The seed morphospace, a new contribution towards the multidimensional study of angiosperm sexual reproductive biology.

Background: The evolutionary success of flowering plants is associated with the vast diversity of their reproductive structures. Despite recent progress in understanding angiosperm-wide trends in floral structure and evolution, a synthetic view of the diversity in seed form and function across angiosperms is lacking.

Scope: Here we present a roadmap to synthesize the diversity of seed forms in extant angiosperms, relying on the morphospace concept, i.

Selecting the best candidates for resurrecting extinct-in-the-wild plants from herbaria.

Resurrecting extinct species is a fascinating and challenging idea for scientists and the general public. Whereas some theoretical progress has been made for animals, the resurrection of extinct plants (de-extinction sensu lato) is a relatively recently discussed topic. In this context, the term 'de-extinction' is used sensu lato to refer to the resurrection of 'extinct in the wild' species from seeds or tissues preserved in herbaria, as we acknowledge the current impossibility of knowing a priori whether a herbarium seed is alive and can germinate.

Banana seed genetic resources for food security: Status, constraints, and future priorities.

Storing seed collections of crop wild relatives, wild plant taxa genetically related to crops, is an essential component in global food security. Seed banking protects genetic resources from degradation and extinction and provides material for use by breeders. Despite being among the most important crops in the world, banana and plantain crop wild relatives are largely under-represented in genebanks.

Drying banana seeds for conservation.

The ability of seeds to withstand drying is fundamental to seed conservation but drying responses are not well known for most wild species including crop wild relatives. We look at drying responses of seeds of and , the two primary wild relatives of bananas and plantains, using the following four experimental approaches: (i) We equilibrated seeds to a range of relative humidity (RH) levels using non-saturated lithium chloride solutions and subsequently measured moisture content (MC) and viability. At each humidity level we tested viability using embryo rescue (ER), tetrazolium chloride staining and germination in an incubator.

Corrigendum to: Drying banana seeds for conservation.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1093/conphys/coab099.].

Plant Diversity Conservation Challenges and Prospects-The Perspective of Botanic Gardens and the Millennium Seed Bank.

There is a pressing need to conserve plant diversity to prevent extinctions and to enable sustainable use of plant material by current and future generations. Here, we review the contribution that living collections and seed banks based in botanic gardens around the world make to wild plant conservation and to tackling global challenges. We focus in particular on the work of Botanic Gardens Conservation International and the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with its associated global Partnership.

Seed Banks as Incidental Fungi Banks: Fungal Endophyte Diversity in Stored Seeds of Banana Wild Relatives.

Seed banks were first established to conserve crop genetic diversity, but seed banking has more recently been extended to wild plants, particularly crop wild relatives (CWRs) (e.g., by the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB), Royal Botanic Gardens Kew).

Challenges for Ex Situ Conservation of Wild Bananas: Seeds Collected in Papua New Guinea Have Variable Levels of Desiccation Tolerance.

Ex situ seed conservation of banana crop wild relatives ( spp. L.), is constrained by critical knowledge gaps in their storage and germination behaviour.

Trade-off between seed dispersal in space and time.

Seed movement and delayed germination have long been thought to represent alternative risk-spreading strategies, but current evidence covers limited scales and yields mixed results. Here we present the first global-scale test of a negative correlation between dispersal and dormancy. The result demonstrates a strong and consistent pattern that species with dormant seeds have reduced spatial dispersal, also in the context of life-history traits such as seed mass and plant lifespan.

Macroevolutionary patterns in seed component mass and different evolutionary trajectories across seed desiccation responses.

Seed coat and seed reserve show substantial mass variation, play different roles in plant life strategies and are shaped by different selective forces. However, remarkably little is known about the macroevolution of the relative allocation in seed components and its influence on important ecophysiological processes. Using phylogenetic comparative methods and evolutionary modelling approaches, we modelled mass changes in seed components along individual lineages for 940 species and compared the patterns across seed desiccation responses.

A research agenda for seed-trait functional ecology.

Trait-based approaches have improved our understanding of plant evolution, community assembly and ecosystem functioning. A major challenge for the upcoming decades is to understand the functions and evolution of early life-history traits, across levels of organization and ecological strategies. Although a variety of seed traits are critical for dispersal, persistence, germination timing and seedling establishment, only seed mass has been considered systematically.

Taxonomic affinity, habitat and seed mass strongly predict seed desiccation response: a boosted regression trees analysis based on 17 539 species.

Background And Aims: Seed desiccation response plays an important role in plant regeneration ecology, and has significant implications for species conservation. The majority of seed plants produce desiccation-tolerant (orthodox) seeds, whilst comparatively few produce desiccation-sensitive (recalcitrant) seeds that are unable to survive dehydration, and which cannot be conserved in traditional seed banks. This study develops a set of models to predict seed desiccation response in unstudied species.

The global spectrum of plant form and function.

Earth is home to a remarkable diversity of plant forms and life histories, yet comparatively few essential trait combinations have proved evolutionarily viable in today's terrestrial biosphere. By analysing worldwide variation in six major traits critical to growth, survival and reproduction within the largest sample of vascular plant species ever compiled, we found that occupancy of six-dimensional trait space is strongly concentrated, indicating coordination and trade-offs. Three-quarters of trait variation is captured in a two-dimensional global spectrum of plant form and function.

Maximizing the phylogenetic diversity of seed banks.

Ex situ conservation efforts such as those of zoos, botanical gardens, and seed banks will form a vital complement to in situ conservation actions over the coming decades. It is therefore necessary to pay the same attention to the biological diversity represented in ex situ conservation facilities as is often paid to protected-area networks. Building the phylogenetic diversity of ex situ collections will strengthen our capacity to respond to biodiversity loss.

Quality indicators for non-small cell lung cancer operations with use of a modified Delphi consensus process.

Background: The aim of this project was to develop a set of quality indicators to assess surgical decision making in the care of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: A multidisciplinary Expert Panel of 16 physicians used a modified Delphi process to identify quality indicators that evaluated the processes of care in patients with NSCLC. A systematic review identified potential indicators, which were rated on actionability, validity, usefulness, discriminability, and feasibility in two rounds of questionnaires.

Correlated evolution of genome size and seed mass.

Previous investigators have identified strong positive relationships between genome size and seed mass within species, and across species from the same genus and family. Here, we make the first broad-scale quantification of this relationship, using data for 1222 species, from 139 families and 48 orders. We analyzed the relationship between genome size and seed mass using a statistical framework that included four different tests.

Factors that shape seed mass evolution.

We used correlated divergence analysis to determine which factors have been most closely associated with changes in seed mass during seed plant evolution. We found that divergences in seed mass have been more consistently associated with divergences in growth form than with divergences in any other variable. This finding is consistent with the strong relationship between seed mass and growth form across present-day species and with the available data from the paleobotanical literature.

A brief history of seed size.

Improved phylogenies and the accumulation of broad comparative data sets have opened the way for phylogenetic analyses to trace trait evolution in major groups of organisms. We arrayed seed mass data for 12,987 species on the seed plant phylogeny and show the history of seed size from the emergence of the angiosperms through to the present day. The largest single contributor to the present-day spread of seed mass was the divergence between angiosperms and gymnosperms, whereas the widest divergence was between Celastraceae and Parnassiaceae.