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Graduation of the big three!

Anonymous — Tue, 16 May 2023 19:48:36 +0000

Graduation of the big three! Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/16/2023 - 13:48

The lab has had many wonderful undergraduates but never have so many graduated at once and with so much fanfare! Kayleigh and Abel graduated magna cum laude having very successfully defended their honors theses. Rachel celebrated a great year of research and a beautiful poster presentation at the EBIO research symposium. Abel gave the commencement address, and Stacey may just have gotten a little mushy....

Our three wonderful seniors graduated last week, and we are so proud!

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Hot off the presses!

Anonymous — Tue, 16 May 2023 03:22:43 +0000

Hot off the presses! Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/15/2023 - 21:22

This month our Solanaceae fruit fossil paper finally came out in New Phytologist! The paper, led by Rocio with a huge team of co-authors including Abel and Stacey, describes two new fruit fossils -- one from the chilipepper tribe (Capsiceae) from Colorado and another from the tomatillo tribe (Physalideae) from Colombia. These two fossils join two previously described Physalis from Patagonia, and all are Eocence fossils (ca. 50 million years old). This paints a new picture of the family -- where we previously thought it was young and South American in origin, it now appears to be widespread long ago and the origin is uncertain. With similarly old fossils in North and South America, Solanaceae could have arisen in either continent, and of course who knows what we may find someday in Australia or Asia!

The fossil chilipepper story was featured in CU Today and has since been picked up by a number of media outlets, including the Denver Gazette, Utah Public Radio, and the Mountain West News Bureau! See below:

1. Chili peppers more deeply rooted in Colorado than previously thought. CU Boulder Today (Boulder, USA) - 20/04/2023.

2. Fósiles olvidados de Colombia y Estados Unidos puede reescribir parte de la historia evolutiva de las plantas (Cordoba, Argentina) - 24/04/2023.

3. Fosil puede elevar la línea de tiempo evolutiva (Radio Centro Spain) - 24/04/2023.

4. How forgotten Colorado fossils may rewrite part of plant evolutionary history / Phys.org (Douglas, UK) – 20/04/2023.

5. Los fósiles de Colorado podrían revisar la historia de la evolución de las plantas / Deporticos (San José, Costa Rica) – 20/04/2023.

6. Chili Fossil May Rewrite Tomato Family History / Technology Networks (Sudbury, UK) – 21/04/2023.

7. New study uncovers Colorado’s spicy ancient history of chili peppers / EurekAlert (Washington, USA) – 21/04/2023.

8. Descobreixen els pebrots picants més antics del món / Mon Planeta (Barcelona, España) – 24/04/2023.

9. Chili peppers may have existed in North America 50 million years ago / Earth.com (Telluride, USA) – 24/04/2023.

10. Colorado chili pepper fossil discovery may upend evolutionary timeline / New Atlas (Melbourne, Australia) – 24/04/2023.

11. Chili peppers more deeply rooted in Colorado than previously thought / The Chronicle News (Trinidad, USA) – 24/04/2023.

12. Incredibly Rare Fossil Chilies Reveal They Emerged 50 Million Years Ago / IFLScience (Sudbury, UK) – 24/04/2023.

13. Fossile di peperoncino: avrebbe un’età di 50 milioni di anni / ICrewPlay (Roma, Italy) – 26/04/2023.

14. The origins of chili peppers date back longer than we thought / Axios (Denver, USA) – 28/04/2023.

15. Prehistoric Chili Pepper Fossils Challenge Tomato Plant’s Evolutionary History, Study Says / Science Times (Nueva York, USA) – 30/04/2023.

16. Antik kırmızı biber, domatesin tarihini yeniden yazabilir! / Gidahatti (Ankara, Turkey) – 1/05/2023.

17. An Ancient Chili Pepper May Rewrite The History of The Tomato Plant / ScienceAlert (Canberra, Australia) – 1/05/2023.

18. 50 million-year-old pepper found in Colorado / Popular Science (Nueva York, USA) – 1/05/2023.

19. Un peperoncino fossile potrebbe riscrivere la storia evolutiva di questa famiglia di piante / Focus Tech (Roma, Italy) – 2/05/2023.

