Annals of botany最新文献

{"title":"Cascading effects of insufficient seed cold stratification across early life-stages in three temperate trees: impaired phenology and reduced seedling fitness under climate warming.","authors":"Eduardo Vicente, Marta Benito Garzón","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcag250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcag250","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Global warming is shortening winters in temperate ecosystems, limiting cold stratification for seeds with physiological dormancy (PD). The consequences of incomplete dormancy release can cascade beyond germination, potentially affecting fitness in subsequent life-stages, yet this remains understudied in trees. Here we assess the effects of insufficient stratification on germination, leaf emergence and seedling performance in three broad-range temperate tree species. We further evaluate how reduced cold stratification under climate change may drive shifts in these traits across the species distribution.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We sampled six Abies alba, six Acer pseudoplatanus and four Fagus sylvatica populations across their native distribution. 10 287 seeds of the three species were sown in climatic-controlled chambers at three different temperature regimes and two stratification treatments. We assessed the success, timing and synchrony of germination and first leaf emergence. We further monitored seedling growth and biomass, as well as root and leaf mass fractions. We analysed the effects of unfulfilled stratification in response to sowing temperature and the influence of populations' climate using generalized linear mixed effect models. We projected shifts in the studied traits under a SSP5-8.5 climate change scenario accounting for reduced cold stratification across the species native distributions.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>Missing cold stratification delayed germination time in all species and decreased F. sylvatica germination and leaf emergence proportions. It further constrained Ab. alba and F. sylvatica seedling growth, particularly under warm temperatures, irrespective of phenological changes. Spatial projections depicted important germination phenology changes across species distributions, uphill increases of Ab. alba seedling growth, and a decrease of F. sylvatica early fitness towards its western distribution.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Cold stratification improved seedling development and their performance under warming beyond regulating germination. Unfulfilled cold stratification in a warmer climate may therefore constrain temperate tree species seed regeneration even if germination proportions or phenology remain unaffected.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149036196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cellular-level thallium distribution in Biscutella laevigata revealed by X-ray fluorescence microscopy-computed tomography.","authors":"Antony van der Ent, Ksenija Jakovljević, Mirko Salinitro, Dennis Brueckner, Cristina Gonnelli","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcag306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcag306","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Biscutella laevigata is a facultative thallium hyperaccumulator, with hyperaccumulating populations known from Les Malines (France) and Cave del Predil (Italy) which are diploid and tetraploid respectively.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Biscutella laevigata was grown hydroponically and treated with 5 µM thallium. Elemental concentrations were determined with monochromatic X-ray fluorescence (MXRF) analysis. Synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microtomography was used to elucidate elemental distribution at the cellular level in plant organs.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>Thallium treatment resulted in shoot concentrations exceeding 3000 µg g-1, with predominant localization in the vacuoles of the epidermal cells of leaves and at the base of the trichomes. In the root, thallium also accumulated in the epidermis, whereas most of the thallium in petioles was found in the vasculature.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Biscutella laevigata compartmentalizes thallium in the epidermal vacuoles of foliar tissues as the main mechanism for detoxification of high shoot thallium.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149029681","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Foliar metabolomes of woody plant communities across an elevational gradient on Mount Washington (New Hampshire, USA).","authors":"T H Wintermute, L A Taylor, M S Peyton, N G Kiel, L N Berry, K T Charton, S W Anderson, P W Chan, B D Corder, J Tourville, T J Givnish","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcag307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcag307","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Plants produce myriad specialized metabolites that constitute the metabolome and mediate responses to abiotic and biotic factors. Elevational gradients, where environmental conditions change predictably over short distances, are natural laboratories for examining plant chemical variation. Using a temperate montane system, we examine how woody plant metabolomes vary with elevation, between leaf forms, and among phylogenetic lineages.