THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY - SEB Autumn 2022 magazine

MITOCHONDRIAL FUNCTION

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Deadline for copy: Issue: Spring 2022 Deadline: 1 July 2022

SEB Executive Team:

SEB Main Office

The Society for Experimental Biology County Main, A012/A013 Lancaster University, Bailrigg LA1 4YW, UK admin@sebiology.org

Chief Executive Officer

Pamela Mortimer (p.mortimer@sebiology.org)

Events Manager

Eniola Alalade (e.alalade@sebiology.org)

Events and Grants Assistant Keji Aofiyebi (k.aofiyebi@sebiology.org)

Events officer

Jennifer Symons (j.symons@sebiology.org)

Membership Manager

Jordy Turl (j.turl@sebiology.org)

Office Administrator Julius Kelly (j.kelly@sebiology.org)

Education, Outreach and Diversity Manager

Dr Rebecca Ellerington (r.ellerington@sebiology.org)

Education, Outreach and Diversity

Ana Caroline Colombo (a.colombo@sebiology.org)

Communications Manager

Benjamin Danois (b.danois@sebiology.org)

Secretariat Jo Barclay (j.barclay@sebiology.org)

SEB Honorary Officers:

President

Jim Murray (murrayja1@cardiff.ac.uk)

Vice President Tracey Lawson (tlawson@essex.ac.uk)

Treasurer John Love (J.Love@exeter.ac.uk)

Publications Officer

Martin Parry (martin.parry@bbsrc.ac.uk)

Plant Section Chair

Stefan Kepinski (S.Kepinski@leeds.ac.uk)

Cell Section Chair

David Evans (deevans@brookes.ac.uk)

Animal Section Chair

Felix Mark (Felix.Christopher.Mark@awi.de)

Outreach, Education and Diversity Trustee Sheila Amici-Dargan (anzsld@bristol.ac.uk)

SEB Journal Editors:

Journal of Experimental Botany

John Lunn (Lunn@mpimp-golm.mpg.de)

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

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board or the Society for Experimental Biology. The Society for Experimental Biology is a registered charity No. 273795

Mitochondria are membranebound cell organelles (singular mitochondrion) that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell’s biochemical reactions. The chemical energy produced by the mitochondria is stored in a small molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondria contain their own small chromosomes.

However, despite the long-held knowledge of the role of mitochondria in energy production, researchers are now finding out just how complex their function can be across all the divisions of biology. This is why we are going to focus this issue on mitochondria’s roles in the Animal, Cell and Plant realms.

Here is a glimpse of what we have in store in this issue of the SEB magazine.

FEATURES

In the Animal section, in ‘Mitochondria: Insights from Organelle to Organism’ (page XX), Alex Evans finds out just how variable mitochondrial function can be, and what this means for animals in a rapidly changing world.

For the Cell section, in ‘Problems in the Powerhouse’ (page 22), Alex then focuses on the fact that, despite almost all eukaryotic organisms relying on mitochondria to generate energy, their ability to do so can be heavily affected by environmental factors. He finds that plenty of research is therefore taking place from the cellular level upwards to investigate mitochondrial function.

To conclude the Features with the Plant section, Caroline Wood’s ‘Mighty Plant Mitochondria’ (page 28) article takes a look at recent highlights from the SEB journals that portray the diverse roles mitochondria can assume in plant cells.

MITOCHONDRIAL FUNCTION THEME

BY BENJAMIN DANOIS

OUTREACH, EDUCATION AND DIVERSITY

The OED team has been working hard and are keen to share with you all the latest from their department.

In ‘Citizen Science in a Nutshell’ (page 50), Ana Colombo and Rebecca Ellerington explain how technological advancement, its definition, application and impact, has been evolving and growing in the OED sphere.

Geoff Squire, the founder of the Living Field project, recently joined a working group of the SEB whose remit is to develop outreach, education and diversity. In ‘Origins of the Living Field’, he writes about his experience in the Living Field project, based at the James Hutton Institute, Dundee, UK (page 52).

And to conclude, given the sometimes large role that Wikipedia can play in our world, Ana and Rebecca want to underline what Wikipedia can teach us about diversity in science (page 56).

MEMBERS HIGHLIGHTS

This issue’s spotlight section features brilliant achievements realised by our members. We would like to congratulateWasim Iqbal, Dana Macgregor, Sónia Cruz, Chew Yin Hoon, Michael Günther & Tom Weihmann for their contribution to the field of biology.

To learn more about their work, have a look on page 10.

Please note, you can also get involved by writing a review or an opinion paper for one of your journals by visiting www.sebiology.org/journals.

DECOLONISING AND DIVERSIFYING BIOSCIENCES EDUCATION

We are excited to announce the first SEB OED Symposium, to be held in Cambridge, on the 19–20 December.

Organised by Katharine Hubbard (University of Hull), Catherine Mansfield (imperial College London), Tina Joshi (University of Plymouth) and Isaiah Ting (University of Surrey), this is an event that is not to be missed.

We invite you to read the brilliant invitation paper written by the session’s organisers to discover more about the Society’s first OED symposium (page 12).

SEB CENTENARY MEETING

We are particularly proud to announce that this upcoming SEB Annual Conference will mark the 100 years since the foundation of the Society in 1923!

To celebrate our Centenary, several initiatives will take place throughout the year, such as Careers and Coffee events, that you can discover by visiting our website. The Centenary Annual Conference will take place in the splendid city of Edinburgh from 5 to 8 July 2023.

A brilliant article written by Alex Evans will showcase everything you need to know about what is going to be the most ambitious event the Society has ever put on (page 14).

Do not forget to follow us (@sebiology) on Twitter using #SEBconference, on our Facebook page or on our Instagram account for the latest news.

Registration will open very shortly.

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

PROFESSOR JIM MURRAY PRESIDENT, SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY

Welcome to the SEB Newsletter! The focus of this issue is mitochondria, the crucial powerhouses of the cell. I have always been fascinated by the idea that primitive eukaryotic cells evolved by domesticating a prokaryotic symbiont to provide their energy source, gradually taming it to ensure its dependence on the host cell! Prisoner or free-rider – choose your viewpoint. You’ll discover much more informed discussion about

I’d also like to take this opportunity to welcome Felix Mark as new Interim Chair of the Animal Section, taking over from Shaun Killen. Felix is an integrative ecophysiologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany (https://www.awi.de/ ueber-uns/organisation/mitarbeiter/detailseite/ felix-christopher-mark.html). I am most grateful to Felix for agreeing to take on this role and know that I speak for the whole SEB Council in looking forward to working with him. I would like to extend my personal thanks as well as those of the whole SEB to Shaun for his hard work and dedication to the Society as outgoing Animal Section Chair. It is one of the great benefits of the SEB that we get to meet scientists across the remit of experimental biology with whom we would perhaps not otherwise come into contact, and it has been a particular pleasure to work with Shaun over the past 18 months or so.

As you will hopefully have seen from various announcements, the OED (Outreach, Education and Diversity) section of the Society is increasingly active under our OED Trustee Sheila Amici-Dargan of the University of Bristol and SEB staff member Rebecca Ellerington (OED Manager). I am very keen

to be held at Robinson College, Cambridge, on 19–20 December 2022, which will examine issues including the historical legacies of colonialism on the Biosciences, the need to adopt more diverse and inclusive examples, gaps for disadvantaged students, and how biology education can better incorporate international perspectives. As active experimental scientists, we use the power of empirical experimental science to analyse the function of living systems and, indeed, the universe, which must be independent of individual or cultural viewpoints. It is our job to teach and convey how the scientific method can be used to transform our understanding of the world.

Professor Jim Murray President, Society for Experimental Biology

WELCOME TO… JO BARCLAY

for bold, colourful clothes, and still makes the occasional garment in her spare time. As a vegan, Jen is a bit of a foodie and likes to try out new restaurants and recipes, when possible, as well as spending time with animals in particular her deaf rescue Persian cat ” Gracie-Lou Freebush”.

WELCOME TO… JORDY TURL

Jo Barclay as SEB’s new Secretariat Officer. Jo has children and dogs, loves the outdoor lifestyle, has recently taken up kayaking and enjoys home improvements and decorating. Jo volunteers in local community lead organisations in several capacities and is committed to an inclusive culture where diverse perspectives are valued and encouraged. Jo has extensive experience working in various roles for many years in the retail banking and charity sectors.

WELCOME TO… JENNIFER SYMONS

Jordy Turl as the Membership Manager. Over the past four years, Jordy has managed multiple membership bases all within the field of Endocrinology. Jordy is passionate about working within learned societies and believes that it is important to strengthen membership communities to provide improved support, a strong collective voice and enhanced advocacy for the respective disciplines. Jordy also has experience working across various digital and physical conferences around the world. In her spare time, Jordy is a keen runner, cold-water swimming enthusiast and enjoys reating nature illustrations.

busy and people-centric environment. Having previously studied fashion, Jen has a lasting love

BY JULIUS KELLY

Jennifer Symons as Events Officer. Jen joins the Society from a varied career background predominantly within the hospitality and healthcare sectors and has always enjoyed working within a

IIn 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 around.

EDITED BY BENJAMIN DANOIS

WASIM IQBAL (PGR)

(UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE,UK)

Congratulations to Dana for her talk delivered on the “Feed the World” Stage at New Scientist Live. We invite you to read the paper has been wrap up by the Farmers Weekly with the information covered by Dana.

Read the paper: www.fwi.co.uk/arable/crop-management/weedmanagement/the-scientific-work-helping-farmersfight-herbicide-resistance

SÓNIA CRUZ (UNIVERSITY OF AVEIRO, PORTUGAL)

The SEB would like to congratulate Wasim for his exciting paper published in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

Read the paper: academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ jxb/erac368/6696322

DANA MACGREGOR (ROTHAMSTED RESEARCH, NETHERLANDS)

The SEB would like to congratulate Sonia for being awarded with a ERC starting grant (2.3 million euros) on photosynthetic sea slugs.

We also want to spotlight her ambitious project entitled “KleptoSlug”:

• cordis.europa.eu/project/id/949880

• www.cesam.ua.pt/index.php?menu=& language=pt&tabela=projectosdetail& projectid=1681

CHEW YIN HOON

(ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI, USA)

TOM WEIHMANN

(UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE, GERMANY)

Related to Michael Günther’s paper, the SEB would like to congratulate Tom for his involvement as a main contributor for the “ Rules of nature’s Formula

MICHAEL SACKVILLE (UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA)

The SEB would like to congratulate Yin Hoon for publishing an astoning new paper in “in silico Plants”.

Read the article: academic.oup.com/insilicoplants/article/4/2/ diac010/6594971?login=false)

Please see the following for some news release:

• School website (Jet lagged plants pave the way to first digital plant)

• https://www.ed.ac.uk/biology/news-events/ news-2022/jet-lagged-plants-pave-the-wayto-first-digital-pl

• Phys.org (Jet lagged plants pave the way to first digital plant) https://phys.org/news/202211-jet-lagged-pave-digital.html

MICHAEL GÜNTHER

(UNIVERSITY OF STUTTGART, GERMANY)

Congratulations to Michael for his interview from last July by the famous radio anchor Jonathan McCrea, in his show named ‘Futureproof’ station on ‘Newstalk radio’ regarding his article published in ScienceDirect.

Read the article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ abs/pii/S0022519321001363

Listen the podcast: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/ abs/pii/S0022519321001363

An interesting paper mentioning Michael’s work has been also released on Wired: www.wired.com/story/why-even-the-fastesthuman-cant-outrun-your-house-cat

Run: Muscle mechanics during late stance is the key to explaining maximum running speed” article

ANGIE BURNETT (UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, UK)

Congratulations to Michael for thesis work as a full article published in “Nature” following the Young Scientist Award he won during 2019 SEB conference in Seville, Spain.

Read the paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05331-7

New & Views writeup: www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03220-7

BBC Radio interview (2nd story in the episode): www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct369p

The SEB would like to congratulate Angie for her publication “Can we improve the chilling tolerance of maize photosynthesis through breeding?” published in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

Read the article academic.oup.com/jxb/article/73/10/3138/6526428

DECOLONISING & DIVERSIFYING THE BIOSCIENCES EDUCATION

In December 2022, the SEB is hosting the ‘Decolonising and Diversifying the Biosciences Education’ symposium at the University of Cambridge. The team organising the conference comprises Katherine Hubbard (University of Hull), Catherine Mansfield (Imperial College London), Isaiah Ting (University of Surrey) and Tina Joshi (University of Plymouth). The team are hosting this symposium to not only highlight the issue of single dimensional delivery of biosciences content, but also ensure that the values and good practices of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are upheld and visible.

The symposium seeks to inform biosciences educators of good practices in decolonisation and not to simply diversify the curriculum by increasing the contributions of People of Colour in the biosciences. At present, biosciences education is still dominated by a one-dimensional, Caucasian approach to teaching that has typically not included a holistic view of the field. Global challenges such as climate change and antimicrobial resistance should be considered in a ‘One Health’ and truly global approach, where lowto middle-income countries’ opinions are valued alongside high-income countries, for example. Good practices could include changes in language associated with peoples’ identities and creed, examples of broader thinking in how educators and students currently interpret decolonisation, selfreflection, teaching and understanding the history of biosciences, and identifying current inequalities that students/staff face.

Examples of good practice will be shared with the greater aim of empowering the next generation of students to embrace cultural and racial differences in their teaching groups and, after graduation, within society. While we appreciate that small steps are key in creating a larger shift in the outlook of biosciences education, it is simply not enough to have, for example, included a range of skin tones within your teaching to show diversity and decolonisation. Decolonisation is so much more than this; it is ensuring that the teaching content is put into the context of social injustice and racial biases, and highlights that the ‘colonial way’ of thinking is not the only way forward. Colonialism must be put into context here; this was the brutalisation and subjugation of a group of peoples’ and cultures across the globe, with the eradication of knowledge and their history to establish the supremacy of Western Europe.

Knowledge exchange goes both ways. The next generation of graduates will be taught that the opinions and values of others, especially those who may look different or speak differently to you, are equally as valid as your own. This is part of our academic contribution to society, with the aim of sending out graduates who can interact with

equality and inclusivity and treat others with dignity. That is why we are excited about the Symposium because, while we are encouraging knowledge exchange, we are also seeking ideas about how to build on the small steps to foster a wave of change across all topics within the biosciences. This in turn could have further positive impacts on students who are of a minority by increasing their aspirations and confidence in navigating difficult areas.

Interestingly, decolonisation of the education curriculum has recently come under significant negative scrutiny in the media. Critically, the core concepts of decolonisation and diversifying education appear not to be fully understood in the public sphere. This is why it is so important that we showcase examples of ways to increase decolonisation and highlight areas where we need to do much more. This is not about removing Caucasian voices from the curriculum, it is about adding diversity to the voices that are already there. Being silent and inaction on these important societal issues makes us all complicit in ignoring racism, microaggressions and the biases many people face daily. It’s important to have these conversations even if they can be uncomfortable. Unconscious bias tends to be an important factor influencing the delivery of education to the next generation. We, as educators, often do not realise that our own intrinsic biases and prejudices can bleed into our pedagogy; thus, by recognising these biases, educators can seek to embed effective EDI strategies into their pedagogy to deliver a modernised biosciences curriculum to a digitally savvy and highly connected Generation Z.

The world is composed of people from a rainbow of backgrounds; this is something that makes, and has made, our society and our species so rich and successful. Including these concepts in education should be a joyous prospect. We encourage all biosciences educators to partake in the Symposium and share our passion for contributing to an equitable and inclusive academy.

Written by Dr Tina Joshi, Associate Professor in Molecular Microbiology, University of Plymouth.

DECOLONISING & DIVERSIFYING BIOSCIENCES EDUCATION

SPEAKERS:

Nick Freestone (Kingston University, UK)

Removing Awarding Gaps For All

Sarah Marie Da Silva (University of Hull, UK)

Confronting Ableism in Biosciences: its history and how we can take positive steps towards disability inclusion

Jason Arday (University of Glasgow, UK)

Racial Inequality and Social Justice in Higher Education

Carol Ibe (John Innes Centre, UK)

Work on training African researchers

Prachi Stafford (Sheffield Hallam University, UK)

Decolonisation of the biology curriculum

BY ALEX EVANS

SEB CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

One hundred years. Thousands of members. Countless opportunities. From 1923 to 2023, the SEB has been a source of high-quality collaborative research, exciting career developments and lasting friendships. To mark the society’s 100th birthday, we are providing a range of new sessions and events throughout the year to inspire and empower our members. This is just a peek at what is to come.

SEB HISTORY

SEB CENTENARY CONFERENCE

AVAILABLE ONLINE NOW

Before looking forward to the future of the SEB, we invite you to join us in reflecting on our past. Our Education, Outreach and Diversity Manager, Rebecca Ellerington, has pieced together a rich timeline of the SEB’s history and key events –spanning from its inception in the early 1920s to the modern era. The vision of the SEB from the very beginning has been ‘promoting the art and science of experimental biology in all its branches’ and this article (www.sebiology.org/centenary/seb-history. html) explores how this vision has developed into the society we know and enjoy today.

IMPACT LECTURES

AVAILABLE ONLINE THROUGHOUT 2023

The SEB is home to an abundance of experts across the field of experimental biology. To celebrate that fact, we will be hosting public lectures throughout 2023 that feature researchers from all around the world discussing the evolving role of experimental biology from the past century to the next. With a focus on tackling real-world issues, these lectures will be using the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a guiding framework. These lectures will be available online with livestreams throughout the year. Keep an eye on our website (www.sebiology. org/centenary/impact-lectures.html) and on social media for announcements.

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE, 4–7 JULY 2023

The SEB Annual Conference is always the pinnacle of our events calendar – and the centenary celebration is certainly no exception. Along with a wide range of sessions spanning the Special Interest Groups of Animal, Cell and Plant, we will be providing educational workshops to promote Outreach, Education and Diversity. Please visit www.sebiology. org/events/seb-annual-conference-2023.html to find information on registration, abstract submission, plenary lectures, awards sessions and support with accommodation. First-time attendees will also find information on what to expect and how to get the most out of attending the conference.

CELEBRATING SUCCESS & SHAPING THE FUTURE

CAREERS AND COFFEE

AVAILABLE ONLINE THROUGHOUT 2023

Whether an established academic or an early-career researcher, there is always value in learning about the breadth of careers opportunities available for anyone with a background in experimental biology. The Careers and Coffee series of monthly talks are free webinars centred on a 20-minute talk from an invited speaker covering their career journey, with time for attendees to ask questions about their role and future career prospects. Please see the list of confirmed speakers and topics below so far, with many more to be announced. For more information or to submit your own idea for a Careers and Coffee talk, please visit www. sebiology.org/centenary/careers-and-coffee.html.