20. El fósil de un chile replantea la historia evolutiva de los tomates y los pimientos / Deutsche Welle (Bonn, Germany) – 2/05/2023.

21. The Oldest Chili Pepper Was Found in Colorado—and It’s Around 50 Million Years Old / Sunset Magazine (Los Ángeles, USA) – 5/05/2023.

22. El fósil de un chile olvidado en un museo cambia la historia de los tomates / Wired en español (Mexico city, Mexico) – 8/05/2023.

23. Fossil Chili Pepper Identified As Rooted In Colorado Than Previously Thought / India Education Diary (Nueva Delhi, India) – 9/05/2023.

24. Así es el chile de hace 40 millones de años que acaban de descubrir en Colorado / Tapas Magazine (Madrid, Spain) – 10/05/2023.

25. A 50 Million-Year-Old Fossil Spiced Up What We Knew About Chili Peppers / The Daily Meal (Indianapolis, United States) – 11/05/2023.

26. Geschichte der Chilischote muss neu geschrieben werden / Latina Press (Undenheim, Germany) – 13/05/2023.

27. Chile pepper history has been rewritten by fossils found in Colorado / The Gazette (Colorado Springs, United States) – 13/05/2023.

28. Research Reveals Fiery Past of Chili Peppers / Mirage News (Wollongong, Australia) – 22/05/2023.

29. NM Chile Peppers Likely Millions of Years Older Than Previously Thought / Public News Service (Boulder, United States) – 30/05/2023.

30. Southwest chile peppers likely millions of years older than previously thought / Utah Public Radio (Logan, Unites States) – 2/06/2023.

31. Chili peppers’ evolutionary origins have Colorado flavor, new study shows / Wyoming Public Radio (Laramie, United States) – 7/06/2023.

32. Chili peppers’ evolutionary origins have Colorado flavor, new study shows / KUNR Public Radio (Reno, United States) – 7/06/2023.

Our new chilipepper fossil generates a lot of buzz in the media.

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Miranda's work makes CU Today

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 16:33:16 +0000

Miranda's work makes CU Today Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/13/2022 - 10:33

Miranda's discovery of structurally colored blue fruits in Lantana strigocamara is out this week in New Phytologist, and CU Today covered the story. Now that Miranda is off in Cambridge in Silvia's lab, Stacey did her best to show off the fruits for the interview with CU Today. Congrats, Miranda on such a cool paper!

Lantana and its sparkly blue fruits were featured on the news -- second ever case of making blue colorwith lipids!

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World Carnivorous Plant Day features a talk from Sukuan!

Anonymous — Sat, 07 May 2022 03:18:18 +0000

World Carnivorous Plant Day features a talk from Sukuan! Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/06/2022 - 21:18

The first Wednesday of May every year is World Carnivorous Plant Day, an international celebration of the diversity and beauty of carnivorous plants. In honor of this day, the International Carnivorous Plant Society organizes a series of events including a online conference. Click here to check out Sukuan's awesome talk in this line-up!

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Congrats to Chelsea on her exit talk!

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 15:11:12 +0000

Congrats to Chelsea on her exit talk! Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 03/20/2022 - 09:11

How have five years gone by so fast! Chelsea gave her exit talk this spring and described her research on the breakdown of self-incompatiblity in the sharp-leaf groundcherry, Physalis acutifolia. She discussed results from her recent paper showing that the small-flowered population she discovered in Arizona is self-compatible unlike the common, large-flowered form. Click here to watch her talk!

Chelsea presented her thesis work on self-compatibility in tomatillos in the EBIO colloquium.

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Tomatillo fruits and calyces don’t grow together

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 05:55:40 +0000

Tomatillo fruits and calyces don’t grow together Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 01/02/2022 - 22:55

Fruit and calyx development in the sharpleaf groundcherry, by Erica Au

Project Background

Pollination happens when either an organism or abiotic factor aids in the transport of pollen to the stigma of a plant. In order to reach the ovary to fertilize the ovules (eggs), the pollen grows down the style (Fig. 1). This is where the factor of compatibility of the pollen to the plant comes into play. Only compatible pollen can reach the ovules and fertilize them to grow into seeds. A self-compatible plant can create seeds (and fruits) using its own pollen while self-incompatible plants cannot. Self-incompatibility ensures genetic diversity because these plants only take in foreign pollen, which is advantageous for obtaining beneficial traits that could increase the fitness of offspring. Conversely, self-compatibility is useful for farming because SC plants will always have its own pollen to use to reproduce and make fruits to harvest.

