📣 Job alert! 2 Positions starting 2027. PhD position with me and @bayerlab.bsky.social on Robustness of embryonic and stomatal development, part of @greenrobust.de Postdoc position on the regulation of cell state, following up on some exciting snRNAseq dat! Apply now or share! #PlantSciJob

Fresh preprint online from our group! We find that stomatal maturation IS possible in the embryo, when they lack ERECTA signaling, but then still, only at the cotyledon tip. A thread. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

ERECTA signaling controls the timing of Arabidopsis Guard Cell maturation at the embryonic leaf tip

While cell identities are established early during embryogenesis, these cells remain immature until germination, and the mechanisms enforcing this developmental pause are poorly understood. Embryonic ...

biorxiv.org

Excited to share the latest preprint from #TimingLab where we report the presence of maturing Guard Cells at the tip of the cotyledons in the ERECTA triple mutant embryos as early as 6 DAP!! Read more👇

Margot Smit@likeyoda1.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Fresh preprint online from our group! We find that stomatal maturation IS possible in the embryo, when they lack ERECTA signaling, but then still, only at the cotyledon tip. A thread. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our latest preprint is online. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Our exciting data show that embryonic patterning in Arabidopsis is kick-started by differential sensitivity towards auxin and not by differential distribution of auxin.

Before auxin distribution matters: Prepatterning of the Arabidopsis embryo axis by MPK6-dependent AUX/IAA8 phosphorylation

In growth and development of plants, the signaling molecule auxin plays an instrumental role. Many patterning processes are controlled by auxin signaling in a self-organizing matter. After fertilizati...

biorxiv.org

New Preprint! We identified 20 new type II-secreted effectors from Xanthomonas euvesicatoria and show that they help bacteria feed and remodel plant cell walls during infection. Proud of my team at #ZMBP and collaborators for making this possible! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Defining the Xanthomonas euvesicatoria type II-secreted effector arsenal: core nutritional functions and effector diversity

The type II secretion (T2S) system is conserved across the Xanthomonas lineage, yet its contributions to pathogenicity and secreted protein repertoires are poorly defined. We demonstrate that T2S syst...

biorxiv.org

Looking for an excellent conference to present your latest plant research or to meet @puckerlab.bsky.social : International Conference of the German Society for Plant Sciences (DBG) 6–10 September 2026 botanik-tagung.de #PlantSciences #Conferences @plantsciencedbg.bsky.social

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. https://scim.ag/4tsDqRr

After USDA request, Indiana plant biologist locked out of lab by school

Move comes after Roger Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs

scim.ag

Kick-off meeting of our GreenRobust cluster of excellence last week. Exciting times ahead for plant sciences by bringing together an extraordinary bunch of enthusiastic scientists and human beings!

🔬 EXPERT VIEW 🔬 Oven-Krockhaus et al. introduce single-particle tracking photoactivated localization microscopy for studying plasma membrane proteins in plants, outlining key applications and practical guidance on instrumentation, probes, and analysis. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #PlantScience 🧪

It’s finally out! 🎉 Work led by former PhD student @wei-xiao-botany.bsky.social , in collaboration with @bayerlab.bsky.social and @bertderybel.bsky.social AINTEGUMENTA phospho-switch regulates bilateral stem cell activity during secondary growth. 🔗 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #PlantSciences

An AINTEGUMENTA phosphoswitch controls bilateral stem cell activity during secondary growth | PNAS

Plant stem cells have the remarkable ability to give rise to distinct tissues and organs throughout development. Two concentric cylinders of active...

pnas.org

PLANT BIOLOGY EUROPE meeting, Budapest, just started and people are already dancing! Great start! #PBE2025

Well deserved #scicomm award at the MBP2025 meeting for @somssich.bsky.social ! Big congrats!

If you are interested in plant stem cell systems, meristems and development of cereals: We are organising an international symposium on "Cereal Meristems and Stem Cell Systems", see attached announcement. www.cscs2025.de for more details

Walking home from work one day, you encounter a funny little man selling cabbages. "Pathways" he says "Secret portals to the biology realms" "How odd" you think. But the cabbages do look delicious, so you buy a few. Later that night you cut the first one open.

New Phytologist Stomata Seminar Video available (by Sally Assmann and myself). Thanks again for this fantastic opportunity to share our work and perspectives 🌱🥰! cassyni.com/events/CpfRD...

Perspectives on a co-option of a familiar signaling pathway for embryo patterning, where phosphorylation of SCREAM by MPK3/6 triggers different outcomes. But..Symmetric Cell Division is EXCITING and essential for generating a mirror-symmetric Guard Cell pair😘🌱. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

BPMs regulate Arabidopsis seedling development by promoting auxin-independent degradation of the Aux/IAA protein IAA10 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.26.625463v1

BPMs regulate Arabidopsis seedling development by promoting auxin-independent degradation of the Aux/IAA protein IAA10 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.26.625463v1

After germination, seedlings undergo etiolated development (skotomorphogenesis), enabling them to gr

biorxiv.org

By definition, enhancers can activate from a distance. But with increased distance between enhancer and promoter, the activation drops. To study this systematically, we build a synthetic locus: www.cell.com/molecular-ce... 1/12

We just completed our cluster interview at @dfgpublic.bsky.social. Exceptional team spirit and a fantastic joint achievement by everybody involved! The GreenRobust initiative in full swing.

More details on our recent pre-print: Alignments of stomata have been described in many species, here are 2 examples: Thym from my kitchen, and Leucadendron from a 1935 paper (Smith 1935 on the orientation of stomata) What is directing these alignments is unknown 1/12 doi.org/10.1101/2024...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... Cool stuff!

Parallel measurement of transcriptomes and proteomes from same single cells using nanodroplet splitting - Nature Communications

Single-cell multiomics can provide broad insights into gene/protein regulatory networks and cellular diversity. Here, authors develop nanoSPLITS, a nanodroplet splitting approach for global profiling ...

nature.com

Repost if BlueSky is now your primary social media site.

On the way to @debbiemleigh.bsky.social 's excellent seminar talk this afternoon. If you like geometry this part of @unituebingen.bsky.social campus is good for you...

Super excited to announce that our SCRM story is officially published!!! 🎉🎉🎉 Want to discover the exciting new functions of ICE1/SCRM? Want to dive into the latest model of plant embryo initiation? Don’t miss out—check it out here: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Phosphorylation‐dependent activation of the bHLH transcription factor ICE1/SCRM promotes polarization of the Arabidopsis zygote

In Arabidopsis thaliana, the asymmetric cell division (ACD) of the zygote gives rise to the embryo proper and an extraembryonic suspensor, respectively. This process is controlled by the ERECTA-YODA...

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

I just branched out to BlueSky! 🌱 Looking forward to planting ideas and growing a new network here.