JANUARY

A Career in Academic Publishing

Michael Page, Managing Editor for the Journal of Experimental Botany, Publications Manager for the Society for Experimental Biology

MARCH

Moving to Careers in Environmental Sciences and the Civil Service

Marcelo Paes Gomes, Senior Scientist, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture (Cefas) –Science Division of Fisheries

APRIL Title TBC

Damaris A Odeny, Principal Scientist and Global Cluster Leader: Genomics, Pre-breeding & Bioinformatics, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

AWARDS NOMINATION TASK FORCE

CURRENTLY OPEN FOR VOLUNTEERS

In addition to providing more opportunities for researchers from underrepresented communities to acquire funding or showcase their research, the SEB is actively looking for more ways to champion and reward biologists from these groups. Taking inspiration from the Space Physics and Aeronomy Nomination Task Force, we are aiming to locate deserving but potentially overlooked members of the experimental biology community for wider inclusion in the judging of our bioscience awards. No matter the stage of your career, we are interested in your input! To learn more about this initiative or to register your interest, please visit www.sebiology. org/centenary/awards-nomination-task-force.html.

ONLINE EDIT-A-THON

AVAILABLE ONLINE DURING MARCH 2023

The SEB is committed to improving the visibility of researchers from underrepresented groups, both current and historic. Because Wikipedia is often the first stop for curious minds, we will be organising an online edit-a-thon with opportunities to support diversity and inclusivity within experimental biology. These activities include creating new articles profiling researchers from historically marginalised communities, updating existing articles to include more content on experimental biology and translating articles into a wider range of languages to improve accessibility. To aid in this endeavour, we will provide training events, drop-in sessions with experienced editors and a week-long effort to update and create as many Wikipedia pages as possible. More information and registration details can be found at www. sebiology.org/centenary/online-edit-a-thon.html.

SEB BIRTHDAY GRANT EVENTS

CELEBRATORY EVENTS TAKING PLACE INTERNATIONALLY IN APRIL AND MAY 2023

April 2023 marks the centenary’s official ‘party month’ with a variety of exciting events scheduled to take place at institutions across the world, all funded by the SEB Birthday Fund. These events include networking and social events, celebrations for SEB members and public engagement opportunities. To find out more about the events taking place, you can visit www.sebiology.org/centenary/ sebundefinedbirthdayundefinedgrant.html or keep an eye out for the #SEBParty tag on social media.

SEB JOURNALS INITIATIVES

SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS RUNNING THROUGHOUT 2023

To celebrate this centenary, the SEB’s five academic journals are coordinating on a number of initiatives that will reflect on the past 100 years of experimental science. These will include collections of the journals’ most influential articles throughout history, interviews with early-career researchers, reviews focused on the role of experimental

biology in global challenges, and a session at the SEB Annual Conference dedicated to Conservation Physiology’s 10-year anniversary, with speakers discussing current threats to biodiversity. More information can be found here: www.sebiology. org/centenary/seb-journals-initiatives.html.

SEB MENTORING SCHEME

PILOT RUNNING FROM NOVEMBER 2022 TO NOVEMBER 2023

One of the SEB’s greatest strengths comes from the valuable knowledge and experience of its members from all stages in their career. This year, we are starting a new mentoring programme that aims to bring together researchers from across the organisation to provide one-to-one support. Throughout the year, participating mentors and mentees will be given opportunities to share their career journeys and answer questions, as well as being provided with support through training sessions and networking events. Registration is now closed, but more information on the pilot scheme and how you can get involved can be found here: www.sebiology.org/centenary/mentoringscheme.html.

MITOCHONDRIA: INSIGHTS FROM ORGANELLE TO ORGANISM

BY ALEX EVANS

The animal kingdom boasts incredible diversity in the way that organisms move, feed, fight and reproduce. All of these actions require chemical energy, and the vast majority of this is generated by one highly conserved organelle, the mitochondria. But is mitochondria a ‘one size fits all’ solution to energy production? We talked with researchers to find out just how variable mitochondrial function can be, and what that means for animals in a rapidly changing world.

EVOLUTION AND EFFICIENCY

Mitochondria have been a part of life on Earth for well over a billion years, and while they are still relatively well conserved between animal taxa, there is ample evidence that this important organelle still has the capacity to evolve to overcome environmental challenges. Neal Dawson, a senior research associate at the University of Glasgow, explores the cascade of mitochondrial function across magnitudes of scale and evolutionary time. ‘My undergraduate degree was in biochemistry, so I started at the very small level,’ he says. ‘In my first postdoc, I saw people working with these wonderful organelles, and my first naïve response was “wow, that’s a big enzyme!” but quickly learned it was much more complex than that.’ Since then, Neal’s research has focused on the impact that variation and adaptation among these tiny organelles can have on whole organisms. ‘I was especially interested in how efficiently the organelle can function rather than accepting the “with more, you can do more” hypothesis, so it became more about quality versus quantity,’ he adds.

One mystery that Neal has been particularly invested in solving is that of high-altitude adaptation in animals. Many mammals and birds have evolved

to acclimatise to high altitudes, but the ways in which they do so vary considerably. ‘We wanted to understand how evolutionary time at high altitude would influence metabolic function, especially the role of the mitochondria,’ he explains. ‘I ran mitochondrial assays up in the mountains of Peru, which was such a unique and amazing experience.’ Rather than relying on increasing their anaerobic energy production to perform well at high altitudes with lower concentrations of oxygen, Neal’s research revealed that, over time, populations of birds were actually more likely to increase their ATP production aerobically – possibly through improvements in mitochondrial efficiency.

As well as investigating populations, Neal’s research has also focused on inter-individual variation in mitochondrial function. ‘I jumped at the opportunity to work with Neil Metcalfe, and we really tried to explore if it could be possible that the variation in mitochondrial efficiency may allow some individuals to invade new niches, or in the case of the fishes I’m studying with Neil, survive in the face of climate change where others cannot,’ he explains, throwing in an analogy that Neil created to explain their interest in mitochondrial efficiency: ‘If you think about how far you could drive a car, a lot of past mitochondrial research has been focused on how big the gas tank is and not necessarily on how efficient the engine is at using the fuel.’

While consistently high mitochondrial efficiency might sound like the ideal outcome, it is not without drawbacks. Every time the mitochondria produces ATP, a small percentage of oxygen consumed becomes harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS). ‘My entire PhD was on antioxidant defence systems and I’m curious if this variation in mitochondrial quality comes down to protection against ROS accumulation,’ suggests Neal. ‘Perhaps having less-efficient mitochondria acts as a buffer against this type of damage.’

Finally, Neal has also been doing some work on ageing in birds, drawing on the curious fact that birds tend to have relatively long lifespans compared to other animals of a similar size. ‘On average, they all tend to live longer despite having more mitochondria, which should produce more ROS and bring about more rapid ageing,’ he says. ‘There will no doubt be direct human applications that can help us with disease and ageing research, simply by researching animals that are already able to delay these processes.’ By bringing a wealth of insights ranging from the protein level to the population biology and organismal evolution level, Neal is in a great place to track the role that mitochondria play in animal survival and potentially provide a better understanding of our own ageing processes. ‘I’m always trying to bridge the fields that I’ve studied,’ concludes Neal. ‘Which is why I’m really interested in looking at the relationship between efficiency and ageing, and especially in the context of climate change.’

THE COLOUR OF QUALITY

Mitochondria may be invisible to the naked eye, but the effects they can have on the appearance of animals certainly aren’t. Rebecca Koch, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tulsa in the USA, is working to improve our understanding of why some external display traits, like feather coloration, have been found to vary along with the performance of internal physiological processes associated with mitochondria. ‘I focus on the mechanisms underlying variation in sexually selected mating displays and right now that includes carotenoid-based coloration in birds,’ she explains. ‘As scientists, we often try to find unifying explanations for the patterns we observe, including these traits that appear to be honest indicators of individual quality, but even in the well-studied trait of carotenoid-based coloration in birds, we haven’t been able to pin down exactly what links feather pigment deposition to this concept of quality.’

There are many methods to approach this question of quality but, according to Rebecca, there has been a lack of consistent and satisfying answers. However, subcellular research may offer new insights. ‘Mitochondrial biology entered the scene while I was in graduate school through a few somewhat unrelated events and a book club led by my advisor Geoff Hill,’ she explains. ‘It has been exciting to explore the possibility that examining a subcellular process could offer a more fundamental explanation for the larger-scale variation we observe.’

Many of the aspects of this area of research are already intrinsically linked to mitochondria, through metabolic rates and hormone functions, so Rebecca and her team believe that this may help them to interpret some of the patterns they’ve already observed from other investigations. ‘Right now, I’m focused somewhat obliquely on discovering and testing the genes involved in becoming a brightly coloured male house finch,’ she says. ‘These will be genes involved in carotenoid pigment absorption, metabolism and transport, some of which may actually involve mitochondria directly.’

Ultimately, the goal of animals is to survive and reproduce – and both of these factors rely on how well the animal can cope with environmental or immune stress and show off to others while doing it. ‘By performing targeted manipulations and measurements of mitochondrial traits and environmental stressors, we will gain a better understanding of how mitochondrial respiratory performance varies in wild animals,’ she explains, ‘and how this may or may not affect sexually selected display quality.’ The methods that Rebecca uses to carry out these experiments rely on measuring the consumption of oxygen by the mitochondria, but they also allow her to craft more creative investigations. ‘To quantify mitochondrial aerobic

A LOT OF PAST MITOCHONDRIAL RESEARCH HAS BEEN FOCUSED ON HOW BIG THE GAS TANK IS AND NOT NECESSARILY ON HOW EFFICIENT THE ENGINE IS AT USING THE FUEL.

I’VE BEEN FASCINATED BY HOW PLASTIC AND FLEXIBLE MITOCHONDRIA ARE.

respiration, we use a high-resolution respirometer to measure gas exchange in tiny samples,’ she explains. ‘These machines are fascinating because they allow us to add specific substrates or inhibitors that are involved in the mitochondrial respiration process, and measure how this affects gas exchange.’

This broad appreciation for mitochondria, even when dealing with something that is seemingly unrelated at first glance, just further demonstrates the interconnectedness of animal physiology and the importance of cross-theme research. ‘I think the fact that a bunch of behavioural ecologists and evolutionary biologists are interested in subcellular biology in the first place is quite surprising,’ she says. ‘The core functions of mitochondria are so key to eukaryotic life that there is some surprise that any variation exists at all but I’ve been fascinated by how plastic and flexible mitochondria are.’

Rebecca is always keeping her eye on technological developments that advance the ability of researchers to make these measurements both in the laboratory and in the field. ‘I’m very excited for any new breakthroughs in technology and logistics that might allow us to measure mitochondrial performance at a higher throughput and with greater mobility than we currently can with lab-based high-resolution respirometers,’ adds Rebecca. ‘A team I collaborate with for my current project has built a MitoMobile1 that can drive those laboratory spaces to the field, and I think we are still scratching the surface for bringing mitochondrial biology to ecology.’

THE HEART OF THE ISSUE

Mitochondrial function can be highly variable, but because it plays such a vital role in animal physiology, it is also incredibly well conserved throughout the animal kingdom, meaning that we can learn a lot about our own physiology by looking at how other animals cope with challenges. Lucie Gerber, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Norway, has been conducting investigative work into the cardiac mitochondria of freshwater fish that could potentially impact beyond just our understanding of mitochondrial function.

‘I am a broadly trained integrative and comparative animal physiologist,’ she says. ‘My research questions naturally led me to study mitochondrial function and there is currently a high demand for a better understanding of mitochondrial function in ecophysiology.’ Lucie especially enjoys working on a topic that is currently in the experimental biology spotlight, because it means that she is connected to a broader community of researchers and the impact of her research has considerable reach. ‘It was also a natural thing to pursue; I have always focused and been interested in basic physiological processes

and how organisms cope with challenges in their environment,’ she explains. ‘Mitochondria are central to most physiological processes and understanding their acclimation and adaptation capacity to stressors is emerging as a tool in ecophysiology to help predict animal responses in a changing world.’

In a rapidly changing world, the ability of organisms to adapt to new environmental conditions is crucial for their survival – whether this is through their behaviour, physiology or, in this case, cellular function. ‘The role of my postdoctoral research in Canada was to understand mitochondrial acclimation capacity and plasticity to two major environmental stressors: environmental warming and hypoxia,’ she says. ‘Our study on acclimation capacity in salmon published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, with a focus on heart mitochondria as a metabolic predictor of performance and acclimation capacity, was highlighted as the most cited research papers in 2021 by JEB!’

Despite her focus on mitochondria from freshwater fish, the bigger picture of Lucie’s research is very much painted with human applications in mind. ‘Mitochondria are also emerging as therapeutic targets and my current postdoctoral research

project on crucian carp, the champion of anoxia tolerance, has the potential to shed light on mitochondrial adaptation to anoxia and the treatment of oxygenrelated diseases humans,’ she explains. ‘This very exciting and ambitious project is part of an interdisciplinary project called 3DR that aims to develop strategies to improve organ preservation protocols in response to a growing demand for viable and functioning organs in transplantation.’

One of the benefits of studying a topic with wide appeal is that Lucie has a diverse arsenal of reliable technology and techniques at her disposal. ‘I often combined methods in molecular and cellular biology, such as qPCR, Western blotting and enzymatic assays, to study gene and protein expression and activity, with techniques from physiology or respirometry, depending on the research questions, to integrate observations at different levels of biological organisation,’ Lucie explains. ‘Having such a repertoire of techniques is definitely an advantage because it allows me to be flexible and integrative in my research. I am now delving into omics (RNA-seq and Ribo-seq), which are great tools to find new research questions and add a discovery-driven approach to my repertoire.’

For Lucie and her team, as well as uncovering some fascinating discoveries that have the potential to benefit human health and transplantation, their

research has raised even more mitochondrial mysteries to be solved. ‘The lower mitochondrial ROS release rate in isolated cardiac mitochondria from warm-acclimated salmon has been puzzling us,’ she says. ‘Digging into the mechanisms underlying this acclimatory response by cardiac mitochondria in salmon is definitely on our list of next steps!’

EFFICIENCY OF A FISH IN SEA

Energy is sometimes referred to as the currency of the universe, and, just like other currencies, biological energy production is constantly subject to fluctuations caused by a range of factors. Some animals are able to generate energy within their mitochondria with great efficiency while others cannot – so what affects this individual variation in metabolic exchange rate? Karine Salin, a researcher at IFREMER, the Institute for Ocean Science in Plouzané, France, is on the case. ‘I’m really interested in understanding individual variation in animal performance,’ she says. ‘Taking individuals from the same population or experimental group, some are better than others, and I want to understand the physiological mechanisms at work.’

Karine’s main focus right now is understanding the flexibility of energy metabolism in marine animals by investigating how mitochondrial function changes under environmental stress. ‘I want to figure out if marine animals can produce more ATP if they need more in order to cope with their environment, and if mitochondrial function can explain individual variation in whole animal performance,’ she says. ‘I’m looking at mitochondrial function especially because their phenotype links to specific genotypes that could be inherited into the next generation, so this variation between individuals may play a role in natural selection.’

To better understand the mitochondrial function of her animals, Karine frequently measures the oxygen consumption of the mitochondria performing oxidative phosphorylation, which is a technique that has been used for decades for similar means. ‘However, we also measure the mitochondria’s ATP production,’ she says. ‘Two individuals may be able to produce different amounts of ATP using the same amount of oxygen, so this helps us to work out the “mitochondrial efficiency” of an individual.’ While it might be expected for similar animals to have a similar mitochondrial efficiency, Karine has found that this is not always the case. ‘We have been very surprised to find that when we keep individuals in the same environmental conditions for months, they will still be highly variable in their ability to produce ATP – some generating up to five times as much ATP than others,’ she explains.

Karine’s mitochondrial research is not only important for understanding how variation between individuals may affect their chances of survival or reproduction in the wild, but also for understanding how to find the optimal fish phenotypes for farming. ‘I mostly work with European sea bass, which is a very important food resource both for wild fishing and aquaculture,’ she explains. ‘Fish that require less food and oxygen to produce energy would be more economically beneficial and is this a heritable trait that could be bred to make more productive stocks.’

However, Karine explains that while there are certainly benefits to being efficient at making ATP, there are also drawbacks and being energyefficient can actually be a double-edged sword. ‘One of the downsides of making a lot of ATP is producing a lot of ROS which cause oxidative stress and harm the cell,’ she says. ‘Our hypothesis is that individuals that make a lot of ATP are able to grow fast, but also have a faster rate of senescence – so these individuals may function well in some environments that best suit shorter generations but not in others where living longer lives is a better strategy.’

Above Lucie Gerber and PhD student Magdalena Wiklhofer catching v in Oslo, Norway

Photo credit: Laura Valencia

Left

Lucie Gerber holding crucian carp at the InVivo aquarium at the Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo (https://titan.uio.no/ naturvitenskap/2021/ karussens-strategioverleve-naroksygenet-blirborte-kan-loseutfordringer-vedorgandonasjon)

Reference:

1. https://wp.auburn.edu/mitomobile

Photo credit: Gina Aakre

HAVING SUCH A REPERTOIRE OF TECHNIQUES IS DEFINITELY AN ADVANTAGE.

PROBLEMS IN THE POWERHOUSE

BY ALEX EVANS

Energy is often called the fuel of life, responsible for driving biological growth, reproduction and survival in the face of a changing world. Almost all eukaryotic organisms rely on mitochondria to generate this energy and yet mitochondrial activity can be heavily affected by environmental factors – both in wild organisms and in laboratory cultures. Plenty of research is taking place from the cellular level and upwards to investigate mitochondrial function. Let’s hear from some of those researchers.

SOME (DON’T) LIKE IT HOT

Temperature is a major environmental factor at play for all life on Earth, and is currently on the rise worldwide. Nicolas Pichaud, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Moncton in Canada, is working to understand how mitochondria respond to environmental stress, including temperature, dietary resources and oxygen availability. Nicolas’s career started at the opposite end of the biological scale, looking at population ecology and whole ecosystems, before he worked his way inwards towards the cell. ‘During my MSc in oceanography, I became really intrigued by how organisms can live and survive in changing environmental conditions,’ he explains. ‘This led me to do my PhD on Drosophila, trying to link variations of the mitochondrial genotype in related populations to the mitochondrial functions at different temperatures to see which population had adapted to better deal with temperature than the other.’

Nicolas points out that as well as producing ATP, mitochondria are responsible for many other processes and there are enzymatic complexes within the electron transport chain that tend to get completely overlooked. ‘We found that the capacity of these complexes is usually increased to compensate for a problem in one of the “classical” complexes induced by a highfat diet,1 an incompatibility between nuclear and mitochondrial genomes2 or at high temperatures,3’

he explains. ‘So instead of looking at the classical mitochondrial complexes, it is important to look at these alternative complexes to really understand what’s going on and how they can help maintain (or not) cellular homeostasis when needed.’

