How do transcription factors bind DNA strongly, and in a switch like manner, while remaining sequence specific? Our new paper on a canonical plant TF suggests the answer is a previously underappreciated assembly state: transcription factor nanoclusters. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Nanoclustering of a plant transcription factor enables strong yet specific DNA binding

Transcription factor nanoclusters balance the DNA binding trade-off between weakly binding oligomers and nonspecific condensates.

science.org

*PhD position in Plant Physiology at Stockholm University* We are looking for a new PhD candidate to join our new lab at Stockholm University! The project will focus on epigenetic regulation of reproductive thermotolerance. Please share🙏 More information: su.varbi.com/what:job/job....

After the success of 2024, the EMBO Workshop on Evolution and Diversity of the DNA Damage Response returns—this time in Bengaluru, India! World-class speakers. Exciting discussions, collaborations, and networking. Registration open! See you in Feb’27! meetings.embo.org/event/27-dna...

In their Review, Alexandra Edwards and Elizabeth Finn discuss how genome organisation underlies evolution and development. journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...

Congratulations to the authors on their #NARCANCER publication! 🎉 Deleterious #SMC5/6 variants may predict higher #tumormutationalburden and better responses to #immunotherapy, highlighting their potential as #biomarkers for #precisioncancertherapy.

Bill Dynan - NAR Cancer Editor@nar-cancer-editor.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Can SMC5/6 status help guide precision cancer therapy? A new NAR Cancer study links deleterious SMC5/6 variants to tumor mutational burden and immunotherapy responses, driven via POLE dysfunction and mismatch repair deficiency.https://academic.oup.com/narcancer/article/8/2/zcag012/8688771

Excited to share the SNPstar! preprint! 🌿 SNPstar helps researchers explore how natural variation in Arabidopsis thaliana affects protein structure and function by integrating SNP data, AlphaFold3 models, stability predictions, population context, and more. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

SNPstar: A Web Server Linking Allelic Variation to Protein Structure and Function in Arabidopsis thaliana

Understanding how natural genetic variants affect protein structure and function is central to plant biology. The 1001 Genomes Project has catalogued millions of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)...

biorxiv.org

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

🌾🧬 RESEARCH 🧬🌾 Colas et al. show that XRCC2 barley mutants exhibit delayed replication leading to defective meiosis, altered RAD51 orthologue behaviour, and reduced crossovers, as in canonical mammalian XRCC2 mutants but unlike those in Arabidopsis. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #PlantScience 🧪

Have you ever wondered how the epigenome is modified during the transition from seed to seedling? Here, we show that water uptake by Arabidopsis seeds triggers the eviction of the H2B variant H2B.8, thereby revealing replication-independent chromatin reprogramming. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Do you have a bold, daring vision how to transform research in biology? Are you a young scientist within 7 years since your PhD? Submit your idea by July 31 to the Dream Biology Award competition and you can win the first prize of €10,000! More details at dreambiologyaward.org

I spent five fantastic (and tiring) days at the Youth Olympic Games of the Czech Republic as a rowing coach for the Olomouc region. I invest a significant amount of my free time in coaching in general.

RIP Mary-Dell Chilton, without her no genetic plant transformation using Agrobacterium. Stable incorporation of plasmid DNA into higher plant cells: the molecular basis of crown gall tumorigenesis: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Stable incorporation of plasmid DNA into higher plant cells: the molecular basis of crown gall tumorigenesis

Evidence is presented that crown gall tumors are caused by the incorporation of part of a virulence plasmid carried by the inciting bacterium, Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The rate of reassociation of l...

cell.com

Thrilled to have received an ERC Advanced Grant to investigate the mechanisms and biological impact of small RNA mobility in plants. A huge thanks to my team for making this possible, and to the reviewers for their support and confidence in the project. Looking forward to getting started!

Tobias Lortzing@tlortzing.bsky.social · last mo.

ERC Advanced Grant @erc.europa.eu for @maxplanck.de Director Claudia Köhler @claudiakohler11.bsky.social! She receives 2.5 million euros to study how mobile small RNAs can impact adaptive functional traits in plants. Congratulations!

On Monday, #CSEBR organized its first minisymposium (csebr.cz/vse-cs/minis...) and presented the Jan Krekule Award (csebr.cz/vse-cs/udele...) to Jaroslav Doležel from @iebcas.bsky.social for his contributions to experimental plant biology. See you on February 8th in Brno.

