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

In an heoric endeavor, Xiomin Liu, PhD student in the lab, characterized the dynamics and topology of the cell division machinery during cambium stem cell divisions. Super fruitful collaboration with the group of Sabine Müller (@phragmoplast.bsky.social). doi.org/10.1111/nph....

The preprophase band is dispensable for robust cell division orientation in wood‐forming cambium stem cells

Characterization of periclinal and anticlinal cell divisions in dividing cambium stem cells (CSCs). (a) Scheme indicating periclinal and anticlinal cell divisions in CSCs in the Arabidopsis hypocotyl...

doi.org

THEY'RE BACK: Our historic Palm Houses reopen in October 🎉🌴 Want to be one of the first to visit? Sign up to our presale to buy tickets 48 hours before general release: www.rbge.org.uk/palmhouses/

Time for another preprint from the lab: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Led by @yuanyuanzhang.bsky.social and @defengshen.bsky.social. We found some surprising secrets that connect and uncouple root barrier formation with systemic nitrogen signaling in shoots. see the thread below for more details

A tunable receptor separates root barrier formation from nutrient signaling through ligand-perception states

In roots, the endodermis controls nutrient entry by forming a barrier known as the Casparian strip. Yet how barrier-associated processes interface with systemic signaling remains unclear. Here, we sho...

biorxiv.org

Community Awards #icar2026

Really pleased to see Qing He’s work out in its final form (www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....). My group had previously shown that PXY-mediated regulation of cambium development had an ERECTA-mediated influence, but we didn’t understand the mechanism. 🧵

The summer solstice is not just a calendar entry. It is a signal to all the trees in temperate zones in the north to begin preparation to survive the winter cold. Yes, today, the growing season ends for most trees. Have a look at the trees you walk by. Most of them have probably already set buds.

Tom Kimmerer (@tomkimmerer)

Today is the summer solstice. Perhaps it is just a date on your calendar, but it is a signal occasion to temperate trees: the growing season has ended. From now until next spring, most trees are doing...

substack.com

Happy to share our new paper in @dev-journal.bsky.social . This project started while I was at Stanford with @stanfordstomata.bsky.social and was completed at @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social by @pablidopsis.bsky.social . Find it here: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...

Targets of SPEECHLESS and FAMA control guard cell division and expansion in the late stomatal lineage

Highlighted Article: In Arabidopsis stomatal cells, SPEECHLESS persists into maturing guard cells where its balance with FAMA is essential for guard cell development. Transcriptomic and genetic analys...

journals.biologists.com

my image is featured on the cover of New Phytologist! Interested in receptor proximity labeling and how receptors coordinate meristem regulation? Find out more here: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This is going to be so exciting! Reach out with ideas! And come find me at ICAR in Singapore to learn more.

Development@dev-journal.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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...

Happy to announce that I have started my own research group at the MPIPZ and that I am looking for a postdoc who would like to investigate Marchantia prothallus development with me! Please spread the word and/or apply if interested :)

Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research@mpipz.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Looking for a #postdoc? 📣We are #hiring📣 Join the Wallner Group @mpipz.bsky.social to work on tissue patterning, polarity & body axes formation with the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha.🌿 Apply now! #plantsci 👉https://jobs.mpipz.mpg.de/jobposting/54b1ba6d403b8a106f2595c1ef1171f8d729bb720?ref=homepage

4/The trigger for phellem differentiation is mechanical: endodermis rupture releases constraints on underlying pericycle cells, allowing them to expand and differentiate into phellem. We prematurely relieved mechanical constraints and saw that it is sufficient to trigger phellem differentiation. 🛡️

Was fun to be a small part in project led by Guodong Wang. My two favourite observations: (1) TDIF-PXY can contribute to tissue regeneration - we add TDIF to shooting media after seeing Guodong's groups data. (2) PXL1 binds CLE46. Good to see confirmed ligand-receptor pair. doi.org/10.1111/jipb...

