Tessera

Rainer Melzer

@ucdflowerpower.bsky.social

Associate Professor at UCD Dublin. Plant genetics & development. Crops, agriculture, hemp, cereals. Evo-devo, transcription factors. My views.

241 Posts1370 Follower 1871 Folgt

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 12mo ago

It's Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) migration season in Texas. At least 90% of all southward migration passes through Texas, either along the coast, or through central Texas. They'll overwinter in Mexico, then return. Let's talk about the utter weirdness of generational migration.

Rainer Melzer @ucdflowerpower.bsky.social · yesterday

Die Iden des Merz?

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · last wk.

🥬🕐 RESEARCH 🕐🥬 Most cultivated lettuce varieties have a 27 h internal clock but are grown under 24 h light cycles. Anton-Sales et al. confirm circadian resonance effects in a crop species and demonstrate yield increases of 11–29% 🥬📈 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #PlantScience 🧪

Fig. 3.Visual tipburn severity scale used for lettuce phenotyping. Representative photographs of lettuce plants illustrating the six-point tipburn scoring scale, ranging from 0 (no tipburn symptoms) to 5 (severe tipburn with extensive necrosis of inner leaves). Score 0 indicates healthy plants with no visible damage; scores 1–2 reflect early-stage symptoms with minor marginal browning on young leaves; scores 3–5 represent progressive necrosis affecting an increasing proportion of the inner canopy and considered unmarketable (severe tipburn). Scale bar=10 cm.

Dr Darren Abbey @thebiologistisn.bsky.social · 3w ago

My first harvest of dried lima beans for 2026. I've been growing the yellow and magenta varieties together for several years, hoping the local pollinators would make a hybrid for me. The dark population of seeds all seem to have come from one very productive F1 plant.

About three handfuls of dried lima beans. Those at left are yellow, with a few immature white seeds. Those in the middle are magenta, with a few immature pink seeds. Those at right are dark maroon with various amounts of yellow markings. At the top-middle is a small pile of five blue dry beans.

Q-Lab @leandroquadrana.bsky.social · 4w ago

What if transposases are already transcription factors in disguise? Our new preprint shows that transcriptional regulatory activity is an intrinsic property of transposases, revealing a direct route for their domestication into transcription factors. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

doi.org

christhebarker @christhebarker.bsky.social · 4w ago

Anyone fancy testing this plant recogntion game for me? I just want to check it's not going to fall over when it goes live next week… hortle.life

Hortle — Recognise the plant

Test your plant ID skills. Two choices, one image, race the clock.

hortle.life

Caitlin E. McDonough-Goldstein @ideaspermatheca.bsky.social · last mo.

If there is one thing we can agree on - it's that there are disagreements about the meaning and use of sex in biological research. Contribute to the @treeofsex.bsky.social research survey to let us know how you define sex in biology! univie.questionpro.eu/definitionsurvey

ToS.DefinitionSurvey.QuestionPro

univie.questionpro.eu

Caitlin E. McDonough-Goldstein@ideaspermatheca.bsky.social · last mo.

How do we navigate the semantic labyrinth of sex in biology? doi.org/10.1093/icb/icag093 In developing a @treeofsex.bsky.social 2.0 ontology, we have encountered many versions of sex. In this paper, we come together to explore places of contention and make connections across concepts of sex.

Tree of Sex @treeofsex.bsky.social · last mo.

New publication alert: Tree of Sex 2.0 members unpack the many, sometimes overlapping, sometimes conflicting uses of "sex" in biology. Lead author Caitlin McDonough-Goldstein @ideaspermatheca.bsky.social has an excellent explainer thread if you want a preview!

Caitlin E. McDonough-Goldstein@ideaspermatheca.bsky.social · last mo.

Marc Somssich @somssich.bsky.social · last mo.

We are looking for a Scientist in #PlantCellBiology here at @kwsgroup.bsky.social in Einbeck. The position is in our Doubled Haploid Research Unit, and the work can be done onsite or remote! This is a two-year contract. jobs.kws.com/job/Einbeck-... #PlantSciJobs #PlantSciJob #PlantScience

Plant Cell Biologist (m/f/d)

jobs.kws.com

Michael Raissig @michaelraissig.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🌾 We're hiring a postdoc! Join the Stomatal Biology group in beautiful Bern @unibe.ch How do grass leaves spatially coordinate development of veins & stomatal rows? 2 years (plus possible extension), funded by @snsf.ch @dfg.de within @cerealcell.bsky.social RU5325 jobs.unibe.ch/job-vacancie...