As with many researchers interested in mitochondrial function within the cell, Nicolas measures the oxygen consumed by the organelle with a high-resolution respirometer, but first the mitochondria has to be extracted. ‘When I started my PhD, I had to isolate mitochondria from Drosophila thorax to measure mitochondrial respiration, which was a pain,’ he says. ‘At that time, I was dissecting 90–120 Drosophila of the same age and sex to barely have enough mitochondria to run my experiment!’4 Thankfully, Nicolas developed an improved method by permeabilising tissue with a high-resolution respirometer that allowed him to run the experiment with only three thoraxes.

Metabolic demand rises as temperatures go up and the rate of mitochondrial aerobic respiration must keep pace – or else. ‘It has been suggested that mitochondrial dysfunction may explain organismal failure at critically high temperatures and thus mitochondria have been under scrutiny in the past few years as an important keystone explaining thermal limits of ectotherms,’ explains Nicolas. ‘With Lisa Bjerregaard Jørgensen and Johannes Overgaard, we recently showed in a comparative model of Drosophila with different critical temperature maximums (CTmax) that alternative complex respiration is decreased at temperatures close to CTmax and that above CTmax, an increased capacity to oxidise succinate and glycerol-3-phosphate is observed.’

Interestingly, this adaptation was not unique to the mitochondria of Drosophila, as was found by Nicolas and his team. ‘We then showed that this switch of substrate oxidation is partially conserved in other insect species such as the honeybee (Apis mellifera) and the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata),’ he says.5 ‘Altogether, these results suggest that mitochondrial substrate oxidation capacity is important for the thermal physiology of insects and might be involved in specific metabolic processes involved in temperature adaptation.‘

Further exploring how these alternative complexes are used in other species, Nicolas expands on some recent and surprising findings. ‘We actually thought that winter honeybees had an increased complex I capacity to sustain shivering thermogenesis and that their immune system would be decreased because there are fewer risks of infection during winter,’ he says. ‘We actually demonstrated that it is the complete opposite and I would like to check how the different things we saw in summer versus winter honeybees are regulated in terms of signalisation and if temperature is the only factor at play here!’6

MITOCHONDRIA ARE IMPORTANT IN ALMOST ALL ASPECTS OF ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY.

STRESS UPON STRESS

Individually, high temperature and hypoxia may be a challenge for mitochondria of some species, but when combined, the interactions become more complex and potentially more catastrophic. Inna Sokolova, Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Rostock in Germany, leads a laboratory that is focused on understanding the impact of multiple environmental stressors on marine organisms. ‘We want to determine the physiological mechanisms that set limits to organisms’ tolerance under the multiple stressor pressure and find ways to mechanistically link changes at the lower levels of biological organisation to the fitness consequences at the whole organism level,’ she says.

‘I was studying the impacts of extremely low salinity on molluscs and realised that extremely low salinity was not so much an osmotic problem, but an oxygen problem for the molluscs,’ she explains. ‘I knew that in terrestrial mammals, depriving a tissue of oxygen and then re-oxygenating it again as might happen during recovery from stroke or heart attack is extremely damaging, and this damage is associated with the mitochondrial damage and malfunction.’

Above Nicholas Pichaud with honeybees

Photo credit: Nicolas Pichaud

However, there are organisms that are able to go through these hypoxia–reoxygenation cycles twice a day without any apparent ill effects, raising the question of how the mitochondria are able to function this way – especially at the wide range of temperatures experienced by intertidal species. ‘Molluscs are a very successful group in many environments and their metabolic plasticity, and the ability of their mitochondria to withstand and recover from environmental stressors, contributes to this success,’ she explains. ‘Furthermore, understanding how the mitochondria of the tolerant species withstand these stressors might allow us to find interventions to help less tolerant mitochondria (such as ours) cope with stress and perhaps limit tissue damage during pathologies such as ischaemia–reperfusion.’

As well as providing answers to long-standing questions about mitochondria, this line of research has also been able to produce some more unexpected results. ‘The molluscan mitochondria are full of surprises,’ says Inna. ‘One very interesting thing that we found in our studies is that, unlike the mitochondria of terrestrial mammals that become damaged and lose the respiratory and ATP synthesis capacity after even short-term hypoxic stress, molluscan mitochondria can withstand several bouts of hypoxia–reoxygenation without loss of function and even enhance their oxygen consumption after hypoxic stress.’

Inna’s proteomic work with molluscan mitochondria also made another unexpected discovery that may help to explain how these animals resist the dangers of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. ‘Tolerant mitochondria do not seem to upregulate antioxidants during hypoxia–reoxygenation stress to protect against the excessive ROS during reoxygenation,’ she says. ‘Instead, they upregulate the mitochondrial quality control mechanisms that degrade damaged mitochondrial proteins and remodel the metabolic pathways, which might help the tolerant mitochondria keep ROS production under the tight control.’

The next steps for Inna’s team lie in assessing the role of post-translational modifications of proteins, such as phosphorylation and glycation, in fine-tuning the mitochondrial metabolism during environmental stress. ‘We also want to explore how the mitochondrial metabolism and anaerobic glycolysis are coordinated during hypoxia and post-hypoxic recovery.’

Inna graciously concludes the interview by acknowledging the hard work of her colleagues. ‘I would like to thank my graduate students and postdocs, without whom none of this work would have been possible and who are a constant source of motivation and inspiration to me,’ she says. ‘A lot of my best ideas come from our discussions of their

data, interesting literature finds and ideas, and their energy and enthusiasm are contagious –I feel privileged and grateful for being able to serve as their mentor.’

NO OXYGEN, NO WORRIES?

As well as temperature, the availability of oxygen is a major environmental factor in physiological stress at the cellular level. Amanda Bundgård, a postdoctoral researcher at CECAD, Cologne University in Germany, and Section for Zoophysiology, Department of Biology, Aarhus University in Denmark, is researching how mitochondria have adapted to hypoxic conditions in animals such as freshwater turtles and naked-mole rats. ‘I’ve always been interested in physiology and biochemical adaptations,’ says Amanda. ‘The reason I studied biology in the first place was a newspaper article about haemoglobin in high-flying geese, and how a few mutations in the gene have ensured that the geese can take up enough oxygen to fly over the Himalayas.’

‘When I was looking for a master’s project, I came across this mystery of how hypoxia-tolerant turtles avoid oxidative damage after the hypoxia and anoxia they encounter when they overwinter,’ she says. ‘Mitochondria, as the main cellular oxygen consumers and producers of ROS that cause oxidative damage, are naturally really central to hypoxia tolerance, so I was lucky enough to get to do first a master’s project and then a PhD about the role of mitochondria in the anoxia tolerance of turtles.’

‘Mitochondria are important in almost all aspects of animal physiology,’ says Amanda. ‘They produce most of the cell’s ATP, and so any changes that affect mitochondrial ATP production are central to the rest of the cell and thereby the whole organism and the ability of an animal to adapt to their environment.’

‘My research has shown that hypoxia-tolerant animals such as turtles are able to maintain mitochondrial homeostasis even without oxygen,’ she says. ‘In hypoxia-intolerant mammals, such as mice and humans, oxygen deprivation causes all kinds of mitochondrial disruptions, including reversal of ATP synthase, loss of ATP, loss of membrane potential and induction of apoptosis and production of ROS, which cause oxidative damage upon the return of oxygen.’ However, turtles appear not to suffer from these issues and Amanda’s research is helping us to understand why. ‘We’ve been able to show that the turtle mitochondria don’t produce excess ROS upon reoxygenation after anoxia because they are able to maintain ATP and avoid excessive accumulation of succinate,’ she explains.

Amanda is no stranger to technology, relying on a wide range of interesting techniques that assess how changes in oxygen can affect mitochondrial function all the way down to the protein level. ‘This includes exposing whole animals, isolated organs or just tissue to hypoxia or anoxia and then assessing the effect on mitochondrial function with high-resolution respirometry, fluorometric and mass-spectrometric measurement of ROS production, microscopy and histochemistry of tissues, and biochemical analysis of proteins and oxidative status,’ she says. ‘I’m also using enzyme assays to assess effects on protein activity and mass-spectrometric metabolomics to assess how oxygen deprivation affects the metabolic pathways.’

‘To me, it’s surprising that turtles completely avoid excess ROS production in their hearts after anoxia,’ she explains.7 ‘We know from mammals like humans, mice and rats that their hearts are very damaged with reoxygenation after anoxia/ischaemia and that much of this damage comes from excess production of ROS in the mitochondria.’ This kind of issue is of particular significance in the fields of heart disease treatment and organ transplantation. When it comes to future avenues of research, Amanda relishes

the opportunities opening up ahead of her.

‘I’m still intrigued by the difference in stability of mitochondrial supercomplexes across animal species that I’ve found, and I’d like to investigate that in more detail and whether it might be linked to fatty acid composition of mitochondrial membranes,’ she concludes. ‘There’s a recent report that supercomplex interactions change with hibernation status in ground squirrels, which I think is really cool, but the function of these interactions is still not really clear.’8

THE CULTURE CLUB

While many researchers with an interest in mitochondrial function set out to investigate the effects of a changing world by experimenting with laboratory-cultured mitochondria, there are some that are committed to making sure those laboratory cultures are as robust and reliable as they can be. Jeff Stuart, Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Brock University in Canada, is one such researcher working towards better technology and protocols for understanding mitochondria.

Jeff’s initial interest in mitochondria stems from his PhD studying metabolic rate suppression in snails. ‘This ultimately meant understanding how mitochondria work and how their activity can be regulated,’ he explains. ‘This interest was later developed when I studied the functions of uncoupling proteins as a postdoctoral fellow’. Since then, Jeff has focused on developing new computational methods to recognise and quantify aspects of mitochondrial network morphology. ‘Within the past several years, I have also spent considerable time developing improved cell culture methods that preserve more “normal” mitochondrial functions in vitro,’ he says. ‘Thus, my role at this point in my career has become providing tools, equipment and protocols that improve the study of mitochondria in live cultured cells.

One of Jeff’s main focuses is on the improvement of maintaining physioxia, or physiologically realistic oxygen partial pressures, in cell culture. ‘Since human cells were first routinely cultured almost seven decades ago, there has been little attention focused on the regulation of oxygen levels,’ explains Jeff. ‘This has occurred despite our longstanding awareness that cells in vivo experience the equivalent of 2–6% oxygen in most tissues.’

The impact of incorrectly prepared and maintained mitochondrial cultures can have serious consequences on both fundamental research and healthcare applications, as Jeff explains. ‘Our published studies over the past several years, as well as some yet-to-be-published work, show how non-physiologically elevated oxygen levels in culture affect gene expression, cellular energy

metabolism and mitochondrial network morphology,’ he says. ‘We have helped to show that the failure to maintain physioxia in cell culture alters the effects of drugs, hormones, toxins and perhaps almost any cellular perturbation – the consequences are considerable and wide-ranging.’

Jeff and his team have also increasingly incorporated ‘omics’ approaches to help them identify new processes that might be affected by culture conditions, including oxygen saturation. ‘We have been using transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and recently lipidomics to this end,’ he says. ‘These combine with our more familiar use of Seahorse extracellular flux assays to assess metabolism and live cell confocal fluorescence imaging to understand mitochondrial form and function.’

Alongside his drive to improve laboratory cultures for mitochondrial research, Jeff’s most recent research direction takes me somewhat by surprise. ‘We have been using the game design software Unity to create simulations of mitochondrial dynamics and are almost at a point where we have a usable program,’ he says. ‘I am excited to explore this space in the future, but we also have lots of plans for improving the culture workflow of our cell physiology experiments in ways that we think will be useful for other laboratories as well.’

Reference:

1. Cormier RP, Champigny CM, Simard CJ, et al. Dynamic mitochondrial responses to a high-fat diet in Drosophila melanogaster. Sci Rep 2019; 9: 4531.

2. Pichaud N, Bérubé R, Côté G, et al. Age dependent dysfunction of mitochondrial and ROS metabolism induced by mitonuclear mismatch. Front Genet 2019; 10: 130.

3. Jørgensen LB, Overgaard J, Hunter-Manseau F, et al. Dramatic changes in mitochondrial substrate use at critically high temperatures: a comparative study using Drosophila. J Exp Bio 2021; 224: jeb240960.

4. Pichaud N, Chatelain EH, Ballard JWO, et al. Thermal sensitivity of mitochondrial metabolism in two distinct mitotypes of Drosophila simulans: evaluation of mitochondrial plasticity. J Exp Biol 2010; 213: 1665–1675.

5. Menail HA, Cormier SB, Ben Youssef M, et al. Flexible thermal sensitivity of mitochondrial oxygen consumption and substrate oxidation in flying insect species. Front Physiol 2022; 13: 897174.

6. Cormier SB, Léger A, Boudreau LH, et al. Overwintering in North American domesticated honeybees (Apis mellifera) causes mitochondrial reprogramming while enhancing cellular immunity. J Exp Biol 2022; 225: jeb244440.

7. Bundgaard A, James AM, Joyce W, et al. Suppression of reactive oxygen species generation in heart mitochondria from anoxic turtles: the role of complex I S-nitrosation. J Exp Biol 2018; 221: jeb174391.

8. Hutchinson AJ, Duffy BM, Staples JF. Hibernation is super complex: distribution, dynamics, and stability of electron transport system supercomplexes in Ictidomys tridecemlineatus. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2022; 323: R28–R42.

Above Screenshot of Jeff Stuart’s ‘Mitochondrio’ mitochondrial dynamics simulation game built using the Unity game engine

Photo credit Jeff Stuart

Top Left A transmission electron microscope image of mitochondria from turtle hearts Photo credit

Amanda Bundgård

See colour images on page 58.

THE CONSEQUENCES ARE CONSIDERABLE AND WIDERANGING.

TURTLES COMPLETELY AVOID EXCESS ROS PRODUCTION IN THEIR HEARTS AFTER ANOXIA.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO LOOK AT THESE ALTERNATIVE COMPLEXES TO REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT’S GOING ON.

MIGHTY PLANT MITOCHONDRIA

BY CAROLINE WOOD

In biology textbooks, mitochondria are typically portrayed as little more than the ‘energy powerhouses’ of cells, but researchers are uncovering an increasing number of processes that involve these ancient organelles. Caroline Wood takes a look at recent highlights from the SEB journals that portray the diverse roles mitochondria can assume in plant cells.

SIGNALLING STRESS

As climate change causes our weather patterns to become increasingly extreme, plant scientists are under pressure to develop crops that can better tolerate environmental stresses. So far, these efforts have typically focused on anatomical adaptations and physiological adjustments, rather than the molecular functioning of plant mitochondria. But as Oliver Berkowitz (La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia) explains, this presents a missed opportunity. ‘Any plant response that requires energy or a shift in metabolic activity will also need to adjust the function of the mitochondria,’ he says. ‘Consequently, during stress responses, mitochondria play a key role by acting as sensors that link nuclear transcription with cellular energetics.’

In particular, mitochondria influence gene expression by communicating their functional status to the nucleus, a process known as retrograde signalling. Current evidence suggests that retrograde signalling is initiated by low-molecular-weight molecules, such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) and calcium ions. However, the extent to which this process contributes to stress responses remained unclear. To investigate this, Oliver led a study within Professor James Whelan’s laboratory group that focused on plant responses to submergence stress during flooding.1 Working on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, he found that impaired mitochondrial retrograde signalling led to significantly reduced flooding tolerance. Specifically, mutants with impaired ANAC017, a master regulator of gene transcriptional responses, and cyclin-dependent kinase E1 (CDKE1), a regulator of energy signalling, showed greater tissue damage during submergence and slower recovery.

To probe the mechanistic basis of these phenotypes, the team performed transcriptomic analysis of these mutant lines to identify gene networks that failed to respond during submergence. The results were compared with those from genetically diverse wild-type Arabidopsis accessions that showed naturally greater sensitivity to submergence. This

identified the transcription factors WRKY40 and WRKY45, previously identified as regulators of mitochondrial retrograde signalling.

Follow-up experiments with corresponding mutants and overexpression lines confirmed that these have a functional role in submergence tolerance. ‘Interestingly, the expression of these two WRKYs was increased already before the onset of stress under normal growth conditions in tolerant Arabidopsis accessions, suggesting that this altered constitutive expression is beneficial for stress tolerance,’ says first author Xiangxiang Meng. Furthermore, WRKY40 and WRKY45 have also been implicated in other stress responses, including abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent responses and leaf senescence, suggesting that mitochondrial retrograde signalling may play a role across a broad range of plant stresses.

Although his laboratory is already starting to investigate the impact of mitochondrial signalling for stress responses in rice, Oliver warns that using this work to develop improved crop cultivars is going to be challenging, and will take many years. ‘Mitochondria are deeply integrated with other processes, especially those of the chloroplasts,’ he says. ‘Impacting one will impact the function of the other with possible unforeseen or even detrimental effects.’

A TIME TO DIE

Besides stress signalling, new evidence suggests that mitochondria may also have an important role in the regulatory cascades that orchestrate programmed cell death (PCD) in plants. Animal mitochondria are already known to act as important signalling hubs during PCD, with various proteins in the mitochondrial membrane participating in apoptotic signalling cascades. But so far, no homologues of these signalling proteins have been found in plant mitochondria. ‘This meant that, traditionally, it was thought that mitochondria had a more limited role during PCD in plants,’ says Keiko Yoshioka (University of Toronto, Canada). ‘Specifically, their main contribution appeared to be in providing

energy and generating ROS during senescence, a highly regulated process that occurs at the end of the plant life cycle or under unfavourable conditions.’ However, recent work led by Keiko’s group is starting to overturn this view of mitochondria only being ‘supporting actors’ during PCD.2

Keiko’s suspicions were first triggered by the ttm1 Arabidopsis mutant, which exhibits delayed natural and dark-induced senescence. The affected gene encodes triphosphate tunnel metalloenzyme 1 (TTM1), a tail-anchored protein in the outer mitochondrial membrane with three phosphorylation sites. Functional complementation assays in ttm1 mutants revealed that phosphorylation of a specific residue, serine 437, was critical for the protein’s role in senescence. ‘Interestingly, although plant senescence is regulated by the hormones ABA, ethylene and jasmonic acid, we found that TTM1 is specifically connected to ABA-mediated senescence, and that exogenous ABA or prolonged dark treatment leads to serine 437 phosphorylation,’ says co-author Wolfgang Moeder.

Using in vitro kinase and pull-down assays to identify upstream signalling components, the group demonstrated that serine 437 interacts with, and is phosphorylated by, the MAP kinase proteins MPK3 and MPK4, which had not previously been connected to senescence. Although the mechanistic link between serine 437 phosphorylation and PCD is not yet clear, Wolfgang suggests that the conformational change induced by phosphorylation may activate TTM1’s enzymatic activity or affect its interactions with other proteins.

But the surprises weren’t over. Confocal microscopic analysis of yellow fluorescent protein-tagged TTM1 variants revealed that phosphorylation at the other sites, serine 10 and 490, caused the protein to be removed from the mitochondrial membrane and degraded by the proteasome. ‘The fact that phosphorylation of these residues triggers TTM1 protein turnover suggests that TTM1 is required for a specific and short window during senescence to positively regulate cell death execution,’ says Wolfgang.

