namibia.

At Gobabeb, I examined how biophysical concepts, principles and techniques allow us to gain insight into the behaviour and survival strategies of plants and animals in this region. This was a very exciting opportunity for me because it allowed me to connect the focus of my current research – physics and atmospheric sciences – with biological processes.

For my M.Sc. research most of my work is focused on modelling – I have modelled the radiation balance inside a water harvesting system, with the end goal of optimizing the system’s ability to retain water. Through this work, I have gained experience studying and measuring meteorological processes. But until now, my research has not included biological components.

The highlight of my research in the Namib Desert was working on a project to analyze barking gecko activity levels. The barking geckos, endemic to southern Africa, are nocturnal and known for the vocalizations (i.e. barks) that they emit from their burrows in early evening. Our project sought to examine how climate conditions, such as temperature and atmospheric moisture content might influence their activity levels. We used microphones to record their calls over the course of several

days and then tried to correlate this data with ambient meteorological conditions.

The trip was a great opportunity for me to engage in research outside the bounds of my thesis project. I gained a lot of experience designing experiments, thinking about how to collect data, and analyzing results. I particularly enjoyed the chance to learn how to analyze sound files – for our project on barking gecko activity – using the Python and R programming languages.

As I move towards my PhD research, it was valuable to have the opportunity to spend more time in the field and to further develop my ability to consider problems scientifically.

Julia analyze, univerSity of yorK, canaDa

Julie travelled to Australia for 3 months to carry out research in collaboration with Prof. Craig Franklin on the “Effects of chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis on tight junction proteins in amphibian skin”.

I met Prof. Craig Franklin at the 2016 SEB Brighton meeting and we decided to collaborate: we wanted to combine my work on skin tight junctions in the Kelly Lab and his research on the Chytrid fungus (The University of Queensland, Australia). I possessed the necessary expertise to drive the technical aspects of the project, while Prof. Franklin had a cultured model colony available exclusively in his laboratory in Australia.

The research trip has taught me a lot. Working in a different lab and a new country for an extended period of time was an experience in itself. I have been doing research in the Kelly lab for my BSc thesis and my current MSc work, so I have never experienced working full-time in another setting. I learned to use new techniques, equipment and facilities at The University of Queensland, and I met some amazing researchers along the way!

I learned to creatively troubleshoot my experiments – because I was in a new setting, whenever I faced roadblocks, I had to use all the resources I could find to make things work. For example, I had shipped a pair of diffusion cells from Canada to use for my experiments in Australia, but they were too large to use with the small frogs that we were working with! Luckily, these diffusion cells are made out of glass and there was a glassblowing workshop on campus. This workshop made two new glass diffusion cells for me and the experiments worked perfectly from then on!

During my time there, Prof. Craig Franklin hosted a Steve Irwin Memorial Lecture event at The University of Queensland. Dr. Brad Norman presented his amazing work on whale sharks at this event, and it was fascinating to learn about how little we knew about these gentle giants. However, the highlight of this event was that I was able to meet Steve Irwin’s daughter, Bindy Irwin, in person! I never imagined that I would meet a celebrity during my collaboration, but I had!

The collaboration work was a great experience for me and to top it all off one month after returning from Australia I presented the work that I conducted at the 2017 SEB Annual Meeting in Gothenburg! It was wonderful to see the collaboration come together between SEB meetings.

JameS braDley, the univerSity of SheffielD, uK

James travelled to the 14th World Congress on Parasitic Plants (Asilomar, USA) to present his research entitled “A Comparative Genomics Approach to Investigate the Genetic Differences Between Striga Asiatica Ecotypes”.

One of the major highlights of the conference was its breadth of coverage of parasitic plant research: we heard the latest advances from biological disciplines as diverse as genomics through to ecology, as well as the latest technology being used to monitor and control the few particularly weedy parasitic plants that pose a serious agricultural problem. The threat that these few weedy parasitic plants pose to agriculture has meant that bulk of the research is focused on a small selection of parasitic species, many of which are in the Orobanchaceae family and include the notorious Striga hermonthica Striga asiatica and Orobanche cumana. Having said that, there were some very interesting presentations on less well-studied parasitic plants, such as those within the Balanophora genus, which I learnt represents one of the oldest parasitic angiosperm lineages and appears to have a reduced plastid genome. The biological insights into these less wellstudied but extremely fascinating parasitic plant species was also a personal highlight of this broad-spectrum conference.