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We collected leaves from 23 woody plant species at 18 sites from 320 to 1,700 meters on Mount Washington, New Hampshire, United States, representing distinct vegetative zones and both deciduous and evergreen habits. Untargeted metabolomics identified 6065 unique chemical features, which were assigned to functional classes and corresponding pathways using NPClassifier. We analyzed metabolomic composition, diversity, and phylogenetic structure to test for elevational patterns in plant chemistry by leaf functional groups and vegetative zones.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>Metabolomes were structured based on leaf functional group and elevation, with distinct chemical clustering corresponding to vegetative zones: broad-leaved deciduous forest, needle-leaved evergreen forest, and alpine tundra. Weak phylogenetic signal in most instances suggests that local environment imposes strong selection on chemical traits, such as through the resource availability hypothesis, which we find support for. Community investment in individual chemical classes shifted towards abiotic defenses - such as flavonoids, fatty acids, and cryoprotectants - with increasing elevation, while biotically-defensive phenolic acids decreased due to species turnover along the gradient. Overall chemical composition of metabolomes and classes biosynthetically and functionally contrasted in their patterns.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>While plant metabolomes clustered by leaf functional groups in multidimensional trait space, elevational patterns in chemical class investment were clearer when viewed from the community lens, rather than by leaf functional group. These patterns suggest there are stratified phytochemical landscapes along elevation within which higher trophic levels exist, and that abiotic factors strongly structure the community metabolomes of Mount Washington.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149036235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bittersweet dynamics from flowers to fruits: chemometric molecular networking reveals metabolic changes towards reduced toxicity over ontogeny in above-ground Solanum dulcamara chemotypes.","authors":"Redouan Adam Anaia, Ilaria Chiocchio, Nicole M van Dam","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcag305","DOIUrl":"10.1093/aob/mcag305","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Poisonous plants frequently deploy toxic metabolites in an organ- and ontogenetic-specific manner, yet the developmental dynamics of these plant specialised metabolites remain poorly understood. In the Solanaceae, steroidal glycosides (SGs), including steroidal glycoalkaloids (SGAs) and steroidal saponin glycosides (SSGs), are major defence metabolites with potent ecological and pharmacological activities. Here, we investigated how their metabolic profiles are reorganised during flower and fruit development in Solanum dulcamara using untargeted metabolomics and chemometric molecular networking. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) using classified metabolite features recovered clear organ-specific and chemotype-specific segregation of samples, which was further strengthened when analyses were restricted to metabolomic features annotated as SGs. In flowers, orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) separated both floral developmental stage and chemotype, demonstrating that developmental stage and inherited SG polymorphism represent independent axes of chemodiversity in flowers. Chemometric molecular networks showed pronounced diversification of hydroxycinnamate metabolism towards anthesis, including accumulation of caffeoylputrescine in flower buds and progressive acylation of spermidine conjugates across flower development. Upon anthesis, glycosylated hydroxycinnamates and flavonoids, and hydroxycinnamoyl-acylated flavonoid glycosides are accumulated. Fruit ripening followed a contrasting trajectory, in which SGAs were associated with unripe fruit pericarp, whereas ripe pericarp accumulated N- and O-acetylated SGA derivatives, oxidative deamination products, and predicted steroid degradation products, indicating stepwise detoxification of toxic steroidal glycosides during seed maturation. Together, these findings show that the poisonous chemistry in S. dulcamara is highly dynamic and developmentally orchestrated. Flowers accumulate structurally complex metabolites toward anthesis, including conjugates of hydroxycinnamates, whereas fruits metabolise toxic SGAs into less toxic SGs during ripening, linking metabolic remodelling to reproduction and seed dispersal.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149029577","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Consequences of a commodity boom for genetic biodiversity: a commentary on \"Clonal domestication and biocultural erosion in tequila agave (Agave tequilana Weber var. azul)\".","authors":"Sarah C Davis","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcag310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcag310","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149036184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Monoecy in an XY yam reveals labile sex expression and hormonal reprogramming in Dioscorea alata.","authors":"Komivi Dossa, Erick Malédon, Marie-Claire Gravillon, Christophe Perrot, Mian Faisal Nazir, Elie Nudol, Lévy Laurent, Hanâ Chaïr","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcag303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcag303","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Dioscorea alata has long been considered strictly dioecious, with male and female flowers borne on separate individuals. Here, we