This fall I studied the sharpleaf-groundcherry, Physalis acutifolia, a plant that can either be self-compatible (SC) or self-incompatible (SI). It is a member of the tomatillo genus and yields small round fruits that are enclosed by a papery, lantern-like calyx that grows after fertilization, as the fruits mature (Fig. 2). Examining the compatibility of pollen in P. acutifolia can give researchers, agriculturists, and horticulturists more insight on breeding and the evolution of P. acutifolia in dynamic climates within the Southwest region of the United States, as well as in agricultural settings. Additionally, it may also create predictions on how other species within genus Physalis may perform when being self-compatible or self-incompatible . Examining the fruit size yield of the edible members of the genus can be key to cultivating them efficiently. For example, by knowing how compatible the plant is with itself can allow agriculturists to devise an appropriate procedure on farming the largest fruit and knowing if either SC or SI individuals are best for farming.

Project Overview

My interest in botany and plant evolution led me to join the Smith lab with Chelsea Pretz as my mentor. I started assisting Chelsea on her project on the evolution of self-compatibility of P. acutifolia in 2021 under the interest of plant morphology and controlled greenhouse crosses. When I joined the Smith lab not only did it cater to my interests in plant biology, but also provide the ideal environment to obtain skills that are useful for a future working with plants. Additionally, working in a professional lab setting can help me become familiar with a lab work environment.

Throughout the semester, I was able to work in a greenhouse and lab setting. In the greenhouse, I learned to properly collect and organize data on fruits, flowers, and calyx. While in the laboratory, I got to observe and assist in the process of extracting and weighing styles. Later in the semester, I learned to extract seeds and take images of individual calyx and fruits. I then used the ImageJ program on these images to measure calyx length and width, as well as calculate fruit area size.

My independent project within the lab will act as preliminary data in looking into differences between calyx area and fruit area size among plants grown from different crossing treatments (SC self, SC/SI, SI self, SI/SC, note: SI self are seeds from SI individuals that had become SC within their lifetime). I was interested in seeing if there was a relationship between cross type and the size of calyx and fruit it yields. Using the data I collected from ImageJ, I selected 3 individuals of each treatment and took 3 measurements from each of these individuals to graph. To get a rough estimate of calyx size, I used the product of calyx length and width. I used a standard box plot and violin plot in Rstudio to visualize my data. The variations of boxplots I used were appropriate visualizations for what I wanted to examine because they display the quantiles and outliers of areas. This can allow me to see a general range of the area measurements in each treatment and see how much these ranges differ between the treatments.

The average calyx areas among the different treatments are relatively consistent, ranging from 3-4.5 cm² with some outliers in the SC self and SI/SC treatments. The p-value of 0.406 indicates that there is little or no significant difference between the treatment mean areas.

Across the treatments, there is high variation of the concentration of measurements and the fruit area means. Fruit area of the SI self treatment has the highest values around 1.5-2 cm², while SC self, SC/SI and SI/SC had varying spreads around 1-1.75 cm². The p-value of 0.00752 indicates that at least one of the treatments means significantly varies from the other treatment groups, which in this case, is the SI treatment.

Interpretation and Final Thoughts

From the results of graphing calyx and fruit sizes of the different treatments, there seems to be little difference between calyx sizes but some significance between fruit sizes. This shows how even though the calyx sizes are relatively consistent, the fruit inside could vary significantly, which is interesting since calyx and fruit grow simultaneously. The SI self treatment has the highest range of fruit area size, which could suggest that there is better performance of creating larger fruit by transitioning from SI to SC. This may also suggest that there could be inbreeding depression with the SC treatments because their fruit area ranges are lower than the SI treatment. Inbreeding depression happens when individuals of close genetic relation mate, and as a result, their offspring have reduced fitness. Smaller fruits decrease fitness because less seeds are produced compared to a large fruit. Although, because this is preliminary data, conclusions may change with larger sample size.

