Maite Colinas
@maitecolinas.bsky.social
🌱, natural products, enzymes, regulation, evolution, not necessarily in this order. Currently Project Group Leader at Department of Natural Product Biosynthesis @mpi-ce.bsky.social. Former MSCA fellow. Always daydreamer.(she/her)
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
1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.
The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science
As a labor-augmenting technology, large language models (LLMs) have the potential to accelerate scientific activity across the research pipeline. But even if LLMs perform on par with human experts at ...
arxiv.org
Bees, don't be bamboozled by this floral smell! European oil #beetle larvae synthesize floral scents to trick solitary #bees into becoming unwitting Uber drivers back to their nests - where the tiny hitchhikers then feast on bee eggs😱Fascinating study by @oconnorlab.bsky.social @mpi-ce.bsky.social
Oil beetle larvae smell like flowers to manipulate bees
The European oil beetle's parasitic larvae emit a floral scent that attracts wild bees. This allows the larvae to sneak into the bees' nests
mpg.de
Thanks Jing-Ke Weng and @natchembio.nature.com for a great News and Views on our nicotine work from @lichmanlab.bsky.social and @geufloreslab.bsky.social ! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
How tobacco builds nicotine - Nature Chemical Biology
Nicotine is among the most consequential of plant alkaloids, yet how tobacco joins its two nitrogen-containing rings has gone unsolved for over a century. Two new studies complete the pathway, reveali...
nature.com
Researchers from our @oconnorlab.bsky.social found that the oil beetle's parasitic larvae mimic floral scent to attract bees, allowing them to sneak into their nests. This is the first example of an animal mimicking flower odors to manipulate an ecological interaction www.ice.mpg.de/563251/PR_Alam
Oil beetle larvae smell like flowers to manipulate bees
The larvae of the European oil beetle mimic floral scents to attract wild bees and thus infiltrate their nests. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology have identified monoterpeno...
ice.mpg.de
So excited to share our new study about nicotine-mediated tobacco root-microbiota interactions, spearheaded by Tomohisa! Nicotine is a neurotoxin for insects, but for Arthrobacter, it works as a nutritional source that provides a competitive advantage. doi.org/10.1186/s401...
Horizontal acquisition of nicotine catabolism gene cluster enhances Arthrobacter fitness within tobacco root microbiota - Microbiome
Background Plant roots are hotspots for interactions with soil microbes, where a characteristic bacterial community structure is formed. Plant specialized metabolites often play pivotal roles in this assembly process. However, the molecular basis underlying root microbiota responses to these bioactive compounds, and how such metabolic interactions shape the assembly of host-specific root microbiota, remain largely unknown. Nicotine is a toxic alkaloid predominantly produced by the genus Nicotiana, and the genus Arthrobacter is known as one of the nicotine-degrading bacteria in the tobacco root microbiota. In this study, we used the tobacco–Arthrobacter interaction system as a model and integrated comparative genomics and experimental genetic manipulation assays to uncover the role of bacterial catabolism capacity for host specialized metabolites in shaping host-specific root microbiota. Results Nicotine catabolism genes are uniquely found in the Arthrobacter strains derived from nicotine-containing environments, and this restricted gene distribution is driven by a plasmid-mediated horizontal gene transfer. To assess the ecological consequences of this genomic adaptation in Arthrobacter fitness in tobacco roots, we characterized the nicotine utilization ability of Arthrobacter and conducted adaptation assays under in planta conditions using genetically manipulated Arthrobacter strains and tobacco mutants impaired in nicotine catabolism and biosynthesis, respectively. Nicotine improves Arthrobacter colonization of tobacco roots through a catabolism-dependent mechanism. Bacterial community analysis using a synthetic community approach further demonstrated that this metabolic adaptation enhances Arthrobacter fitness within tobacco root microbiota. Conclusions Our findings illustrated that bacterial catabolic capacity toward host-derived plant specialized metabolites is key for successful root colonization. This metabolic adaptation is driven by plasmid-mediated horizontal gene transfer and ultimately shapes the structure of the root microbiota community. Video Abstract
doi.org
New pre-print. Biosynthesis of limonene in Marchantia is carried out by a small biosynthetic gene cluster specific to oil body cells #PlantScience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Neryl diphosphate-derived monoterpene biosynthesis via a biosynthetic gene cluster in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha
Monoterpenes (C10) are a large group of specialized metabolites important for plant interactions with the environment. Their biosynthesis is well understood in seed plants, where geranyl diphosphate s...