Having established this novel link between mitochondria and PCD, Keiko’s laboratory is now investigating the potential applications for agricultural crops. ‘We are studying the role of TTM1 in crops such as tomato and soybean, where a small delay in senescence can have a significant impact on the shelf life,’ she says.

ENERGY TO CELL CYCLE AND SEED DEVELOPMENT

Besides stress and senescence responses, mitochondria may also play important roles in

Left Mitochondrial DNA is the small circular chromosome found inside mitochondria. These organelles found in cells have often been called the powerhouse of the cell. 3D illustration

Top Phenotypes of the wild type (Col-0) and two mitochondrial signalling mutants (rao1/cdke1 and rao2/ anac017) after 2 days of submergence and 1 day recovery

Photo credit

See colour images on page 58.

LINKING CELLULAR

ANY PLANT RESPONSE THAT REQUIRES ENERGY OR A SHIFT IN METABOLIC ACTIVITY WILL ALSO NEED TO ADJUST THE FUNCTION OF THE MITOCHONDRIA.

WE ARE NOW STUDYING THE ROLE OF TTM1 IN CROPS SUCH AS TOMATO AND SOYBEAN, WHERE A SMALL DELAY IN SENESCENCE CAN HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON THE SHELF LIFE.

Dr Xiangxiang Meng

developmental processes, as recently demonstrated by the opaque18 maize mutant. This mutant shows impaired embryo and endosperm development yet is economically important because the seeds contain nearly twice as much of the essential amino acid lysine as wild-type cultivars. Understanding the mechanistic basis of the seed opacity phenotype has been a challenge occupying plant researcher Guifeng Wang (Henan Agricultural University, China) for many years.

Using map-based cloning, Guifeng’s team validated the causal gene for the opaque18 phenotype to be ZmRIBA1, an enzyme that catalyses the first step in riboflavin biosynthesis.3 ‘It was initially unclear how riboflavin may be linked to the phenotype but we suspected that it could involve two riboflavin derivatives, flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD),’ Guifeng says. ‘Because these are important electron carriers, we speculated that the assembly and activity of mitochondrial respiratory complexes could be impaired in opaque18 seeds.’

In support of their hypothesis, opaque18 mitochondria were structurally disrupted in the developing endosperm cells. Subsequent experiments revealed that loss of function of OPAQUE18 specifically disrupts the assembly of respiratory complexes I and II, shifting metabolic flux from the mitochondrial citric acid (tricarboxylic acid) cycle to glycolysis and thereby limiting cellular energy production.

Using flow cytometry of cells in developing opaque18 endosperm, they found that this lack of cellular energy ultimately led to cell-cycle arrest. ‘The strong deprivation of energy leads to cellcycle arrest of endosperm cells, probably by either restricting the activity of cyclin-dependent kinases or by triggering specific cell-cycle checkpoints,’ says Guifeng.

But although opaque18 mutants displayed cellcycle arrest, they exhibited increased expression of cell-cycle genes, suggesting that additional machinery may be implicated in this regulatory control. The group found that this gene upregulation

correlated with increased methylation of the DNA packaging protein histone H3, which is required for cell-cycle progression. Guifeng suggests that this results from impaired activity of a key histone H3 demethylase enzyme, lysine-specific demethylase 1, given that this requires FAD as an essential cofactor.

‘Ultimately, this gene induction cannot reverse cell-cycle arrest, but this indicates the presence of an epigenetic control of cell cycle’ Guifeng says. ‘Thus, we propose that this histone methylationmediated regulation may be a back-up mechanism of cell-cycle progression under unfavourable conditions, including insufficient energy.’

AN UNLIKELY MODEL FOR HUMAN DISEASE

Beyond developing improved crops, research on plant mitochondria could also have applications for human health. Mutations in genes encoding mitochondrial proteins can cause devastating diseases, including cardiomyopathy, Leigh syndrome and neurodegenerative disorders. Many of the causative mutations affect complex I, an enzyme of the mitochondrial electron transfer chain; however, the molecular mechanisms driving the clinical symptoms remain poorly understood. ‘Most complex I-linked diseases in humans correspond to mutations that do not map to the known complex I structural genes, suggesting that genes encoding for yet-to-be-discovered assembly and biogenesis factors remain to be uncovered,’ says Patrice Hamel (The Ohio State University, USA).

A frustration for researchers into human mitochondrial diseases is that many popular nonhuman experimental models, including bacteria and the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, either have a simplified complex I or lack it altogether. Fortunately, the plant kingdom has offered an unlikely alternative model: the unicellular photosynthetic alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

‘Chlamydomonas is ideally suited for the study of mitochondrial function because mutants deficient for mitochondrial respiration are viable as long as they rely on photosynthesis for energy conversion,’ explains Patrice. Furthermore, Chlamydomonas with impaired mitochondrial function are unable to carry out acetate-dependent growth in the dark (which requires mitochondrial respiration), providing a ready-made phenotypic screen. And because complex I subunits are highly conserved among eukaryotes, genetic discoveries in Chlamydomonas are likely to be applicable to humans also.

It was this rationale that drove Patrice and his team to screen 54,000 insertional Chlamydomonas mutants to uncover genes that had not been previously associated with mitochondrial complex I.4,5 This yielded 13 complex I-deficient mutants, with two of the affected loci, AMC9 and AMC5, found to contain structural genes, verifying the screen as yielding bona fide complex I mutants. These mutants were later employed as the scaffold upon which to explore the effect of patient-derived mutations on complex I function, highlighting the utility of Chlamydomonas in understanding the molecular basis of human diseases.

Some of the other mutants revealed genes encoding novel mitochondrial complex I biogenesis factors. For example, the low-complexity protein AMC1 is required for expression of the mitochondrial gene nad4, which encodes a membrane subunit of complex I.6 The mechanism of AMC1 remains unknown for now, but Patrice expects that a similar protein must also operate in human mitochondria. His current plan is to dissect the molecular mechanism by which impaired AMC1 affects mitochondrial gene expression and complex I assembly.

‘Ultimately, we hope that we can apply these results in a chemical genetics approach to find molecules that can be developed as therapeutics,’ he says. ‘For instance, high-throughput screening of bioactive molecules restoring complex I assembly or activity to an algal mutant strain could lead to treatment options for patients with complex I-linked genetic diseases.’

A MITOCHONDRIAL ‘SOCIAL NETWORK’

It’s not just the biochemical and molecular properties of mitochondria that are of interest to researchers. In plants, individual mitochondria show highly dynamic behaviour, moving across the cell, coming together and occasionally fusing – something which captivated Iain Johnston (University of Bergen, Norway) when he first saw it captured on camera. ‘It was a natural phenomenon begging to be understood and for me raised a clear question: why does the plant cell invest so much energy in driving this strikingly dynamic mitochondrial motion?’ he says.

Iain suspected the answer might be linked to the diverse plant mitochondrial genome. In animal cells, the mitochondrial genome is present in hundreds or thousands of highly similar mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecules. In plants, however, mtDNA molecules are highly variable, and individual mitochondria may contain an incomplete set of mtDNA genes, or even none at all. Iain hypothesised that plant mitochondria might compensate for this variability by sharing contents through transient fusion and fission events that allow intra-mitochondrial exchange of DNA, membranes and proteins. ‘This sharing, like trade on a social network, allows each mitochondrion to be effectively interconnected even without simultaneous physical linkage, and to maintain a full set of mtDNA gene products, despite only ever carrying a subset of the mtDNA genome,’ says Iain. In addition, mtDNA recombination, which is rarely seen in animal cells, but much more frequent in plants, enables genetic information to be mixed when different mitochondria meet, helping to prevent mutational damage from accumulating.

However, combining single-cell live imaging of mitochondrial dynamics with modelling and

Left Images of wild-type (WT) and complex I-deficient (amc) Chlamydomonas strains expressing mitochondriatargeted yellowfluorescent protein (YFP) were obtained by confocal fluorescence microscopy. Cells are from mid-exponential phase cultures in mixotrophic conditions, where the alga rely on both photosynthesis and respiration.

Scale bar: 24 µm. DIC: differential interference contrast.

Photo credit Andrew Castonguay

Bottom Left Lightbox image of mature kernels in wild-type maize (left) and opaque18 mutants (right) showing the opaque phenotype in the mutant line

Photo credit Guifeng Wang

network analysis revealed an inevitable tradeoff between regular social encounters and the benefits that come from mitochondria being evenly distributed throughout the cell. ‘Spacing mitochondria throughout the cell ensures an even energy supply, avoids local build-up of damaging chemical “exhaust” and means that no other cell components will ever be particularly far from a mitochondrion,’ Iain explains. ‘This creates a tension between maintaining mitochondrial spacing and facilitating co-localisation. We believe plant cells resolve this by having dynamic mitochondria with high potential for information exchange.’

To confirm whether balancing these two priorities is a general principle underlying mitochondrial dynamics, Iain’s team investigated the effect of reducing the payoff of social interactions. ‘We wondered if we challenged the ability of mitochondria to recombine mtDNA in each single interaction event, would they allow more social encounters to take place to make up the difference?’ To explore this, the team created a new Arabidopsis mutant by combining the msh1 mutant (impaired in mtDNA recombination) with mitochondrially targeted GFP, and characterised the mitochondrial dynamics with a combination of single-cell time-lapse microscopy, computational tracking and network analysis.7 The results showed that mitochondrial social networks were indeed much denser, supporting more encounters between individuals to compensate for the reduced recombination taking place during each one.

‘Our results suggest that the balance of priorities between even spread and transient proximity may be a fundamental principle underlying mitochondrial organisation. We’re now investigating whether these social network principles also apply to interactions with other organelles, such as mitochondria–chloroplast encounters, and also to other organisms with heterogeneous mtDNA, including fungi, corals and sponges,’ says Iain.8

Reference:

1. Meng X, Li L, Narsai R, et al. Mitochondrial signalling is critical for acclimation and adaptation to flooding in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant J 2020; 103: 227–247.

2. Karia P, Yoshioka K, Moeder W. Multiple phosphorylation events of the mitochondrial membrane protein TTM1 regulate cell death during senescence. Plant J 2021; 108: 766–780.

3. Tian Q, Wang G, Ma X, et al. Riboflavin integrates cellular energetics and cell cycle to regulate maize seed development. Plant Biotechnol J 2022; 20: 1487–1501.

4. Subrahmanian N, Castonguay AD, Fatnes TA et al. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a plant model system to study mitochondrial complex I dysfunction. Plant Direct 2020; 4: e00200.

5. Barbieri MR, Larosa V, Nouet C, et al. A forward genetic screen identifies mutants deficient for mitochondrial complex I assembly in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Genetics 2011; 188: 349–358.

6. Subrahmanian N, Castonguay AD, Remacle C, et al. Assembly of mitochondrial complex i requires the low-complexity protein AMC1 in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Genetics 2020; 214: 895–911.

7. Chustecki JM, Etherington RD, Gibbs DJ, et al. Altered collective mitochondrial dynamics in the Arabidopsis msh1 mutant compromising organelle DNA maintenance. J Exp Bot 2022; 73: 5428–5439.

8. Edwards DM, Røyrvik EC, Chustecki JM, et al. Avoiding organelle mutational meltdown across eukaryotes with or without a germline bottleneck. PLoS Biol 2021; 19: e3001153.

Left

‘Social networks’ of plant mitochondria. In the background, a snapshot of several Arabidopsis hypocotyl cells (cell walls in purple) from a video taken with a laser microscope, with mitochondria shown in orange. In the foreground is a constructed social network, where each point is a mitochondrion and each line between two points means that a physical encounter has occurred between those two mitochondria as they move within the cell.

Photo credit Iain Johnston and Joanna Chustecki

See colour images on page 59.

CONSERVATION PHYSIOLOGY

BY KIM BIRNIE-GAUVIN

Department of Freshwater Fisheries and Ecology, National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark, Silkeborg 8600, Denmark

We’ve all heard of the walrus; with its enormous tusks, the walrus is an icon in the Arctic realm. Unfortunately, we’ve also all heard of the decreasing sea ice cover and the general decline of the Arctic habitat, which is of course highly concerning for the future of the walrus population. What is less clear however is how the physiology of walruses might be affected by changes in the Arctic ecosystem. Does the physiology of walruses today differ from that of walruses several hundred years ago, presumably before humans had significantly altered the Arctic? This is precisely what Charapata and team explored in their recent study.

Using walrus bones collected over a period of approximately 3651 years, the team analysed the concentration of four steroid hormones (progesterone, testosterone, estradiol, and cortisol) to track changes in reproduction and stress over more than 3 millennia. The bones of 281 walruses were collected from marine mammal collections of universities and museums, and grouped into one of three time periods: archaeological (3585 – 200 calendar years before present), historical (1880 – 2006) and modern (2014 – 2016). The bones were pulverized into powder, and hormone concentrations determined using liquid chromatography/ tandem mass spectrometry. Because the objective of this study was in part to establish whether the changing Arctic ecosystem is affecting stress and reproduction in walruses, the team obtained annual

estimates of sea ice cover in the Chukchi Sea from data centres – based on analyses of whaling records or from microwave sensor data – to relate hormone concentrations to.

The authors found that cortisol concentrations, a stress indicator, were similar between modern and archaeological samples, despite a loss in sea ice cover, which may suggest that walruses have developed a sort of physiological resilience to current conditions in the Arctic. However, walruses seemed to have high cortisol in historical samples from the 1950s and 1960s. This is likely because there was an exponential increase in the walrus population during that period and reproduction can be rather stressful for females. This is also corroborated by the finding that modern walruses had much lower reproductive hormone concentrations than walruses from that period of rapid population increase, and may actually suggest that the modern walrus population is at a relatively high number, possibly even at carrying capacity.

SEARCHING THE PAST FOR ANSWERS TO THE FUTURE: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO STUDY AN ARCTIC ICON JOURNALS

In the last 15 years, walruses have begun to use beaches instead of sea ice haulouts, possibly in response to climate change. This has resulted in longer foraging trips, reduced foraging activity, changes in nutrition, lower survival of calves, increased encounters with predators, and the introduction of new diseases. These concerning trends have landed walruses on the Vulnerable List since 2016, though the current population trend remains unknown according to IUCN. This study is the first of its kind, but offers a promising avenue to monitor long-term changes in marine mammal physiology, particularly as summer sea ice cover may be gone by 2050, and other stressors are on the rise.

Original paper: Charapata, P., Horstmann, L., & Misarti, N. (2021). Steroid hormones in Pacific walrus bones collected over three millennia indicate physiological responses to changes in estimated population size and the environment. Conservation physiology, 9(1), coaa135.

A FRIENDLY CONNECTION: HOW MRNAS GET RECRUITED TO THE MITOCHONDRIAL SURFACE

THE PLANT JOURNAL

BY GWENDOLYN KIRSCHNER

Mickaele Hemono, Thalia Salinas-Giegé, Jeanne Roignant, Audrey Vingadassalon, Philippe Hammann, Elodie Ubrig, Patryk Ngondo, AnneMarie Duchêne. FRIENDLY (FMT) is an RNA binding protein associated with cytosolic ribosomes at the mitochondrial surface.

The Plant Journal 2022; 112: 309¬–321. https://doi. org/10.1111/tpj.15962

Biogenesis of organelles requires the synthesis and import of new proteins. Secreted and transmembrane proteins are synthesised from mRNA transcripts that are translated by ribosomes associated with endoplasmic reticulum membranes, whereas soluble cytoplasmic proteins are synthesised on free polysomes. For the correct targeting of the translated proteins to the organelle, 30–50% of all mRNAs for nuclear-encoded mitochondrial proteins are found at the mitochondrial surface. Nucleotide sequence motifs in the encoding transcript and signals in the synthesised polypeptide can be responsible for mRNA delivery to the mitochondrial surface. But which proteins direct these mRNAs here?

Some of the proteins involved in recruiting cytosolic ribosomes to the mitochondrial membrane have been identified in yeast and mammals,

but to date none have been identified in plants.

The group of Anne-Marie Duchêne (University of Strasbourg) set out to address this question.

For their report in The Plant Journal, her team purified cytosolic ribosomes from an Arabidopsis mitochondrial extract and identified enriched proteins in this ribosomal fraction (Hemono et al., 2022). Among them, they detected the cytosolic protein friendly mitochondria (FMT). The fmt mutant had previously been identified from a screen of ethyl methanesulfonate-mutagenised Arabidopsis seedlings for mutants in mitochondrial morphology. In wild-type plants, mitochondria are distributed evenly throughout the cytoplasm, but in the fmt mutant, the majority of mitochondria were arranged in clusters of tens of organelles, and therefore the mutant was named friendly mitochondria. FMT is a member of the clustered mitochondria (CLU) superfamily of conserved eukaryotic proteins and had been characterised regarding its role in the regulation of mitochondrial association and fusion.

that moved together with the mitochondria. Co-immunoprecipitation coupled with mass spectrometry identified many ribosomal proteins as interactors of FMT. To test if FMT binds directly to RNA, the authors used an oligo(dT) capture experiment: tissue was irradiated with UV to bind RNA to interacting proteins, and poly(A) RNAs were isolated from the tissue extracts, together with the covalently linked proteins. FMT was found in the eluate, confirming its RNA-binding property. The authors analysed the knock-out mutant phenotype and found that, in addition to the clustering of the mitochondria, the mitochondrial proteome of mutant seedlings was affected, and stress-related proteins such as alternative oxidase (AOX) had increased abundance. Also, most of the identified mitochondrially encoded proteins were slightly decreased in the mutant, suggesting that mitochondrial translation might be inhibited. The authors selected three mRNAs whose orthologs in Solanum tuberosum are targeted to the mitochondrial surface, along with VDAC3 mRNA that has been identified on the surface of mitochondria in Arabidopsis, and found that they were no longer enriched at the mitochondrial surface in the mutant. Taken together, these findings suggest that FMT is directly or indirectly involved in mRNA targeting to the mitochondrial surface, in their anchorage or in localised translation.

Figure 1: FMT (green) binds ribosomes and RNA and localizes in the cytosol and at the mitochondrial surface. (See colour image page 59).

Hemono et al. used translational GFP fusion constructs and found that FMT localised to the cytosol, where it was diffuse and enriched around mitochondria or concentrated as foci

The study by Hemono et al. provides a basis to delve into the co-translational mitochondrial protein import pathway, which is still largely unexplored in plants. To date, only a single mRNA has been identified at the mitochondrial surface in Arabidopsis. Given that FMT localises both in the cytosol as well as in foci associated with the mitochondria, and is able to bind both ribosomes and mRNA, this protein could play a role in mRNA transport from the nucleus to the mitochondrial surface.

