Out today in Nature: sex without crossovers. Rhynchospora tenuis makes pollen, fertilises and sets seed, yet 0 crossovers in 10,997 pollen nuclei. Chromosome drive and ~87% seed abortion rebuild the mother's genotype, so the offspring are clones. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

André Marques@amarques.bsky.social · 8mo ago

A new extreme of meiotic evolution: ✔️ 𝗻𝗼 crossovers ✔️ 𝗻𝗼 gene conversion ✔️ 𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹 meiosis & fertility Sex mimics clonality without becoming asexual, in the holocentric multicellular eukaryote 𝘙𝘩𝘺𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘪𝘴. more about it: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Happy to finally see this out in a peer-reviewed form 🧬🌱 Congrats to everyone who contributed! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The dual trxG/PcG protein ULTRAPETALA1 modulates H3K27me3 and directly enhances POLYCOMB REPRESSIVE COMPLEX 2 activity for fine-tuned reproductive transitions - Nature Plants

This study reports a bivalent factor, ULTRAPETALA1, that can counteract as well as promote PRC2 activity at hundreds of developmental genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. The pro-PRC2 activity of ULTRAPETAL...

nature.com

It took some time, but we are thrilled to present the first major outcome of our @erc.europa.eu ERC DIRNDL AdG project: Evgeniya Pukhovaya @epukh.bsky.social and others in our team describe the discovery of a mechanism for polar protein targeting in plants (1/13) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Systematic proteomics identifies a conserved mechanism for polar targeting of plant cortical proteins

Multicellular development is tightly coupled to the polarization of individual cells, which partitions polar proteins along the cell cortex and can control asymmetric cell division, anisotropic growth...

biorxiv.org

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

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

Happy to share the final version of our study on the evolution of chromatin states across eukaryotes, out today in @natgenet.nature.com Led by @crisnava.bsky.social and @seanamontgomery.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... Some highlights below

Diversity and evolution of chromatin regulatory states across eukaryotes - Nature Genetics

This study introduces iChIP2, a low-input chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing method that profiles histone post-translational modifications (hPTMs) simultaneously across diverse eukar...

nature.com

Delighted to share our paper on neo-chromosomes! We induced centromere fission using CRISPR in Arabidopsis and increased the chromosome count from n=5 to n=6. The broken chromosomes ends quickly “healed” by adding telomeres de novo and the new karyotype is stable through mitosis and meiosis! 1/3

Ian Henderson@hendersi.bsky.social · 2mo ago

CRISPR-mediated centromere fission generates neochromosomes with distorted meiotic inheritance in Arabidopsis biorxiv.org/content/10.6... new preprint from us - includes changing the Arabidopsis karyotype from 5 -> 6 chromosomes using Cas9 & outcomes of 5/6 chromosome hybrid meiosis

Online at @cellcellpress.bsky.social today: everything you always wanted (???) to know about Auxin Signaling and never dared to ask. From Jiashu, Aaron and Martijn in our team, with @luciastrader.bsky.social and Tongda Xu www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Excited to share our latest preprint on #PhycologyFriday. We map out the carbon fixation pathway for the first time in a multicellular alga, the green seaweed Ulva, and reveal a unique Rubisco-Linker interaction in the pyrenoid, a chloroplast condensate. Below I summarize some key points. #seaweeds

bioRxiv Cell Biology@biorxiv-cellbio.bsky.social · 3mo ago

A spatial atlas of the seaweed CO2-fixation machinery reveals a unique Rubisco condensation mechanism https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.16.738900v1

🌾 Every grass leaf shares the same repeating short-long cell pattern in its epidermis. Our new #preprint identifies the protein that builds it. 🔬🧬 📄 preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵⬇️ 1/11

www.cell.com/molecular-ce... I'm happy to see our work published! If you are interested in transposons, transcriptional regulation and Pol III come and check it out 👀 🧫 🧬

ChAHP silences SINE retrotransposons by inhibiting TFIIIB recruitment

SINEs are short transposable elements that make up large fractions of mammalian genomes. Known to be transcribed by RNA polymerase III, their regulation has remained largely unexplored. Schnabl-Baumga...

cell.com

Our group is moving from @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social to the maritime city of Kiel! ⛵️🩵 I will lead the Department of Marine Plant Development and Physiology @uni-kiel.de 🌱🪸🌊 Look out for opportunities to join us in this exciting & growing hub for Plant, Marine & Evolutionary Biology in North Germany 🇩🇪

Excited to be able to advertise 1x postdoc and 2x technician positions to join my group in Cambridge working on an exciting ARIA funded project to help bring a plant artificial chromosome into existence! Reposts very welcome please 🙏 (1/2)

Excited to share our new preprint led by Fred and me in collaboration with the archaeal community! We found that the molecular foundation of histone-based chromatin has pre-eukaryotic roots in Asgard archaea. (1/4) #ArchaeaSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Emergence of histone-based chromatin complexity in Asgard archaea

The emergence of the eukaryotes coincided with the diversification of histone proteins and their post-translational modifications by enzymes that constitute the core of eukaryotic chromatin. Yet the e...

biorxiv.org

Delighted and grateful to receive the 🥇 best poster prize 🏆at #EpiPlant at Nantes, France. Thanks a bunch to the organizers and fellow participants for a wonderful meeting and inspiring conversations. Feeling delighted to represent Shivaprasad lab @ncbsbangalore.bsky.social

