Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland: Viscum album (2022)
Journal Article
Thomas, P. A., Dering, M., Giertych, M. J., Iszkuło, G., Tomaszewski, D., & Briggs, J. (2022). Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland: Viscum album. Journal of Ecology, 111(3), 701-739. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14036

This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Viscum album L. (Mistletoe) that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are presented within the standard framework of the Biologi... Read More about Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland: Viscum album.

Evolutionary ecology: Plant volatile profile changes after escaping specialist insects. (2021)
Journal Article
Sobhy, I., & Bruce, T. (2021). Evolutionary ecology: Plant volatile profile changes after escaping specialist insects. Current Biology, R969 - R971. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.043

Considerable debate surrounds the role of plant volatiles in plant defence against insects. A new study provides evidence for evolutionary changes in an invasive plant that support the defensive role of plant volatiles.

Defence Is a Priority in Female Juveniles and Adults of Taxus baccata L. (2021)
Journal Article
(2021). Defence Is a Priority in Female Juveniles and Adults of Taxus baccata L. Forests, 1 - 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/f12070844

Female individuals of dioecious plants invest their resources more in storage and defence, and the males have higher nitrogen content invested in the production of pollen grains. An unresolved problem is whether this strategy occurs only in sexually... Read More about Defence Is a Priority in Female Juveniles and Adults of Taxus baccata L..

Temperate zone plant natural products – a novel resource for activity against tropical parasitic diseases (2021)
Journal Article
Hameed, H., King, E., Doleckova, K., Bartholomew, B., Hollinshead, J., Mbye, H., …Price, H. (2021). Temperate zone plant natural products – a novel resource for activity against tropical parasitic diseases. Pharmaceuticals, 14(3), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/ph14030227

The use of plant-derived natural products for the treatment of tropical parasitic diseases often has ethnopharmacological origins. As such, plants grown in temperate regions remain largely untested for novel anti-parasitic activities. We describe her... Read More about Temperate zone plant natural products – a novel resource for activity against tropical parasitic diseases.

Biological Flora of the British Isles: Crataegus laevigata (2021)
Journal Article
Thomas, P. A., Leski, T., La Porta, N., Dering, M., & Iszkulo, G. (2021). Biological Flora of the British Isles: Crataegus laevigata. Journal of Ecology, 109(1), 572-596. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13541

This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Crataegus laevigata (Poir.) DC (Midland hawthorn) (C. oxyacanthoides Thuill.) that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are pres... Read More about Biological Flora of the British Isles: Crataegus laevigata.

How is silicic acid transported in plants? (2020)
Journal Article
(2020). How is silicic acid transported in plants?. Silicon, 2641 - 2645. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-019-00360-w

Plants accumulate silicon in their tissues as amorphous silica. The form of silicon taken up by plants is silicic acid, a neutral molecule that passes through membrane channels with water. After seminal work on rice identified an aquaporin that appea... Read More about How is silicic acid transported in plants?.

From theory to experiments for testing the proximate mechanisms of mast seeding: an agenda for an experimental ecology. (2019)
Journal Article
(2019). From theory to experiments for testing the proximate mechanisms of mast seeding: an agenda for an experimental ecology. Ecology Letters, 210-220. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13442

Highly variable and synchronised production of seeds by plant populations, known as masting, is implicated in many important ecological processes, but how it arises remains poorly understood. The lack of experimental studies prevents underlying mecha... Read More about From theory to experiments for testing the proximate mechanisms of mast seeding: an agenda for an experimental ecology..

Glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase 6 controls filamentous pathogen interactions and cell wall properties of the tomato and Nicotiana benthamiana leaf epidermis. (2019)
Journal Article
Fawke, S., Torode, T., Gogleva, A., Fich, E., Sørensen, I., Yunusov, T., …Schornack, S. (2019). Glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase 6 controls filamentous pathogen interactions and cell wall properties of the tomato and Nicotiana benthamiana leaf epidermis. New Phytologist, 1547 - 1559. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15846

The leaf outer epidermal cell wall acts as a barrier against pathogen attack and desiccation, and as such is covered by a cuticle, composed of waxes and the polymer cutin. Cutin monomers are formed by the transfer of fatty acids to glycerol by glycer... Read More about Glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase 6 controls filamentous pathogen interactions and cell wall properties of the tomato and Nicotiana benthamiana leaf epidermis..