biorxiv.org
Cephalotaxinone enzymes reveal a whole plant model for homoharringtonine biosynthesis www.nature.com/articles/s41... @natchembio.nature.com
Cephalotaxinone enzymes reveal a whole plant model for homoharringtonine biosynthesis - Nature Chemical Biology
Homoharringtonine (HHT) is a plant-derived anticancer drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Here, the authors elucidate a root-tip-specific biosynthetic pathway to its alkaloid core, i...
nature.com
🌾 Grass leaves are the photosynthetic powerhouses of human civilisation. @lbmountain.bsky.social's transcriptomic atlas of nearly 70,000 cells from shoot apex to mature leaf follows the genetic programs that form a grass leaf 🧬 paper doi.org/10.1093/plce... expression browser shiny.ips.unibe.ch
I can highly recommend Mary-Dell's autobiographical article in @plantphys.bsky.social: "Agrobacterium. A Memoir" academic.oup.com/plphys/artic... It's always best to read about great scientific discoveries from the scientists themselves. #PlantScience
Agrobacterium. A Memoir
This little memoir is not a review; the reader is directed to current authoritativeAgrobacterium reviews with genetic (23) or cell biology emphasis (24). L
academic.oup.com
Marc Somssich@somssich.bsky.social · last mo.Mary-Dell Chilton, NC biochemist who revolutionized agriculture, dies at 87 www.newsobserver.com/news/local/a... #PlantScience #PlantBiotech 🧪
Join the team for this very cool project! Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. And since it’s a very interdisciplinary project, reposts to reach the right person (not necessarily with a plant background) are appreciated 😁
Umeå Plant Science Centre@umeaplantsciencecentre.se · last mo.🧪VACANCY: Computational biologist, modeller or biophysicist? Join Laura Bacete @cellwalldynamics.com and Christiane Funk in an interdisciplinary @icelabumu.bsky.social postdoctoral project exploring cell wall sensing in the microalga Chlorella vulgaris. Apply by 17 Sept👇 www.umu.se/en/work-with...
Microbes that have the greatest genomic potential for secondary metabolism tend to be multicellular. Here, we show that signatures of ancestral BGC expansions within 3 bacterial phyla and 2 fungal lineages coincide with origins of complex multicellularity [1/12] 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Complex multicellularity is linked with expanded specialized metabolite production in microorganisms - Nature Microbiology
The evolutionary emergence of complex multicellularity in bacteria and fungi, such as the ability for mycelial growth, is strongly associated with increased genomic carriage of biosynthetic machinery ...
nature.com
In our new preprint, we report how clubmoss plants use an ancient biosynthetic pathway (>300 million years old!) to make huperzine A, an alkaloid with potential as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease. Great work by Eric Fields and @cyhkim.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Ancient origins of alkaloid biosynthesis in medicinal clubmosses
The plant kingdom is rich with medicinal natural products that are complex and difficult to access. Discovering how plants build these molecules can be challenging, especially for biosynthetic pathway...
biorxiv.org
Targeted DNA insertion remains a major bottleneck in plant engineering. We developed an avian R2 retrotransposon as an efficient plant genome editor to precisely insert large DNA payloads at targeted sites: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Congratulations to @kimuchenje03.bsky.social and the team! 🧵👇
Transient dynamics of flavonoid metabolons tune chalcone synthase specificity www.nature.com/articles/s41... @natcatal.nature.com
Transient dynamics of flavonoid metabolons tune chalcone synthase specificity - Nature Catalysis
Enzyme assemblies can enhance metabolic efficiency, yet the ways in which transient interactions fine tune catalytic outcomes remain poorly understood. This study demonstrates that a flexible partner ...
nature.com
Happy to contribute to the biosynthetic pathway of Vinblastine and Ibogaine. We identified partner proteins that heterodimerize with the enzyme geissoschizine synthase to improve its activity and modulate stereochemical output. Read it in @pnas.org #PlantScience www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Tuning reductase activity in monoterpene indole alkaloid biosynthesis | PNAS
Monoterpene indole alkaloids encompass a diverse class of plant natural products. Many of these valuable compounds, including the anticancer medici...
pnas.org
New review out in Current Biology with colleagues in the Plant Cell Atlas (@plantcellatlas.bsky.social)! We discuss how single-cell genomics is reshaping our understanding of plant cell-type identity and evolution across the Green Lineage. bit.ly/4eAip2Q
(1/11) Excited to share the brand-new cell division preprint from the lab! In this manuscript, chemical biology (in a collaboration with @rnett42.bsky.social Ryan’s lab) meets the cell biology (our lab). Harmala alkaloids regulate cell division planes in plants www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Häufige Missverständnisse über neue Züchtungstechniken (#NGT) – Prof. Alain Tissier @atissier.bsky.social klärt im Interview über die Unterschiede zwischen klassischer Züchtung und #GeneEditing auf und gibt Einblicke in die Praxis. Das ganze Interview hier: 🔗 saatgut-kann-mehr.de/2026/05/04/p...