Another great science appointment is coming up with @labvincenzo.bsky.social and @luijsterburglab.bsky.social! 🧬 🗓️ Join us live on Tuesday, June 9th at 5pm (Rome) / 11am (NYC). 📍 Zoom link: uzh.zoom.us/j/6598481621... 📥 Register here to stay in the loop: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Does your designed active site already exist in nature? Is an uncharacterized protein hiding a catalytic site or a pocket? Folddisco answers both, searching millions of structures for a 3D motif in seconds. @natbiotech.nature.com 🧬 📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵1/7👇

Structural motif search across the protein universe with Folddisco - Nature Biotechnology

Folddisco enables protein structural motif search in million scale databases.

nature.com

Our group is attending the Plant Genome Stability and Change Meeting 2026 at Wuhan ! ☘️ Ales (@apecinka.bsky.social) gave a talk on how condensin mediates resistance to genotoxic stress, and Eva(@evadt.bsky.social) presented her research on the role of SUMOylation in DNA-protein cross link repair.

Here it finally is: our protocol for boosting maize transformation. We’ve already shared it at several conferences, and it was overdue to give it its final shape and submit it. We hope it will be useful for the community! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New OA Resource: "A transcriptional atlas of early Arabidopsis seed development suggests mechanisms for inter-tissue coordination" rdcu.be/fj8H2 Single-nucleus RNAseq profiling of early Arabidopsis seed development. #PlantScience

🔬🍀🎉 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 ago

Cell 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/...

Thrilled to introduce our next act 🎭 in @cp-molcell.bsky.social sciencedirect.com/science/arti... led by @glangin.bsky.social We uncover how proteotoxic stress is integrated across compartments, controlling proteasome activation ⚖️ vs photosynthesis repression 🌱 🧵(1/6) #proteostasis

#JustIn on Plantae: The Unwritten CV of a Plant Scientist. In this new piece, ASPB Plantae Fellows Anastasia Kolesnikova and Charlay Wood offer a more human picture of plant science than most people ever get to see in a plant scientist's CV. buff.ly/tOdWD3v #PlantScience

The Unwritten CV of a Plant Scientist | Plantae

There is a particular look people give when you say you are a plant scientist…

buff.ly

Who would have thought, five years ago when I first looked at P-bodies under the microscope, that this journey would lead here. 🔬 Very happy to see this work finally out in #ScienceAdvances. Proud of this collaborative effort and grateful to everyone involved. 👏🏻🎉

Şuayb Üstün@suaybuestuen.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🚨 Paper out now in #ScienceAdvances @science.org 🌱🦠 Pathogens don’t just target protein degradation—they also hijack host translation. "Bacteria use P-body condensates to attenuate host translation during infection" ⚖️♻️ led by @manuelgonzalezfuen.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

humanity has always been moved forward by people who think differently www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Dyslexic thinking made me the scientist I am today. If we could harness its power, imagine what could be possible | Maggie Aderin

Progress has always been made by people who think differently. Neurodiversity helps us think outside the box – and when we do, the sky’s the limit, says space scientist Maggie Aderin

theguardian.com

"a three-cell rule of branching" #PlantScience L1, L2, and L3 layers of SAM in fancy language. From www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Doing the periodic cleaning of used plasmid miniprep columns and realized in honor of Earth Day it may be worth reminding you molecular biologists: Plasmid miniprep columns can be cleaned and reused essentially indefinitely! Just add 1 M HCl, soak overnight and wash 3x w/ water. Save $ and plastic

This week, Jana, Manuel, Ahel, and Peter participated in the Young Researchers Meeting (YRM) at the IEB 2026 conference @iebcas.bsky.social, where they presented their research.

PWO proteins are associated with PRC2 since their emergence in vascular plants 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... by Khan et al. @farronalab.bsky.social @saqlainh.bsky.social @WileyPlantSci

#newpaper: Combining promoter and induced intron 1 mutations of Vrn-A1a does not accelerate flowering in wheat @springernature.com: Wheat, Vernalization, Vrn-A1a, RIP3, Genome editing, Crops doi.org/10.1007/s110... @pecinka-grp.bsky.social

Combining promoter and induced intron 1 mutations of Vrn-A1a does not accelerate flowering in wheat - Molecular Breeding

Molecular Breeding - In temperate cereals, vernalization regulates the transition from vegetative to reproductive growth in response to low temperatures. A central component of this pathway is...

doi.org

Our new preprint on how in plants ARGONAUT 4 controls RNA cytosine methylation (yes RNA!) which then prevents premature transcription termination #PlantScience #Epitranscriptome #siRNAs

bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Transcription elongation factor SPT6L recruits ARGONAUTE to guide mRNA cytosine methylation preventing premature termination in plants https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.25.714125v1