Transcriptome mining provides insights into cell wall metabolism and fiber lignification in Agave tequilana Weber

Luis Fernando Maceda Lopez ELSA BEATRIZ GONGORA CASTILLO Enrique Ibarra-Laclette DALIA C. MORAN VELAZQUEZ AMARANTA GIRON RAMIREZ Matthieu Bourdon José Luis Villalpando Aguilar Gabriela Chavez-Calvillo Toomer John Tang Parastoo Azadi Jorge Manuel Santamaría Fernández Itzel López-Rosas Mercedes G Lopez June Simpson FULGENCIO ALATORRE COBOS (2022)

Resilience of growing in arid and semiarid regions and a high capacity of accumulating sugar-rich biomass with low lignin percentages have placed Agave species as an emerging bioen-ergy crop. Although transcriptome sequencing of fiber-producing agave species has been explored, molecular bases that control wall cell biogenesis and metabolism in agave species are still poorly understood. Here, through RNAseq data mining, we reconstructed the cellulose biosynthesis pathway and the phenylpropanoid route producing lignin monomers in A. tequilana, and evaluated their expression patterns in silico and experimentally. Most of the orthologs retrieved showed differential expression levels when they were analyzed in different tissues with contrasting cellulose and lignin accumulation. Phylogenetic and structural motif analyses of putative CESA and CAD proteins allowed to identify those potentially involved with secondary cell wall formation. RT-qPCR assays revealed enhanced expression levels of AtqCAD5 and AtqCESA7 in parenchyma cells associated with extraxylary fibers, suggesting a mechanism of formation of sclerenchyma fibers in Agave similar to that reported for xylem cells in model eudicots. Overall, our results provide a framework for un-derstanding molecular bases underlying cell wall biogenesis in Agave species studying mechanisms involving in leaf fiber development in monocots. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Artículo

AGAVE CELL WALLS LIGNOCELLULOSE CAD PROTEIN CESA PROTEIN SCLERENCHYMA BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA GENÉTICA GENÉTICA MOLECULAR DE PLANTAS GENÉTICA MOLECULAR DE PLANTAS

Shopping for Ecological Indices? On the Use of Incidence-Based Species Compositional Similarity Measures

IAN MACGREGOR FORS FEDERICO ESCOBAR SARRIA JUAN FERNANDO ESCOBAR IBAÑEZ NATALIA MESA SIERRA FREDY ALEXANDER ALVARADO ROBERTO Rafael Rueda Hernández CLAUDIA ELIZABETH MORENO ORTEGA Ina Falfán ERICK JOAQUIN CORRO MENDEZ Eduardo Octavio Pineda Arredondo Amandine Bourg JOSE LUIS AGUILAR LOPEZ (2022)

"β-diversity has been under continuous debate, with a current need to better understand the way in which a new wave of measures work. We assessed the results of 12 incidence-based β-diversity indices. Our results of gradual species composition overlap between paired assemblages considering progressive differences in species richness show the following: (i) four indices (β-2, β-3, β-3.s, and βr) should be used cautiously given that results with no shared species retrieve results that could be misinterpreted; (ii) all measures conceived specifically as partitioned components of species compositional dissimilarities ought to be used as such and not as independent measures per se; (iii) the non-linear response of some indices to gradual species composition overlap should be interpreted carefully, and further analysis using their results as dependent variables should be performed cautiously; and (iv) two metrics (βsim and βsor) behave predictably and linearly to gradual species composition overlap. We encourage ecologists using measures of β-diversity to fully understand their mathematical nature and type of results under the scenario to be used in order to avoid inappropriate and misleading inferences."

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Beta diversity Nestedness Replacement Richness difference Species turnover BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA BIOLOGÍA VEGETAL (BOTÁNICA) ECOLOGÍA VEGETAL ECOLOGÍA VEGETAL

Strong floristic distinctiveness across Neotropical successional forests

Catarina Jakovac Jorge Arturo Meave del Castillo Frans Bongers Susan Letcher JUAN MANUEL DUPUY RADA Daniel Piotto Danaë Rozendaal Marielos Peña-Claros Dylan Craven Braulio Santos Alexandre Siminski Alfredo Fantini Alice Cristina Rodrigues Alma Hernandez-Jaramillo Álvaro Idárraga-Piedrahita André Junqueira Angelica Almeyda Zambrano Bernardus de Jong Bruno X. Pinho Bryan Finegan Carolina Castellanos Castro Daisy Christiane Zambiazi Daisy Dent Daniel Hernán Garcia-Villalobos Deborah Kennard Diego Delgado Eben Broadbent Edgar Ortiz-Malavasi Eduardo A. Pérez-García Edwin Lebrija-Trejos Erika Berenguer Erika Marin-Spiotta Esteban Alvarez_Davila EVERARDO VALADARES DE SÁ SAMPAIO Felipe Melo Fernando Elias Filipe França Florian Oberleitner Francisco Mora Ardila G. Bruce Williamson Gabriel Colletta George Cabral Geraldine Derroire Geraldo Fernandes Hans van der Wal Heitor Mancini Teixeira Henricus F.M. Vester Hernando Garcia Ima Vieira Jaider Jiménez-Montoya Jarcilene Almeida Cortez Jefferson Hall Jerome Chave Jess Zimmerman Jhon Edison Nieto Vargas Joice Ferreira JORGE ENRIQUE RODRIGUEZ VELAZQUEZ Jorge Ruiz Jos Barlow Jose Aguilar Cano JOSE LUIS HERNANDEZ STEFANONI Julien Engel Justin Becknell Kátia Janaina Zanini Madelon Lohbeck Marcelo Tabarelli Marco Antonio Romero Romero Maria Uriarte Maria das Dores Magalhães Veloso Mário do Espírito Santo Masha van der Sande Michiel van Breugel Miguel Martínez-Ramos Naomi Schwartz Natalia Norden Nathalia Pérez-Cárdenas Noel Antonio González_Valdivia PASCAL PETRONELLI Patricia Balvanera Paulo Massoca Pedro Brancalion Pedro Manuel Villa Peter Hietz Rebecca Ostertag René López Camacho Ricardo Cesar Rita Mesquita Robin Chazdon Rodrigo Muñoz Saara DeWalt Sandra Müller Sandra M Duran Sebastião Martins Susana Ochoa-Gaona Susana Rodriguez-Buritica T. Mitchell Aide Tony Vizcarra Bentos Vanessa de Souza Moreno Laura Vanessa Granda William Thomas Whendee Silver YULE NUNES Lourens Poorter (2022)

Forests that regrow naturally on abandoned fields are important for restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services, but can they also preserve the distinct regional tree floras? Using the floristic composition of 1215 early successional forests (≤20 years) in 75 human-modified landscapes across the Neotropic realm, we identified 14 distinct floristic groups, with a between-group dissimilarity of 0.97. Floristic groups were associated with location, bioregions, soil pH, temperature seasonality, and water availability. Hence, there is large continental-scale variation in the species composition of early successional forests, which is mainly associated with biogeographic and environmental factors but not with human disturbance indicators. This floristic distinctiveness is partially driven by regionally restricted species belonging to widespread genera. Early secondary forests contribute therefore to restoring and conserving the distinctiveness of bioregions across the Neotropical realm, and forest restoration initiatives should use local species to assure that these distinct floras are maintained. Copyright © 2022 The Authors, some rights reserved.

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CONSERVATION ECOSYSTEMS FORESTRY BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA BIOLOGÍA VEGETAL (BOTÁNICA) ECOLOGÍA VEGETAL ECOLOGÍA VEGETAL