My independent research experience allowed me to contribute to data collection and get to do some data management and analysis on my own. My project challenged me to use skills and knowledge that I’ve learned in previous courses and apply them effectively to my data and analysis. For example, using Rstudio to plot my data and determine what kind of graphs would provide the best visualization of what I want to examine.

When collecting fruits and extracting seeds, I’ve noticed an interesting disparity between the SI and SC plants and the diversity of seed size and color. Some fruits yielded thin and pale seeds, while some were more round and of light or darker brown color. The thin, paler seeds look unviable and underdeveloped compared to the seeds with more pigment and rounder shape. This would be an interesting future project to consider studying because these contrasting seed types may be connected to their viability and can provide further insight on SC and SI individuals.

Undergraduate researcher Erica describes her fall research project in which she found the inflated calyces of Physalis fruits can hide fruit size differences

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Stories from fossil seeds

Anonymous — Thu, 06 May 2021 04:03:55 +0000

Stories from fossil seeds Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/05/2021 - 22:03

Reflections on a semester of undergraduate research in paleobotany by Abel Campos

Plants in the fossil record

Life has existed on Earth for a really, really long time. So long that It has become extremely difficult for us to determine just how old different groups of organisms actually are. One of the only viable options for us as scientists to figure out the age of different organisms is by studying the fossils they have left behind. Unfortunately, fossil evidence is not always readily available to researchers. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “There seems to be plenty of evidence, look at all the dinosaur fossils that have been found!”. And while it is true that an incredible body of knowledge has been accumulated around the dinosaurs, other very interesting and important groups of organisms, due to a variety of different factors, have been studied significantly less than dinosaurs. One of these understudied groups is plants.

Plants are one of the oldest and most widespread groups of organisms on Earth, yet compared to dinosaurs, we have learned very little about the plants of the past from their fossil records. This is partly due to the fact that plant parts, like leaves and stems, don’t fossilize as well as bones, giving scientists less of a chance to find good plant fossils. However, this does not mean that there are no plant fossils at all, and another reason that little has been inferred about plants from their fossil record is that scientists have not paid the plant fossil record sufficient attention. The fact that plants maybe aren’t as exciting as things like dinosaurs, as well as the fact that plant fossils are less common, have deterred scientists from really studying the plant fossil record. The Fossils, Fruits and Seeds project is an attempt to direct the eyes of the scientific community towards the plant fossil record, and show that overlooking these fossils is not a viable option if we want to know the details of how life evolved on Earth.

My Experience Contributing to the Project

I joined the lab and started contributing to the Fossils, Fruits and Seeds project, under the mentorship of Rocio Deanna in January of 2021. It was the first time I had ever worked in a professional research environment, so the first month was dedicated to learning about the current state of research on the tomato family (Solanaceae) by reading about the most important findings from the last 20 years and discussing them with my mentor. Over the course of those discussions, it started to become clear that one of the foremost gaps in understanding was the timeline during which major groups in the tomato family evolved.

After becoming oriented with the current state of the field, I started learning techniques for data collection. One of the goals of the project is to review the tomato family’s fossil record and create a database of fossil fruit and seed characteristics. So, I was introduced to the twelve traits that would help indicate to us whether these seeds were members of the tomato family or not. I was then taught how to digitally check each fossil seed specimen for those traits. I spent the remaining three months working my way through the seed specimens that had not yet been analyzed (like the ones below) and checking each of them for the twelve traits we had decided on, and recording the absence or presence of those traits in our database. By determining whether these fossil seeds displayed traits indicative of the tomato family, we can start to get an idea of how long those kinds of traits have been present on earth, and when they started to appear. It also gives us the chance to appreciate just how morphologically diverse seeds can be, even within the same family.

On the right, a fossil seed described as Physalis pliocenica (within the tomatillo genus) and on the left, a seed from an extant species of angel's trumpet, Datura inoxia. The fossil seed has an attached structure on the bottom right that could be a food reward body for dispersers (an elaiosome). Elaisomes are only found in Datura, so the fossil might belong in Datura instead of Physalis. Photos by Rocío Deanna.

