Erin Sparks
@erinsparks.bsky.social
Faculty @ Mizzou & Danforth Center. Loves brace roots & biomechanics.
Very excited to be a new handling editor at AoB - this is one of my favorite journals and I'm happy to serve in this capacity!
Annals of Botany@annbot.bsky.social · last wk.🌱 Annals of Botany welcomes new Handling Editors Welcome Dylan Craven, Erin Sparks, and Mohamed Abdelaziz, whose expertise spans ecology 🌳, root biology 🌱, and plant reproductive biology & pollination ecology 🌸🧬 Great to have them on the editorial team!
New research! Danforth Center PI Erin Sparks & Bayer used the SMURF device to show that shorter corn plants have more flexible roots — helping them take wind damage at less than half the rate of conventional corn. Watch the SMURF in action 👇
Latest review from our lab lead by the amazing Emilia Pierce!
Botanical Society of America@botsocamerica.bsky.social · 4mo agoEvaluating nitrogen uptake: Methods and applications for plant research A new #AppsPlantSci review by Pierce, @razda5.bsky.social, Huddell & @erinsparks.bsky.social bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @danforthcenter.bsky.social #botany #plantscience #nitrogenfertilization #nanoSIMS
🔬🍀🎉 I am happy and excited to share that graduate student, @ohazel.bsky.social Olivia's first author research article is published now @newphyt.bsky.social We are grateful to editor, reviewers, and @newphyt.bsky.social to help us to improve the story nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
New Phytologist@newphyt.bsky.social · 5mo agoCell cycle follows 'pause and play; mechanism in salt and cold stress recovery in diverse plant species Hazelwood et al. @ohazel.bsky.social @kamdiehl.bsky.social @aribidopsis.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
We are excited to announce the Plant Biomechanics Webinar Series 2025! 🗓 Webinar #1: Thursday, 25 September 2025 🕑 Time: 14.00 – 15.40 (UTC+7) 🎙 Speakers: Yamamoto M. Matsuo-Ueda R. Noviandi G.I. Hutabarat 📝 Registration: ugm.id/PBMweb1
Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Webinar #1 Plant Biomechanics. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Part of Webinar Series 2025 Road to The 11th International Plant Biomechanics Conference
ugm.id
We learned a lot about plant cell wall mechanics by stretching the Arabidopsis epidermis. Now published in @natcomms.nature.com Fibrous network nature of plant cell walls enables tunable mechanics for development doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Excited for today’s #STLPlantFam25 Plant Science Family Reunion hosted by @39northstl.bsky.social. The joy of connecting with the STL plant fam is indescribable.
It was such an honor to coordinate this plenary! So much amazing science happening in Plant Biomechanics. Thanks to @radinbio.bsky.social, @geitmannlab.bsky.social, Naomi Nakayama, and Frank Telewski for sharing their work! #PlantBio2025
American Society of Plant Biologists@aspbofficial.bsky.social · last yr.Day 2 Biomechanics Plenary, Chaired by Erin Sparks @erinsparks.bsky.social, kicks off with "Evolution of Organellar Mechanosensing" by Ivan Radin @radinbio.bsky.social, showcasing his lab's testing how plant organelles perceive mechanical forces and adjust their morphology in response. #PlantScience
PCA Member Ivan Radin presented this morning at the 2025 ASPB Conference with his talk on "Evolution of Organellar Mechanosensing." #PlantBio2025 @radinbio.bsky.social
ASPB Fellow Anja Geitmann presents "From microstructural features to macroscopic traits" exploring her lab's work to understand the hierarchical architectural concepts underpinning metabolic processes. @geitmannlab.bsky.social #plantscience #PlantBio2025
#PlantBio2025 I am excited for my awesome grad student, Olivia @ohazel.bsky.social from @science.ubc.ca @ubcbotany.bsky.social presenting today at ASPB meeting in the poster session (unnumbered section). Here is Olivia's 1st author preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
We @ohazel.bsky.social @jessicaa-orr.bsky.social arrived in Wisconsin to attend the ASPB meeting. We are off to a great start here and had a great time hanging out with Erin @erinsparks.bsky.social today. Thanks Erin for making the time.
I'm off to ASPB #PlantBio2025 tomorrow, with a poster and talk on using X-ray imaging in Plant Biology. New soybean imaging to share, like this fly-through animation of the meristematic region from an XRM scan. @danforthcenter.bsky.social @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social
The lab used our mutagen of choice, Ethyl methanesulfonate, and sequencing of somatic sectors to do some forward genetics in sorghum. Additional alleles in one generation to find and validate the gene! Something old, something new... @genetics-gsa.bsky.social academic.oup.com/genetics/art...