report the first documented case of monoecy and labile sex expression in D. alata, identified in the hybrid CIRAD187. Although previously classified as male, this accession now produces both male and female flowers on the same inflorescence, and a few intermediate flower types, including abortive female flowers. Controlled crosses confirmed the fertility of both flower types. Genotyping with a sex-linked KASP marker revealed that CIRAD187 carries an XY genotype, demonstrating that the Y chromosome alone does not strictly determine male phenotype. Transcriptome profiling across male, female, and intermediate flowers revealed extensive divergence, with up to 8750 differentially expressed genes (DEG) between male and female flowers. Distinct identity modules were detected, with female flowers enriched in proteolysis and MAPK/defense-related pathways, male flowers in transcriptional regulation and secondary metabolism, and intermediate flowers in endomembrane organization and endoplasmic reticulum protein processing. A core set of 481 DEGs was shared across comparisons, and 79 DEGs were located within the sex-determining region, indicating transcriptional plasticity of sex-linked loci. Hormone-related pathways were prominently represented, with 340 jasmonic acid (JA)-associated genes detected across the DEG landscape. JA quantification revealed a consistent gradient (male > intermediate > female), supported by coordinated modulation of biosynthesis and signaling components. These findings uncover unexpected reproductive flexibility in D. alata and provide a molecular framework for understanding and potentially exploiting sex plasticity in greater yam breeding.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149023539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can long-term survival models improve inference in seed germination studies? Evidence from tropical forest species.","authors":"Sebastião Martins Filho, Marciel Lelis Duarte, Lausanne Soraya de Almeida, Glauciana da Mata Ataíde, Barbara França Dantas","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcag175","DOIUrl":"10.1093/aob/mcag175","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Seed germination analysis often ignores temporal dynamics and non-germinating fractions, limiting biological inference. Conventional methods assume all seeds germinate, which is unrealistic for heterogeneous forest seed lots. Long-term survival (cure fraction) models offer a framework to address this limitation. This study uses seed germination of native Brazilian forest species to demonstrate the applicability and advantages of long-term modelling.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>Five independent datasets from native Brazilian forest species were analysed under varying environmental conditions, including temperature, osmotic stress, light and seed traits. Germination was modelled as a time-to-event process using parametric (log-normal, Weibull, log-logistic) and semiparametric (Cox) approaches with long-term survival models. Kaplan-Meier estimators were used for initial exploration and model comparison. Model selection was based on graphical fit and Cox-Snell residuals.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>All datasets showed a fraction of non-germinated seeds, with germination curves stabilizing below 100 %, which corroborates the use of cure models. Long-term models consistently outperformed traditional survival approaches, providing better fit and biological interpretability. Environmental factors differentially affected incidence and latency components: extreme temperatures and water stress significantly reduced the probability of germination, while having smaller effects on germination speed. The probability of germination varied widely between species and conditions, from 10 to 95 %. The models also revealed complex interactions between environmental and seed characteristics that influence germination dynamics.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study demonstrates that long-term survival models provide a robust, biologically realistic statistical framework for analysing germination data from forest seeds. Partitioning the germination process into incidence (probability of germination) and latency (time to germination) components enabled key advances. First, it allowed precise quantification of the fractions of germinating and non-germinating seeds. Second, it provided more accurate and informative estimates than traditional survival methods. Finally, it enabled the isolation of the effects of environmental factors on germination capacity and speed.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":"1277-1293"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13595234/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148300532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The non-negligible roles of root phenolic compounds in soil organic carbon storage - a commentary on: 'Taxonomically conservative root phenolic compounds underpin biogeochemical niche separation between grasses and forbs in temperate steppes of northern China'.","authors":"Na Zhou, Hongbo Li","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcag203","DOIUrl":"10.1093/aob/mcag203","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":"i-ii"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13595286/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148409958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How much cross-sectional area is needed to estimate vessel traits in tropical tree branches?","authors":"Robert Muscarella, Julia Valentim Tavares, Carina de Araújo, Silvia Bibbo, Samuel Farrar, Kasia Ziemińska","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcag171","DOIUrl":"10.1093/aob/mcag171","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>Wood anatomical traits provide key insights into plant physiology, ecology and evolution but their quantification is time-consuming. As a result, measurements are often based on small sample areas or few features, potentially reducing the accuracy and repeatability of estimates. A better understanding of how sampling intensity influences estimation of anatomical traits would improve the efficiency and reliability of wood anatomical studies.