Rough and tough. How does silicic acid protect horsetail from fungal infection? (2018)
Journal Article
(2018). Rough and tough. How does silicic acid protect horsetail from fungal infection?. Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology, 45 - 52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtemb.2018.01.015

Abstract Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) plants grew healthily for 10 weeks under both Si-deficient and Si-replete conditions. After 10 weeks, plants grown under Si-deficient conditions succumbed to fungal infection. We have used NanoSIMS and fluoresce... Read More about Rough and tough. How does silicic acid protect horsetail from fungal infection?.

Oral Secretions Affect HIPVs Induced by Generalist (Mythimna loreyi) and Specialist (Parnara guttata) Herbivores in Rice (2017)
Journal Article
(2017). Oral Secretions Affect HIPVs Induced by Generalist (Mythimna loreyi) and Specialist (Parnara guttata) Herbivores in Rice. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 929 - 943. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-017-0882-4

Plants synthesize variable mixtures of herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) as part of their evolutionary conserved defense. To elucidate the impact of chewing herbivores with different level of adaptation on HIPV profiles in rice, we measured H... Read More about Oral Secretions Affect HIPVs Induced by Generalist (Mythimna loreyi) and Specialist (Parnara guttata) Herbivores in Rice.

Cucumber mosaic virus and its 2b protein alter emission of host volatile organic compounds but not aphid vector settling in tobacco. (2017)
Journal Article
Tungadi, T., Groen, S., Murphy, A., Pate, A., Iqbal, J., Bruce, T., …Carr, J. (2017). Cucumber mosaic virus and its 2b protein alter emission of host volatile organic compounds but not aphid vector settling in tobacco. Virology Journal, 14, Article 91. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12985-017-0754-0

BACKGROUND: Aphids, including the generalist herbivore Myzus persicae, transmit cucumber mosaic virus (CMV). CMV (strain Fny) infection affects M. persicae feeding behavior and performance on tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), Arabidopsis thaliana and cucu... Read More about Cucumber mosaic virus and its 2b protein alter emission of host volatile organic compounds but not aphid vector settling in tobacco..

A maize landrace that emits defense volatiles in response to herbivore eggs possesses a strongly inducible terpene synthase gene. (2017)
Journal Article
Tamiru, A., Bruce, T., Richter, A., Midega, C., Degenhardt, J., Kelemu, S., …Pickett, J. (2017). A maize landrace that emits defense volatiles in response to herbivore eggs possesses a strongly inducible terpene synthase gene. Ecology and Evolution, 2835 - 2845. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2893

Maize (Zea mays) emits volatile terpenes in response to insect feeding and egg deposition to defend itself against harmful pests. However, maize cultivars differ strongly in their ability to produce the defense signal. To further understand the agroe... Read More about A maize landrace that emits defense volatiles in response to herbivore eggs possesses a strongly inducible terpene synthase gene..

Mountain Ash: Fire, Logging and the Future of Victoria’s Giant Forests (2017)
Journal Article
(2017). Mountain Ash: Fire, Logging and the Future of Victoria’s Giant Forests. Mountain Research and Development, 161 - 162. https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd.mm200

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Animating tree colonization and growth (2016)
Journal Article
(2016). Animating tree colonization and growth. Dendrochronologia, 13-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2016.11.006

In the early twentieth century the woodland at Heald Brow, north-west England, was largely a tree-less pasture, but changing land management practices lead to natural tree colonization and the development of a mixed deciduous woodland with ash (Fraxi... Read More about Animating tree colonization and growth.