A CLE–RLK–LBD signaling module promotes de novo shoot regeneration in plants

A group of CLAVATA3/ESR-RELATED (CLE) peptides redundantly promote de novo shoot regeneration, signaling through PXY/TDR-subfamily receptors to transcriptionally activate WUSCHEL-RELATED HOMEOBOX 14,...

doi.org

WE DON'T NEED PETROLEUM-BASED PLASTICS ANYMORE! "The [bamboo plastic] outperforms most commercial plastics and bioplastics in mechanical and thermo-mechanical metrics while maintaining full biodegradability in soil within 50 days and closed-loop recyclability with 90% retained strength."

High-strength, multi-mode processable bamboo molecular bioplastic enabled by solvent-shaping regulation - Nature Communications

Bioplastics derived from biomass show promise as sustainable alternatives to petrochemical plastics, but their adoption is hindered by their inferior mechanical properties and processability. Here, th...

nature.com

Jeez Louise £1.82 for a litre of diesel

During secondary growth, primary protective barriers break, and a new one forms beneath: the phellem. But what triggers phellem to differentiate and become a functional barrier? Our results show it’s mechanical cues from tissue rupture 🌱 Check out our preprint 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵/1

ERC-funded PhD position: auxin in plant morphogenesis! Come to our team to study molecular mechanisms downstream of auxin signaling that control morphogenesis in plants! ueb.cas.cz/en/news/?id=...

www.justgiving.com/page/doria-d...

Doria's fundraiser for Myeloma UK

Help Doria de Souza Etchells raise money to support Myeloma UK

justgiving.com

Dear PPRM community, we are pleased to invite you to the next PPRM meeting, 14-16 September 2026 in Freising, Germany. Registration opening soon!

Don't give anything an Emmy until it's as good as this.

Absolutely delighted that our paper on epigenetic dynamics during plant aging is out today in Science! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Aging drives a program of DNA methylation decay in plant organs

Plants display a wide range of life spans and aging rates. Although dynamic changes to DNA methylation are a hallmark of aging in mammals, it is unclear whether similar molecular signatures reflect ra...

science.org

Given the described activators of cambium growth, we reasoned repressors were needed to balance the system. Here they are! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Discovery: Xing, Jingyi, Emma, Riikka, Anne-Maarit, Julia, Qing, Hanan, Raluca, Joanna, Yuqi, Wiki #plantscience #plantdev

RICHeS Access fund is open for applications! Deadline Weds 8 April 2026. Up to £20,000. PhD students, heritage organisations are eligible as well as academics. Get in touch, we have a wide range of analytical capabilities and happy to discuss your ideas! www.riches.ukri.org/news-and-eve...

Lots of PhD opportunities for UK + international students involving my lab. Topics relate to metals & microbiology. First up: TonB-dependent receptors in commensal Neisseria in my lab at Durham, with @kjosts.bsky.social and @mattbashton.bsky.social. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Nutrient uptake in commensal bacteria: exploring uncharacterised TonB-dependent transporters. at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Nutrient uptake in commensal bacteria: exploring uncharacterised TonB-dependent transporters. at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below! Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage

Predicting epistasis across proteins by structural logic by the amazing Michelle Tang et al www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

so tired

It's finally out!... Using single-cell and spatial transcriptome data, and data imputation, we created BARVISTA, a website able to perform almost genome-wide information on gene expression profiles at single-cell resolution in barley spikes! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Imputation integrates single-cell and spatial gene expression data to resolve transcriptional networks in barley shoot meristem development - Nature Plants

Spatially resolved gene expression during barley development was done by integrating an scRNA-seq dataset from cells with unknown position with spatial transcriptomics. This dataset is publicly availa...

nature.com

Paul Nurse demonstrating that irony isn't dead in todays Guardian www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

We're looking for a postdoc to join us in trying to map the routes by which different signals travel through plants and identify what information they carry. Link👇or get in touch! @johninnescentre.bsky.social #PlantSciJobs www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

Postdoctoral Researcher (Faulkner Group) | John Innes Centre

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the Faulkner Group at the John Innes Centre, working on cutting-edge science in the field of Cell & Developmental Biology.

jic.ac.uk