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1. Rolling stones gather moss: movement and longevity of moss balls on an Alaskan glacier

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-020-02675-6  

   Hotaling, Scott; Bartholomaus, Timothy C.; Gilbert, Sophie L. (June 2020, Polar Biology)
2. Crossroads of assembling a moss genome: navigating contaminants and horizontal gene transfer in the moss Physcomitrellopsis africana

   https://doi.org/10.1093/g3journal/jkae104  

   Vuruputoor, Vidya_S; Starovoitov, Andrew; Cai, Yuqing; Liu, Yang; Rahmatpour, Nasim; Hedderson, Terry_A; Wilding, Nicholas; Wegrzyn, Jill_L; Goffinet, Bernard; Ingvarsson, ed., P. (May 2024, G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics)

   Abstract The first chromosome-scale reference genome of the rare narrow-endemic African moss Physcomitrellopsis africana (P. africana) is presented here. Assembled from 73 × Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long reads and 163 × Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI)-seq short reads, the 414 Mb reference comprises 26 chromosomes and 22,925 protein-coding genes [Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Ortholog (BUSCO) scores: C:94.8% (D:13.9%)]. This genome holds 2 genes that withstood rigorous filtration of microbial contaminants, have no homolog in other land plants, and are thus interpreted as resulting from 2 unique horizontal gene transfers (HGTs) from microbes. Further, P. africana shares 176 of the 273 published HGT candidates identified in Physcomitrium patens (P. patens), but lacks 98 of these, highlighting that perhaps as many as 91 genes were acquired in P. patens in the last 40 million years following its divergence from its common ancestor with P. africana. These observations suggest rather continuous gene gains via HGT followed by potential losses during the diversification of the Funariaceae. Our findings showcase both dynamic flux in plant HGTs over evolutionarily “short” timescales, alongside enduring impacts of successful integrations, like those still functionally maintained in extant P. africana. Furthermore, this study describes the informatic processes employed to distinguish contaminants from candidate HGT events. 

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3. Northwest Greenland Aquatic Moss and Water Isotopes Modern Calibration Data, 2022

   https://doi.org/10.18739/A2QV3C564  

   Puleo, Peter; Akers, Pete; Kopec, Ben; Welker, Jeffrey; Bailey, Hannah; Osburn, Magdalena; Riis, Tenna; Axford, Yarrow (January 2024, NSF Arctic Data Center)

   This dataset contains the raw data associated with the manuscript entitled: Aquatic Moss δ18O as a Proxy for Seasonally Resolved Lake Water δ18O, Northwest Greenland (Puleo et al., 2024). Reconstructing past climate seasonality is fundamental to understanding the nature of past climate changes. This is especially true in the Arctic, where climate is intensely seasonal and proxies that can distinguish climate conditions of multiple seasons in a single year are relatively rare. We propose that submerged aquatic mosses, which are abundant subfossils in some Arctic lake sediments and have distinctive seasonal growth morphologies, can be used to estimate past lake water oxygen isotope composition (δ18Olw) across multiple seasons. Aquatic mosses are abundant, well preserved, and grow continuously in Arctic lakes whenever light is available, with some species displaying unique seasonal morphologies influenced by water temperature. Although Greenland paleorecords support that aquatic moss oxygen isotope values (δ18Oom) reflect the δ18O values of lake water, no modern calibration between δ18Oom and δ18Olw exists in Greenland, as aquatic moss samples are composed largely, but not entirely, of cellulose. We present a modern δ18Oom vs. δ18Olw calibration using multiple moss species or morphotypes from eight lakes and ponds near Pituffik (Thule), northwest Greenland. We find strong linear relationships between the δ18Oom and δ18Olw values of multiple species or morphotypes across the range of relatively low δ18Olw values at Pituffik, and our results indicate isotopic fractionations are similar to those found previously at lower latitudes. To assess the potential of mosses as archives of seasonal δ18Olw values, we analyzed δ18Oom in season-specific segments of moss strands, with seasons identified based upon growth morphology. Moss inferred lake water δ18O values (δ18Olwom) are higher in autumn than spring or summer, likely due to increasing contributions of isotopically heavier precipitation and the cumulative effects of lake water evaporation throughout the ice-free season. For moss subsampled throughout summer, δ18Olwom values generally increased through the season in parallel with observed δ18Olw values. Potential temperature dependent fractionation effects during biosynthesis, however, remain unconstrained and should be further addressed with future research. Overall, these findings suggest that aquatic mosses from lake sediments could be used to directly resolve climate seasonality of the past. Puleo, P.J.K., Akers, P.D., Kopec, B.G., Welker, J.M., Bailey, H., Osburn, M.R., Riis, T., Axford, Y., 2024. Aquatic moss δ18O as a proxy for seasonally resolved lake water δ18O, northwest Greenland. Quaternary Science Reviews 334, 1-11. 

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4. Advanced vascular function discovered in a widespread moss

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-020-0602-x  

   Brodribb, T. J.; Carriquí, M.; Delzon, S.; McAdam, S. A.; Holbrook, N. M. (March 2020, Nature Plants)
5. Moss phyllid morphology varies systematically with substrate slope

   https://doi.org/10.5091/plecevo.2021.1839  

   Turberville, Caleb M.; Fuentes-González, Jesualdo A.; Rogers, Sydney; Pienaar, Jason (November 2021, Plant Ecology and Evolution)

   Background and aims – Tracheophyte leaf morphology is well studied but it is unclear if the findings generalize to poikilohydric plants. We tested combinations of hypotheses to determine if microhabitat characteristics, including light exposure, moisture availability, and substrate slope, controlled for morphological differences between upright and prostrate growth forms, affect phyllid surface area and costa length of mosses.Material and methods – We quantified mean phyllid surface-area and costa lengths for four replicates of 38 moss species from Alabama. Phylogenetic comparative methods that model adaptation were used to evaluate the relative evidence for each hypothesis using information criteria. To further explore mechanistic explanations involving substrate slope, we tested whether mosses on vertical substrates differed from those on horizontal substrates in the average amount of water-retaining, nutrient-rich litter they accumulated.Key results – Substrate slope and growth form combined were the best predictors of phyllid surface area. Mosses growing on vertical substrates exhibited smaller phyllid surface area for both growth forms. Although growth form and phyllid length best explained costa length variation, a more complex model including substrate slope performed nearly as well. Within the prostrate growth forms, species growing on vertical substrates exhibit longer relative costa than those on horizontal substrates. We also estimated rapid rates of adaptation for both traits.Conclusion – The smaller phyllid surface area of both upright and prostrate growth forms is possibly an adaptive response to reduced habitat moisture-retention or nutrient quality that vertical substrates offer. The longer costa lengths of prostrate mosses growing on vertical surfaces relative to prostrate mosses on horizontal surfaces, possibly make up for the decreased ability of smaller phyllids to rapidly reabsorb water when it is available. Further work is required to determine if it is truly substrate slope itself that matters or other variables associated with the differences in slope, and to determine how general this phenomenon is. 

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