Andy Plackett @seedrevolutionlab.bsky.social · 2mo ago

www.nature.com/articles/s41... It's been a long time coming, but delighted to say that the first major output from my Royal Society Fellowship is now published. 🙂 #PlantScience

The post-fertilization archegonium gene network of seedless plants contributed to the origin of seeds - Nature Communications

The authors identify conserved gene networks across fern and angiosperm reproductive development, including between the sporophyte ovule and the fern gametophyte egg-chamber. Repurposing of this netwo...

nature.com

Chenxin Li, PhD @chenxinli2.bsky.social · 2mo ago

That’s just awesome

Jeff Groh@jeffgroh.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🚨 Call for the 2027 JXB Editorial Interns is now open! 🚨 🌱 Designed for ECRs, interns will gain behind-the-scenes publishing experience and write commentary pieces that will be published in the journal 📝 Deadline: 30 Sept 2026 👉 bit.ly/jxbinterns #PlantScience 🧪 SEBiology

JXB EDITORIAL
INTERNSHIPS 2027
Who is this for?
• Early career researchers (2-8 yrs postgrad/postdoc experience)
What will you do?
• Assess submitted manuscripts (with editorial mentorship)
• Write commentary articles for publication in JXB
• (Optional) Join JXB's social media activities
Benefits for you:
• Gain editorial & publishing experience
• Career development as a researcher
• Free SEB membership (1 year)
Apply by 30th September 2026
bit.ly/jxbinterns

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🥝🌸 RESEARCH 🌸🥝 Gene editing and overexpression show that LEAFY genes control branching and floral organ development but not flowering time in kiwifruit, unlike the flowering-time function proposed in other plants - Peng et al. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #PlantScience 🧪

Fig. 5 (shortened, full legend in paper): Abnormal floral development in kiwifruit lfy1 and lfy2 single-mutants, and in the lfy1 lfy2 double-mutant. (A) Representative images of closed and open floral buds, and open flowers from the non-edited control (fast-flowering hermaphrodite background, cen4 sygl double-mutant), the lfy1 and lfy2 single-mutant lines 11 and 27, respectively, and the lfy1 lfy2 double-mutant line 22 (Fig. 4). Scale bars are 1 mm. (B) SEM images of dissected floral buds from the non-edited control and the lfy1 lfy2 double-mutant lines 10 and 33. Scale bars are 1 mm. The insets are images of the complete floral buds. (C–F) Relative expression of (C) the class A genes AcAP1, AcAP1-1, AcAP1-2, and AcAP2, (D) the class B genes AcPI and AcAP3-2, (E) the class C gene AcAG, and (F) the class E genes AcSEP1 and AcSEP3 in the floral buds of the non-edited, single-mutant, and double mutant plants. Expression is shown relative to that of the ACTIN reference gene.

Rainer Melzer @ucdflowerpower.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Thanks to all our speakers at our symposium at the @sebiology.bsky.social meeting in Florence. Great discussions, awesome science, fabulous city! Thanks to @ucdearth.bsky.social for the support!

Yichun I.B. Qiu @fallspringyc.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Great pleasure to summarize the up-to-date findings and share our thoughts on the functional evolution of Type I MADS-box genes! Many thanks to Journal of Experimental Botany and the editor, Rainer @ucdflowerpower.bsky.social for the invitation!

Journal of Experimental Botany@jxbotany.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🌸 FLOWERING NEWSLETTER REVIEW 🌸 Qiu & Köhler synthesize the current knowledge of land plant Type I MADS-box transcription factors, highlighting their evolutionary history and divergence patterns, and their key roles in diverse reproductive programmes. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #PlantScience 🧪

Fig. 1 (shortened, full legend in paper): Evolution of MEF2-derived MADS-box transcription factors (TFs) in green plants. The top panel shows the main subfamilies present in each extant plant lineage, focusing on the origin and diversification of Type I (M-type and MIKC*-type) TFs without detailing the further duplication within Type II (MIKCC-type) TFs. The arrows mark the sequential gene duplication events, with the numbered circles labelling the corresponding branches inferred by phylogenetic timing. The ancestral gene in the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of green plants resembled the MEF2-type TF, with the MADS-domain (canonical definition) followed by the MEF2 domain and a non-conserved C terminus.

Rob Waterhouse @rmwaterhouse.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Today at #SMBE2026 we kick off with the plenary from ERGA member @emmateeling.bsky.social lead of ERGA Associate Partner Bat1K Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social #biodiversity #genomics @ergabiodiv.bsky.social @biogeneurope.bsky.social @official-smbe.bsky.social

Marc Somssich @somssich.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Mary-Dell Chilton, plant transformation pioneer, passed away on June 24th. www.facebook.com/story.php?st... See also Plant Science Classic #6: bsky.app/profile/soms... #PlantScience 🧪

Facebook

facebook.com

Marc Somssich@somssich.bsky.social · 3y ago

#PlantScienceClassics #6: The T-DNA. In a 1977 paper, Mary-Dell Chilton & colleagues identify the Transferred DNA (T-DNA), the bit of DNA that Agrobacterium tumefaciens inserts into the plant genome, to kick off the race toward the first transgenic plant. doi.org/10.1016/0092...

A portrait of Mary-Dell Chilton, and the title page of her 1977 Cell paper "Stable incorporation of plasmid DNA into higher plant cells: the molecular basis of crown gall tumorigenesis".

