Nature research paper: Miniaturizing and modifying natural proteins with Raygun go.nature.com/4w2usM2

Miniaturizing and modifying natural proteins with Raygun - Nature

Probabilistic sequence encoding from language model embeddings within a generative AI framework enables protein miniaturization, modification and augmentation while maintaining native architecture and functional integrity.

go.nature.com

PLEASE SHARE! New job openings in my lab @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social. We have a broad interest into the mechanistic basis of how molecular complexes are rewired during cellular development in plants and during invasion by pathogens. 🌱🍄🔬 See details below 👇 #PlantSciJobs

Nature research paper: In situ structures of plant photosystem supercomplexes go.nature.com/4c4OTR5

In situ structures of plant photosystem supercomplexes - Nature

The cryo‑EM structure of the Oryza sativa photosystem II–light harvesting complex II supercomplex in its native membrane reveals the intact plant photosystem architecture, retaining physiologically relevant proteins and lipids that are otherwise lost during purification.

go.nature.com

Happy to share that this beautiful work by @mudgal17.bsky.social in collaboration with the Weis lab @eth-dbiol.bsky.social, discovering a new membrane fusion mechanism in eukaryotes, is finally out in peer-reviewed form at @cp-molcell.bsky.social. www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

A conserved mechanism of membrane fusion in nuclear pore complex assembly

Fischer et al. uncover a fundamental mechanism of membrane fusion during nuclear pore complex (NPC) assembly. Brl1 and Brr6 form ring-shaped, membrane-remodeling complexes that interact and bridge the...

cell.com

Vanni Lab at UNIFR, Switzerland@labvanni.bsky.social · last yr.

Happy to share the latest work from the lab, led by @mudgal17.bsky.social‬, in collaboration with the Weis lab @ethzurich.bsky.social. How do nuclear membranes fuse during NPC assembly? We answer this question in our latest work, where we identify a new mechanism for membrane fusion… (1/13)

Ever had issues with contamination in #Marchantia or #liverwort tissue culture? We've developed a protocol that is simple and low-effort (albeit slow) to get rid of fungi and bacteria: dx.doi.org/10.17504/pro.... Work led by Isaac Coven and supported by Chetan Pandey, myself & @dromius.bsky.social.

Join the 9th Austrian CRYO-EM Symposium at Vienna BioCenter on September 24-25! Register before Sep. 1st (Abstract deadline is Aug. 5th!): www.imp.ac.at/research/cry...

We're recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow at ANU to help strengthen Australia's preparedness for wheat blast. The project spans plant pathology, genetics, breeding and biosecurity, with collaborators in Australia and Brazil. Apply here: tinyurl.com/25zcj9yy #PlantScience #Postdoc #Biosecurity

Postdoctoral Fellow - Canberra / ACT, ACT, Australia

Classification: Academic Level ASalary package: $91,546 - $114,906 per annum plus 17% superannuationTerm: Full-Time, Continuing (Contingent Funded) Note: This position will be primarily based at the N...

tinyurl.com

A molecular description of plant cellulose biosynthesis inhibition pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42539162/ #cryoEM

New in @embojournal.org from @birgitkemmerling.bsky.social's lab: HIR2 assembles into giant ring-like complexes at the plasma membrane, shaping receptor dynamics and immune signalling. Genetics + biochem + super-res imaging + AF3 modelling, all in one! Check it out👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The Arabidopsis SPFH protein HIR2 modulates receptor signaling and plasma membrane organization - The EMBO Journal

Plant plasma membrane proteins are organized into distinct domains; however, the principles that govern this spatial organization are not fully understood. HYPERSENSITIVE-INDUCED REACTION (HIR) protei...

link.springer.com

How do poxviruses initiate infection after getting into the cytoplasm? With Tom Calcraft, @miguel-virus-cells.bsky.social & Peter Rosenthal, @crick.ac.uk we solved the structure of the vaccinia virus portal that mediates viral assembly and early mRNA and subsequent genome release. rdcu.be/fwGTn

In situ structure of the poxvirus portal complex

Nature - Cryo-electron tomography uncovers the structure of a conserved hexameric ‘portal complex’ that spans the core wall in vaccinia virus, and shows how it is associated with viral...

rdcu.be

If I were an Early Career Researcher (#ECR) today, I wouldn’t join a lab that doesn’t #preprint (the PI agreed to keep paying me until my paper is finally published). It now takes ages to get papers through peer review, and without preprints you’re putting your future in someone else’s hands.

@oeaw.bsky.social is searching for the next #director of @gmivienna.bsky.social ‼️It’s a huge opportunity to shape the future of #plantscience oeawnr.onlyfy.jobs/de/job/u3g5t...

Scientific Director (f/m/x)

OeAW - Discovering the futureThe Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology (GMI), part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW), is seeking to appoint a visionary Scientific Director to lea

oeawnr.onlyfy.jobs

New GreenRobust publication by the group of Eric Kemen on using machine learning to identify beneficial microbiota: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Machine learning reveals biocontrol agents shaping disease outcome in natural Arabidopsis populations - Nature Communications

Plants can recruit beneficial microbes to suppress pathogens, offering a route to rational biocontrol beyond empirical screening. Here, the authors use machine learning to identify disease-associated ...

nature.com

📣 New preprint! 🧵 Fantastic work led by @antonkraege.bsky.social Fact: Cerato-platanins are everywhere in fungi. Found across the fungal kingdom, implicated in everything from development to virulence to immune activation. But what do they *actually* do? We finally found the answer 👇

One cell, one tomogram! Our montage tomography workflow, MOSAIC, is out in Structure, and MontageMaker is on GitHub! MOSAIC: www.cell.com/structure/fu... MontageMaker: github.com/MPI-Dortmund... Big thanks to @maikaboiero.bsky.social, Adriana Prajica, Gavin Rice, and @raunser-lab.bsky.social!

