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Marks, R. A., Ekwealor, J.T.B ... M.J. Oliver, M.J., Rhee, S.Y. (2025). Life on the dry side: A roadmap to understanding desiccation tolerance and accelerating translational applications. Nature Communications.
DIO:10.1038/s41467-025-58656-y
We synthesize current knowledge on desiccation tolerance across evolutionary, ecological, physiological, and cellular scales to provide a roadmap for advancing desiccation tolerance research. We also address critical gaps and technical roadblocks, highlighting the need for standardized experimental practices, improved taxonomic sampling, and the development of new tools for studying biology in a dry state. We hope that this perspective can serve as a roadmap to accelerating research breakthroughs and unlocking the potential of desiccation tolerance to address global challenges related to climate change, food security, and health.
Marks, R. A., Van Der Pas, L., Schuster, J., Gilman, I.S., VanBuren, R. (2024). Convergent evolution of desiccation tolerance in grasses. Nature Plants. DOI: 10.1038/s41477-024-01729-5
Here we explore the evolutionary mechanisms underlying the recurrent evolution of desiccation tolerance across grasses. We observed substantial convergence in gene duplication and expression patterns associated with desiccation. Syntenic genes of shared origin are activated across species, indicative of parallel evolution. In other cases, similar metabolic pathways are induced but using different gene sets, pointing towards phenotypic convergence. Species-specifc mechanisms supplement these shared core mechanisms, underlining the complexity and diversity of evolutionary adaptations to drought.
Marks, R. A., Delgado, P., Makonya, G. M., Cooper, K., VanBuren, R., Farrant, J. M. (2024). Higher order polyploids exhibit enhanced desiccation tolerance in the grass Microchloa caffra. Journal of Experimental Botany. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erae126
Many resurrection plants are polyploid, and several groups have hypothesized that polyploidy contributed to the evolution of desiccation tolerance. However, due to the vast phylogenetic distance between resurrection plant lineages, the rarity of desiccation tolerance, and the prevalence of polyploidy in plants, this hypothesis has been difficult to test. Here, we describe two distinct ecotypes of M. caffra that occupy different extremes of the environmental gradient and exhibit consistent differences in ploidy, morphological, reproductive, and desiccation tolerance traits in both field and common growth conditions.
Marks, R.A. (2024), Resurrection plants revisited: bridging the gap between bryophytes and angiosperms to decode desiccation tolerance. New Phytologist. DOI: 10.1111/nph.19719
Shorinola, O., Marks, R.A., Emmrich, P., Jones, C., Odeny, D., Chapman M.A. (2024). Integrative and inclusive genomics to promote the use of underutilized crops. Nature Communications. 14:1292441. DIO:10.1038/s41467-023-44535-x.
Underutilised crops are important for diversifying food systems. The genomics of these crops should not be done in isolation but should align with their breeding and capacity building strategies while leveraging advances made in major crops.
Marks, R.A., and Farrant J.M. (2023). Editorial: Women in plant biotechnology 2022. Frontiers in Plant Science. 14:1292441. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.129244.
Sharaf, A., Ndiribe, C.C.,…, Marks, R. A., et al. (2023). Bridging the gap in African biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics. Nature Biotechnology. DOI:10.1038/s41587-023-01933-2
The Open Institute of the African BioGenome Project empowers African scientists and institutions with the skill sets, capacity and infrastructure to advance scientifc knowledge and innovation and drive economic growth.
Marks R. A., Amézquita E. J., Percival, S., Rougon-Cardoso, A., Chibici-Revneanu, C., Tebele, S. M., Farrant, J. M., Chitwood, D. H., VanBuren, R. (2023). Global disparaties in plant science; a legacy of colonialism, partiarchy, and exclusion. PNAS. 120, 10. DOI:10.1073/pnas.2217564120.
We analyzed ~300,000 papers published over the past two decades to quantify disparities across nations, genders, and taxonomy in the plant science literature. Our analyses reveal striking geographical biases—affluent nations dominate the publishing landscape and vast areas of the globe have virtually no footprint in the literature. Authors in Northern America are cited nearly twice as many times as authors based in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, despite publishing in journals with similar impact factors. Gender imbalances are similarly stark and show remarkably little improvement over time. Some of the most affluent nations have extremely male biased publication records, despite supposed improvements in gender equality. In addition, we find that most studies focus on economically important crop and model species, and a wealth of biodiversity is underrepresented in the literature. Taken together, our analyses reveal a problematic system of publication, with persistent imbalances that poorly capture the global wealth of scientific knowledge and biological diversity.
Tebele, S., Marks, R. A., Farrant, J. M. (2023). Exploring the root-associated microbiome of the resurrection plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia. Plant and Soil. DOI:10.1007/s11104-023-06019-1.
Root-associated microbes play a major role in stress tolerance and are an attractive target for enhancing drought tolerance in staple crops. However, how these dynamics play out under the most extreme water limitation remains underexplored. This study identified bacterial and fungal communities that tolerate extreme drought stress in the bulk soil, rhizosphere, and endosphere of M. fabellifolia.