NETWORKING IS A SECRET TO SUCCESS FOR PLANT MITOCHONDRIA

JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY

BY MAREIKE JEZEK

Joanna M. Chustecki, Ross D. Etherington,

Daniel

J. Gibbs,

Ian G. Johnstone. Altered collective mitochondrial dynamics in the Arabidopsis msh1 mutant compromising organelle DNA maintenance.

Journal of Experimental Botany 2022; 73: 5428–5439. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ erac250

The endosymbiosis between an ancient bacterium and its host cell that led to the evolution of mitochondria was one of the most fundamental landmark events in the history of life on Earth. Instead of digesting the engulfed bacteria, the first eukaryotic cells ascertained that interaction and cooperation with the symbionts was of mutual benefit. Equipped with energy-providing internal companions, they were able to gradually evolve into more complex multicelled organisms.

Production of ATP is still the most prominent cellular function of mitochondria, yet they have adopted several other tasks, especially in the plant lineage of eukaryotic life. Here, further endosymbiosis with a cyanobacterium gave rise to an additional energy-transforming organelle, the chloroplast. These organelles are both a blessing and a curse. Chloroplasts enable plants to convert sunlight into chemical energy, but photosynthesis often generates a surplus of reductants, and photorespiration produces harmful byproducts, which can impair photosynthetic performance and lead to oxidative stress. Plant mitochondria are therefore equipped with several mechanisms to balance the cellular redox status and to participate in detoxifying photorespiratory metabolites. They are furthermore essential for the assimilation of inorganic nitrogen, given that the citric acid cycle provides biosynthetic precursors for amino acid synthesis.

Plant and animal mitochondria do not only in their functional repertoire. Unlike in animal cells, where mitochondria often fuse into elongated tube-like structures, plant mitochondria usually

retain their individual existence and are akin to their bacterial ancestors in shape and form. The mitochondrial genome in plants is remarkably large, containing long stretches of non-coding elements, and shows a high recombination rate. Because mitochondria are major sites of reactive oxygen species production and replicate frequently, their genome is prone to DNA damage. The very low rate of point mutations found in plant mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), however, indicates efficient DNA repair, for example, via homologous recombination. For this, an undamaged DNA template is required, which may be provided by another mitochondrion. Mitochondria are not static and the chondriome, the entirety of mitochondria within one cell, resembles a busy beehive with mitochondria swiftly swarming through the cytosol and frequently interacting with one another. However, very little is known about the benefits and orchestration of this energy-consuming movement. Joanna Chustecki from the University of Birmingham and her colleagues from the mitochondrial and chloroplast research project EvoConBiO, led by Iain Johnston at the University of Bergen, want to shed light on the social behaviour of the chondriome, both literally and figuratively. They use single-cell time-lapse microscopy to track the motions of fluorescently labelled mitochondria to reconstruct, quantify and analyse encounter networks of the organelles over time. Their latest findings have been published in the Journal of Experimental Botany (Chustecki et al., 2022) and indicate that mitochondria face a spatial dilemma created by the twin pressures of their genetic integrity and their function within the cell. On the one hand, meeting and interacting with other mitochondria enables exchange of biomolecules, for example mtDNA for homology-based DNA repair. On the other hand, even distribution of mitochondria throughout the cell ensures equal energy supply. Also, prolonged gathering of many mitochondria in the same space could lead to a build-up of harmful substances such as reactive oxygen species, and it reduces their accessibility for other cellular components. Therefore, the authors speculate that mitochondria aim to maximise the number of encounters with others while also remaining evenly spread through the cell – a tension they resolve with their motion. To test this, the authors compared the mitochondrial dynamics between Arabidopsis wildtype plants and msh1 mutants with compromised organelle DNA repair that accumulate increased mtDNA damage.

Chustecki and colleagues hypothesised that mitochondria in these mutants would consequently be more ‘social’ and interact more frequently, possibly to exchange undamaged template DNA. The team did indeed measure decreased distance and increased colocalisation time of the mutant mitochondria. The observations in msh1 are similar to mitochondrial dynamics in Arabidopsis-friendly mutants, in which mitochondrial motility is disrupted, leading to increased mitochondria clustering. From this the authors conclude that both genetic and physical challenges alter the chondriome dynamics and increase the mitochondrial network connectivity at the cost of physical spacing.

The American evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, one of the earliest and most fervent proponents of the endosymbiotic theory, wrote ‘Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking’1 to emphasise the importance of cooperation and communication that ultimately led to the evolution from endosymbiotic bacterium to organellar mitochondrion. Modern-day plant mitochondria seem to stick to this secret to success of their ancestral progenitors, and the work by Chustecki and colleagues brings us one step closer to understanding the underlying mechanisms of the mitochondrial bustling. Their paper in JXB is accompanied by an Insight article in which the connection between mitochondrial interaction and homologous DNA repair is explained and beautifully illustrated.2

Chustecki and colleagues use time-lapse microscopy and computational tracking of fluorescently labelled mitochondria within a single cell (left) to reconstruct and analyse encounter networks (right) Image credit: Joanna Chustecki (See colour image on page 59).

Reference:

1. Margulis L, Sagan D. Marvellous microbes. Resurgence 2001; 206: 10–12.

2. Rodriguez M, Martinez-Hottovy A, Christensen AC. Social networks in the single cell. J Exp Bot 2022; 73: 5355–5357.

Each year, the SEB invites its early-career delegates to submit their abstract to the Young Scientist Award Session during the SEB Annual Conference. The session provides the opportunity for postgraduates and postdocs who are within 5 years since completing their PhD to showcase their talents and is designed to recognise the best young researchers in each section: Animal, Cell and Plant. Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Young Scientists Award Session!

CELL SECTION WINNER

KRISTIAN KIRADJIEV

I AM THRILLED AND INCREDIBLY THANKFUL TO THE SEB COMMITTEE FOR AWARDING ME THIS PRIZE, BECAUSE THIS MEANS MY WORK HAS BEEN RECOGNISED ON A PROFESSIONAL LEVEL BY EXPERTS IN THE FIELD.

Some of the biggest revelations in cell research arise when researchers look at a problem from a different angle or approach it with an alternative arsenal of skills. This is just the case for Kristian Kriadjiev, a postdoc at the University of Nottingham, who is working to better our understanding of hormone transport in plants through the development of mathematical models.

Kristian’s YSAS talk focused on one such model that can be used to predict how a particular growth hormone, gibberellic acid, is transported within the root of an Arabidopsis plant and how its levels are affected by external conditions such as the pH of the environment. ‘The mathematical model is validated against experimental data that have been collected from our collaborators at the Tel Aviv University and the University of Copenhagen, and it gives an excellent agreement with experimental results,’ he explains. ‘Our findings are being used to gain more insight into the biological mechanisms governing hormone transport without having to perform complex and time-consuming experiments, and our project has direct applications in the crops industry.’

While Kristian has already started to leave his mark in this area of research, he is a relatively new convert to cellular science. ‘My research background is actually in fluid dynamics and filtration, and I have only recently moved to mathematical biology,’ he explains.

‘I find the field full of interesting mathematics and welldefined applications, and, in the future, I would like to explore areas in human biology, microbiology and immunology, where mathematical models can be successfully applied.’

Not only does this award help to celebrate and promote Kristian’s professional development as a researcher, but it also conveys more personal rewards, as he describes: ‘I am thrilled and

incredibly thankful to the SEB committee for awarding me this prize, because this means my work has been recognised on a professional level by experts in the field,’ he says. ‘I think this and the opportunity to discuss my work with like-minded academics are the most important aspects of the award.’

As well as returning to Nottingham as the Cell Section YSAS winner this year, Kristian feels that he has benefited from attending this year’s SEB Annual Conference and spending time with other researchers. ‘The SEB provides a great medium for disseminating research, career advice and networking with other academics,’ says Kristian.

ANIMAL SECTION WINNER

CAMILLE LE ROY

The relationship between morphological form and function is central to many areas of biology, including comparative biomechanics, ecophysiology and organismal evolution. Thankfully, this broad relevance to research is matched in the range of techniques available to explore it, and this is something that Camille Le Roy, a postdoc working at Wageningen University, is certainly familiar with.

For his YSAS submission, Camille presented the story at the core of his PhD, starting with the selective pressures that influence insect wing shape evolution and introducing how these pressures drive differences in flight phenotypes. ‘We studied the adaptive codivergence in wing shape, flight behaviour and aerodynamic efficiency among morpho butterflies living in different forest strata by combining high-speed videography in the field with morphometric analyses and aerodynamic modelling,’ he explains. ‘By comparing canopy and understorey species, we showed that adaptation to an open canopy environment resulted in increased gliding flight efficiency.’ Camille’s combined-technique approach to research has included elements of ecological field research, 3D high-speed videography on freeflying butterflies, comparative phylogenetic morphometrics and computational aerodynamic modelling, helping to produce an informed understanding of how natural selection shapes complex phenotypes.

With regards to Camille’s future research focus, he is keen to extrapolate his interests in the variability of flight phenotypes to wider animal taxa. ‘After focusing on butterfly flight, I would like to study the diversification of other flying animals,’ he

explains. ‘This could be other insects, but also why not birds or bats – and I would also be excited to study the diversification of swimming animals!’

When asked about winning the YSAS for the Animal Section, he not only talks about his feelings upon hearing the good news, but also reflects on how this achievement fits into his research journey so far. ‘I am extremely glad to win the Young Scientist Award,’ he says. ‘This makes a beautiful ending to the amazing adventure that my PhD was. I genuinely loved doing my PhD, both on the scientific and the human point of view and I think interest (or even passion) in the questions we investigate makes us work significantly better.’

The 2022 SEB Annual Conference was Camille’s first opportunity to physically walk and talk with other SEB members from all around the world, something that he has not taken for granted. ‘Before the 2022 conference in Montpellier, I only attended the SEB conference in its online version in 2021,’ he explains. ‘At that time, I had a first glimpse at the impressive diversity of researchers and topics covered by the conference, and I was quite eager to go in person and to meet the SEB community.’

Finally, Camille has a recommendation for future YSAS applicants that not only applies to this competition but is good guidance for any opportunity to share your research, whether for fellow academics or the general public. ‘If you are enthusiastic about your work, people will feel it in your written application as well as in your oral presentation,’ advises Camille. ‘I think it’s very important to convey not only science, but excitement and passion about what we do.’

IT’S VERY IMPORTANT TO CONVEY NOT ONLY SCIENCE, BUT EXCITEMENT AND PASSION ABOUT WHAT WE DO

PLANT SECTION WINNER

TRISHA MCALLISTER

IT WAS ALSO LOVELY TO SEE SO MANY EARLY-CAREER RESEARCHERS PRESENTING AT THIS MEETING. THE ORGANISERS HAD CLEARLY MADE AN EFFORT TO GET A BROAD DIVERSITY OF CAREER STAGES REPRESENTED.

Across the globe, plants have adapted a multitude of innovative physical traits to enable their survival in different habitats and in the face of environmental threats. One such trait is the cuticle, a lipid-rich hydrophobic barrier that seals the epidermis of all above-ground organs to protect against these threats. While the cuticle has been well researched in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana, less effort has been made to understand cuticle development in economically significant species such as the cereal crop barley – and this is the research topic with which Trisha McAllister, a PhD student at the University of Dundee, wowed the YSAS panel of judges.

‘My research addresses this knowledge gap by combining molecular, genetic and biochemical approaches to characterise cuticle mutants in barley,’ explains Trisha. ‘Ultimately, we hope that our work will aid the development of more climate-resilient crops.’ Specifically, her YSAS talk focused on an example of her work in this area that had recently been published. ‘We described the identification and characterisation of a barley SHINE transcription factor that is essential for proper cuticle development,’ she says. ‘Loss of this transcription factor alters the expression levels of known cuticle metabolic genes and results in a striking loss of cuticular waxes.’ This, she explains, can have a disastrous impact on crop susceptibility to fungal infections and drought.

The 2022 SEB Annual Conference was Trisha’s first time attending a SEB event and the experience has certainly left a positive impression. ‘I’d heard great things about the annual conferences, but I didn’t anticipate how welcoming and supportive the community would be,’ she says. ‘I came to the meeting alone but everyone I met made me feel right at home and I feel really honoured that I was selected for the YSAS award, but even just being shortlisted was an amazing opportunity.’

Trisha makes sure to also share her appreciation for the support provided to early-career researchers by the SEB and especially for those competing in the YSAS. ‘The SEB held a workshop for speakers prior to the conference to brief us on how the presentations would run and this was a really nice touch that made me feel much more prepared,’ she explains. ‘It was also lovely to see so many early-career researchers presenting at this meeting. The organisers had clearly made an effort to get a broad diversity of career stages represented.’

For prospective YSAS applicants next year, Trisha has two key pieces of advice. ‘First, don’t let selfdoubt deter you from trying. We are often our own worst critic, just give yourself a break and try to be confident in your abilities,’ she says. ‘Second, try not to overload your talk. It can be tempting to show off the vast amounts of work you’ve done, but I think the best thing you can do is tell a simple story and make it crystal clear.’

CAROLINE WOOD, IN CONVERSATION WITH...

KIM BIRNIEGAUVIN

How do you introduce yourself?

I’m a conservation physiologist and ecologist, with a special appreciation for freshwater species.

When did you become interested in studying aquatic organisms?

As a child growing up in Quebec, Canada, I was completely engrossed in animals and was always outside catching tadpoles, swimming with turtles, going fishing, and so on. I have a particular memory of being obsessed with the walrus in the film 50 First Dates – I watched that scene over and over again!

But I also had this huge drive to ‘change the world’ somehow, and absorbed the conventional idea that the best way would be to become a doctor. I was actually on the point of taking the medical school entrance exams, but then had an epiphany. I didn’t want to commit to studying one subject for the next 13 years and completely cut myself off from nature. The climate and biodiversity crises had made it clear that there are other ways to make a difference. So I applied to study a Masters in Aquatic Ecology. When I told my mum, she wasn’t that surprised. She said, ‘You loved that walrus so much!’

How did you decide on your Master’s project?

I was initially attracted to Steven Cooke’s lab at Carleton University, because they had done some work on lemon sharks. I admit I had visions of myself swimming with sharks in Florida or the Bahamas… Instead, I found myself doing field studies with brown trout at the Technical University of Denmark. So instead of tropical seas, I was thrust into the Scandinavian winter! But I consider it a bit of a blessing now, because I’m still here.

Why are freshwater systems so important?

Freshwater makes up less than 2.5% of the world’s water yet 140,000 species (including 55% of all fish species) depend on it to survive. Despite this, conservation efforts tend to focus much more on

marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Freshwater ecosystems are the most threatened ecosystems in the world, and species not yet discovered will likely go extinct before we even know they exist.

So what were you doing with brown trout in Denmark?

My thesis topic was the role of oxidative processes (particularly antioxidant responses) in enabling individuals to survive migration.1 Brown trout is a ‘partial migrant’: some populations migrate from freshwater to seawater as juveniles, while others remain in freshwater systems for all their lives. Migrating fish undergo a vast array of morphological, behavioural and physiological processes but it was unknown whether their oxidative responses also differed, compared with the non-migrating phenotype. For the first time, we produced evidence that migrating fish accumulate antioxidants.2 This makes sense when you consider that migration is very energetically demanding, and generates a lot of oxidative stress.

Your next step was to apply for a PhD at the Technical University of Denmark: you must have enjoyed the work there, despite there being no sharks involved?

Definitely. The department, the National Institute of Aquatic Resources, is one of the best places in the world to do fish-related research. They have a huge portfolio of projects covering just about every species in the book. Denmark is also a little unconventional in that research projects tend to be collaborations involving lots of different principal investigators, rather than being headed by a single lab with one supervisor overseeing everything. It means that you end up being involved in lots of projects simultaneously, helping out other people who might be working on very different topics.

What did your PhD focus on?

I was investigating how barriers to migration affect brown trout and Atlantic salmon across their entire lifecycle, not just during migration.

IT’S GREAT FUN TO GO FROM TAGGING A 15 GRAM TROUT TO HANDLING A 300 KILO TUNA!

My main finding was that barriers such as dams and weirs have a huge impact on fish across their whole life, particularly through altering habitats.3 For instance, putting in a dam may cause silt to accumulate upstream, so that the habitat is no longer suitable for spawning or early development. Apparent solutions such as fish passages and ladders don’t address all these issues, meaning that barrier removal is the only effective option.

What are you currently working on?

I’m still continuing the work I did with Erika, particularly looking at climate change impacts on fish physiology and ecology. And, increasingly, I’m drawing on all the skills I have learnt so far to work out how we can design experiments to make them more ecologically relevant. When we study fish in a laboratory setting, we strip away many of the factors they would naturally encounter, such as the presence of predators, fluctuating food availability, varying water quality, etc. We need be sure that the way fish respond in our experiments is really representative of how they would in nature.

Do you feel settled in Denmark?

To try and improve the situation, I’m involved with the SEB, to feed in my ideas about what the Society can do on a practical level to help. It’s great to see lots of new initiatives, such as the workshops on grant writing and how to host a small meeting.

What do you do to relax?

Apart from walking my rescue dog (the best thing in my world!), I love photographing wildlife and foraging for mushrooms. I suppose they both require similar skills to catching fish, mainly a great deal of patience and being prepared to get cold and wet sometimes. But similarly, the results make it totally worthwhile.

Learn more about Kim’s research at https://www.kimbirniegauvin.com/

What happened next?

After a few postdoctoral projects, I was really fortunate to be awarded a prestigious three-year Villum International Postdoc. Not only does this give me financial security, it also includes a requirement to undertake fieldwork abroad. So I joined Erika Eliason’s lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara, studying the impacts of climate change on Pacific salmon. This involved using telemetry tags that record acceleration to evaluate how hard the fish are having to work under conditions of increased flow or elevated temperatures in the Fraser River, British Colombia.

I would say yes – I love the freedom and flexibility I have here. I get to work on all sorts of species, and do both applied and experimental work. For instance, I’m involved in a really cool project studying a population of Bluefin tuna in the seas around Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The population completely disappeared in the 1960s due to overfishing and a complete collapse of the species, but then returned in 2015. About a thousand volunteer anglers catch these tuna for us, so we can take physiological samples and tag them. By working out where they go, how they respond to capture and what physiological factors might affect their survival, hopefully we can help secure this stock for the future. It’s also great fun to go from tagging a 15 gram trout to handling a 300 kilo tuna!

What is the most challenging part of your work?

It’s very dispiriting when, despite the research evidence we generate, policymakers still disregard freshwater systems. So I’ve been trying to contribute to outreach efforts, for instance giving talks for Dam Removal Europe and to local angling groups.

I’m also acutely aware of how difficult it can be for early-career researchers to achieve enough financial security to keep going in academia.

Top

Kim releasing an Atlantic bluefin tuna after tagging and sampling in Skagerrak

Photo credit

Kristi Källo

Left

Kim with a male sockeye salmon on the spawning grounds, as she looks for radio-tagged fish

Photo credit

Kendra Robinson

Far Left

Kim with a feisty sea trout about to be released after being tagged and sampled

Photo credit

Andreas Svarer

(See colour images on page 60).