During the conference, it became clear that many groups aim to obtain whole genome sequences for the various weedy parasites mentioned above. Indeed, one of the research highlights of the conference was the presentation of the first whole genome assembly for a parasitic plant, Orobanche cumana (sunflower broomrape), which represents a major milestone in the advancement of parasitic plant research. This work was presented by Stéphane Muños from INRA (French National Institute for Agricultural Research), who highlighted the exciting opportunities this genome will provide to gain insights into the genetics that underpin host-parasite specificity. This is particularly the case when studied in combination with the recently published genome of sunflower, which is the main host plant of O. cumana

Overall, this conference has taught me a great deal about current scientific opinion in parasitic plant research, and also helped me understand and appreciate some of the excellent scientific progress that has been made in understanding the biological mechanisms underpinning processes unique to parasitic plants.

It also provided me with an excellent opportunity to meet with and talk to many researchers in the parasitic plant community.

“I particularly enjoyed the chance to learn how to analyze sound files”

Isaac Kramer, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

“I never imagined that I would meet a celebrity during my collaboration, but I had!”

Julia Gauberg, University of York, Canada

“The biological insights into the less well-studied but extremely fascinating parasitic plant species was a personal highlight of this broad-spectrum conference”

James Bradley, The University of Sheffield, UK

Left Julia Gauberg at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (Brisbane)

50 YEARs OF COMPARAtiVE BiOCHEMistRY: tHE LEGACY OF PEtER HOCHACHKA

BY

BILL DRIEDZIC (MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OF NEWFOUNDLAND) AND JIM STAPLES (UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO)

On what would have been the occasion of his 80th birthday, a Special Symposium was held to honour the legacy of Peter William Hochachka (O.C., Ph.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.C.) at the University of Manitoba on May 13 and 14, 2017.

Peter, a pioneer in the field of Comparative Animal Biochemistry, passed away in 2002 at the age of 65. Much has been written about Peter’s intellectual contributions in areas such as temperature adaptation, facultative anaerobiosis in ectotherms, diving in marine mammals, human high altitude adaptation, and exercise metabolism. It is well recognised that his work transformed the field of comparative biochemistry (see G. Somero and R.K. Suarez, Annu. Rev. Physiol. 67:25–37, 2005; K.B. Storey, Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol. 39:359–69, 2004) but Peter’s legacy as a mentor is less well documented. Peter supervised 16 post-doctoral fellows, 32 PhD and 11 MSc candidates over his career. Those who trained under Peter (the F1 generation) have to this date supervised more than 750 individuals, with the count continuing to rise. A summary of Peter’s trainee information will soon be available through the Hochachka Memorial Lecture page (http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/ seminar-series/hochachka).

Peter’s PDFs include George Somero who has fathered an impressive intellectual family of his own, but it was really Peter’s supervision of PhD candidates that has made an outstanding impact. Of Peter’s 32 PhD students, 27 went on to supervise students of their own. Of these individuals, 17 held or still hold faculty positions, mostly at Canadian Universities. Of the current F2s approximately 40 hold faculty positions and again this number will increase.

The symposium was organized by a group of former Hochachka students led by Bill Driedzic and Helga Guderley, with local logistics coordinated by Kevin Campbell and Jay Treberg, F1 and F2 respectively.

Symposium talks were organised around 5 major themes that ran throughout the Peter’s career: hypoxia, temperature, bioenergetics, evolution of metabolism, and ecophysiology and adaptive change.

26 talks were given at the symposium and some student examples will illustrate how Peter’s pioneering work has inspired significant advances within the field of bioenergetics. One unifying theme of Peter’s work was to understand how animals survive environmental stressors that constrain their ability to metabolise food-derived energy to synthesize ATP or generate heat. Such fundamental, discovery-based research has generated data that may help us to understand what regulates how fast animals can go, how long they can live and how some can virtually shut down metabolism under unfavourable conditions.

Low oxygen environments can limit aerobic metabolism, but some animals thrive under these conditions, including mice species that range from sea level to the near top of the Andes. Cayleigh Robertson, a PhD student from McMaster University, compared metabolic heat generation in baby mice reared at 400 metres above sea level with those reared under oxygen levels that mimicked 3500 metres elevation. The simulated high-altitude environment caused a delay in the ability of the growing mice to regulate their body temperatures, probably because there was insufficient oxygen to power heat production by brown adipose tissue.

Kate Mathers, a PhD student at the University of Western Ontario, told us of her advances in understanding how mitochondrial metabolism is dramatically and rapidly suppressed in hibernating ground squirrels. By turning down metabolism, and spending more than half of the year in hibernation, these animals can survive the winter without eating, using only their on-board energy stores. Kate’s proteomic results show that changes to key mitochondrial enzymes correspond with this metabolic suppression. Although not part of her research, Kate’s results suggest that such changes could be induced by exogenous

manipulations. She took pains, however, to clarify that putting astronauts into “artificial hibernation” for interstellar travel remains solely in realm of science fiction.