Targeted seed EMS mutagenesis reveals a basic helix–loop–helix transcription factor underlying male sterility in sorghum
Abstract. Forward genetic screens of mutant populations are fundamental for functional genomics studies. However, isolating independent mutant alleles to m
academic.oup.com
New data from the Bob Schmitz lab (Marand 2025) on cell type-specific cis-regulation in maize! This study, in @science.org, reveals how DNA changes impact expression and maize traits. Explore the 176 new tracks on the browser under Epigenetics and DNA binding. ➡️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The genetic architecture of cell type–specific cis regulation in maize
Gene expression and complex phenotypes are determined by the activity of cis-regulatory elements. However, an understanding of how extant genetic variants affect cis regulation remains limited. Here, ...
science.org
🚨It's here!🚨 The Underground Journal Launched Today! @lindzeamays.bsky.social is our first featured artist! Sign up to learn more about Lindsay's work as a science illustrator. We are already accepting submissions for the next issue! So excited to see what you all create! #sciart #scicomm
Make your own maize mutants! Raj Khangura, Norman Best and I contributed maize pollen and seed EMS mutagenesis protocols for the new maize handbook! Updated practices 1/n cshprotocols.cshlp.org/content/earl... cshprotocols.cshlp.org/content/earl... cshprotocols.cshlp.org/content/earl...
Uses and Opportunities for Ethyl Methanesulfonate Mutagenesis in Maize
cshprotocols.cshlp.org
Reason number 4,517 (yes I'm counting) why @maizegdb.bsky.social is so awesome and we're so lucky as a community to have these folks. Also a great example of maize community sharing. UNPUBLISHED data already up on the community database showing conservation scores across the maize genome.
MaizeGDB@maizegdb.bsky.social · last yr.We're excited to share PlantCAD browser tracks: a new, unpublished dataset integrating AI techniques for plant genome analysis. Explore it here: github.com/andorfc/Plan... We welcome the community's feedback and innovative use cases for this data!
Thrilled that @10xgenomics.bsky.social is sponsoring the 6th Interdisciplinary #Plant Group Root (IPG) #Biology Symposium at Mizzou! May 20-23, 2025 IPG is a community of researchers at at MU who are pursuing novel ideas in the field of plant biology! link below! ipg.missouri.edu/symposium/in...
2025 Symposium Information| Interdisciplinary Plant Group | University of Missouri
ipg.missouri.edu
📣 #PlantBio2025 Plenary: Biomechanics.🌱 Learn more and register now! buff.ly/eAQJjVe 👉Advanced rates end June 10! Hurry and register soon for the best savings on the event you don’t want to miss. buff.ly/dtqtnUX #PlantScience
(1/15) We are happy to share the recent preprint from the lab, in a collaboration with Erin Sparks @erinsparks.bsky.social and Norman Best. This story is focused on cell division and auxin in presence of one of the toxic metals, lead (Pb). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · last yr.Lead, a toxic metal, alters auxin-mediated root growth and gravitropic responses in maize and Arabidopsis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.09.653208v1
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Marc Somssich@somssich.bsky.social · last yr.📜 CarboTag: a modular approach for live and functional imaging of plant cell walls 🧑🔬 Maarten Besten, Joris Sprakel, et al. 📔 @naturemethods.bsky.social 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #️⃣ #PlantScience #PlantCellWalls #PlantTools #PlantMicroscopy #PlantImaging #PlantMethods
🌱🦠👩🏾🔬 Check out Shanice and her awesome work!
HHMI@hhmi-science.bsky.social · last yr.Plant health is essential to food security, yet pathogens continue to threaten crops worldwide. To better understand how disease takes hold—& how to stop them—HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow @shanice-webster.bsky.social is exploring the dynamic relationships among plants, microbes, & disease-causing agents.
Plant Science Research Weekly -- Firmly grounded: root system stiffness and plant mechanics (Journal of Experimental Botany) (Summary by Irene I. Ikiriko) buff.ly/HBp5OK5 #PlantaePSRW
Firmly grounded: Root system stiffness and plant mechanics | Plantae
Field-based technologies are essential for understanding plant mechanical behavior in field-relevant contexts. This behavior can be elastic, with temporary deformation measured as stiffness…
buff.ly
(1/17) We are excited to share the Ashraf and Gallagher labs collaboration on cell cycle regulation during environmental stress recovery in Arabidopsis, Brachypodium, and ryegrass.
bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · last yr.Cell cycle follows pause and play mechanism in environment stress recovery in diverse plant species https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.02.646900v1
Latest paper from @philcarella.bsky.social lab! Pseudomonas viridiflava as a naturally occurring pathogens of Marchantia. ▶️ T3SS matters ▶️ conserved effectors for infection in angio and Marchantia www.cell.com/current-biol...
Conserved effectors underpin the virulence of liverwort-isolated Pseudomonas in divergent plants
Robinson et al. identify pathogenic Pseudomonas viridiflava in wild Marchantia polymorpha liverworts and interrogate the mechanisms enabling virulence in non-flowering and flowering plants. Their resu...
cell.com