References:

1. Birnie-Gauvin K. Oxidative Ecology of Wild Fish: Investigating the Effects of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors on Oxidative Stress and Its Link to Life-Histories. Masters dissertation. Ottawa, Carleton University, 2017.

2. Birnie-Gauvin K, Peiman KS, Larsen MH, et al. Oxidative stress and partial migration in brown trout (Salmo trutta). Can J Zoology 2017; 95: 829–835.

3. Birnie-Gauvin K. The Unspoken Truth About Impacted Rivers: Consequences and Implications of Barriers for Conservation of Freshwater Fish. Doctoral dissertation. Kongens Lyngby, Technical University of Denmark, 2020.

FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS ARE THE MOST THREATENED ECOSYSTEMS IN THE WORLD, AND SPECIES NOT YET DISCOVERED WILL LIKELY GO EXTINCT BEFORE WE EVEN KNOW THEY EXIST.

ALEX EVANS, IN CONVERSATION WITH...

JEHAN-HERVÉ LIGNOT

You never know where a career in biology will take you, as Alex Evans finds out when chatting with JehanHervé Lignot, a professor at the University of Montpellier and convenor of the SEB’s Animal Osmoregulation Group, about his interest in coastal invaders and python intestines.

Hello Jehan-Hervé! Could you please tell me a bit about your career journey so far?

I was brought up in France with the French education system, but when I was a university student, I went to the UK to learn English, spending 2 years in the UK as an Erasmus student at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich and then as a master’s student at Southampton for 1 year. Then, I had to decide between a PhD in Southampton or a PhD in Montpellier – and I chose the latter mostly because I was more interested in the topic and it gave me the opportunity to work on shrimps in the south of France, but also in Tahiti!

Wow, yes – I can understand the appeal of that!

My first research experience was at UEA; I asked if I could be an intern and they said I could prepare sections for electron microscopy. I spent a month or two with a technician who was really skilled, and he showed me how to prepare the sections and work the microscope, so this was my original interest – looking at mitochondria and membranes in a lab. Then I realised that my colleagues were going on expeditions to incredible environments such as the Antarctic, so I suddenly wanted to get out of the lab! I was then a postdoc for about 4 years across different labs in the UK and the USA, before becoming an assistant professor at the University of Strasbourg in France for 10 years. I actually managed to get my current professorship position here in Montpellier because my former PhD supervisor retired, so I was able to take over from him. He is still an Emeritus professor so I’m still able to see him at the University.

So, you’ve really come full circle. How did you originally get interested in the topic of coastal ecophysiology?

That’s the thing – initially, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was interested in biology as an undergraduate and it was in Marseille that I discovered scuba diving. A lot of my teachers were teaching using actual scientific articles, which showed me a whole range of what scientists

were publishing and I decided this was something I wanted to explore. My friends at the time said that there’s no jobs and no future in marine biology, so it sounded like I had made a big mistake, but then I learned that one of my teachers was looking for coelacanths, the ‘living fossil’ fish, in the Mozambique channel. I thought, ‘WOW, so that’s what you can do as a marine biologist – let’s go for it!’

And here you are! As I gather, some of your research has looked at how physiological factors like osmoregulation may vary due to environmental changes. What is the value of understanding these things?

My interest in the coast is that it is a fascinating interface between freshwater and seawater. For species to live at such a challenging interface is really interesting to me because they can deal with unpredictable events like salinity changes, major rainfalls or massive droughts. Populations require animals that can deal with rapid and unpredictable environmental changes like this. However, I realised that humans also like to live on the coast, which brings a lot of pollutants directly into water. I thought it would be interesting to see how animals dealt with such extreme environments with the added stress due to anthropogenic pressure –so during my PhD, I became an ecotoxicologist.

Brilliant! What other topics are you researching at the moment?

More recently I’ve been interested in the evolutionary aspect, because with climate change and anthropogenic pressure on the coastal environment, we can see there is a loss in biodiversity but some isolated populations are able to manage better than others. Right now, I’m especially interested in invasive species, because they can adapt very quickly to new environments and there are many species to be found along the coast. There are some aspects of animal behaviour here too, because there is a hypothesis in the literature that bold individuals tend to be the most invasive and are found at the frontlines of invasions.

With your research, do you spend much time working in the field?

It’s not very often now, and I wish it could be more often, but I try to go and sample our study animals myself when I can. Over the last 10 years, I have worked with some French colleagues on a small island called Mayotte in the Mozambique Channel, studying mangrove crabs. They are really interesting because they deal with three interfaces: freshwater, seawater and they’re also able to breathe air so they’re terrestrial animals too. Just before the pandemic started, we were able to spend one month on Europa Island, also in the Mozambique Channel, and we had this fantastic opportunity to work on mangrove crabs there, in a pristine environment with almost no people. Completely isolated with no possible ways to communicate outside.

Just completely cut off – only you and the crabs!

Yes, it was fantastic and I hope that I can do it more often, but it’s good to have a combination now of doing both lab work and fieldwork.

As well as travelling to wonderful places, what have been some of the highlights of your career so far? There are a few scientific stories that I am proud of. For example, when I was working at the University of Strasbourg, I actually switched my research to terrestrial animals and I became interested in the digestive system. We discovered that snakes have a very different system for re-feeding after a prolonged fasting period than rats do.1 In rats, the cells are not able to recover quickly so when food is ready in the stomach for digestion, you get a lot of rapid cell proliferation in the intestine over just a few hours. In snakes, it is very different and this new cell growth occurs right at the end of the digestive process because snakes prepare so well in advance of a re-feed with a batch of new cells that will be ready for the next digested meal, so the two groups of animals have two very different strategies!

Are there any groups of animals that you’ve developed an affinity for working with?

Well, the main problem with aquatic species is that we have a physical barrier between scientists and the animals so they are hard to handle. With terrestrial animals like snakes, you can handle them much more easily without stressing them. I’d never worked with snakes before, so it was really cool to find out they almost treat you like a branch of a tree. The snakes don’t necessarily see us as a threat so you can be close to them without stressing them, which can be much more difficult with fish or birds. And it’s fascinating to see that these animals have so many personalities, some are shy and others are bold, while some are clever and others aren’t.

I was similarly fascinated by this variability in personality in birds during my PhD! What has been your relationship with the SEB so far?

I’ve been a member of the SEB for 26 years, joining when I was a PhD student. They used to run the conferences in the Easter holidays so we could stay in student accommodation! It’s a very good society and I enjoy it very much. I’ve been a longtime member and now I’m a session convenor.

You hosted a session at the SEB conference in Montpellier on coastal adaptation this year.

Yes, and the idea is not just to convene these for myself but also to help promote the work of my younger colleagues. It’s a great way to introduce new members to the society and I hope that it will continue this way. The SEB is a dynamic society and provides a lot of opportunities for people. I think there is only a small community of environmental physiologists, but it’s very diverse. There are not a lot of people working on crustaceans, but I don’t feel isolated because most of the time the research is about major functions such as energetics and mitochondria, so a lot of my career is actually represented.

It’s been a pleasure to talk with you, thank you!

References:

1. Lignot JH. Changes in form and function of the gastrointestinal tract during starvation: from pythons to rats.

In: MD McCue (ed), Comparative Physiology of Fasting, Starvation, and Food Limitation. Berlin, Springer, 2012, p. 217–236.

WOW, SO THAT’S WHAT YOU CAN DO AS A MARINE BIOLOGIST –LET’S GO FOR IT!

IT’S GOOD TO HAVE A COMBINATION OF DOING BOTH LAB WORK AND FIELDWORK.

CHIMWEMWE TEMBO SPOTLIGHT ON...

BY ALEX EVANS

surrounds

of the plants and acknowledging both old and new technical local knowledge,” says Chimwemwe Tembo, currently pursuing a PhD in Sustainable Agriculture at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

xperimental biology is such an incredibly diverse and far-reaching topic, but the core tenet is always to better understand the natural world. However, for some researchers, this natural understanding is closely entwined with our understanding of the human world too. Chimwemwe Tembo, a Zambian citizen currently living in South Africa, is committed to developing the conservation and sustainable utilisation of underutilised, indigenous foods and useful plants. “My interest in agricultural research began during visits to my mother’s home village,” she says. “This motivated my pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural sciences at the University of Zambia.”

It was during the final year of her degree that Chimwemwe that got practical experience investigating the performance of cotton (Gossipium spp) growing under the Musangu tree (Faidherbia albida) canopy. “There was much interest at this point on the soil fertility enhancing qualities of Musangu leaves and the impact this could have on reducing the dependence on fertilisers within the resource-poor small-scale farming communities,” she explains. Her interest in indigenous natural resources continued into her master’s degree at Stellenbosch. This time, her focus was on the agronomic potential of edible fynbos vegetables such as dune spinach and sout slaai (Tetragonia decumbens and Mesembryanthemum crystallinum respectively) as a sustainable food and nutrient resource for local Western Cape communities. “The regenerative quality of multiple wild vegetables from the South Africa’s fynbos rich biodiversity has been evident for a long time,” she says. “The goal of the research was to generate and explore evidence-based data to support the cultivation of these alternative yet forgotten foods - especially considering the urgent need to adapt to changes brought about by climate change and diminishing biodiversity.”

As well as the traditional experimental methods of fieldwork, lab tests and data analysis, Chimwemwe’s research is heavily invested in understanding the economic viability, social equity, and environmental protection that helps to balance the need to harvest edible orchids while safeguarding their conservation. “In many

countries, agricultural support and research is heavily focused on exotic and heavy soil nutrient feeding crops to the exclusion of wild foods,” says Chimwemwe. “It is vital to recognise that a sustainable agricultural system includes the cultivation of indigenous foods as a sustainable tool for agrobiodiversity.”

Now, during her PhD, the Africa’s edible orchids as a source of sustainable agriculture for resourcepoor communities have captured her attention. “Indigenous foods are special because they contribute to health, food, and nutrition security, are more resilient to climate change, and provide a potential source of income for local communities,” she explains. “Many of these wild foods also grow in abundance despite growing in nutrient deficient soils and dry climates indicating they would require less inputs for their production.”

With this new understanding of how to approach research, Chimwemwe began her PhD on the sustainable use of edible orchid tubers. “In Southern Africa, multiple terrestrial orchid tubers are used as an ingredient in a plant-based meat-like delicacy also called African polony or chikanda,” she says. Chimwemwe has enjoyed chikanda for as long as she can remember and says that the knowledge of how to make it well and which species are best to use is very specialised. “One area of research would be to identify which species are now being used because with more utilisation of the orchids, species that usually wouldn’t be harvested are now being used to compensate for the depleted species,” she adds. Chimwemwe is quick to point out that while orchid tubers are a well-known food resource in Africa, they can sometimes be seen as unusual to people living outside of Africa. “Interestingly, the fact that orchids are used as a food ingredient in Africa has been surprising to many people who view them primarily as ornamentals,” she says. “This is not that strange as the vanilla bean also comes from an orchid, and in Eastern Europe, Salep orchids are often used to make a drink and ice-cream enjoyed by locals!”

“These orchids are currently wild harvested, eaten and traded as a source of income for resourcepoor communities,” she explains. However, the use of these orchids is complex as they are

“Understanding indigenous food systems means respecting the tradition that

many

Photo credit: Chimwemwe Tembo

protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species treaty (CITES) as well as national and regional legislation. “They’re not supposed to be traded between counties without a permit – but many species of African orchids haven’t yet been evaluated and many aren’t even listed,” she explains. “A lot of resource-poor communities that harvest these orchids and sell them to neighbouring countries such as Tanzania and Malawi are unaware that this is type of trading has been criminalised.”

“For example,” says Chimwemwe, “on the border of Zambia and Tanzania, there is a tribe that exists across both countries, so when they trade, they are trading within their own community – but this is still breaking international law.” However, the protection of these orchids is still very important because many species of edible orchids have already become depleted in Zambia, and this is one area that Chimwemwe is very interested in helping to remedy.

In 2017, Chimwemwe travelled to the Dahatmara Institute India as part of a course on regenerative food systems. “This was an immersive learning experience that exposed me to agroecology as practiced by local farmers,” she explained. “This experience really impressed upon me the importance that indigenous food and knowledge systems have in addressing many chronic challenges faced in the global South and especially poor African communities.” She describes how the institute is actively promoting more ecological and sustainable types of farming systems that invest in natural resources. “We went around to see some of the farmers who have successfully implemented these systems,” Chimwemwe says. “It was really encouraging to see that what we had been learning about in class was not just theory – here is a system that is actually working

Photo credit: Chimwemwe Tembo

(See colour image page 61).

and we need more demonstrations from real world people in those situations.”

Ultimately, Chimwemwe hopes that her research will contribute to contribute to the development of a low-cost micropropagation or domestication protocol for viable African edible orchid seeds.

“The goal would be to develop a model for an orchid culture nursery and farm that can be run by any farmer right in the villages where edible wild orchids are naturally harvested for food or sale,” she explains. “I think that equipping the farmer with this skill gives them the power to own the resource in a way that not only provides a source of income and food but also importantly facilitates the conservation of these protected species.”

Chimwemwe has some advice for early career researchers that are looking to get the most out of their research and its real-world applications. “Find out about complexity and systems theory if you haven’t already!” For example, throughout her University education, Chimwemwe has been studying lots of different agricultural subjects in isolation but it wasn’t always clear how they were connected. “Learning complexity theory has really helped me to tie these things together,” she explains. “We deal with complex systems all around us all the time, which can be broken down into component parts to see how certain issues can be dealt with and in context around the problem.”

Finally, Chimwemwe wishes to acknowledge the amazing people who have supported her research journey so far: “My family, my supervisors Ethel Phiri and Rhoda Malgas and the special lady doing amazing work in Western Cape wild foods, Loubi Rusch, without whom the research would not have been a success.”

Left Orchid tuber harvested for preservation

INDEIGENOUS FOODS ARE SPECIAL.

THE FACT THAT ORCHIDS ARE USED AS A FOOD INGREDIENT IN AFRICA HAS BEEN SURPRISING TO MANY PEOPLE.

LISANDRINA MARI SPOTLIGHT ON...

BY ALEX EVANS

rowing up in rural Corsica, Lisandrina admits that her early childhood wasn’t necessarily conducive for a research career. ‘I come from a modest background, with my father being a construction worker, and my mum an assistant accountant. Further studies weren’t really on anyone’s radar in my community’ she says. Nevertheless, being ‘immersed in nature, surrounded by mountains and the sea’ inspired a lifelong fascination with the living world, which led to her studying a Bachelor’s degree in Physiology and Cell Biology at the Université de Corse Pascal Paoli. This was followed by a Masters in Marine Biology at the Université Côte d’Azur in Nice (France) investigating the population effects of seawater temperature changes on fish communities.

In 2015, Lisandrina continued this theme by taking up a PhD at the Alpine Center for Research on Limnic Ecosystems, (France) in Dr Emilien Lasne’s research team. This time, she focused on the effects of climate change for the Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus), a cold-water specialist. ‘In Europe, the southernmost edge of the Arctic Char’s distribution is restricted to high alpine lakes where the species remained following the glacier retreat after the last glaciation’ says Lisandrina. ‘As these habitats are particularly vulnerable to warming, these isolated populations can be considered as sentinels of climate change.’

Having travelled little prior to her PhD, Lisandrina has happy memories of the many field trips to remote alpine lakes in France, Switzerland and Germany to catch fish during the spawning season. Back in the lab, she investigated how changes in water temperature interacted with other stressors such as the presence of fine sediment (which affects oxygen availability and habitat quality). ‘Our key finding was that elevated temperatures and fine sediment in the water have synergistic effects on developing Arctic Char embryos. Levels of sediment that had no effect at 5 °C significantly impact development and survival at 8.5 °C’. 1

For her first postdoctoral position, Lisandrina moved again: to the Institute of Vertebrate Biology at the Czech Academy of Sciences, to join Professor Martin Reichard’s lab. Although

she says this was ‘on a whim’, it’s clear that the opportunity to broaden her skillset was a key appeal. ‘The institute works on an incredibly diverse range of taxa: bats, birds, fish, even great apes. The project was also an opportunity to develop my skills in bioinformatics. In the era of “Big Data”, it is becoming increasingly important to have strong analytical skills.’

As if relocating to a new country and culture wasn’t enough of a challenge, soon after Lisandrina arrived in February 2020, the world was plunged into the first COVID-19 lockdown. ‘The pandemic certainly made it difficult to settle in. But I was lucky to be sharing a flat with three other postgraduate researchers, who understood how difficult it was to not be able to go into the lab or travel to conferences, and to feel like our careers were being held back.’ Fortunately, the Czech Republic was affected relatively lightly by the initial COVID-19 wave, and Lisandrina was soon able to immerse herself in her project.

Still working on fish, this time Lisandrina’s subject was the curious dual-parasitic relationship between Bitterling Fish (Rhodeus amarus) and unionid Mussels. ‘Bitterling lay their eggs in the gills of the mussels and, in turn, mussels require fish as a host for their parasitic larvae. However, a recently invasive mussel, Sinanodonta woodiana, is able to reject bitterling larvae but still parasitize the fish’ Lisandrina explains. ‘For my project, I was investigating what factors could help fish resist a parasitic infection. Our results indicated that genes linked to adaptive immunity were not involved, but instead, behavioural strategies might be more important. For instance, some fish could detect areas in which mussel larvae were present in high densities and avoid swimming there to minimize their infection risk.’

But even members of the same species can parasitize each other, as Lisandrina investigated for her next project as part of Professor Tomáš Albrecht’s Avian Evolutionary Ecology group. This time, her subject was the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica), a species where females often attempt to offload their parenting duties by laying their eggs in the nest of another female. That is, unless the potential victim recognises the intruder eggs and ejects them. ‘Our research

‘I’ve always been driven to keep learning, from new lab skills and model organisms, to different cultures.’ Having already worked on a diverse range of animal systems, Lisandrina Mari’s early career certainly illustrates this principle. She told Caroline Wood about her journey so far.

Above

Lisandrina Mari holding a Green Woodpecker

Photo credit: Michal Šulc

question was: what cues do the parent birds use to discriminate between their own eggs and those of a would-be parasite?’

To investigate this, the group mounted miniCCTV cameras by the nests of barn swallows on two farms, then infiltrated these with objects of varying shapes and colour patterns. ‘We found that swallows were much more likely to eject odd-shaped objects, whereas colour and pattern had only a minor influence on ejection decisions’ she says. ‘This indicates that swallows possess an innate template for the shape of their eggs. We believe that egg-ejection behaviour may have evolved as a by-product of nest cleaning activities, which requires the ability to recognise non-egg shaped objects in the first place’.2

Next summer, it will be all change again when Lisandrina takes up a two-year Marie Curie -Skłodowska Fellowship hosted by the University of Jyväskylä (Finland), to investigate novel biomarkers of pollution in avian models. ‘It’s a very interesting project to me because it involves a well-studied captive system, the Japanese Quail (Coturnix japonica), but also field studies on a wild forest species, the Great Tit (Parus major). Specifically, I will be looking into whether exposure to heavy metals results in epigenetic changes that are passed on from males to their offspring.’