Dynamics of cell wall assembly during early embryogenesis in the brown alga Fucus. (2016)
Journal Article
Torode, T., Siméon, A., Marcus, S., Jam, M., Le Moigne, M., Duffieux, D., …Hervé, C. (2016). Dynamics of cell wall assembly during early embryogenesis in the brown alga Fucus. Journal of Experimental Botany, 6089 - 6100. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erw369

Zygotes from Fucus species have been used extensively to study cell polarization and rhizoid outgrowth, and in this model system cell wall deposition aligns with the establishment of polarity. Monoclonal antibodies are essential tools for the in situ... Read More about Dynamics of cell wall assembly during early embryogenesis in the brown alga Fucus..

Virus Infection of Plants Alters Pollinator Preference: A Payback for Susceptible Hosts? (2016)
Journal Article
Groen, S., Jiang, S., Murphy, A., Cunniffe, N., Westwood, J., Davey, M., …Carr, J. (2016). Virus Infection of Plants Alters Pollinator Preference: A Payback for Susceptible Hosts?. PLOS pathogens a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science, e1005790 - ?. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1005790

Plant volatiles play important roles in attraction of certain pollinators and in host location by herbivorous insects. Virus infection induces changes in plant volatile emission profiles, and this can make plants more attractive to insect herbivores,... Read More about Virus Infection of Plants Alters Pollinator Preference: A Payback for Susceptible Hosts?.

An Indirect Defence Trait Mediated through Egg-Induced Maize Volatiles from Neighbouring Plants. (2016)
Journal Article
Mutyambai, D., Khan, Z., Midega, C., Pickett, J., Bruce, T., & van den Berg, J. (2016). An Indirect Defence Trait Mediated through Egg-Induced Maize Volatiles from Neighbouring Plants. PloS one, e0158744 - ?. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0158744

Attack of plants by herbivorous arthropods may result in considerable changes to the plant's chemical phenotype with respect to emission of herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs). These HIPVs have been shown to act as repellents to the attacking i... Read More about An Indirect Defence Trait Mediated through Egg-Induced Maize Volatiles from Neighbouring Plants..

Predatory mites double the economic injury level of the Frankliniella occidentalis in strawberry (2016)
Journal Article
(2016). Predatory mites double the economic injury level of the Frankliniella occidentalis in strawberry. BioControl, 661-669. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-016-9747-y

The western flower thrips Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) causes bronzing to strawberry fruit. Management of insecticide-resistant strains relies on the integration of predators with carefully timed use of the few inse... Read More about Predatory mites double the economic injury level of the Frankliniella occidentalis in strawberry.

Monoclonal antibodies indicate low-abundance links between heteroxylan and other glycans of plant cell walls. (2015)
Journal Article
Cornuault, V., Buffetto, F., Marcus, S., Xue, J., Crépeau, M., Rydahl, M., …Ralet, M. (2015). Monoclonal antibodies indicate low-abundance links between heteroxylan and other glycans of plant cell walls. Planta, 1321 - 1334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-015-2375-4

MAIN CONCLUSION: The derivation of two sensitive monoclonal antibodies directed to heteroxylan cell wall polysaccharide preparations has allowed the identification of potential inter-linkages between xylan and pectin in potato tuber cell walls and al... Read More about Monoclonal antibodies indicate low-abundance links between heteroxylan and other glycans of plant cell walls..

Draft Genomes, Phylogenetic Reconstruction, and Comparative Genomics of Two Novel Cohabiting Bacterial Symbionts Isolated from Frankliniella occidentalis. (2015)
Journal Article
(2015). Draft Genomes, Phylogenetic Reconstruction, and Comparative Genomics of Two Novel Cohabiting Bacterial Symbionts Isolated from Frankliniella occidentalis. Genome Biology and Evolution, 2188 - 2202. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evv136

Obligate bacterial symbionts are widespread in many invertebrates, where they are often confined to specialized host cells and are transmitted directly from mother to progeny. Increasing numbers of these bacteria are being characterized but questions... Read More about Draft Genomes, Phylogenetic Reconstruction, and Comparative Genomics of Two Novel Cohabiting Bacterial Symbionts Isolated from Frankliniella occidentalis..