Where We Live is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode. Proud Livestream Sponsor SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR START Receive daily news and talk from Connecticut Public Radio directly to your inbox!
by Bradley van Paridon | Dec 23, 2024 To make crops more nutritious and attractive for essential pollinators like bees, researchers are looking below the soil to an enigmatic group of fungi which may enhance the floral traits that attract and feed pollinators. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are a type of fungus that form symbiotic relationships with nearly all plants on the planet. “To really understand mycorrhizal fungi, you have to go back 450 million years,” said Aidee Guzman, assistant professor of biology at Stanford University. In prehistoric times, land plants had limited root systems that struggled to obtain certain nutrients, like phosphorus and nitrogen, from the soil. Enter fungi that first colonized root systems, growing networks of filaments called hyphae, which they use to scavenge the soil for the valuable nutrients. These fungi which live within the roots can then directly give these nutrients to plants in exchange for carbon which the plants have fixed into of sugary substances during photosynthesis. During her Ph.D., which she completed at the University of California Berkely, Guzman wanted to find ways to make crops more nutritious for bees. In doing so, bee populations would be healthier and the crops would benefit from increased visits and pollination by the insects. “I started thinking about plants and where they get the nutrients,” she said, which brought her to soil and the mycorrhizal fungi. Given that the fungi provide nutrients that are essential for producing the pollen, nectar, and flowers that bees need to survive, exploring the relationship between nutrients, fungi, and plant traits seemed like an promising avenue of inquiry. The only problem: the complexity of the plant-fungi-environment interaction.
In nature, there isn’t just one type of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. “There’s hundreds, if not thousands of mycorrhizal fungal species,” said Guzman. Furthermore, each species can behave differently depending on the plant it is growing with and the environmental conditions in the soil, making this a complex web of variables to sift through. Many previous studies on these fungi-plant relationships limited this complexity for practical reasons by using a single fungi species in experiments or simply looked at plant growth in the presence or absence of fungi. “When we set the experiment up, we decided to use different communities of mycorrhizal fungi,” said Guzman. The communities they chose were based on informal classifications made by other researchers in the field. Broadly speaking, they could classify communities of fungi as competitors, stress tolerators, or ruderal fungi. The competitors grow fast and outcompete others when establishing colonies in the roots. Stress-tolerant communities withstand events like drought and heat better than others, and the ruderal communities grow fast, have a high turnover and perform well in disturbed environments. To make things more difficult, Guzman wanted to test more than just plant growth — she wanted to pinpoint relationships between these fungi communities and specific plant traits important for pollinators, like flower size and the nutritional value of pollen and nectar. To do this, she needed to track multiple plant and fungal traits in high and low nutrient soil conditions, when plants were grown together with each fungi community on their own, or with a mixture of all three. Then, she needed to see how attractive the plants were to bees.
Unsurprisingly, plants grew bigger with any community or mix or fungi than without. “But when we started looking at the floral traits, that’s where we started seeing differences between the communities,” said Guzman. “For example, associations with some mycorrhiza fungi resulted in more protein rich pollen, whereas some associations resulted in higher nectar volume,” she said. That no one community of fungi or mixture of communities clearly showed a benefit across all plant traits and pollinator attractiveness highlights the complexity of these interactions. However, the main trait which attracted the pollinators turned out to be flower size. When digging deeper into the data, Guzman saw that plants whose fungal communities grew more hyphae, the fungal filaments which grab nutrients from the soil, grew bigger flowers. “If the plants end up associating with mycorrhiza fungi that are really good at colonizing their roots, but they’re not growing enough hyphae, then they might actually give carbon with nothing in return,” she explained. She also saw that in general the mixed communities of fungi produced the most hyphae. This is likely due to a mixed community being able to compensate for each other’s weaknesses. “You have [arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi] that are able to do things that the other ones can’t,” she said, “and they complement each other and maybe that’s why we saw more hyphae.” One of the important takeaways of this work for Guzman is how much there is still to be uncovered about the fungi–plant relationship, and researchers need to increase the complexity and scope of their experiments. “Farmers, when they come onto a farm, they’re not just managing for biomass or plant growth, they’re managing the soil, they’re managing for pollination, they’re managing all the pieces together,” said Guzman. “So we need more studies that integrate all those components.” Reference: Aidee Guzman, et al. Arbuscular mycorrhizal interactions and nutrient supply mediate floral trait variation and pollinator visitation, New Phytologist (2024). DOI: 10.1111/nph.20219 Feature image credit: Reba Spike on Unsplash ASN Weekly Sign up for our weekly newsletter and receive the latest science news directly to your inbox. Sign up for our weekly newsletter and receive the latest science news. Related posts: Scientists explore how corals could adapt to climate change to survive, but stress that cutting emissions is crucial for their future. A molecule emitted by rainforest plants plays a key role in forming mysterious aerosol particles in the region’s upper troposphere. A new material designed to dissolve only in salt water could help us prevent the accumulation of microplastics in the seas. Honey bees compete with wild bees for resources in croplands, but nutritious wildflower plantings can mitigate these effects. Researchers develop a device that generates clean energy from food waste, using banana peels and coconuts to power communities sustainably. Pathogenic bioaerosols detected at household garbage collection sites may contribute to vascular aging with high chronic exposure.
