Publications by authors named "Maximilian Larter"

The synergy between drought-responsive traits across different organs is crucial in the whole-plant mechanism influencing drought resilience. These organ interactions, however, are poorly understood, limiting our understanding of drought response strategies at the whole-plant level. Therefore, we need more integrative studies, especially on herbaceous species that represent many important food crops but remain underexplored in their drought response.

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Article Synopsis
  • Tree breeding programs improve tree varieties by enhancing traits like biomass production, stem form, and resistance to pests, but it's uncertain how these traits affect drought resistance amidst climate change.
  • This study examined the hydraulic properties of four genetically improved maritime pine varieties, focusing on factors like hydraulic efficiency and safety, finding that improved varieties have better hydraulic conductivity without sacrificing drought resistance.
  • The findings suggest that increased hydraulic efficiency can boost biomass productivity while remaining resilient to drought, offering guidance for sustainable forest management and breeding across other tree species.
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Insular woodiness (IW), referring to the evolutionary transition from herbaceousness toward woodiness on islands, has arisen more than 30 times on the Canary Islands (Atlantic Ocean). One of the IW hypotheses suggests that drought has been a major driver of wood formation, but we do not know in which palaeoclimatic conditions the insular woody lineages originated. Therefore, we provided an updated review on the presence of IW on the Canaries, reviewed the palaeoclimate, and estimated the timing of origin of woodiness of 24 insular woody lineages that represent a large majority of the insular woody species diversity on the Canaries.

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Background And Aims: The ability to avoid drought-induced embolisms in the xylem is one of the essential traits for plants to survive periods of water shortage. Over the past three decades, hydraulic studies have been focusing on trees, which limits our ability to understand how herbs tolerate drought. Here we investigate the embolism resistance in inflorescence stems of four Arabidopsis thaliana accessions that differ in growth form and drought response.

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Background: Convergent phenotypic evolution has been widely documented across timescales, from populations, to species, to major lineages. The extent to which convergent phenotypes arise from convergent genetic and developmental mechanisms remains an open question, although studies to-date reveal examples of both similar and different underlying mechanisms. This variation likely relates to a range of factors, including the genetic architecture of the trait and selective filtering of mutations over time.

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  • The study investigates the evolution of the inflated fruiting calyx in angiosperms, focusing on tomatillos and their relatives, which aids in the protection and dispersal of fruit.
  • Researchers used genetic analysis methods to create a detailed phylogeny of the Physalideae group, tracking the evolution and changes in calyx morphology over time.
  • The findings suggest that the evolution towards an inflated calyx is a stepwise and mostly irreversible process, highlighting the need for further taxonomic research and insights into the genetic mechanisms behind this trait.
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The predictability of evolution, or whether lineages repeatedly follow the same evolutionary trajectories during phenotypic convergence remains an open question of evolutionary biology. In this study, we investigate evolutionary convergence at the biochemical pathway level and test the predictability of evolution using floral anthocyanin pigmentation, a trait with a well-understood genetic and regulatory basis. We reconstructed the evolution of floral anthocyanin content across 28 species of the Andean clade Iochrominae (Solanaceae) and investigated how shifts in pigmentation are related to changes in expression of seven key anthocyanin pathway genes.

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Xylem vulnerability to embolism is emerging as a major factor in drought-induced tree mortality events across the globe. However, we lack understanding of how and to what extent climate has shaped vascular properties or functions. We investigated the evolution of xylem hydraulic function and diversification patterns in Australia's most successful gymnosperm clade, Callitris, the world's most drought-resistant conifers.

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An Australian desert tree species displays record drought tolerance, bringing it remarkably close to the practical limit for liquid water transport in vascular plants.

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