Biology subjects

Moore, E. G.

Publications and source records attributed to Moore, E. G..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Drought Response and Recovery in Wild, Feral, and Domesticated Brassica rapa: Implications for Crop Climate Resilience

Drought poses a serious threat to agricultural production and food security. Wild relatives of crops, including pre-domesticated and feral varieties, contain genetic diversity that can serve as a breeding resource for increasing desirable crop traits such as drought resilience, but little is known about the relative ability of wild varieties to cope with climate change in most species. In this study, we investigated the drought response of wild, feral, and domesticated varieties of Brassica rapa, an important crop and model species. Twenty-five accessions were subjected to experimental drought and recovery, and variation in traits such as biomass retention, photosynthetic rate, and water use efficiency were quantified. We found several wild accessions of B. rapa had high biomass retention under drought and full recovery of maximum assimilation rate after rewatering, challenging the assumption that feralization produces stress-resilient phenotypes and suggesting that populations of wild crop progenitors are especially promising reservoirs of drought-response diversity. Our results also showed taproot biomass was positively associated with water use efficiency. Our findings provide candidate traits and genotypes for agricultural breeding aimed at increasing drought resilience in domesticated B. rapa cultivars and give insights into evolution under domestication and feralization in the context of climate change.

plant biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Distinct NIR Reflectance Spectra Associated with Foliar Symptoms of Beech Leaf Disease

Beech leaf disease (BLD) is an epidemic spreading among American beech (Fagus grandifolia) populations, with characteristic symptoms including dark green, yellow, or brown bands of thickened leaf tissue between secondary veins. Whereas near infrared (NIR) light is reflected by leaf tissue structure, here we used multispectral NIR imaging to distinguish symptomatic from asymptomatic leaf reflectance, as well as to distinguish between different expressions of symptoms (dark green, yellow, and brown bands) within symptomatic leaves. Key findings include significantly higher NIR reflectance in dark green bands of symptomatic tissue compared to asymptomatic tissue ({lambda} = 840, 860, 900, 940, and 980 nm; [~]26.2%, 25.9%, 35.0%, 35.3%, and 32.5% increase respectively). A partial least squares regression model predicted 97% of variation in symptomatic vs. asymptomatic NIR reflectance was attributed primarily to the increase in spongy mesophyll thickness and overall leaf thickness in symptomatic tissue. Water infiltration of the intercellular airspaces in symptomatic and asymptomatic leaves removed differences in NIR reflectance, supporting a mechanistic link between increased NIR reflectance and the foliar symptoms of BLD. Our results highlight the interaction of leaf internal architecture with NIR wavelengths, and informs the development of targeted remote sensing tools, with implications for detecting even early-stage symptoms of BLD.

plant biology↗