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Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity, Lindsay.

Our University of Ibadan pharm micro Master’s students #PHMtweets take an inquiry based lab course. Recent iterations focused on the phyllosphere, using a module co-developed with Jonathan Wilson. This year, in recognition of the increasing importance of waterborne disease in Ibadan…/2

The only difference is the xylem strand shape -- and the outcome. If vascular morphology can determine drought survival, drought selection acts on vascular form. I'll be presenting the full study done together with Brodersen Lab Wason Lab Kyra Prats Jonathan Wilson and Brett Huggett

Why did the earliest plant vascular systems diversify so rapidly? We think they evolved to tolerate drought. We show why xylem connectivity was critical for preventing hydraulic failure. Martin Bouda Wason Lab Kyra Prats @HuggettLab Jonathan Wilson 🧵👇 science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

It turns out that how the xylem conduits are connected is very important, especially during drought when air bubbles can form and spread through the xylem network. In these two scenarios, the highly connected network (left) is much more vulnerable than the lobed network (right)

Using this framework, we reconstructed many of the potential trajectories for xylem network evolution, from simple to complex networks. We informed these trajectories with xylem networks of fossils and extant ferns & lycophytes.

We found that decreasing the number of neighbors a conduit has reduces the potential pathways for bubbles to spread which makes the network safer. Similarly, concentrating the pathways to more centralized conduits limits spread and improves drought tolerance.

So, growing the network (and therefore allowing the plant to get bigger and more complex) requires careful placement of conduits in the network. Nearly every extant plant we looked at has figured this out, while many extinct plants did not.

The fossils, ferns & lycophytes used in this study are often overlooked or ignored, but it turns out that sometimes the little things in life hold the biggest clues to some of the oldest questions in science.

I’m thrilled to finally share this work in full. We looked at how vascular plants rearranged their xylem to overcome size constraints and spread on dry land with Brodersen Lab Kyra Prats @HuggettLab Wason Lab Jonathan Wilson An explanatory🧵for science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… 1/10

Our work suggests that the diverse forms of xylem strands that appear during this time were an important part of the story. Each successful lineage found its own solution to the problem, leading to the variety in vascular form that persists today. Those that did not, died out.

The underlying selection pressure can be illustrated with a simple thought experiment. At equal drought intensity and for the same conduit properties, xylem strand shape alone can determine survivorship. That implies selection by drought should act on xylem strand shape. 7/10

The full study is now online here: science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… I’m grateful to my co-authors for the teamwork that enabled us to get to the bottom of this important episode in the evolution of the plant body and to Botanický ústav AV ČR/Institute of Botany CAS, Science Magazine. end/

Link to the PDF: science.org/doi/epdf/10.11…

Physiological selectivity and plant–environment feedbacks during Middle and Late Pennsylvanian plant community transitions Read #OpenAccess on the Lyell Collection lyellcollection.org/doi/10.1144/SP… Jonathan Wilson #FossilFriday