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Digital and social media have grown exponentially to become highly influential spheres of public communication -- increasingly crowded, contested, and corrupted, and increasingly in need of scholarly engagement. Alternative metrics ('altmetrics') that are generated from social and digital media platforms have become more important as indicators of impact and engagement for scholars. In AUR 61/2, we reviewed the growth of amplifier platforms and the academic and contextual reasons for their growth. In this article, we investigate how scholars frame their practices of engagement and impact, how they use 'amplifier platforms', in particular "The Conversation," and to what extent institutions are supporting their staff in these activities. We find that scholars frame engagement and impact as an ethical imperative and place importance on evidence-based messaging; that they are not only interested in seeing their own research amplified, but in amplifying other quality research; that this benefits their other academic activities; that open access models promote republication and increase reach and engagement; and that institutional support for engaging on amplifier platforms is uneven and underdeveloped.

Digital and social media have grown exponentially to become highly influential spheres of public communication -- increasingly crowded, contested, and corrupted, and increasingly in need of scholarly engagement. As public debate is conducted more through social and digital media, alternative metrics ('altmetrics') that are generated from social and digital media platforms become important as indicators of impact and engagement. We review the growth of amplifier platforms and the academic and contextual reasons for their growth. Amplifier platforms are defined to distinguish them from traditional media outlets (where the scholarly voice is mediated through and 'gatekept' by journalists, whose editors retain final control), personal blogs (very few of which can be maintained over time) and from social media platforms (where the scholarly voice is accorded no presumptive standing). A significant range of amplifier platforms is canvassed while acknowledging that in Australia, the amplifier platform "The Conversation" plays a central role.

Social and economic participation is increasingly dependent on the proficient use of digital technologies in everyday life. Digital skills, alongside literacy and numeracy, are now foundational skills that all Australians should have. Yet, how policy makers, scholars, and adult educators can effectively identify people's current and desired digital skills is not well established. Existing frameworks tend to be instrumentalist, listing generic abilities that all citizens need for success. Digital abilities, however, are context-specific and attempts to generalise need to be responsive to local circumstances. We present a theory-driven Digital Ability Self-Assessment Tool, developed for a government agency and piloted in a community organisation. The Tool takes a distinctive socio-material approach to overcome shortcomings of other digital ability assessment tools, which often focus on normative measures of skills attainment. Overall, we argue that authentic digital skills policy and programme development must account for the contexts in which digital technologies are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Meiotic crossovers (COs) generate genetic diversity and are crucial for viable gamete production. Plant COs are typically limited to 1–3 per chromosome pair, constraining the development of improved varieties, which in wheat is exacerbated by an extreme distal localisation bias. Advances in wheat genomics and related technologies provide new opportunities to investigate, and possibly modify, recombination in this important crop species. Here, we investigate the disruption of FIGL1 in tetraploid and hexaploid wheat as a potential strategy for modifying CO frequency/position. We analysed figl1 mutants and virus‐induced gene silencing lines cytogenetically. Genetic mapping was performed in the hexaploid. FIGL1 prevents abnormal meiotic chromosome associations/fragmentation in both ploidies. It suppresses class II COs in the tetraploid such that CO/chiasma frequency increased 2.1‐fold in a figl1 msh5 quadruple mutant compared with a msh5 double mutant. It does not appear to affect class I COs based on HEI10 foci counts in a hexaploid figl1 triple mutant. Genetic mapping in the triple mutant suggested no significant overall increase in total recombination across examined intervals but revealed large increases in specific individual intervals. Notably, the tetraploid figl1 double mutant was sterile but the hexaploid triple mutant was moderately fertile, indicating potential utility for wheat breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Increasing crop yields through plant breeding is time consuming and laborious, with the generation of novel combinations of alleles being limited by chromosomal linkage blocks and linkage‐drag. Meiotic recombination is essential to create novel genetic variation via the reshuffling of parental alleles. The exchange of genetic information between homologous chromosomes occurs at crossover (CO) sites but CO frequency is often low and unevenly distributed. This bias creates the problem of linkage‐drag in recombination 'cold' regions, where undesirable variation remains linked to useful traits. In plants, programmed meiosis‐specific DNA double‐strand breaks, catalysed by the SPO11 complex, initiate the recombination pathway, although only ~5% result in the formation of COs. To study the role of SPO11‐1 in wheat meiosis, and as a prelude to manipulation, we used CRISPR/Cas9 to generate edits in all three SPO11‐1 homoeologues of hexaploid wheat. Characterization of progeny lines shows plants deficient in all six SPO11‐1 copies fail to undergo chromosome synapsis, lack COs and are sterile. In contrast, lines carrying a single copy of any one of the three wild‐type homoeologues are phenotypically indistinguishable from unedited plants both in terms of vegetative growth and fertility. However, cytogenetic analysis of the edited plants suggests that homoeologues differ in their ability to generate COs and in the dynamics of synapsis. In addition, we show that the transformation of wheat mutants carrying six edited copies of SPO11‐1 with the TaSPO11‐1B gene, restores synapsis, CO formation, and fertility and hence opens a route to modifying recombination in this agronomically important crop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Author(s): Michael J. Wheeler; Barend H. J. de Graaf; Natalie Hadjiosif; Ruth M. Perry; Natalie S. Poulter; Kim Osman; Sabina Vatovec; Andrea Harper; F. Christopher; H. Franklin; Vernonica E. Franklin-Tong [...]

During meiosis, the formation of crossovers ( COs) generates genetic variation and provides physical links that are essential for accurate chromosome segregation. COs occur in the context of a proteinaceous chromosome axis. The transcriptomes and proteomes of anthers and meiocytes comprise several thousand genes and proteins, but because of the level of complexity relatively few have been functionally characterized. Our understanding of the physical and functional interactions between meiotic proteins is also limited. Here we use affinity proteomics to analyse the proteins that are associated with the meiotic chromosome axis protein, ASY1, in Brassica oleracea anthers and meiocytes. We show that during prophase I ASY1 and its interacting partner, ASY3, are extensively phosphorylated, and we precisely assign phosphorylation sites. We identify 589 proteins that co-immunoprecipitate with ASY1. These correspond to 492 Arabidopsis orthologues, over 90% of which form a coherent protein-protein interaction ( PPI) network containing known and candidate meiotic proteins, including proteins more usually associated with other cellular processes such as DNA replication and proteolysis. Mutant analysis confirms that affinity proteomics is a viable strategy for revealing previously unknown meiotic proteins, and we show how the PPI network can be used to prioritise candidates for analysis. Finally, we identify another axis-associated protein with a role in meiotic recombination. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD006042. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]