For premium support please call: For premium support please call: There are hundreds of Christmas and holiday movies, and many more are released every year. Some are really good and become iconic, while the value of others can be, well, questionable… Today, however, we’ll be aiming for the iconic ones. From family-friendly laugh-out-loud comedies to movies that might cause you to shed a tear or two, this selection of 23 movies has it all. But there’s a catch, though your task is simple – look at the scene and guess what movie it’s taken from. How hard can it be? Let’s find out! The post Only Real Christmas Movie Fans Can Score 23/23 On This “Guess The Movie From One Scene” Trivia Quiz first appeared on Bored Panda. Advertisement Advertisement AOL AOL AOL Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement
The battles over abortion in the U.S. are increasingly focusing on the pills that are now the most common way pregnancies are ended Opponents of abortion are increasingly focusing on restricting access to pills, which are the most common way to end a pregnancy in the U.S. This month, the Texas attorney general's office filed a lawsuit against a New York doctor, saying she violated Texas law by prescribing abortion pills to a patient there via telemedicine. The suit represents the first lawsuit of its kind and could lead to a legal test for the New York law designed to protect providers there who prescribe the drugs to patients in states with abortion bans. Anti-abortion officials are taking other steps, too, through legislation and lawsuits. Abortion rights advocates are also concerned that President-elect Donald Trump's administration could take action to restrict access if it chose to. By the time the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and opened the door for states to ban abortion, over half of all abortions were obtained using medication, usually a combination of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. The drugs are different than Plan B and other emergency contraceptives that are usually taken within three days after possible conception, weeks before women know they're pregnant. Studies have found they're generally safe and result in completed abortions more than 97% of the time, which is less effective than procedural abortions. By last year, nearly two-thirds of abortions were from medications, according to a tally by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion access. Much of the growth has been through abortion pills prescribed via telehealth and mailed to patients. A survey conducted for the Society of Family Planning found that by the first half of 2024, such prescriptions accounted for about one-tenth of abortions in the U.S. That number has risen rapidly since 2023 when some Democratic-controlled states started adopting laws that seek to protect medical providers in their borders who prescribe abortion pills via telehealth to patients in states where abortion is banned. “Telehealth for abortion has been a huge success,” said Ushma Upadhyay, a professor at the Center of Health and Community and the University of California San Francisco. “It has helped people in an incredible way.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton rolled out a new strategy in the fight over pills this month when he sued Dr. Maggie Carpenter, who is based in New York, alleging she prescribed and sent pills to a Texas woman. New York is one of at least eight states with a law intended to protect medical providers who prescribe abortion pills to patients in states with bans. If Texas prevails upon a judge to block Carpenter from prescribing in the state, it's unclear what would happen next. New York's shield law would bar it from being enforced in New York, said David Cohen, a professor at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law. Cohen said he expects any ruling would not have a major chilling effect on other doctors who prescribe out-of-state patients. “They certainly seem undeterred by legal risk,” he said. And, he said, like illegal drugs, they'll continue to be available if there's a demand for them. Cohen said Paxton “is going to plug one hole if he succeeds. There's no way he plugs them all.” Pill prescribing has already withstood one key effort to block it. The U.S. Supreme Court this year ruled that a group of anti-abortion physicians and organizations that represent them lacked the legal standing to force the undoing of federal approvals for mifepristone. The state attorneys general from Idaho, Kansas and Missouri responded in October with a legal filing contending that they can make such an argument. Instead of focusing on the drug’s initial approval in 2000, they’re looking at later changes from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that allow its use for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy and telemedicine prescriptions. There hasn't yet been a ruling on their case. When there is, it will likely be appealed to a higher court. This year, Louisiana became the first state with a law to reclassify both mifepristone and misoprostol as “controlled dangerous substances.” The drugs are still allowed, but medical personnel have to go through extra steps to access them. Some doctors said in a legal challenge that the change could cause delays in administering them in emergencies, such as when a woman is hemorrhaging after giving birth. Dr. Jennifer Avengo, director of the New Orleans Health Department, said that in the first few months of enforcement, she did not hear of any cases where the drugs could not be accessed in time. Additional states are considering ways to restrict abortion pills in their 2025 legislative sessions. In Tennessee, a Republican state lawmaker has proposed creating a $5 million civil liability against those who deliver or help access abortion pills with the intent of helping someone end a pregnancy. Rep. Gino Bulso said he filed the bill after learning that abortion pills were being sent to Tennessee despite state law prohibiting such actions. “I began to think about how we might be able to both provide an additional deterrent to companies violating the criminal law and provide a remedy for the family of the unborn children,” he said. A proposal in Missouri would make it a crime to deliver mifepristone or other drugs with the intent of causing an abortion. In November, the state's voters adopted a constitutional amendment to allow abortion until fetal viability — which is somewhere past 21 weeks into a pregnancy, though there's no fixed timeframe. Trump's administration also could take action on the pill policy. One approach that abortion rights advocates have warned about — and which some abortion opponents have suggested — includes enforcing an 1873 law against pills that bans mailing medications or instruments used in abortion. President Joe Biden's administration has declined to do so. The FDA could also change its approvals of the drugs, even without being forced to do so by a court ruling. During his campaign, Trump flip-flopped on abortion policy and at points attempted to distance himself from abortion opponents. Since he won the election, though, he has nominated abortion opponents to administration posts. In an interview with Time magazine published this month, he gave rambling answers to questions about pills. He said he intended to maintain access but also left the door open to changing his mind. ___ Associated Press reporter Kimberlee Kruesi contributed to this article. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events
English 
Français