Having moved so many times, Lisandrina is acutely aware of the importance of a supportive network – especially as a woman working in STEM. ‘When it comes to the gender gap, not all countries are advancing at the same pace and cultural stereotypes still persist in some places. Men aren’t always aware that we can feel like a minority sometimes. This makes it so important

that women support each other. You don’t have to be an activist, but being prepared to speak up for one another is a crucial first step.’ Lisandrina’s own efforts to help break cultural stereotypes include hosting Skype a Scientist sessions with secondary school children in the USA 3 –an initiative she would encourage all researchers to try. ‘It feels good to challenge their perception about what a researcher looks like – they don’t usually expect a 20-something woman.’

Despite enjoying the variety of her work, Lisandrina is open-minded about where her career will take her next. ‘At the moment I am trying to persevere in academia, but I am aware how tough the competition always is for research funding. So whilst I would love to lead my own research group one day, I am open to possibilities whether in industry, conservation, or elsewhere.’

For now at least, it appears that Lisandrina has found her niche. When asked what her younger self would have thought of her career now, the answer comes immediately: ‘I would be superexcited to think that I would be paid to study animals all day long. Isn’t that what every ten year old dreams of doing?’

References:

1. Mari, L., Garaud, L., Evanno, G. and Lasne, E., 2016. Higher temperature exacerbates the impact of sediments on embryo performances in a salmonid. Biology Letters, 12(12), p.20160745.

2. Šulc, M., Hughes, A.E., Mari, L., Troscianko, J., Tomášek, O., Albrecht, T. and Jelínek, V., 2022. Nest sanitation as an effective defence against brood parasitism. Animal Cognition, 25(4), pp.991-1002.

3. https://www.skypeascientist.com/

(See colour image page 61).

Left Lisandrina Mari holding a Great Reed Warbler

Photo credit: Gabriela Štětkova.

HIGH ALPINE LAKES ARE PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE TO WARMING, SO THEIR ISOLATED FISH POPULATIONS CAN BE CONSIDERED AS SENTINELS OF CLIMATE CHANGE.

OUR RESEARCH QUESTION WAS: WHAT CUES DO THE PARENT BIRDS USE TO DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN THEIR OWN EGGS AND THOSE OF A WOULD-BE PARASITE?

CITIZEN SCIENCE IN A NUTSHELL

BY ANA CAROLINE COLOMBO AND REBECCA ELLERINGTON

Citizen science, also known as crowd science, is an area that has been gaining more visibility and practitioners over the last three decades. It refers to the active involvement of the wider public in scientific research projects or tasks, usually related to collecting or exploring huge datasets. Together with technological advances, its definition, application and impact have been evolving and growing.1

Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count is considered the first and oldest citizen science project, having started 122 years ago. In 1900, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman proposed a holiday tradition where people would gather to count birds instead of hunting them. Since then, this project has contributed immensely to the science of bird conservation and has engaged members of the public in their thousands. As a result, reports and scientific papers have been written on how climate change has affected bird populations in the regions where the project has taken place. Every year, from 14 December to 5 January, citizens from America can register their interest to count birds in specific areas or routes.2

From wildlife surveys and digitising herbarium and fungarium collections3 to decoding genes4 and cell identification and counting5, citizen science encompasses a broad range of topics within biology. Interestingly, citizen science isn’t exclusively related to biological science but permeates all research fields.

One of the most popular citizen science projects, called SETI@home, was a crowd astronomy computing project that used internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).6 Considering the limited technology and restricted availability of supercomputers at that time of release in 1999, this project solved a massive data-processing issue by inviting the wider public to engage with it. Throughout more than two decades of existence, it has engaged over 5 million participants worldwide and surpassed by 50 times or more the operation of the most powerful contemporary supercomputer.7

SETI@home inspired many projects, including some related to protein dynamics. Protein structure isn’t random but entirely related to its function. Although the sequencing of millions of proteins has been possible, predicting the 3D arrangement of a protein – how it will fold – hasn’t been reliable. This is known as the protein folding problem. This problem arises because there are many variables to consider, including the difficulty of measuring protein structure through experimentation and the physical complexity involved. One way of solving the problem is using computer simulation, which requires computational power and time.7,8

That is where Folding@home came in, using the same concept of citizen science as SETI@home.9 It was initially released in 2000 and had a peak of interest and volunteers during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. More than 200 scientific papers were published based on their simulations.9 Similar projects in protein folding are also ongoing, such as the Rosetta@ home project, launched in 2005,10 and Foldit in 2008.11 Foldit came with a different approach of inviting participants to play a protein folding game with puzzles related to the most recent issues in the field.

These are all examples of how citizen science contributes to a challenge called the ‘big data’ problem, which means that sometimes the issue isn’t in generating the data but in how they are processed and interpreted to lead to significant results.

Similarly, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey have been using satellite technology to study remote wildlife populations, such as whales, penguins, albatross, seals and walrus. Through a vast number of satellite images, they can identify, count and monitor these species for conservation efforts. While they have been developing automated technologies to process those images, they still rely on citizen science.12 Walrus from Space project, for example, has invited the community to help. So far, they have engaged with more than 11,000 citizens who analysed more than half a million images. From July 2022, this project has stepped into a new stage with scientists going to the field in Svalbard to validate the image counts of the walrus. Collecting data in this way not only makes science more accessible and diverse but

can also lead to breakthroughs in developing new technologies for this kind of scientific research.13

These projects benefit the scientists, who receive contributions that would take too long or too much money to obtain in other ways, while participants feel fulfilled by contributing to a meaningful cause and gaining new skills. However, the dynamics and structure necessary for a positive outcome rely on training. This means both participants and facilitators need to understand the specifics of the project, the basics of how and what scientists and participants learn, and the barriers they face.1 For example, a lack of clear information, support and feedback from the scientists can lead to a lack of engagement and retention of the participants. However, problems with participant engagement could also be attributed to a lack of time and self-confidence. As such, the same problem would need two completely different approaches to find a solution. Good training and well-designed citizen science projects can be complex but lead to a unique opportunity for scientific inclusion and knowledge sharing.

While the citizen science field expands, many topics have been brought to the table for discussion. A book published last year entitled ‘The Science of Citizen Science’ highlights the complexity of this field and discusses how citizen science can contribute to society and science while making us aware of the quality of contribution, authorship discussions, the importance of scientific engagement and the impact on policy changes.1

For those curious to see examples of citizen science projects, either to inspire their research or to find a project to get involved with, there are different online platforms, such as Zooniverse,14 Scistarter15 and Eu-citizen.science,16 that specialise in organising citizen science projects. Another great source of information and project listing can be found on some organisations’ websites, such as WWF,17 The Wildlife Trusts18 and Kew Gardens,3 just to name a few. So, maybe an organisation you already support has citizen science projects you can help promote or engage with.

we have some speakers lined up, including Geoffrey S. LeBaron and Hannah Cubaynes, to talk about the impact of climate change on birds and walrus populations, respectively. Both data and research come from the citizen science projects Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count and Walrus from Space featured in this article.

For more information about this year’s Christmas lectures, visit www.sebiology.org/events/christmaslectures-2022

References:

1. Vohland K, Land-Zandstra A, Ceccaroni L, et al. (eds). The Science of Citizen Science. Berlin, Springer Nature, 2021.

2. Audubon. Christmas Bird Count. 2022. www.audubon.org/ conservation/science/christmas-bird-count Accessed 20 September 2022.

3. Kew.org. Citizen Science. 2022. www.kew.org/science/engage/ get-involved/citizen-science Accessed 20 September 2022.

4. Zooniverse.org. Genome Detectives. 2022. www.zooniverse. org/projects/charrod/genome-detectives/about/research Accessed 20 September 2022.

5. Zooniverse.org. Fossil Atmospheres. 2022. www.zooniverse. org/projects/laurasoul/fossil-atmospheres Accessed 20 September 2022.

6. Setiathome.berkeley.edu. SETI@home. 2022. https:// setiathome.berkeley.edu/ Accessed 20 September 2022.

7. Wright C. Let’s Know Things. Protein Folding Problem. Episode 238. 2020. https://letsknowthings.com/episode238/ Accessed 20 September 2022.

8. Dill KA, Ozkan SB, Shell MS, et al. The protein folding problem. Annu Rev Biophys 2008; 37: 289–316.

9. Foldingathome.org. Folding@home. 2022. https:// foldingathome.org/?lng=en Accessed 20 September 2022.

10. Baker Lab. Rosetta@home. 2022. https://boinc.bakerlab.org/ Accessed 20 September 2022.

11. Foldit. 2022. https://fold.it/ Accessed 20 September 2022.

12. British Antarctic Survey. Wildlife from Space - British Antarctic Survey. 2022. www.bas.ac.uk/project/wildlifefrom-space/ Accessed 21 September 2022.

13. British Antarctic Survey. Scientists Begin Work Counting Arctic Walrus. 2022. www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/scientistsbegin-fieldwork-to-count-walrus-in-the-arctic/ Accessed 21 September 2022.

14. Zooniverse. Zooniverse. 2022. www.zooniverse.org Accessed 20 September 2022.

15. Scistarter. Scistarter. 2022. https://scistarter.org/ Accessed 21 September 2022.

16. Eu-citizen.science. Eu-citizen.science. 2022. https://eucitizen.science/ Accessed 21 September 2022.

17. WWF. Conservation Technology. 2022. www.wwf.org.uk/ project/conservationtechnology Accessed 21 September 2022.

18. The Wildlife Trusts. Citizen Science Projects. 2022. www. wildlifetrusts.org/citizen-science Accessed 21 September 2022.

Citizen science can help us to contribute to scientific advances while inspiring and connecting with the community. During the SEB Christmas Lectures 2022 in the week commencing the 12th of December,

Evening Grosbeak

Photo by Mick Thompson (See colour image page 62).

ORIGINS OF THE LIVING FIELD

Geoff Squire, the founder and editor of Living Field, recently joined a working group of the SEB whose remit is to develop outreach, education and diversity. Here he writes about his experience in the Living Field project, based at James Hutton Institute, Dundee, UK. But first, some appreciative recollections of the SEB’s influence on his earlier work linking biological process to regional and global sustainability.

The SEB has for decades given encouragement and opportunities to early-career researchers, in my case first as a doctoral student with Terry Mansfield at Lancaster University and then throughout a long association with John Monteith, Mike Unsworth, Paul Biscoe and colleagues at the University of Nottingham. The group there comprised mostly physicists, but supported an array of postdocs and students from other disciplines. The pervading ethos was ‘different therefore equal’ – a group ethic that strongly influenced my subsequent collaborations across disciplines and continents.

It was an exciting time at Nottingham. The ‘big leaf’ theories of measuring and modelling environment flux were instructive at certain degrees of scale and complexity – large flat areas of uniform vegetation – but some physicists and biologists sought to apply flux-based approaches to finer assemblages of functional types and individual organisms. The main generic question being asked was ‘how do differences between individuals propagate through time and space to affect the properties of populations, landscapes and ecosystems’, and, in reverse, ‘how do the characteristics of large scales constrain the possibilities for individual performance’.

In the early 1990s, I joined a group of physicists and biologists at the then Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI), now named the James Hutton Institute (JHI). The team’s interest, like mine, was on the individual in the group – individuals being ‘different therefore equal’ – in terms of the need to include them in experiments and models. Crucial to the development of the subject was the 1994 SEB seminar Scaling Up: from Cell to Landscape, published in 1997 as SEB Seminar Series 63.1 The whole debate and its intricacies around up-scaling

gave such a buzz at the time and has been an influence that remains to this day.

ORIGINS OF THE LIVING FIELD

The issues in up-scaling from experimental chambers, plots and fields to catchments and landscapes became a major part of the work at SCRI/JHI. Understanding, and then predicting, the consequences for ecosystem function of many small plant-by-plant or field-by field changes continued to be challenging, whether directed at reducing further loss of biodiversity or ensuring food security in uncertain times.

It was evident from SEB Seminar Series 63 and subsequent spin-off debates that biophysical science had to incorporate social, economic and political science if it were to make progress with global challenges. It was not enough to say ‘here’s the biophysical, now you get on with it’.

In this melee, two distinct influences led to the formation of the Living Field. One was the uncertainty in public understanding of genetic modification (GM) and gene flow, topics that intensified in the late 1990s with the beginning of large-scale GM crop trials in the UK (e.g. the Farm Scale Evaluation projects2,3). Several of us at SCRI ran gene-flow roadshows, at the Edinburgh Science Festival for example, but when talking to people on these issues, it was clear that much more information, and more accessible information, was needed on things like soil, plants, microbes, functional biodiversity, food webs and the movement of living things across a landscape.

The second influence was more of a jolt. At a scientific meeting in the late 1990s (not SEB!), the view was promoted by some that modern agricultural fields need be nothing beyond dead, industrial deserts. Such a position had already gained widespread acceptance in some countries and was permeating UK agriculture. That fields could be dead and productive was impossible, yet many agricultural interests were heading that way. So ‘No Dead Desert’ was a possible title, but I settled on the more positive ‘Living Field ’.

Left

One of the display boards in the Living Field garden. Source www.livingfield.co.uk

Left Below

Collage of habitats, plants and small animals crafted by photographer Stewart Malecki and Gladys Wright soon after the Living Field garden was opened in 2004 to emphasise that agricultural land was ‘no dead desert’. Source www.livingfield.co.uk

at all times. Within a few years, the garden came to support hundreds of plant species, many of which came in of their own accord, finding space in the low-input meadow, for example.

The assemblage of plants and associated invertebrates allowed a sort of scaling over time (as well as space); people could see the crops and useful wild plants that were once grown, the contraction to the ones now grown and the potential of those that could be grown or encouraged in future regeneration. And the presence of real plants provided opportunity to scale down, for example to show how species differed in fine root structure and function and to examine the plant–rhizobia symbiosis in nitrogen-fixing legumes.

THE LIVING FIELD GARDEN AND STUDY CENTRE

Though the name was coined in 2001, the direction and scope of the project evolved gradually. Unfunded at first, ideas and physical labour were given freely by staff and students. One of the first challenges was the need for a physical base – a place to grow and nurture plants and their attendant microbes and animals. Most of this space had become so scarce that few people were able to see, on a walk or drive, no more than a small fraction of the biodiversity that once thrived in the croplands.

The Institute provided a small area of land that farm and science staff converted to microhabitats – meadow, woodland, hedgerow, pond and ditch – and areas for growing crops, including those current and the many species that had once been farmed or gathered but were no longer appreciated, grown and used. Among the latter were ancient cereal species and landraces, forage legumes, dye plants, fibres, medicinal plants and useful ‘weeds’.

The Living Field garden was formally opened in 2004.4 Since then it’s been accessible to the public

The need to regulate environmental fluxes was demonstrated through the nitrogen cycle: biologically fixed nitrogen pollutes very much less than mineral fertiliser, and gives highly nutritious forages and food. A range of forgotten forages and crops were grown at the Living Field (white melilot, sainfoin and kidney vetch shown), their positive role in the food web demonstrated, and links made to the Institute’s science on the underlying plant–bacteria symbiosis and nitrogen fixation.

OUTREACH – EDUCATION –DIVERSITY

Outreach, education and diversity (OED) have not been intentionally distinguished in the Living Field project. Perhaps the main drive was outreach to schools and to the wider community. Through early experience, Gladys Wright5 and other contributors instilled the practice at open days and roadshows to cater first for primary age children. If they were happy and occupied, then their older relatives and friends could immerse themselves in the exhibits and talk to staff. Events in the garden, for example, always had a ‘finding’ or ‘making’ game for children,

Above Linking flux to food: nitrogen cycle, symbiosis (micrographs by Euan James), forgotten forages, food webs, nutritious pulses. Source www.livingfield.co.uk

(See colour image page 612-63).

STAFF AT THE INSTITUTE GAVE THEIR TIME FREELY ON MANY OCCASIONS TO BRING SCIENCE TO PEOPLE, FROM THE VERY YOUNG TO THE LESS YOUNG.

then more thoughtful exhibits for grown-ups. Staff at the Institute gave their time freely on many occasions to bring science to people, from the very young (fascinated by oat grains) to the less young (debating future life on the planet).

Left

Exhibits, roadshows, open days by the Living Field – bringing the buzz of science to people of all ages. Source www.livingfield.co.uk

Bottom Left

The are also some big questions on the origin of food – is it local or imported, and if imported where does it come from? To show what’s grown locally, the farm and science staff constructed a map of Scotland in the Living Field garden and in 2019 planted it with a range of food crops in locations where they are typically grown. It certainly caused some discussion.

A consistent method of working took hold in which an initial scientific object – perhaps of little interest to the public in itself – was explored through activities that visitors could be part of and themselves develop. Artists and craftworkers from the wider community were encouraged to become embedded in the Living Field to foster this extension of an initial object or thought.

One example is the artist Jean Duncan’s depiction of roots and seedlings – an original root section was used as a model for a series of etchings that were printed on paper made from plants grown in the garden.6,7 A path could be traced from the growing, touchable plant and its structure (e.g. fibres) to the process of converting the structure to something useful (e.g. paper), and finally design and printing on the paper of attributes crucial to the plant’s functioning and survival (xylem, phloem, etc.). Another example includes cyanotyping to reveal form and texture, colouring with plant dyes and working the stages from grain to plate (or seed to sewer as some liked to call it).

Linking science, art and craft: micrograph of root cross section (provided by Robert Baker, Department of Botany, University of Wyoming, with thanks) and etching on maize paper (top right, Jean Duncan) then (lower set) stages in making paper from maize shoots grown at the Living Field. Source www.livingfield.co.uk

UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

University education, though not a primary aim, was fostered through visiting students and project work. While many MSc and PhD students based at the Institute contributed at open events, some worked more directly on specific projects. For example, a student from Durham University, Sarah Doherty, spent almost a year at the Institute working on food systems, especially the Beans on Toast project which dissected the constituents of this meal and traced the geographical origins and water footprint of the 10 or more crops that go into it.8,9 She devised a Beans on Toast roadshow for primary schools, from which it was clear to see that such young minds could appreciate complex food supply chains. In drawings, some of the children depicted beans as individuals rather than a mush – an appreciation of the ‘individual in the group’ perhaps?

Top Left

Is my food grown near me? Map to scale made of turf and boulders planted with food crops – a hit with visitors.

Source www.livingfield.co.uk

Left

From the Beans on Toast Roadshow: one of a set of diagrams drawn by primary school pupils of the supply chains leading to this prized dish.

