Two great talks by members of the Borrill group at #Monogram2026 today: Miles Curl telling us about drought tolerance in wheat and @beccatesta.bsky.social investigating the role of NAC3 in senescence in wheat. Great chairing of a whole session by @amy-newell.bsky.social too! Well done all 👍🏼

We’re back at the @dsw-isp.bsky.social annual meeting this afternoon where @emilieknight.bsky.social is presenting a promising protoplast-based method to decipher gene networks in wheat. Protoplasts are living plant, bacterial, or fungal cells that have had their rigid outer cell walls removed.

PhD student Becca @beccatesta.bsky.social is JIC’s first speaker at @dsw-isp.bsky.social annual meeting, giving a fascinating talk on genetic regulation of wheat senescence. This stage of development informs grain nutrient content, making her research important for agronomy and global health.

Spatial transcriptomics reveals expression gradients in developing wheat inflorescences at cellular resolution (Katie A Long , Ashleigh Lister , Maximillian R W Jones , et al) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience @aspbofficial

Spatial transcriptomics reveals expression gradients in developing wheat inflorescences at cellular resolution

High-resolution spatial transcriptomics reveals coordinated gene expression patterns that define spikelet and floral development in wheat.

doi.org

Homoeolog expression in polyploid #wheat #mutants shows limited transcriptional compensation Dorussen et al. 👇 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #LatestIssue #PlantScience @delfidorussen.bsky.social @emilieknight.bsky.social @simmojsimmo.bsky.social @philippaborrill.bsky.social

The mystery of redundancy between homoeologs continues! Knocking out one homoeolog in wheat doesn't cause the other homoeologs to be upregulated... nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Great work led by @delfidorussen.bsky.social with @emilieknight.bsky.social @simmojsimmo.bsky.social

BLOG - Women in wheat event provides training to address gender bias in wheat research This July saw the latest #WomenInWheat event, where 25 early career women researchers attended a JIC training event focused on addressing gender bias in the UK and internationally www.jic.ac.uk/blog/women-i...

Women, Plants, and the Power of a Name Researchers uncover the real women behind botanical names, turning obscure eponyms into powerful stories of recognition and representation. botany.one/2025/07/wome... #Botany #PlantScience 🧪

I'm excited to share our work investigating transcriptional compensation in polyploid wheat 🌾 It was fun to work on this project led by @philippaborrill.bsky.social and myself, with key contributions from @emilieknight.bsky.social and @simmojsimmo.bsky.social The key take-aways, a 🧵

bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · last yr.

Homoeolog expression in polyploid wheat mutants shows limited transcriptional compensation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.01.662569v1

Happy to share that our study of inheritance of homoeolog expression bias in wheat biparental populations is out in @biomedcentral.bsky.social Genome Biology! 🧬 Many thanks to all co-authors and @philippaborrill.bsky.social for great leadership on the project! #PlantScience #Botany rdcu.be/eokf2

Very cool protocol development from Emilie in the Borrill Lab 🧪 👇

Emilie Knight@emilieknight.bsky.social · last yr.

Pleased to have finally got this method to work in wheat! Find out how you can identify direct targets of transcription factors in wheat using protoplasts and the TARGET method: dx.doi.org/10.17504/pro... A very useful method for our group to use! borrilllab.com

For #WorldTapirDay my #linocut Malayan tapirs, adult and baby. 🐡🧪 There are 4 types of tapir; this linocut is of both an adult & baby Malayan tapir. Tapirs always look very dapper, if improbable, in their black and white coat. The adults with their white saddles look like an aardvark crossed with 🧵

I’m very happy to share the published version of our paper on the role of MET1 in wheat 🌾 🧬 It’s been really exciting to discover more about DNA methylation in wheat and it’s huge polyploid genome doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

Partial redundancy buffers deleterious effects of mutating DNA methyltransferase 1-1 (MET1-1) in polyploid wheat

Varying gene dosage through mutating DNA methyltransferase 1-1 (MET1-1 ) in polyploid wheat generates quantitative changes to CG methylation without the le

doi.org

My latest article for The Observer 😍🙏

The Guardian@theguardian.com · last yr.

Groundbreaking botanical discoveries on Captain Cook voyage were thanks to Indigenous people

The world has been through anti-science cycles before, to disastrous results On a detour on my lit review, a mosey through the history of our familiar friend, the standard onion (Allium cepa) brought me right to one of botany's greatest cautionary tales of what happens when ideology overrides data

It was great fun to present some of my research into functional redundancy in wheat at the IWGSC workshop at #PAG32 😄🌾🧬

International Wheat genome Sequencing Consortium@wheatgenome.bsky.social · 2y ago

#IWGSC-Feuillet Early Career Awardee Delfi Dorussen @johninnescentre.bsky.social starts the #IWGSC workshop #PAG32 presenting her work on whether transcriptional compensation facilitates functional redundancy in wheat.

Some cool research I was very happy to be a part of 🌱👇

The Global Plant Council@globalplantgpc.bsky.social · 2y ago

Researchers have streamlined methods to study chloroplast & mitochondrial impacts on photosynthesis. Plants currently capture only ~1% of solar energy; optimized genetics could increase this sixfold. https://buff.ly/3PoNSaT... #PlantScience

1/10 We are thrilled to share our preprint on spatial transcriptomics in wheat spikes led by the amazing @katielong.bsky.social and Ashleigh Lister. We resolved expression of 200 genes to cellular resolution. Pre-print👉 tinyurl.com/c7t3kncf., @johninnescentre.bsky.social @earlhaminst.bsky.social

Paleoart is better with plants 💚🌱

📢A new blog published! Using drawing as a tool for learning ✏️🌱🌵 Read more here⏩ 1url.cz/W1IU7 As a person who draws almost every day, I was surprised to discover just how effective drawing can be as a tool for learning about anything, really #GoBelowground #CloPla #rhizome #drawing #bud #clonality

A major conservation win! I won't try to conceal my excitement. This Hawaiian crow was BROUGHT BACK FROM EXTINCTION. Well done to everyone involved. Hawaiian crow that went extinct in the wild decades ago released on Maui www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024... #crow #crows #corvids #conservation 🌎

Hawaiian crow that went extinct in the wild decades ago released on Maui

Two female and three male alala released after years of preparation in ongoing effort to return species to its home

theguardian.com

Very happy to share that our latest publication on the evolution of C4 photosynthesis is out now. It was such a pleasure working with the amazing Joseph Swift, Joe Ecker, @tinaschreier.bsky.social, and @jmhibberd.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Exaptation of ancestral cell-identity networks enables C4 photosynthesis - Nature

Single-nucleus RNA-sequencing and chromatin-accessibility analyses in rice (a C3 plant) and sorghum (a C4 plant) provide insight into how C4 photosynthesis evolved in bundle-sheath cells, revealing th...

nature.com