Marks R. A., Mbobe, M., Greyling, M., Pretorius, J., McLetchie, D. N., VanBuren, R., and Farrant, J.M. (2022). Variability in functional trait along an environmental gradient in the South African resurrection plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia. Plants. 11(10):1332. DOI:10.3390/plants11101332.
Many desiccation-tolerant plants are widely distributed and exposed to substantial environmental variation across their native range. Here, we tested for natural variation in desiccation tolerance across wild populations of the South African resurrection plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia. We surveyed a suite of functional traits related to desiccation tolerance, leaf economics, and reproductive allocation in M. flabellifolia to test for trait associations and tradeoffs.
Marks, R.A., Hotaling, S., Frandsen, P.B. VanBuren, R. (2021). Representation and participation across 20 years of plant genome sequencing. Nature Plants. 7, 1571–1578. DOI:10.1038/s41477-021-01031-8
Here we provide a contemporary view of land plant genomics, including analyses on assembly quality, taxonomic distribution of sequenced species and national participation. We show that assembly quality has increased dramatically in recent years, that substantial taxonomic gaps exist and that the field has been dominated by affluent nations in the Global North and China, despite a wide geographic distribution of study species. We identify numerous disconnects between the native range of focal species and the national affiliation of the researchers studying them, which we argue are rooted in colonialism—both past and present.
Tebele S. M., Marks, R. A., Farrant, J.M. (2021). Two decades of desiccation biology: a systematic review of the best studied angiosperm resurrection plants. Plants. 10, 2784. DOI:10.3390/plants10122784.
Resurrection plants are useful models to understand the complex biology of vegetative desiccation tolerance. This systematic review provides an overview of publication trends on resurrection plants, the geographical distribution of species and studies, and the methodology used.
Marks R. A., Farrant, J. M., McLetchie, D. N., VanBuren, R. (2021). Unexplored dimensions of variability in vegetative desiccation tolerance. The American Journal of Botany. 108: 1-13. DOI:10.1002/ajb2.1588.
Desiccation tolerance has evolved recurrently across diverse land plant lineages as an adaptation for survival in regions where seasonal rainfall drives periodic drying of vegetative tissues. Although, desiccation tolerance is often viewed as binary and monolithic, substantial variation exists in the phenotype and underlying mechanisms across diverse lineages, heterogeneous populations, and throughout the development of individual plants.
Marks R. A., Smith, J. J., VanBuren, R., McLetchie, D. N. (2020). Expression dynamics of dehydration tolerance across a population of the tropical liverwort Marchantia inflexa. The Plant Journal. DOI:10.1111/tpj.15052.
Here, we characterized expression dynamics throughout a dehydration-rehydration time-course in six diverse genotypes of the dioecious liverwort Marchantia inflexa. We identified classical signatures of stress response in M. inflexa, including major changes in transcripts related to metabolism, expression of LEA and ELIP genes, and evidence of cell wall remodeling.
Marks, R. A., Pike, B., McLetchie, D. N. (2019). Water stress tolerance tracks environmental exposure and exhibits a fluctuating sexual dimorphism in a tropical liverwort. Oecologia. 191: 791-802. DOI:10.1007/s00442-019-04538-2.
Here, we characterized patterns of intraspecifc variation in dehydration tolerance across a variable landscape in the tropical plant, Marchantia infexa. We tested if DhT was correlated with an environmental exposure gradient, if male and female plants had contrasting DhT phenotypes, and if variation in DhT had a genetic component.
Marks, R. A., Smith, J .J., Cronk, Q., Grassa, C.J., McLetchie, D. N. (2019). Genome of the tropical plant Marchantia inflexa: implications for sex chromosome evolution and dehydration tolerance. Scientific Reports. 9: 1-13. DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-45039-9.
Draft genome assembly for the tropical liverwort, Marchantia infexa, adds to a growing body of genomic resources for bryophytes and provides an important perspective on the evolution and diversification of land plants. We specifically address questions related to sex chromosome evolution, sexual dimorphisms, and the genomic underpinnings of dehydration tolerance.
Marks, R. A., Smith, J .J., Cronk, Q., McLetchie, D. N. (2017). Variation in the bacteriome of the tropical liverwort, Marchantia inflexa, between the sexes and across habitats. Symbiosis. 75: 93-101. DOI:10.1007/s13199-017-0522-3.
We hypothesized that variation in the environment and sex of a host plant, impact the composition and diversity of associated microbial communities. To test this hypothesis, we characterized the bacteriome of the non-vascular plant, Marchantia inflexa, in both males and females across multiple habitats by targeted sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene.
Marks, R. A., Burton, J. F., McLetchie, D. N. (2016). Sex differences and plasticity in dehydration tolerance: insight form a tropical liverwort. Annals of Botany. 118: 347-56. DOI:10.1093/aob/mcw102.
Bryophytes showing less intense and variable DhT are understudied, despite the potential for these species to provide an informative link between highly tolerant and sensitive species. In this study, we tested the degree to which dehydration tolerance varies across populations and the sexes of M. inflexa
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