In other work, a group of students from Abertay University in Dundee worked with scientists in seed ecology and morphology to construct a key to weed species, based on shape, colour and texture of seeds and seedlings. The key was

Source www.livingfield.co.uk

(See colour image page 612-63).

A STUDENT VISITING FROM AGROPARISTECH, MARION DEMADE, USED HER DRAWING SKILLS TO ILLUSTRATE RENO THE FOX’S MUSINGS ON MODERN LIFE, PERSECUTION AND LAND USE.

ARTISTS AND CRAFTWORKERS FROM THE WIDER COMMUNITY WERE ENCOURAGED TO BECOME EMBEDDED IN THE LIVING FIELD TO FOSTER THIS EXTENSION OF AN INITIAL OBJECT OR THOUGHT.

used online by the public and arable seedbank researchers for many years. A student visiting from AgroParisTech, Marion Demade, used her drawing skills to illustrate Reno the Fox’s musings on modern life, persecution and land use.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Diversity was not considered specifically, but in retrospect, it was there from the beginning. Essential contributions were made by colleagues from all parts of the Institute – from farm, glasshouse, graphics, technical and scientific interests. The farm and science staff built the garden from scratch and constructed the real ‘Vegetable map of Scotland’ along with mountains and coastlines.10,11 And it would have been impossible to show visiting school parties how potatoes are grown and harvested without a command of modern agronomy and farm machinery. Looking back, the cultural attitudes at SCRI and subsequently JHI were conducive. Everyone, from all backgrounds and grades, used first names – there was no social distancing.

The same attitudes guided the project’s many external links and interactions. An online and CD-based study course for the 5–14 age range was released after months of joint work between school teachers, institute science staff and graphic designers. Local radio stations and BBC Scotland arranged to record ‘voice-overs’ – spoken word accompanying the text and diagrams – and interviews with schoolchildren in their vernacular, which made the scientific and logical threads of the course more accessible to the intended users. All were given equal credit; the photographs show some of those involved.

THE FUTURE?

The world of OED has changed in the past two decades. Two forces in particular will influence its future. One is the presence and sophistication of online communication and gaming. The other is a raised awareness, particularly among the young, of the perilous state of the world’s ecosystems, especially those dominated by agriculture or forest extraction. Many people with interests in future sustainability expect guidance from science but want to be part of the solution – and the communication and learning must be hi-tech.

And with some coincidence, a new project run by SEDA Land takes off in 2022 that will look at local versus external sourcing of food and other natural products.12,13 It will develop through collaboration between a community development trust, scientists (biophysical, social, economic and political) and high-level computer gaming expertise from Abertay University. Yet despite virtual opportunities, contact between people and real plants, their habitats and associated biodiversity will remain crucial. Activities in the Living Field garden ceased during the pandemic – but Living Field ’s or something like them are needed everywhere.

References:

1. Van Gardingen PR, Foody GM, Curran PJ (eds). Scaling-up: from Cell to Landscape. Society for Experimental Biology Seminar Series 63. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997.

2. Firbank LG, Heard MS, Woiwood IP, et al. An introduction to the Farm-Scale Evaluations of genetically modified herbicide-tolerant crops. J Appl Ecol 2003; 40: 2–16.

3. Squire GR, Brooks DR, Bohan DA, et al. On the rationale and interpretation of the Farm Scale Evaluations of genetically modified herbicide-tolerant crops. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2003; 358: 1779.

4. The Making. www.livingfield.co.uk/living-field-garden/themaking/

5. From a Muddy Field. www.livingfield.co.uk/home/about/ from-a-muddy-field/

6. Sectioned II. 2019. www.livingfield.co.uk/art/jean-duncan/ sectioned-ii/

7. Jean Duncan Artist. www.livingfield.co.uk/people/jeanduncan-artist/

8. Beans on Toast – a Liquid Lunch. 2019. www.livingfield. co.uk/5000-plants/legumes/beans-on-toast/beans-ontoast-a-liquid-lunch/

9. Beans on Toast Revisited. 2019. www.livingfield.co.uk/food/ pulse/beans-on-toast-revisited

10. The Vegetable Map Made Real. 2019. www.livingfield.co.uk/ food/vegetable/vegetable-map-made-real/

11. Can We Grow More Vegetables? www.livingfield.co.uk/food/ can-we-grow-more-vegetables/

12. Scottish Ecological Design Association. SEDA Land. www. seda.uk.net/seda-land

13. Community Mapping – Food, Climate. 2022. http:// curvedflatlands.co.uk/land/community-mapping-foodclimate/

Author/contact: The author acknowledges with thanks the opportunity to join the SEB’s Outreach, Education and Diversity focus group. Email: geoff.squire@hutton.ac.uk or geoff.squire@ outlook.com.

Footnote: The phrase ‘different therefore equal’ comes from the title and song of an LP: Seeger, Peggy. Different Therefore Equal. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 1979.

Left Recording The Living Field 5–14 online course.

Source www.livingfield.co.uk

(See colour image page 612-63).

EVERYONE, FROM ALL BACKGROUNDS AND GRADES, USED FIRST NAMES – THERE WAS NO SOCIAL DISTANCING.

TBC A NEW PROJECT RUNBY SEDA LAND TAKES OFF IN 2022 THAT WILL LOOK AT LOCAL VERSUS EXTERNAL SOURCING OF FOOD AND OTHER NATURAL PRODUCTS.

DIVERSITY IN SCIENCE: WHAT DOES WIKIPEDIA TEACH US?

BY ANA CAROLINE COLOMBO AND REBECCA ELLERINGTON

Almost everyone who uses the internet has heard of or accessed Wikipedia. However, most people don’t stop to think about what Wikipedia is, how it works and its impact on society. Many are discouraged from relying on the resource because of its open nature and content shaped by volunteers. However, its presence needs to be addressed given that Wikipedia continues to grow by over 17,000 new articles a month.1,2 These fast content updates are true to their name, with Wiki meaning “quick” in Hawaiian, and have made the site the only not-for-profit website on the list of top ten websites in the world. Its relevance is further demonstrated in over 10 million page views per hour and articles in 329 languages.3,4

AWikipedia works because volunteer editors have a desire to contribute with the aim of promoting knowledge. Through transparent and cooperative discussions, they can achieve what the former CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, Katherine Maher, calls the ‘minimum viable truth’, which means ‘getting it right enough enough of the time to be useful enough to enough people’.5 But how can its content be guaranteed as reliable if anyone can edit it? To manage this, Wikipedia has strict rules and policies in place to fact-check information.

The foundational policies of Wikipedia are:

• Verifiability: to ensure information is backed by reliable sources6

• Notability: to check if ‘a given topic warrants its own article’7

• Neutrality: ‘content on Wikipedia must be written from a neutral point of view’8

• No original research: no new material for which there isn’t a reliable secondary source9

‘Verifiability’ is likely the rule that is of most interest to users from the scientific community and is key for Wikipedia achieving similar accuracy rates compared to other encyclopaedias.10 Their

gatekeepers, both human reviewers and automated artificial intelligence, constantly check any changes on the website and can reject or request further details for content without reliable sources.6,11 Wikipedia generally considers reliable sources to be those that have been peer-reviewed, such as academic publications, although content from some newspapers and magazines can also be considered.6,12 Content creators who are experts in a given field must also be wary of self-citing, using it only within reason, because this may be classified as a conflict of interest if the emphasis on their own work is not properly balanced with other sources.13 To further help its users assess the reliability of an article, a rating system is in place. For example, a ‘Start’ classification indicates some work to be done, while ‘Good’ indicates that the article has lots of information from reliable sources.12

Although designed to guarantee reliable content, these policies can also have a detrimental effect by introducing bias. During an interview in 2017 by Rebecca Iannucci, Katherine Maher said: ‘Because we’re based on secondary source material, Wikipedia is often simply a mirror held up to the world’s biases. We know that throughout history, the majority of humanity has not been deemed worthy of encyclopaedic notability, including women, people of colour and almost anyone from outside of Europe and North America.’14 However, this scenario is slowly changing, with more people from diverse backgrounds engaging with the platform and new projects emerging focusing on decreasing such biases.

Different approaches have been made to achieve this goal, specifically in relation to improving and creating biographies of scientists from underrepresented backgrounds. Organisations such as the Francis Crick Institute organised an edit-a-thon, an event where a group of people got together to edit Wikipedia pages around a specific topic, and a working group called the WikiProject Women Scientists has been set up to guarantee the quality and coverage of biographies of women in science.15,16 Individuals can also make a change. Dr Jessica Wade, a scientist who has written hundreds of Wikipedia pages about female scientists, has frequently been editing pages as a public engagement commitment.15,17

The impact of creating these biographies goes far beyond simply adding to public knowledge and creating a more representative resource. One of the first Wikipedia pages set up by Jessica was for a mathematician called Gladys West, who was born in Virginia, USA, in the 1930s and made a career in mathematics and computing. Despite her work for the US government that contributed to the basis for modern GPS technology, she didn’t have a Wikipedia page until 2018, when Jessica created it. Since the page went up, West has been included on the BBC’s 100 Women list, an annual line-up of influential and inspirational women from around the world.17,18 She’s also been inducted into the US Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall

of Fame.17,19 Having a Wikipedia page increased her visibility and demonstrated the power of the public forum in achieving wider recognition of a person’s work.

Although these initiatives and individuals have made great strides in improving diversity within the Wikipedia database, a major challenge is the ability to cite reliable sources and meet the notability criteria of Wikipedia’s content policies. Given the systemic underrepresentation of specific groups in the world’s media and literature, there are limited reliable secondary sources available, which has a knock-on effect on the entire premise of the project. This calls for more action to address the root cause and holds a mirror up to wider biases in areas of society, including science and research, where we may begin to ask ourselves how we can recognise the contributions of a more diverse range of scientists.

Of course, the topic is highly complex, and the reasons for the underrepresentation of certain groups in science are multifactorial. As such, the way to address the problem will also need multiple approaches.20–22 However, one way to address this issue may be through the nomination processes for scientific awards and prizes. In being nominated for an award, candidates will be more likely to meet Wikipedia’s notability criteria, and new secondary sources will be created from the articles written about winners and their work. The benefits for the nominees will also go beyond winning, because the increased recognition can help to springboard careers.23

Increasing awareness and proactive intentions for diversifying the pool of nominations for awards are needed.20–22 Therefore, the SEB will be setting up a new Nomination Task Force as part of our centenary celebrations. The aim of the task force will be to purposefully locate deserving but potentially overlooked members of the experimental biology community and put their work in front of judging panels for various bioscience awards. By increasing diversity in the nomination stages, we hope to have a knock-on effect of increasing the diversity of the winners selected. Furthermore, we want to contribute to Wikipedia’s purpose of collective and inclusive knowledge sharing, so we are holding an edit-a-thon in March 2023. Of course, more work can always be done to acknowledge biases and address issues of diversity and inclusion. The SEB is aware of this and is working towards more initiatives to improve inclusion and diversity in all areas of the Society and will continue to do so as laid out in our 5-year strategic plan (link: https:// www.sebiology.org/who-we-are/structure-andgovernance/strategy.html).

If you would like to know more about our centenary celebrations or to take part in the task force or the edit-a-thon, please check our webpage www. sebiology.org/centenary or email our OED manager, Rebecca, at r.ellerington@sebiology.org.

We want to extend a special thank you to Jessica Wade and Stuart Prior from Wikimedia UK for their insightful ideas about the topic covered in this article.

References:

1. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia - Wikipedia. 2022. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia Accessed 27 September 2022.

2. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia: Size of Wikipedia. 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_of_Wikipedia Accessed 7 October 2022.

3. Dennis MA. ‘wiki’. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2022. www. britannica.com/topic/wiki Accessed 7 October 2022.

4. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikimedia Statistics – How Many Times Are Articles Viewed? Filters: Wikipedia - English, daily, by users. 2022. https://stats.wikimedia.org/#/en.wikipedia.org/ reading/total-page-views/normal|bar|2-year|agent~user|daily Accessed 27 September 2022.

5. Maher K. What Wikipedia Teach Us About Balancing Truth and Beliefs. TED Conferences. 2022. www.ted.com/talks/katherine_ maher_what_wikipedia_teaches_us_about_balancing_truth_ and_beliefs/transcript?rss=172BB350-0207 Accessed 27 September 2022.

6. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia: Verifiability. 2022. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability Accessed 28 September 2022.

7. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia: Notability. 2022. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability Accessed 28 September 2022.

8. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia: Neutral Point of View. 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia: Neutral_point_ of_view Accessed 28 September 2022.

9. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia: No Original Research. 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_ research Accessed 28 September 2022.

10. Giles J. Internet encyclopaedias go head to head. Nature 2005; 438: 900–901.

11. McDowell ZJ, Vetter MA. It takes a village to combat a fake news army: Wikipedia’s community and policies for information literacy. Social Media + Society 2020; 6(3).

12. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikiedu Outreach Dashboard –Training Libraries: Evaluating Articles and Sources. 2022. https:// outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/training/editing-wikipedia/ evaluating-articles/evaluating Accessed 27 September 2022.

13. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia: Conflict of Interest – Citing yourself. 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest#Citing_yourself Accessed 28 September 2022.

14. Iannucci R. What can fact-checkers learn from Wikipedia? We asked the boss of its nonprofit owner. Poynter. 2017. https:// www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2017/what-can-fact-checkerslearn-from-wikipedia-we-asked-the-boss-of-its-nonprofitowner/ Accessed 28 September 2022.

15. O’Reilly N. Why we’re creating Wikipedia profiles for BAME scientists. Nature. 7 March 2019. www.nature.com/articles/ d41586-019-00812-8 Accessed 28 September 2022.

16. Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia: WikiProject Women Scientists. 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_scientists Accessed 28 September 2022.

17. Howgego J. Jess Wade’s one-woman mission to diversify Wikipedia’s science stories. New Scientist. 5 February 2020. www.newscientist.com/article/mg24532680-800-jess-wadesone-woman-mission-to-diversify-wikipedias-science-stories/ Accessed 07 October 2022.

18. BBC 100 women 2018: who is on the list? BBC News. 19 November 2018. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-46225037 Accessed 7 October 2022.

19. Airforce Space Command. Mathematician Inducted Into Space and Missiles Pioneers Hall of Fame. 2018. www.afspc. af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1707464/mathematicianinducted-into-space-and-missiles-pioneers-hall-of-fame/ Accessed 7 October 2022.

20. Diversity in science prizes: why is progress so slow? Nature. 15 June 2022. www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01608-z Accessed 13 November 2022.

21. Meho LI. The gender gap in highly prestigious international research awards, 2001–2020. Quantitative Science Studies 2021; 2: 976–989.

22. James A, Chisnall R, Plank MJ. Gender and societies: a grassroots approach to women in science. R Soc Open Sci 2019; 6: 190633.

23. Holgate SA. The benefits of awards—even if you don’t win. Science. 31 May 2017. www.science.org/content/article/ benefits-awards-even-if-you-don-t-win Accessed 13 November 2022.

Screenshot of Jeff Stuart’s ‘Mitochondrio’ mitochondrial dynamics simulation game built using the Unity game engine.

Photo credit: Jeff Stuart

MIGHTY PLANT MITOCHONDRIA

(page 26-29)

Phenotypes of the wild type (Col-0) and two mitochondrial signalling mutants (rao1/cdke1 and rao2/anac017) after 2 days of submergence and 1 day recovery

Photo credit: Dr Xiangxiang Meng

Lightbox image of mature kernels in wild-type maize (left) and opaque18 mutants (right) showing the opaque phenotype in the mutant line

Photo credit: Guifeng Wang

Images of wild-type (WT) and complex I-deficient (amc) Chlamydomonas strains expressing mitochondria-targeted yellow-fluorescent protein (YFP) were obtained by confocal fluorescence microscopy. Cells are from midexponential phase cultures in mixotrophic conditions, where the alga rely on both photosynthesis and respiration. Scale bar: 24 µm. DIC: differential interference contrast.

Photo credit: Andrew Castonguay

Figure 1: FMT (green) binds ribosomes and RNA and localizes in the cytosol and at the mitochondrial surface.

‘Social networks’ of plant mitochondria. In the background, a snapshot of several Arabidopsis hypocotyl cells (cell walls in purple) from a video taken with a laser microscope, with mitochondria shown in orange. In the foreground is a constructed social network, where each point is a mitochondrion and each line between two points means that a physical encounter has occurred between those two mitochondria as they move within the cell.

Photo credit: Iain Johnston and Joanna Chustecki

Chustecki and colleagues use time-lapse microscopy and computational tracking of fluorescently labelled mitochondria within a single cell (left) to reconstruct and analyse encounter networks (right)

Image credit: Joanna Chustecki

Kim with a feisty sea trout about to be released after being tagged and sampled

Photo credit: Andreas Svarer

CAROLINE WOOD, IN CONVERSATION WITH...KIM BIRNIE-GAUVIN

Kim with a male sockeye salmon on the spawning grounds, as she looks for radio-tagged fish

Photo credit: Kendra Robinson

Kim releasing an Atlantic bluefin tuna after tagging and sampling in Skagerrak

Photo credit: Kristi Källo

SPOTLIGHT ON… CHIMWEMWE TEMBO

SPOTLIGHT ON… LISANDRINA MARI

Jehan-Hervé holding a python

Photo credit: Stephen M Secor

Orchid tuber harvested for preservation

Photo credit: Chimwemwe Tembo

Lisandrina Mari holding a Green Woodpecker

Photo credit: Michal Šulc

Lisandrina Mari holding a Great Reed Warbler

Photo credit: Gabriela Štětkova.

ORIGINS OF THE LIVING FIELD (page 52-55)

Source: www.livingfield.co.uk

Linking flux to food: nitrogen cycle, symbiosis (micrographs by Euan James), forgotten forages, food webs, nutritious pulses.

Source: www.livingfield.co.uk

Source: www.livingfield.co.uk

One of the display boards in the Living Field garden.

Collage of habitats, plants and small animals crafted by photographer Stewart Malecki and Gladys Wright soon after the Living Field garden was opened in 2004 to emphasise that agricultural land was ‘no dead desert’.

Evening Grosbeak

Photo by Mick Thompson

Is my food grown near me? Map to scale made of turf and boulders planted with food crops – a hit with visitors.

Source: www.livingfield.co.uk

Exhibits, roadshows, open days by the Living Field – bringing the buzz of science to people of all ages.

Source : www.livingfield.co.uk

From the Beans on Toast Roadshow: one of a set of diagrams drawn by primary school pupils of the supply chains leading to this prized dish.

Source: www.livingfield.co.uk

Linking science, art and craft: micrograph of root cross section (provided by Robert Baker, Department of Botany, University of Wyoming, with thanks) and etching on maize paper (top right, Jean Duncan) then (lower set) stages in making paper from maize shoots grown at the Living Field.

Source: www.livingfield.co.uk

Source: www.livingfield.co.uk

Recording The Living Field 5–14 online course.