Announcements

Prof. Emilio Cervantes is one of the authors of the highly cited article entitled “Seed Morphological Analysis in Species of Vitis and Relatives” published in Horticulturae (ISSN: 2311-7524).

The following is a short interview with Prof. Cervantes:

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your current research? 

Over the past few years, I have collaborated with José Javier Martín Gómez, an expert in image acquisition and analysis at IRNASA-CSIC, and Ángel Tocino, full professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Salamanca. Together, we have described the shape of seeds in a variety of plant species and families by combining image analysis, geometric approximations and statistics. In 2010, we published an article describing the similarity of Arabidopsis thaliana seed images to a cardioid curve elongated by a factor of Phi (the Golden Ratio). Since then, we have been making quantitative descriptions of two-dimensional seed images in many plant families. These projects have been motivated by collaborations with colleagues, including José Luis Rodríguez Lorenzo and Bohuslav Jonousek at the Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Brno, Diego Gutiérrez del Pozo at the Universidad Estatal Amazónica (UEA) in Ecuador, Ana Juan at the University of Alicante, and Félix Cabello and Gregorio Muñoz Organero at IMIDRA.

Shape descriptions are based on various measurements, some of which are well known, such as area, perimeter, aspect ratio and circularity, while others are less well known, such as solidity. Other measurements are original to our own research, such as the J-index and curvature values. We treat the seed outline as a geometric figure, and the J-index is the percentage similarity between the outlines of a group of seeds and a known, canonical geometric shape. The seeds of different species resemble classical geometric shapes such as ellipses, circles, ovoids, and other shapes described in geometry, such as stadiums, superellipses, lemniscates, lenses, heart curves and water drops.

Quantitative descriptions of seed shape are useful for taxonomy and phylogeny. We are currently involved in describing seed shape in the Lamiaceae, in species of Silene (Caryophyllaceae) and in cultivars of Vitis. Within the Lamiaceae, an intriguing relationship exists between seed size and taxonomic position, with small seeds found in the Mentheae tribe, intermediate seeds in the Ocimeae tribe, and large seeds in the Elsholtzieae tribe. The seeds of Silene species have an interesting diversity of shape. In Vitis cultivars, a conserved form makes it possible to use seed shape to identify some varieties. Generally, the trend during domestication has been towards decreased solidity. Wild Vitis seeds are rounded, while elaborated cultivars have lower solidity values. There is a correspondence between basal haplotypes and seed morphotypes, and analysing seed shape may help to differentiate between feral and sylvestris plants, a critical aspect in the study of evolution of cultivars.

2. What inspired you to conduct this research?

Previous studies of the physiology and molecular biology of seed germination in various plant species, including model systems such as Arabidopsis thaliana and the model legumes Lotus japonicus and Medicago truncatula, revealed a lack of quantitative descriptions of seed shape. In general, shape was described using adjectives that emphasised the similarity of seeds to geometric objects, but quantification was often poor and lacking in many instances.

3. What challenges did you face while doing your research, and how did you handle them?

I would suggest two main sources of difficulty. First, the confusion between 'pure' science and other interests, such as political, social or economic aspects, which are now very much intertwined with scientific interests. This has probably always been the case throughout history, but it takes many years to understand the complexities and subtleties of these interactions. Science can only be developed in an environment of altruism, and solidarity, but unfortunately, these characteristics are not predominant today. Secondly, and very related to the former, there is an emphasis on applied projects. Nevertheless, science must be based on answering disinterested questions about nature. Technology benefits from science, but there must be ample scope for pure, non-applied research.

4. What do you see as the future directions for your research?

I hope that our accurate, quantitative description of the morphological characters will help to identify the genetic factors responsible for them. In this sense, we are following Mendel’s steps and recognising that Mendelian approaches can still be found in many plant species. Thus, the differences observed in size and shape between taxonomic groups may be correlated with genomic differences; the genetic factors underlying the surface tubercles that are different in diverse species of Silene may be investigated, or the same for shape differences in Vitis varieties and cultivars.

5. What do you value most about publishing with Horticulturae?

As with all MDPI journals, at Horticulturae we always had a good interaction with editorial staff (Managing Editors, Assistant Editors, Production Editors, English Editors, Copyeditors), as well as Academic editors. It was very satisfying to publish our Special Issue “The Geometry of Seeds: Seed Shape Definition and Quantification Based on Geometrical Diversity”, and we had the privilege to collaborate with Dr. Luís Silva Dias of the University of Evora (Portugal) on that occasion.

6. What advice would you give to young researchers?

Young researchers should be aware of the difficulties derived from the complexity of science. Research is a long-distance run, and the objectives vary depending on the psychological characteristics and interests of each researcher. In my case, the main interest has been to establish a direct communication with nature, free of pre-conceived ideas, so frequent in academia. This is difficult in part due to the complexities above indicated (political, social and economic aspects of science), but generosity is a quality that is still prevalent in science and the only way to go.

7. Do you have any memorable stories from working in the field or lab? 

Although science is often a solitary activity, memorable histories are often due to interaction with other scientists. I fondly recall those collaborations with scientists working on plant-microbe and plant-pathogen interactions. Georges Truchet of INRA-Toulouse dedicated many hours to the interaction between nodulation mutants of Rhizobium and legume roots. He was testing how bacterial mutants had diverse effects on plant forms and established an original method to observe the pathways of the bacteria inside the plant roots by staining the infection threads with Methylene blue through an original procedure. Nestor Chaves and Carlos Araya in Costa Rica University demonstrated that the nematode Aphelenchoides besseyi is the causal agent of bean wilt (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), a disease that reduces yield and was first reported in Costa Rica in the early 1990s. This was against the current hypothesis of that disease being produced by a virus, and opens the possibility that, again another organism, the nematode, can direct the developmental process of legumes.