Catalogue entries for more than 100 antibodies sold by the research services and supply company Thermo Fisher Scientific contain images that have apparently been manipulated, according to a pair of science sleuths. go.nature.com/4wX4yej
Science sleuths uncover more than 100 suspicious images in Thermo Fisher antibody catalogue
Scientists have long worried about the reliability of commercial antibodies, and the latest findings have sparked fresh concerns.
go.nature.com
I know @bas-bargmann.bsky.social for d last ~15 yrs, but this is the first time we published a community resources article together for the greater plant bio colleagues:) Enjoy! @ncatnews.bsky.social @jxbotany.bsky.social #Plantscience, #ASPB, #Single-cell, #Genomics, #AI doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
To immediately start off, our latest preprint, "Deciphering the evolutionary origin of the stereoselectivity of short-chain dehydrogenases in the oxidation of the monoterpenol 1-borneol," is now available on bioRxiv (doi.org/10.1101/2025...)! @lynnkamerlin.bsky.social @Bernhard Loll
Latest preprint from our lab: We've studied the development and functional genomics of cannabis glandular trichomes using single cell multiomics (simultaneous gene expression and chromatin status profiling).
bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 3mo agoDevelopmental and regulatory logic of cannabis glandular trichomes resolved by single cell multiomics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.17.725801v1
Lichman Lab@lichmanlab.bsky.social · 3mo agoPleased to share our full publication of our manuscript describing completion of nicotine biosynthesis in @natcomms.nature.com following our pre-print from December last year. In this work we solve the 200-year-old puzzle of how tobacco plants make nicotine. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Multiplex knockout of fruit specific biosynthetic genes (terpene synthase, P450, UGT) in tomato produces fruits depleted of carotenoid & steroidal glycoalkaloid, which could be used as a chassis to produce value-added chemicals. From: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #PlantScience #SecMet
![Heatmaps (carotenoids, left) and (steroidal glycoalkaloids [SGA], right) in fruit and leaf. Each row is a metabolite, and each column is edited plant or WT control. Strong depletion can be observed in key abundant carotenoids or SGA in the fruit with minimal changes in the leaf.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:zkedq2pjr7lcizawxkhto32a/bafkreihz6vbjckrorduabkd47qlo4gyftraomrip3wtffnprnoxvbt35ce)
We are excited to welcome Ketil Krabbe as a new pre-doc in our group at @thesainsburylab.bsky.social. Ketil completed his master’s with Sarah O’Connor at MPI Jena (single-cell metabolomics) and a science policy internship at OPCW before joining us. Welcome, Ketil!
While we agonise about saving all the different subspecies of some bird or dolphin, entire species of plants, insects, and reptiles are being pulled back at the brink by DOC and volunteers with almost no budget. Our priorities are so out of whack. www.rnz.co.nz/news/environ...
Hundreds of ultra-rare NZ plants grown from last two specimens
Researchers managed to collect just three seeds of the woollyhead herb in one season - two of which germinated.
rnz.co.nz
Das wäre wirklich ein Game Changer für den Pflanzenschutz-intensiven Kartoffelanbau. Mit Kreuzung ist es trotz großer Anstrengungen bisher nicht gelungen, wirksame genetische Resistenzen mit den Qualitätsmerkmalen einer Speisekartoffel zu kombinieren. Genau für solche Fälle gilt: #GiveGenesAChance
transgen@transgen.bsky.social · 3mo agoBald könnten sie tatsächlich noch auf die Felder kommen: Kartoffeln mit einer dauerhaften, in Feldversuchen erprobten Resistenz gegen die Kraut- und Knollenfäule. Viele Landwirte, auch Bios, dürfte das freuen. Das bedeutet 80% weniger spritzen. (Bisher haben das die Gentechnik-Gesetz verhindert.)
