PWT Lab

27/11/2025

🚀 New Publication Alert! 🌱

Thrilled to share the newly released New Phytologist viewpoint article: “Expanding frontiers: harnessing plant biology for space exploration and planetary sustainability.”

This collaborative work, born at ELGRA, brings together an exceptional group of researchers to explore how cutting-edge plant science can support humanity’s next big steps — from sustaining life beyond Earth to creating more resilient, sustainable systems here at home.

The paper highlights:
✨ How plants can enable long-duration space missions and extraterrestrial habitats
✨ Key technological and biological challenges in growing plants in extreme environments
✨ The potential of space agriculture to inspire innovations that improve planetary sustainability
✨ The importance of international, interdisciplinary collaboration in shaping the future of space biology

As we look toward a future where space exploration and Earth stewardship increasingly intersect, plant biology stands out as a powerful tool for shaping both worlds.

📄 Full article (Open Access): https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.70662

The PWT lab is proud to see this field pushing boundaries — and excited for what comes next! 🌍✨🌌

23/10/2025

🌿 S*x Matters: Understanding Wood–Leaf Hydraulic Coordination in Dioecious Species in a Drying World.

📖 Tree Physiology (Oxford University Press)

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpaf133

I’m pleased to share our new article just published in Tree Physiology, co-authored with ANGELA BALZANO, Riccardo Motti, Maks Merela, and Veronica De Micco.

In this work, we explored how sex-related differences in Mediterranean dioecious shrubs — Pistacia lentiscus and Rhamnus alaternus — shape divergent hydraulic strategies to cope with drought.

By integrating leaf and wood anatomy, photosynthetic performance, and chlorophyll fluorescence, we found that:

🌱 Male plants display more conservative, drought-resistant traits (thicker leaves, lower SLA, higher dry matter and stomatal density, higher vessel frequency),

🌸 while females show more acquisitive traits, enhancing photosynthesis under favorable conditions but increasing vulnerability to drought-induced embolism.

💡 Key message:

👉 S*x matters — even in plants — and should be explicitly considered in trait-based models of plant responses to climate change.

15/10/2025

🎉 New paper out in IAWA Journal! 🌿

I’m thrilled to share our latest publication:
📖 “No leaf is an island: The potential of integrating quantitative wood and leaf anatomy”
by Chiara Amitrano & Veronica De Micco
👉 IAWA Journal, 2025

Understanding how anatomical traits coordinate across plant organs is crucial to model plant hydraulics and resilience under climate change. Yet, wood and leaf anatomy have long developed along separate methodological and conceptual paths.

In this paper, we performed a bibliometric and network analysis of over 12,000 studies (2000–2025), revealing a striking gap between “wood anatomy” and “leaf anatomy” research communities.
Only a handful of studies truly integrate both — highlighting the need for shared descriptors, harmonized methods, and cross-organ trait frameworks.

🌱 Bridging this gap means unlocking a unified view of plant function — from xylem to mesophyll — and advancing the next generation of quantitative, multi-organ plant trait research.

https://doi.org/10.1163/22941932-bja10199

11/10/2025

🌿✨ New Publication from the Plant and Wood Traits Lab! ✨🌿

We are thrilled to announce the publication of our latest study, conducted in collaboration with the IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori Fondazione G. Pascale and the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research:

🔬 "Radiation quality matters: morphological and biochemical responses of Brassica rapa microgreens to X-rays, C-ions, and Fe-ions"
📅 Published on October 10, 2025, in Planta
🔗 Read the full article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00425-025-04835-6

In this study, we investigated how different types of ionizing radiation affect the growth and biochemical responses of Brassica rapa microgreens. Key findings include:

X-rays (low-LET): Trigger a hormetic response at low doses, stimulating some growth traits, but higher doses reduce several traits.

Carbon ions (high-LET): Increase leaf expansion but reduce pigment and protein content, indicating delayed tissue differentiation and a low-cost acclimation mechanism.

Iron ions (high-LET): Promote coordinated biochemical defenses with moderate anatomical changes.

These results highlight how radiation quality influences plant acclimation strategies, with important implications for space agriculture and understanding plant radioresistance.

📚 For full details, read the article here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00425-025-04835-6

Main Conclusion Radiation type and dose distinctly modulate microgreens development, revealing trait-specific thresholds where X-rays induce hormesis, carbon ions delay differentiation, and iron ions enhance biochemical balance with moderate anatomical disruption. Abstract As space exploration progr...