Dustin Ray
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Dustin Ray
@drfloeem.bsky.social
Dad, Plant Functional Anatomist. I also like to swim, bike, run and XC ski. I study phloem structure function and seasonality.
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Our work, just published in Plant Communications, solves the mystery of how giant waterlilies achieve such size. We deep-dived into their genomes & found a massive accumulation of cells in early development to offset production costs: like paying for bricks cheap, upfront, before building the house.
April 20, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
♻️Development and application of an inexpensive open-source dendrometer for detecting xylem water potential and radial stem growth at high spatial and temporal resolution by Sean M Gleason and co-authors

Full #openaccess
👉 doi.org/10.1093/aobp...

#PlantScience
doi.org
March 11, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Atomic force microscopy imaging of plant cell walls (Junbao Pu, Jie Ma, Hang Zhai, Shanshan Wu, Youmei Wang, Christine V Putnis, Lijun Wang, Wenjun Zhang) https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiae655 @ASPB #PlantScience
March 10, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Leaf minimum conductance dynamics during and after heat stress: Implications for plant survival under hotter droughts (Viviane de Araújo Brito Fernandes, Fernanda Santos Farnese, Brenner Ryan Arantes, et. al.) https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiaf026 @ASPB #PlantScience
March 10, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Trialed my new home-made field system for stereo pair focus stacked close-ups yesterday. This is Wahlenbergia albomarginata for cross-eye viewing. Olympus TG-6 and all the necessary kit weighs 700g.
February 27, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Superoxide anions induce tension wood formation by promoting cambium cell activity (Li-Chao Huang, Yu-Yu Li, Jian-Xin Lai, Yi An, Xue-Qin Song, Shu-Tang Zhao, Jin Zhang, Meng-Zhu Lu)
doi.org
January 7, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
🔥ADVANCE ACCESS🔥: Is autophagy always a death sentence? A case study of highly selective cytoplasmic degradation during phloemogenesis
doi.org
January 2, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Super proud of Shinichi and team for examining if leaf carbohydrate concentrations correlate with structure, chemistry, and physiology traits. 114 sp, 19 sites, 5 biomes. Take home: most daily C gain is exported
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Leaf nonstructural carbohydrate residence time, not concentration, correlates with leaf functional traits following the leaf economic spectrum in woody plants
Nonstructural carbohydrate (NSC) concentrations might reflect the strategies described in the leaf economic spectrum (LES) due to their dependence on photosynthesis and respiration. We examined if N...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 9, 2024 at 7:05 AM
Reposted by Dustin Ray

Your daily dose of botanical drawings from the Botanical Magazine.

Two-colourep crane’s-bill (Pelargonium bicotor)
Plate 201 in volume 6, 1793.

#magazine #artist #plants #curtis #botany

December 8, 2024 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Check out this collaborative #photosynthesis work from an all star group of collaborators. Evolution happens on the lab bench and we found a surprise in a cyano mutant's Photosystem I. More cool work on this system is coming out soon! @lsubiosci.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Cryo-EM structure of a photosystem I variant containing an unusual plastoquinone derivative in its electron transfer chain
A photosystem I structure binding plastoquinone in its electron transfer chain reveals insight into photosynthesis bioenergetics.
www.science.org
December 9, 2024 at 2:05 AM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
An important review - The ecology of plant extinctions - "Recent warm-edge extirpations demonstrate the growing impact of anthropogenic climate change & show that predictions of massive climate-driven extinctions later this century are plausible" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🌾🌎🧪🌐
December 7, 2024 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
The structure of the environment influences the patterns and genetics of local adaptation
The structure of the environment influences the patterns and genetics of local adaptation
Abstract. Environmental heterogeneity can lead to spatially varying selection, which can, in turn, lead to local adaptation. Population genetic models have
doi.org
December 5, 2024 at 10:48 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
♻️Positive pressure in bamboo is generated in stems and rhizomes, not in roots by Joseph Michaud and co-authors

Full #openaccess
👉 https://buff.ly/3XdcCrw

#PlantScience
Positive pressure in bamboo is generated in stems and rhizomes, not in roots
Bamboos stand out among other tall plants in being able to push up water under positive pressure at night all the way to the leaves, causing drops to fall
buff.ly
December 4, 2024 at 7:03 AM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
The only freedom appears to be if I do some work on Saturday or Sunday each week.

I've been in a faculty position for 2 years and a bit, this is all I've known but myth says it used to be better. I'd happily try out another system.
The freedom faculty enjoy is false. Yes, we have a lot of discretion over how we spend our time, but the job demands have become so numerous and disconnected that the most common result is constant frenzy.
December 3, 2024 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
🌡️🌱 New article in @aobp.bsky.social exploring how individual plants' phenological responsiveness to temperature varies across species ranges and is influenced by local climate conditions

Full #openaccess
👉 https://buff.ly/3Z6swVz

#PlantScience
December 3, 2024 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
There's lots of writing advice out there. How do you know what's good advice and what's just opinionated ranting? scientistseessquirre...
What does good writing advice look like?
“Writing Advice is a Lie”, opines Henry Oliver on Substack, with an argument that writers (of fiction mostly, I think?) should ignore all the writing advice that surrounds them on the grounds that …
scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com
December 3, 2024 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Reposted by Dustin Ray
A person on a bicycle is by far the most energy-efficient among animals and machines per distance traveled relative to body weight. The bicycle is magic.

www.jstor.org/stable/24923...
November 24, 2024 at 11:12 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Optimist: The cup is half full.
Pessimist: The cup is half empty.
Population geneticist: The cup is either a quarter full or overflowing and I can never remember whether there's a factor of two for haploids or diploids.

bsky.app/profile/hutc...
Optimist: The cup is half full.
Pessimist: The cup is half empty.
Yorkshireman: A cup? Luxury!
Optimist: The cup is half full

Pessimist: The cup is half empty

Science Fiction Writer: The cup is a crystalline super computer and the liquid is hyperintelligent, they want to know why humanity should be allowed to exist, you have 30 minutes to respond and the answer must be danced by a cat
November 24, 2024 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
📝 Small Gardens Add Up to Big Climate Impact 🧵
https://botany.fyi/3lkhll

Despite their modest size, private gardens pack a powerful punch against climate change when working together, reveals a new study of 2.4 million Flemish gardens.
#Botany #PlantScience 🧪 #InBrief
botany.fyi
November 18, 2024 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Tiny native #Pelargonium littorale #Geraniaceae, found throughout the southwest, this one was enjoying the protection from a large granite boulder! #WildOz
November 20, 2024 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
I deleted pretty much all emails from MDPI and Frontiers.
The strain on scientific publishing: we set out to characterise the remarkable growth of the scientific literature in the last few years, in spite of declining growth in total scientists. What is going on?

direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

A 🧵 1/n
#AcademicSky #PhDchat #ScientificPublishing #SciPub
November 19, 2024 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Dustin Ray
Helpful papers for trainees #1:

The art of growing plants for experimental purposes: a practical guide for the plant biologist

#PlantBiology #Botany 🌱 🧪
November 18, 2024 at 11:47 PM