The significance of polyunsaturated fatty acids to animal metabolism and lifespan was emphasized by Enrique Rodríguez (PhD student, Université du Québec à Rimouski). He told us about his studies on the membrane pacemaker theory of metabolic regulation using tropical orchid bees, species of which range in body mass by 16-fold. In this group changes in metabolic rate correlate strongly with amount of linolenate in their flight muscle. This omega-3 polyunsaturate (18:3) is an important component of membrane phospholipids in organelles such as mitochondria. While some polyunsaturates may improve animal performance they can also be damaged by reactive oxygen species, potentially contributing to aging and senescence. Enrique told us of his groups work on the significance of polyunsaturates to the oxidative stress theory of aging. Comparing several species of marine bivalves – one of which ( Arctica islandica) has the longest known maximal lifespan among animals –they found that lifespan may relate to tissue polyunsaturate composition.

Student F2 and F3 trainees also presented posters in a juried competition, with prizes sponsored by the Society for Experimental Biology and the Zoology Education Trust (the charitable arm of the Canadian Society of Zoologists). From the 25 submissions two posters were judged as superior: Soren Coulson from McMaster University (Mitochondrial adaptations to high altitude in brown adipose tissue of highland deer mice) and Amanda MacCannell from the University of Western Ontario (Endogenous rhythms of thorax brown adipose tissue in the 13-lined ground squirrel). Abstracts for all talks and posters can be found here:

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~campbelk/ PWH%20Symposium%20schedule%20 and%20abstracts.pdf.

By all accounts the meeting was a great success, with over 100 delegates (including Brenda, Peter’s wife) and excellent presentations. A generation of students should now appreciate their scientific lineage. Peter was most certainly celebrated and his important contribution of mentoring his students so that they would become mentors was recognised.

Mathers, K.E., McFarlane, S.V., Zhao, L. and Staples, J.F. (2017). Regulation of mitochondrial metabolism during hibernation by reversible suppression of electron transport system enzymes. Journal of Comparative Physiology B, 187:227–234. DOI 10.1007/s00360-016-1022-0

Rodriguez, E., Weber, J-M, Pagé, B., Roubik, D.W., Suarez, R.K. and Darveau, C.-A. (2015) Setting the pace of life: Membrane composition of flight muscle varies with metabolic rate of hovering orchid bees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282: 20142232, http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2232

ORGANisiNG A PHd EVENt At YOUR UNiVERsitY?

Take a look at the SEB PhD events sponsorship and maybe we can help with sponsorship for presentation awards or with the cost of refreshments.

http://www.sebiology.org/grantsand-funding/funding-for-eventsand-meetings/funding-for-eventsand-meetings

IT IS WELL RECOGNISED THAT HIS WORK TRANSFORMED THE FIELD OF COMPARATIVE BIOCHEMISTRY BUT PETER’S LEGACY AS A MENTOR IS LESS WELL DOCUMENTED

Below, left Peter Hochachka

Photo credit: University of British Columbia

I am writing this on both Wren Busby’s and my behalf to relate a tale of two fish freaks, with a flare for fun and making friends – a tale of determination, powered by community, the love of learning, and science.

CREAtiVE COMMUNitY FUNdRAisiNG FOR AttENdiNG A CONFERENCE

BY ADISON ADAMS AND WREN BUSBY, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

Our story is about how, with the support of our advisor, Dr. Ione Hunt von Herbing (UNT Associate Professor, Biological Sciences, & Director of the Marine Conservation and Aquatic Physiology Laboratory (MCAPL)) and the good folks at the Oakmont Country Club in Denton, TX, Wren and I were able to attend and present at the SEB meeting in Gothenburg in 2017.

It all started, a few years ago when I took an Ornithology course. In addition to developing a great appreciation for all things Aves, I began my friendship with Wren Busby. Wren is a PhD. student of Dr. Hunt von Herbing’s and took me under her proverbial wing. Dr. Hunt von Herbing invited me to work in her lab (MCAPL) as an undergraduate research assistant, after taking her Marine Biology and Ocean Sustainability course. Over the last two years I have learned about the effects of climate change on the oceans, which concerns me deeply, and helped Wren and other students in Dr. Hunt von Herbing’s laboratory to use scientific knowledge of developing new technologies (like probiotics) to foster a sustainable aquaculture industry, in order to conserve the fish in the sea.

But I wanted to do more…then during a typical day of research last December, as Wren and I walked through the halls of the UNT Life Sciences building, we saw a poster advertising the 2017 SEB Conference: A Scientific Smorgasbord. From there, an idea emerged and we hatched a plan to raise the money to send the pair of us overseas. Using my connections at Oakmont Country Club, my home course, we created a golf tournament to raise awareness for the pivotal research being conducted at UNT MCAPL while, raising funds needed for us to travel to Sweden. The club members and local community businesses came together – a force to be reckoned with. The day of the tournament was absolutely beautiful. A Texas Spring day filled with laughter and support for science. Music was enjoyed, and pints were definitely

shared. It was truly a day that demonstrated the power of community in support of two students and their university, UNT. From this event and from the generosity of the members of Oakmont Country Club, we were able to raise the funds necessary to finance our journey to SEB 2017.

