Now with a News & Views: "Breeding mitochondria in crops" rdcu.be/fb7TR Mitochondrial genes in most crops are inherited maternally. In this issue of Nature Plants, Gonzalez-Duran et al. report that mitochondrial genes can be inherited from both parents.

📢New paper alert: 🍄 Friendly #fungi hijack #plant regulator to promote #symbiosis - study uncovers #mechanism that helps fungi to colonize plant #roots 👉 Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41... @an-pocheng.bsky.social @carogutj.bsky.social

Plants with faulty mitochondria are male-sterile (left) and their defect is passed down maternally. Our latest discovery lets the father pass down its healthy mitochondria, restoring fertility of the offspring (right) #plantscience www.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/2889956/news... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Paternal Mitochondria Rescuing Plant Fertility

A groundbreaking study reveals paternal mitochondria can restore fertility in plants, reshaping our understanding of mitochondrial inheritance.

mpimp-golm.mpg.de

Our work on #hornwort #pyrenoids is finally out in @science.org! 🎉 We uncovered how hornworts pack their Rubisco into pyrenoids and successfully recreated them in Arabidopsis. A key step toward engineering more efficient photosynthesis in crops @btiscience.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

An unconventional Rubisco small subunit underpins the CO2-concentrating organelle in land plants

In many algae, photosynthesis is boosted by biophysical CO2-concentrating mechanisms, which pack the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco into liquid-like organelles called pyrenoids. Engineering C3 crops with a...

science.org

🌿🧬Our new story is out in @natplants.nature.com! Tobacco plants usually pass down their mitochondria maternally, but we show we can trigger paternal transmission of mitochondria at high levels & restore plant health in the offspring of mothers harboring defective mtDNA www.nature.com/articles/s41...

High-frequency biparental inheritance of plant mitochondria upon chilling stress and loss of a genome-degrading nuclease - Nature Plants

Maternal inheritance of mitochondria breaks down in the cold when a mitochondrial DNA degrading nuclease is defective, resulting in biparental inheritance that can rescue mitochondrial mutations and g...

nature.com

Glad to see that our Viewpoint article is now online! doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... We highlight recent exciting advances in plastid-to-nucleus gene transfer and share our perspectives in this evolving field. 💪🙏Many thanks to Yuyang and Femke for their contributions to this work. @jxbotany.bsky.social

How could a simple self-replicating system emerge at the origins of life? RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but existing ones are so large that their self-replication seems impossible. Could they be smaller? Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase. 1/n

A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand

The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

science.org

Very excited to finally share my PhD paper, about advancing #chloroplast #synbio through high-throughput plastome engineering of #Chlamydomonas. Huge thanks to the whole team! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A modular high-throughput approach for advancing synthetic biology in the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas - Nature Plants

This study reports a modular-cloning-based platform for high-throughput chloroplast engineering in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii that allows large-scale characterization of genetic parts and prototyping o...

nature.com

Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology@mpimicrobiomarburg.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Turbo platform for plant research 🚀🪴 Extreme weather events due to #climatechange reduce crop yields. @reneinckemann.bsky.social & team led by Tobias Erb @synmikro.bsky.social has now developed a microalgae platform for fast and efficient tests of chloroplast gene variants s.gwdg.de/hznfNe

💡 INSIGHT 💡 Vittoria Clapero comments on Liu et al.’s recent JXB paper - showing how ¹³C tracing reveals intra-leaf photosynthetic dynamics during drought & rewatering ☀️💧 Insight 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... Research 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #PlantScience 🧪 @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social

Last week I was awarded the Jeff Schell Prize 2025 for outstanding research by our MPl, in recognition of our most recent Nature Plants paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... I am deeply honored, and thankful to my co-authors + the many, many helpful colleagues who made this research possible.

Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology 🌱🧪@mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social · last yr.

🌱 Congrats to @egonzalezduran.bsky.social & Dr. Rita Bastos Lima on receiving the Jeff Schell Prize for their outstanding research in molecular evolution & seed development 👏 www.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/2797204/news...

The June issue is now fully online: www.nature.com/nplants/volu...

Very excited to see one of our EGT plants in the cover of @natplants.nature.com! While tobacco flowers have 5 petals, this beauty produces 3-petal and 4-petal flowers, likely as consequence of mutation/genome instability. Article: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 📷: E.G-D., MPI-MP Cover: Erin Dewalt

SEB Annual Conference in Antwerp🌻 We encourage New Generation Researchers to take the stage and share their new ideas on cytoplasmic genetics. Don't miss the talks by Femke van den Berg and Schewach Bodenheimer. Registration Deadline: 13 June Link: www.sebiology.org/events/seb-a... #SEBconference

Join us at SEB Annual Conference in Antwerp🌻 #SEBconference Early Career Researchers, @egonzalezduran.bsky.social and Tom Theeuwen, will share their excellent research with us in the Plant Session P4! Conference Registration Deadline: 13th June Link: www.sebiology.org/events/seb-a...

Research team uncovered a stress response network in algae and #plants, spanning 600 million years of #evolution. Using bioinformatics, identified genetic 'hubs' that shape responses to stressors, offers insights into early adaptations of land plants. buff.ly/02DjhYH v @unigoettingen.bsky.social

There's a press release for our new @natplants.nature.com article! Plants use fast DNA repair to guard against risky gene transfers from their own organelles—the lessons might go beyond plant biology Release tinyurl.com/prnpegrb by @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Why Plants Patch Broken DNA So Fast

Researchers uncover how rapid DNA repair protects genomes from internal threats, with implications for cancer biology

mpimp-golm.mpg.de

Our new Nature Plants paper is out! Defects in nuclear DSB repair can boost gene transfer from plastids up to 20X— suggesting 1) organellar DNA has strong mutagenic potential and 2) fast repair is key for genome stability in plants & possibly other species nature.com/articles/s41477-025-02005-w

Suppression of plastid-to-nucleus gene transfer by DNA double-strand break repair - Nature Plants

Inactivation of double-strand break repair pathways greatly increases the integration of plastid DNA into the nuclear genome of tobacco plants, highlighting the mutagenic potential of organellar DNA a...

nature.com

With their clever setup to visualize ongoing endosymbiotic gene transfers (EGTs), Enrique Gonzalez-Duran, Ralph Bock and team reveal how double-strand break repair limits excessive EGT. Check out their new Nature Plants paper and my News and Views summary! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A gatekeeper for gene transfers - Nature Plants

Large-scale genetic screening for plastid-to-nucleus gene transfers identifies that fast double-strand break repair functions as a key barrier for nuclear integration of organellar DNA and provides in...

nature.com

New research by @egonzalezduran.bsky.social shows that DSB repair suppresses gene transfer from chloroplasts to nucleus. With DSB repair impaired, transfer rates jump 20× — revealing how plants protect genome stability, with lessons beyond plant biology. Read: nature.com/articles/s41477-025-02005-w

Suppression of plastid-to-nucleus gene transfer by DNA double-strand break repair - Nature Plants

Inactivation of double-strand break repair pathways greatly increases the integration of plastid DNA into the nuclear genome of tobacco plants, highlighting the mutagenic potential of organellar DNA a...

nature.com