Next Steps for the Project

Now that the data collection of fossil seed traits is beginning to wrap up, we will be moving into fruit trait data collection in the summer. Since the currently known fruit fossils from the tomato family are older than the seed fossils, the compilation of a database of fossil fruit traits is a crucial step towards advancing our understanding of how and when the family’s most iconic traits started to evolve. A compilation of fossil fruit traits in conjunction with the data we have collected on fossil seeds will allow us to begin narrowing down the age of the tomato family. As more and more studies like this one are carried out, each pursuing the evolutionary history of specific group of plants, we as a scientific community will be able to build a more comprehensive picture of how flowering plants evolved on Earth.

Undergraduate researcher Abel Campos shares his experiences conducting paleobotanical research on Solanaceae seeds.

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The wisdom of plants

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 18:41:37 +0000

The wisdom of plants Anonymous (not verified) Sat, 02/13/2021 - 11:41

La Nacion, one of the leading newspapers in Argentina, published an article about plant intelligence, and Rocío was one of the plant biologists interviewed for the piece. She was asked, are plants intelligent? And here's what she said (in Spanish and then translated into English):

“¿Si las plantas son inteligentes? Pero por supuesto. El tema para mí es cuánto más inteligentes son que nosotros. Imaginate ser una planta: estás en un sitio casi inmóvil, el alimento tiene que venir hacia vos y debés elaborar estrategias para aprovechar el que haya. Incluso si estás en un sitio ideal, con nutrientes, luz y agua, y necesitás ir hacia tus compañeros para la reproducción, o atraer un polinizador. Es más, abandonás a la progenie cuando recién empieza a crecer. Las plantas tienen mucho desafíos y aun así existen desde hace más de mil millones de años. Se originaron en océanos y después pasaron a medios terrestres, hace 500 millones de años. Cambiaron la atmósfera y las condiciones de suelo y ahí siguen.”

"Are plants intelligent? But of course. The question for me is how much more intelligent they are than us. Imagine being a plant: you're stuck in one spot, immobile, food has to come to you, and you've got to figure out strategies to take advantage of what you've got. And even if you're in a perfect spot, with nutrients, light and water, you've still got to connect with your fellow plants to reproduce, or attract pollinators. And more than this, you leave your offspring by themselves soon after they are born. Plants have many challenges and they've still existed for over a billion years. They originated in the ocean, and then they came onto land 500 million years ago. They changed the atmosphere and the soil and they're still here."

Brava, Rocío, for a wonderful piece of scicomm!

Rocío was interviewed by the newspaper La Nación about plant intelligence.

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Welcome to the lab, Agnes!

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 02:44:36 +0000

Welcome to the lab, Agnes! Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/10/2020 - 20:44

Agnes was recently awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), and her project examines drivers of diversification in Merianieae (Melastomataceae) as well as the maintenance of buzz pollination in some high elevation lineages. The picture on the right shows one of these beautiful species (courtesy of her twitter feed). In carrying out her postdoctoral project, she is splitting her time between the US (where she will work with Stacey and with Laura Lagomarsino), the UK (where she will work with Mario Vallejo-Marín), and Vienna (where she will work with Stefan Dullinger and Jürg Schönenberger). She'll also be doing field work in Colombia and Ecuador. We're super excited to have her as part of our group!

The newest postdoc to join the lab is Agnes Dellinger, an expert in pollination and floral evolution in Melastomataceae.

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Uniting early career graduate students with a GRFP workshop

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 22:32:37 +0000

Uniting early career graduate students with a GRFP workshop Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/03/2020 - 16:32

Over the last couple of years there has been discussion about how the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) awards tend to go to the most prestigious universities. In order to change the narrative, Chelsea partnered with the Botanical Society of America (BSA) to provide writing support for the GRFP for people at universities all over the US and US territories. The workshop started off with a seminar on how to apply for the GRFP with an emphasis on plant science research (pictured below: clockwise from top left, Chris Hill & Narcrisha Norman (current GRFP Program Directors), Amanda Ingram (NSF Program Director) & Rick McCourt (former GRFP Program Director)). Click here to view the seminar. The workshop continues to help student participants with the writing process by working in small groups. In these groups, participants work together reading drafts of the different components and receive feedback from someone in the group, a graduate student who has received the grant, and a post-PhD mentor. One of these post-PhD mentors is one of our own post-docs, Miranda!

Working with the Botanical Society of America, Chelsea organized a Graduate Research Fellowship Program workshop for plant researchers.

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