GDR EPIPLANT@epiplant.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Congratulations to the #EpiPlant poster prize winners! 🥇Steffi Raju @steffiraju.bsky.social @ncbsbangalore.bsky.social 🥈Vangeli Geshkovski @vgeshkovski.bsky.social @thesainsburylab.bsky.social 🥉Léa Feit @igred.fr

Latest from the lab: @ruolinwu.bsky.social integrates fossil and molecular evidence to estimate the timing of origin of flowering plants. Thanks to @sabifo4.bsky.social @jameswclark.bsky.social Yue Tong, Shan Wan, Davide Pisani, Harald Schneider and Daniele Silvestro for helping to make this happen

Ruolin WU@ruolinwu.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The broader implication extends beyond flowering plants. Many famous "rocks vs. clocks" debates may not require choosing sides. The challenge is finding better ways to let fossils and molecules speak to each other. Link to our latest: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our work is out now! (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). We discover a selective autophagy pathway that protects plants from the mess caused by RNA viruses. Intrigued? Follow the spaghetti trail for a summary of our findings🧵-->

Selective autophagy fine-tunes plant immunity to promote cell survival during viral infection

RNA viruses co-opt host endomembranes to form replication complexes, often triggering cellular stress and immune responses. Here, we show that Arabidopsis thaliana activates selective autophagy to res...

science.org

Capolavoro 🎨 alert 🚨! What is the role of gene body methylation in invertebrates? Despite extensive speculation linking it to plasticity and environmental responses, its mechanistic effects and heritability remain unclear. Our take out in @natecoevo.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/

Gene body methylation suppresses intragenic transcription and permits epigenetic inheritance in a cnidarian - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Experiments in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis show a role of gene body methylation in transposable element suppression and that epigenetic inheritance is constrained by chromatin context and tra...

nature.com

Call for Papers Submit your latest plant and multicellular algae #DevBio research to our upcoming special issue – Plant and Algae Development #DevSIPlantAlgae Editors: @stanfordstomata.bsky.social & Susana Coelho Deadline: 2 November 2026 journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pl...

Many pathogens that infect wild plants are close relatives of crop pathogens. Important model systems for studying plant diseases. Check out the special issue on wild plant pathosystems published in the Philosophical Transactions B: royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...

Volume 381 Issue 1951 | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | The Royal Society

Influential themed journal issues across the life sciences.

royalsocietypublishing.org

Now online at @natplants.nature.com ‼️ Led by Jierui Zhao, a former PhD student @gmivienna.bsky.social & together w/ @moritznowack.bsky.social lab, we uncover how #autophagy shapes salt stress tolerance and lifespan. www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... A short 🧵👇

Cell-type-specific autophagy in root-hair-forming cells is essential for salt stress tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana - Nature Plants

This study reveals that enhanced autophagy in root-hair-forming cells helps Arabidopsis store excess sodium, control oxidative stress and tolerate salt stress.

nature.com

We are very happy and proud to present a study led by @jorgehg.bsky.social (now PI in Madrid – keep an eye on him!) in our team @bic-wur.bsky.social. In this work, we discover how auxin-regulated ARF transcription factors learned to activate transcription. A 🧵…(1/17) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A short review from us on the easiest way to make an allopolyploid. It was a lot of fun writing with these two. We hope you will enjoy the Pac-Man inspired allopolyploidy maze!

New Phytologist@newphyt.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Somatic genome-doubling is the most parsimonious route to allopolyploidy #TansleyInsight by Burns et al. @robinburns.bsky.social @alisondawnscott.bsky.social @pnovik.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #plantscience

🚨 Why can’t mammals regenerate limbs like frog tadpoles or salamanders? In our new paper in @science.org , we show that species-specific oxygen sensing acts as a gatekeeper for initiating limb regeneration 🐭🐸 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #EvoDevo

New #preprint 😍‼️ led by 2 incredible postdocs @ninizhani.bsky.social & Ranj Papareddy: transforming #UFMylation from a local ribosome rescue pathway to systems level regulator of mRNA splicing www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... A short 🧵

Behind the scenes! go.nature.com/4bYY8BM

What brown algae taught me about the importance of jumping genes for genome evolution

go.nature.com

Our work on chromatin evolution in brown algae is finally out! This is also my first "co-first author" paper!! I’m excited to share what we found 👇

Nature Ecology & Evolution@natecoevo.nature.com · 6mo ago

Chromatin plays a central role in gene regulation, but chromatin systems are only known for a few model species. This study analyses chromatin regulatory landscapes in brown algal lineages to elucidate their structural organization and evolution 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our work on chromatin evolution in brown algae is now published in @natecoevo.nature.com! We show that developmentally complex brown algae evolved without epigenetic silencing pathways long thought universal, underscoring why non-model lineages are important to study. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats Thorsten!!

Thorsten Langner@thorstenlangner.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Now that it's official i've got some news! Our group has moved from @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social to @unihalle.bsky.social where I am now leading the department for phytopathology and plant protection 🍄🌾🧬

I am very grateful to be featured discussing my work on transcription associated proteins and TAPscan @rensingstefan.bsky.social Many thanks to @theplantjournal.bsky.social for the opportunity and recognition!

The Plant Journal@theplantjournal.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🗣️ 𝐈𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐲 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐥 @petrollromy.bsky.social TPJ Outstanding Resource Article Award 🏆 Romy is a PhD student at the @MPI_Bio Tübingen 🌿 Her work sheds light on the evolution of gene regulation across algae and plants ✍️ @luisdeluna.bsky.social 👉 doi.org/10.1111/tpj.70829