Warming appears as the main risk of non-adaptedness for western Mediterranean relict fir forests under expected climate change scenarios.

Circum-Mediterranean firs are considered among the most drought-sensitive species to climate change. Understanding the genetic basis of trees' adaptive capacity and intra-specific variability to drought avoidance is mandatory to define conservation measures, thus potentially preventing their extinction. We focus here on and , both relict tree species, endemic from south Spain and north Morocco, respectively.

Climate and Soil Microsite Conditions Determine Local Adaptation in Declining Silver Fir Forests.

Ongoing climatic change is threatening the survival of drought-sensitive tree species, such as silver fir (). Drought-induced dieback had been previously explored in this conifer, although the role played by tree-level genetic diversity and its relationship with growth patterns and soil microsite conditions remained elusive. We used double digest restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing (ddRADseq) to describe different genetic characteristics of five silver fir forests in the Spanish Pyrenees, including declining and non-declining trees.

transcriptome sequencing and gene co-expression reveal a genomic basis for drought sensitivity and evidence of a rapid local adaptation on Atlas cedar ().

Introduction: Understanding the adaptive capacity to current climate change of drought-sensitive tree species is mandatory, given their limited prospect of migration and adaptation as long-lived, sessile organisms. Knowledge about the molecular and eco-physiological mechanisms that control drought resilience is thus key, since water shortage appears as one of the main abiotic factors threatening forests ecosystems. However, our current background is scarce, especially in conifers, due to their huge and complex genomes.

Tree-Level Growth Patterns and Genetic Associations Depict Drought Legacies in the Relict Forests of .

The frequency and intensity of drought events are increasing worldwide, challenging the adaptive capacity of several tree species. Here, we evaluate tree growth patterns and climate sensitivity to precipitation, temperature, and drought in the relict Moroccan fir . We selected two study sites, formerly stated as harboring contrasting taxa ( and , respectively).

Repression of Mitochondrial Citrate Synthase Genes by Aluminum Stress in Roots of and .

Aluminum (Al) toxicity in acid soils influences plant development and yield. Almost 50% of arable land is acidic. Plants have evolved a variety of tolerance mechanisms for Al.

Effect of the Amount of Eggs for Rearing on Development, Survival, and Reproduction of .

is a key tool for the success of augmentative biological control programs in protected crops. This biological control agent is mass-reared feeding on eggs of . However, this factitious prey is expensive, accounting for a significant percentage of the rearing costs.

Challenges and Perspectives in the Epigenetics of Climate Change-Induced Forests Decline.

Forest tree species are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. As sessile organisms with long generation times, their adaptation to a local changing environment may rely on epigenetic modifications when allele frequencies are not able to shift fast enough. However, the current lack of knowledge on this field is remarkable, due to many challenges that researchers face when studying this issue.

Testing the effectiveness of conservation management within biosphere reserves: the case of the Mexican deer mouse (Peromyscus mexicanus) as a bioindicator.

Biosphere reserves are protected areas whose purpose is to combine conservation and sustainable development. However, their effectiveness has not been tested sufficiently, especially from an ecological and genetic approach. In this sense, the Peromyscus genus represents an excellent bioindicator to address these questions, due to its short life and high evolutionary rate and fecundity.

Disposable Amperometric Polymerase Chain Reaction-Free Biosensor for Direct Detection of Adulteration with Horsemeat in Raw Lysates Targeting Mitochondrial DNA.

A novel electrochemical disposable nucleic acid biosensor for simple, rapid, and specific detection of adulterations with horsemeat is reported in this work. The biosensing platform involves immobilization of a 40-mer RNA probe specific for a characteristic fragment of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop region of horse onto the surface of magnetic microcarriers. In addition, signal amplification was accomplished by using a commercial antibody specific to RNA/DNA duplexes and a bacterial protein conjugated with a horseradish peroxidase homopolymer (ProtA-HRP40).

D-Root: a system for cultivating plants with the roots in darkness or under different light conditions.

In nature roots grow in the dark and away from light (negative phototropism). However, most current research in root biology has been carried out with the root system grown in the presence of light. Here, we have engineered a device, called Dark-Root (D-Root), to grow plants in vitro with the aerial part exposed to the normal light/dark photoperiod while the roots are in the dark or exposed to specific wavelengths or light intensities.

Brachypodium distachyon: a model species for aluminium tolerance in Poaceae.

Aluminium (Al) toxicity is the main abiotic stress limiting plant productivity in acidic soils. Studies on Al tolerance have been conducted in Poaceae but their genomes are very complex. Fifty-nine diploid lines (2n=10) of Brachypodium distachyon (L.