THE CLUB MEMBERS AND LOCAL COMMUNITY BUSINESSES CAME TOGETHER – A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH

Attending the SEB conference was nothing short of extraordinary. It was an eye-opening experience that left both of us with a much deeper understanding of the vast biological research trail-blazed across the globe and the importance of scientific communication. Not only was the trip educational, but it also demonstrated that all things are possible through sheer determination, great science, and community involvement. The connections stemming from Gothenburg are truly life lasting, and emanate the spirit of the SEB. Change, a constant force in nature, can be redirected for the improvement of society, science, and our world as a whole. By the hand of fate and by conscious choice, we made a small dent in the fight against climate change, all the time making it a pleasurable affair. So, keep giving our communal scientific effort the great name it deserves. WE ARE ALL making a difference. Thank you for everything that you do to help students like Wren and I grow as scientists. We look forward to seeing everyone at SEB 2018!

UN ti L NEX t iss UE

SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY PRESENTS:

sEB FLORENCE 2018

3–6 JULY 2018

FIRENZE

FIERA CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION CENTRE

SEBIOLOGY.ORG #SEBAMM

ENViRONMENtAL iMPACt ON EPiGENEtiC MEMORY

EPiGENEtiC MEMORY ANd ENViRONMENtAL AdAPtAtiON (PLANT AND ANIMAL BIOLOGY)

stREss: FROM CELLULAR MECHANisMs tO ORGANisMAL REsPONsEs ANd CONsERVAtiON (ANIMAL AND CELL BIOLOGY)

puMping ions as a response to STRESS FROM AQUATIC HABITAT

TRANSITIONS: CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR MECHANISMS RELATED TO EVOLUTIONARY CHANGES

• tHe role oF tHe MitocHonDria IN ENVIRONMENTAL ADAPTATION AND DISEASE

• aDVances in non-inVasiVe MONITORING OF STRESS IN THE FIELD AND LABORATORY: APPLICATIONS FOR CONSERVATION

GENERAL CELL ANd PLANt BiOLOGY (CELL AND PLANT BIOLOGY)

MAstERs OF BiOLOGY

ANiMAL BiOLOGY

BiOMECHANiCs

bioMecHanics anD cliMate cHange • open bioMecHanics

PROXiMAtE ANd ULtiMAtE dRiVERs OF BEHAViOUR

generalitY oF tHe ’pace-oF-liFe

SYNDROME’ CONCEPT: IS THE IDEA OF INTEGRATED SYNDROMES SUPPORTED BY EXPERIMENTAL DATA?

intraspeciFic Variation IN RESPONSES TO STRESS: WHY INDIVIDUALS MATTER?

tHe role oF inDiViDual VARIATION IN THE BEHAVIOUR OF ANIMAL GROUPS

tHERMOBiOLOGY

• carDio-respiratorY aDaptations TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

• MitocHonDria in cHanging CLIMATES: BIOSENSORS AND MEDIATORS OF ANIMAL RESILIENCE

• ocean WarMing anD aciDiFication: WHAT UNDERLYING MECHANISMS CAN REVEAL ABOUT IMPACTS OF MULTIPLE STRESSORS

OtHER ANiMAL BiOLOGY sEssiONs open aniMal biologY

PLANt BiOLOGY

• cliMate cHange iMpact on urban AND NATURAL FORESTS

enHancing plant pHotosYntHesis WITH BIOPHYSICAL CO2 CONCENTRATING MECHANISMS FroM genoMe to genoMes

• MorpHogenesis in non-FloWering PLANTS

plant biotecHnologY For HealtH AND NUTRITION

• plant teMperature responses: SHAPING DEVELOPMENT AND ENHANCING SURVIVAL?

• sHaping root arcHitecture - FROM NUTRIENT SENSING AND TROPISMS TO SYSTEMIC SIGNALS AND DECISION MAKING

CELL BiOLOGY

• Functional organisation oF THE NUCLEAR PERIPHERY

• green Microbes

• sequencing FroM lab to FielD AND THE POST GENOMIC ERA

• sYsteMs analYses oF MULTICELLULARITY COMPLEXITY AND ORGAN BIOLOGY

• quantitatiVe sYntHetic biologY

sEB+

• teacHing biologY at DiFFerent SCALES: CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITIES AND STRATEGIES

• career DeVelopMent WorKsHops FOR YOUNG RESEARCHERS

• DiVersitY Dinner

• eMbracing Your aniMal care, WELFARE AND USE COMMITTEEA WIN-WIN SITUATION

• Meet tHe acaDeMics

SESSION