Towards evolutionary predictions: Current promises and challenges.

Evolution has traditionally been a historical and descriptive science, and predicting future evolutionary processes has long been considered impossible. However, evolutionary predictions are increasingly being developed and used in medicine, agriculture, biotechnology and conservation biology. Evolutionary predictions may be used for different purposes, such as to prepare for the future, to try and change the course of evolution or to determine how well we understand evolutionary processes.

Evolution of manipulative microbial behaviors in the rhizosphere.

The rhizosphere has been called "one of the most complex ecosystems on earth" because it is a hotspot for interactions among millions of microbial cells. Many of these are microbes are also participating in a dynamic interplay with host plant tissues, signaling pathways, and metabolites. Historically, breeders have employed a -centric perspective when trying to harness the potential of microbiome-derived benefits to improve productivity and resilience of economically important plants.

Variation in plant leaf traits affects transmission and detectability of herbivore vibrational cues.

Many insects use plant-borne vibrations to obtain important information about their environment, such as where to find a mate or a prey, or when to avoid a predator. Plant species can differ in the way they vibrate, possibly affecting the reliability of information, and ultimately the decisions that are made by animals based on this information. We examined whether the production, transmission, and possible perception of plant-borne vibrational cues is affected by variation in leaf traits.

Tracking plant preference for higher-quality mycorrhizal symbionts under varying CO conditions over multiple generations.

The symbiosis between plants and root-colonizing arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi is one of the most ecologically important examples of interspecific cooperation in the world. AM fungi provide benefits to plants; in return plants allocate carbon resources to fungi, preferentially allocating more resources to higher-quality fungi. However, preferential allocations from plants to symbionts may vary with environmental context, particularly when resource availability affects the relative value of symbiotic services.