🎉Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Buendía-Ávila @dbuendia.bsky.social, researcher from the Marí-Ordóñez lab at the GMI, who successfully defended his PhD thesis, titled “Understanding Transposon Silencing in Duckweeds”. @fwf-at.bsky.social @vbcscitraining.bsky.social

Together with Mathieu Hanemian, we're searching for an undergrand student (Master or Erasmus internship, final-year engineering student) to explore the effect of intercropping on the soil microbiota. If this sounds interesting to you, please reach our with your CV and a motivation letter!

With Cryo-ET/EM, the macromolecules we study (and biological questions we ask) are SNR-limited. Here, we share Nilas, a low-voltage milling method named after thin sea ice. Nilas produces thin (sub 50 nm in places!), minimally damaged lamellae. biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.21.739890v1

Optimized cryo-FIB milling strategy to generate thin, minimally damaged biological lamellae

Focused ion beam (FIB)-milling has been adapted to thin frozen cells for visualization of macromolecular structures in situ with cryogenic electron microscopy. However, only a few large and abundant c...

biorxiv.org

How do transcription factors bind DNA strongly, and in a switch like manner, while remaining sequence specific? Our new paper on a canonical plant TF suggests the answer is a previously underappreciated assembly state: transcription factor nanoclusters. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Nanoclustering of a plant transcription factor enables strong yet specific DNA binding

Transcription factor nanoclusters balance the DNA binding trade-off between weakly binding oligomers and nonspecific condensates.

science.org

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Programmable design of synthetic plant immune receptors for pathogen protein recognition

The limited diversity and recognition scope of natural plant immune receptors impede resistance breeding against rapidly evolving pathogens. Here we report programmable design of synthetic plant immun...

science.org

The Diamond Light Source is one of the UK's most productive scientific faclities. Just signed an open letter urging the STFC to ensure decisions about its future are "transparent, evidence-led, and made in meaningful consultation with its […] user communities." openletter.earth/open-letter-...

Exciting opportunity: EMBL CPP Fellowships are open for applications until 31 July! Stay for 1 – 6 months at any of EMBL's six sites 🧪 Who's eligible: • Currently employed PhD researchers or postdocs • All nationalities, no age limit • First-time visitors to EMBL https://s.embl.org/cpp-fellowship

🟠 Now open: ERC Starting Grant 2027 call for proposals! 🗓️ Deadline: 14 Oct 2026 📄 Call details: link.europa.eu/RwNMpX Planning to apply? Let our ERC Classes videos guide you through the application evaluation process. 👉 t.co/qGPy7Y8UhS #ERCStG #FrontierResearch @scienceinnovation.ec.europa.eu

Thank you, I am glad you liked it! It`s never easy to find oneself (even if only partially) being "scooped":D Have been working on it since 2019, but after not being able to get KO mutants in MpEXO70s, I decided try perhaps slightly more avant-garde approach presented in preprint

Absolutely. Also check the study by @mollybergum.bsky.social and Matt Moscou. They independently found exaptation (or complex scape) in the neofunctionalization of Exo70 clade FX www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Putative neofunctionalization of a Poales-specific EXO70 clade

EXO70s are uniquely expanded in land plants compared to all other eukaryotic lineages. The functional implications of this expansion and diversification on the conserved role of EXO70 as a subunit of ...

biorxiv.org

Flagellated pants@flagellatedpants.bsky.social · 2w ago

Thanks! Yes, we made an independent attempt to interpret plant exocyst evolutionary dynamics (also by using DNA from algae!) I would say both papers are worth reading, maybe even side-by-side #PlantScience

Check out our Review on #AFM in plants now on @jxbotany.bsky.social !

Luiselotte Rausch@luiselotterausch.bsky.social · 2w ago

Now in @jxbotany.bsky.social ! Check out our opinion piece on Atomic Force Microscopy #afm in Plant Biomechanic Research: A powerful tool that needs careful handling, interpretation & more research! @Klaus Harter, @moscabiomeclab.bsky.social at @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

Interested in 3D-printed models of cryo-EM grids, autogrid and cryo-FIB for visual teaching/decoration. Download our model and print: makerworld.com/en/models/30... Designed in Blender by Khan Bao, an undergrad in the lab.

Cryo-EM Grids for Teaching - Free 3D Print Model - MakerWorld

Download this free 3D print file designed by CiliaBuilder. EM Grid Scaled ModelScaled up and simplified 3D model of EM grids and autogrids for demonstration of preparation process and milling. Content...

makerworld.com

So happy to share our new paper out now in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! We establish Pirsonia-Coscinodiscus as a model pathosystem and uncover how this tiny parasite infects and kills bloom-forming marine diatoms 🌊🦠 rdcu.be/fuQyF

The ERC Work Programme 2027 has been adopted. Planning to apply for an ERC grant? The first call, Starting Grants, opens on 22 July. Find out more 👉 erc.europa.eu/news-events/...

New ERC Work Programme sets out 2027 funding opportunities

The European Commission has today adopted the European Research Council (ERC) Work Programme 2027, setting out the funding opportunities, grant budgets, competition timetable and application rules for...

erc.europa.eu

This is a pretty amazing paper! The cellular detail on the moss and Cyanobacteria are truly stunning.

New Phytologist@newphyt.bsky.social · 2w ago

Cretaceous moss–cyanobacteria association reveals trophic interactions in polar forests of Antarctica Walker et al. habitualb.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...