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We annotated all vessels in 164 branch cross-sections from 19 tree species in Puerto Rico and used these to compute the 'true value' of seven vessel traits. We then applied a subsampling approach to quantify how error of estimated trait values depended on the proportional and absolute area of the sample annotated. We used variance partitioning to assess how the contributions of within-sample, within-species and among-species variation change with area sampled. We also assessed how sampling intensity affected the number of statistically significant comparisons between species.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>At low sampling intensity (i.e. ≤10 % of the total cross-section area), absolute percentage differences of estimates from true values ranged from 6 to 18 %, depending on the trait. Across samples, error declined more strongly as a function of proportional area than absolute area sampled. Nonetheless, among-species and among-individual differences explained the majority of variation in the dataset even at low sampling intensity, while variation among replicate subsamples contributed little to the total variation. Depending on the trait, the proportion of statistically significant differences between species increased by 10-21 % from low to high sampling intensity.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our results suggest that for broad comparisons across species, relatively low sampling intensity can yield robust estimates. However, more sampling may be required for questions demanding greater statistical power, such as within-species or within-individual comparisons. Generally, the design of wood anatomy studies should explicitly consider the accuracy and precision required by the research objectives.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":"971-981"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13595280/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148262989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Taxonomically conservative root phenolic compounds underpin biogeochemical niche separation between grasses and forbs in temperate steppes of northern China.","authors":"Baolan Wang, Zhuo Chen, Wen-Hao Zhang","doi":"10.1093/aob/mcag127","DOIUrl":"10.1093/aob/mcag127","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background and aims: </strong>The temperate steppes are dominated by perennial grass and forb species and biogeochemical niche separation exists universally in leaves between grasses and forbs at different scales. However, the underlying physiological mechanisms still remain unresolved.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We measured macronutrients, micronutrients and total phenolic compounds in both leaves and roots of 19 grass and 39 forb species across the Inner Mongolia grassland in northern China, and investigated relationships between root phenolic compounds and biogeochemical niche separation in both leaves and roots at functional group level.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>Forbs displayed significantly higher concentrations of both leaf and root macronutrients (N, P, S, K, Ca and Mg) than grasses regardless of species and functional group. Although concentrations of leaf micronutrients (e.g. Fe and Mn) were higher in forbs than in grasses, root concentrations Fe and Mn were extremely low in forbs compared with grasses. Metabonomics and physiological analyses showed that roots of forb plants synthesized and secreted higher concentrations of phenolic compounds than grass plants at both species and functional group level. Concentrations of root macronutrients (C, N, P and Ca) were positively correlated with concentrations of total root phenolic compounds, but concentrations of root micronutrients (Fe and Mn) were negatively associated with concentrations of total root phenolic compounds between grasses and forbs. In addition, multiple leaf mineral concentrations (including P, Mg, Ca, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) were positively correlated with concentrations of total root phenolic compounds between grasses and forbs.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Our findings underscore that forb species have evolved higher concentrations of both nutrients and phenolic compounds compared with grass species in steppes of northern China. Root phenol-facilitated nutrient acquisition and transport are involved in leaf and root biogeochemical niche separation between grasses and forbs. These findings may provide valuable insights into predicting species coexistence and biogeochemical cycling in temperate steppes.</p>","PeriodicalId":8023,"journal":{"name":"Annals of botany","volume":" ","pages":"982-992"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13595277/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147855791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}