At the start of October, Oona’s first paper from her PhD was published in Annals of Botany. Oona used cryo-scanning electron microscopy to reveal in great detail how the hierarchical microtopography on the Nepenthes pitcher trap rim forms during trap development. Her study demonstrates beautifully how a combination of widespread and evolutionarily conserved patterning events such as papilla formation and directional cell elongation can result in an entirely novel surface pattern with unusual function. Oona’s paper is open access for the first 3 months and can be found here.

Freeze fracture of a developing Nepenthes x hookeriana trap rim (peristome), showing a radial row of directionally overlapping papillate epidermal cells. As the trap continues to grow, these cells will elongate radially to form the characteristic microscopic ridge-and-step pattern that facilitates water spreading and prey capture on the pitcher rim.