Tree of Sex @treeofsex.bsky.social · 3mo ago

As everyone's winding down on #evol2026 we want to share our survey link with you again. Whether you work in reproductive biology specifically or not, please take a minute to help us understand how the scientific community uses reproductive terms in research! And hope to see you at #SMBE!

Silvia Manrique @tank-silvia.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Cool review on one of most popular transcription factor family in plant reproduction

Plant Science Spotlight@plant-sci.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🌿🧬TypeI MADS-box genes regulate gametophyte & endosperm. TypeII controls sporophytic development including flowers Both originated from ancient duplications & drove plant terrestrialization @fallspringyc.bsky.social @claudiakohler11.bsky.social @jxbotany.bsky.social academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-...

Ralf Reski @reskilab.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Cool article: Mass extinctions and land plant evolution The big five - five mass extinctions and their importance for plant evolution. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Mass extinctions and land plant evolution

Feng discusses how the Earth’s major extinction events affected the evolutionary trajectory of land plants.

cell.com

Rainer Melzer @ucdflowerpower.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Love those live posts of my talk 🤩

Marc Robinson-Rechavi@marcrr.ecoevo.social.ap.brid.gy · 3mo ago

Rainer Melzer: unlike animals, plants keep developing all the time. Plant development is also very plastic. #EED2026

Ke Yu @keyu01.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Now online! We summarize recent progress in understanding salicylic acid biosynthesis and signaling, a central regulator of plant immunity. Hope you enjoy reading it. Grateful to my coauthors, particularly @ouyang-yi.bsky.social, for making this work possible. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How does salicylic acid activate plant immunity?

Salicylic acid (SA) is a phytohormone central to plant immune responses, orchestrating both local defense and systemic acquired resistance (SAR), a br…

sciencedirect.com

José Dinneny @josedinneny.bsky.social · 4mo ago

So proud to share our latest publication @CellCellPress! Yue Rui reveals that the same enzyme that makes the wall, cellulose synthase complex (CESA), also tethers the plasma membrane to the wall during water-deficit stress, providing resilience. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Joanna Kacprzyk @joannakacprzyk.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Two PhD positions available to work with me on the GREEN CELL FACTORY (Advancing Plant Cell Biotechnology for Sustainable Production of High-Value Metabolites). Details below. Application deadlines are 7th June 2026 (PhD1_cell bio), 31st August (PhD2_bioinf)

Sebastian Soyk @sebastiansoyk.bsky.social · 5mo ago

🚨Job alert: We are looking for a #phd student to join us @unil.bsky.social to study the evolution & function of gene regulatory sequences in the context of crop domestication using genomics, genome editing and imaging 🌱🍅🧬. #plantscience #scijobs #plantscijobs. Apply here: tinyurl.com/3u73csma

Andrew Roger @andrewjroger.bsky.social · 5mo ago

IQ-TREE 3: Phylogenomic Inference Software using Complex Evolutionary Models academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

IQ-TREE 3: Phylogenomic Inference Software using Complex Evolutionary Models

Abstract. IQ-TREE (https://iqtree.github.io/) is a widely used open-source software tool for efficiently inferring phylogenetic trees under maximum likelih

academic.oup.com

Latin American Developmental Biology @lasdb.bsky.social · 5mo ago

🌊🧬 13th International LASDB Congress 📍 Búzios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 📅 October 2027 We’re excited to announce the 13th Conference of the Latin American Society for Developmental Biology 📢 More information coming soon!

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 4mo ago

🌾🧬 SPECIAL ISSUE REVIEW 🧬🌾 Recent advances in understanding homologous and homoeologous meiotic recombination in allopolyploid plant species have led us to propose a model for wheat homoeologous recombination and improving introgressions - Sourdille et al. #PlantScience 🧪

Fig. 1.Genealogy of tetraploid durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum; AABB) and hexaploid bread wheat (T. aestivum; AABBDD). Wheats are derived from natural interspecific hybridizations between related diploid species that diverged ∼6.5 Million Years Ago (MYA; Marcussen et al., 2014). The first interspecific cross occurred less than 0.8 MYA between T. urartu (AA genome) and a B-related diploid species from the Sitopsis section, the closest living relative being Aegilops speltoides. This resulted in the creation of an allotetraploid species, T. dicoccoides (AABB) that further evolved to give T. turgidum species, from which durum wheat arose (T. turgidum ssp. durum; AABB). T. dicoccoides naturally hybridized with Ae. tauschii (DD) less than 0.4 MYA to give bread wheat (T. aestivum; AABBDD) that evolved concomitantly with humans for 10 000 years (Marcussen et al., 2014). Evolution of Ph1 (TaZIP4-B2) and Ph2 (TaMSH7-3D) is indicated.

Carlow Weather @carlowweather.bsky.social · 5mo ago

This rare cloud-free image of Ireland, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellites on 29 April 2026, provides an exceptional view of the island, revealing its surface in full spring detail. eu-space.europa.eu/components/e...