Our work, Progressive oxygenation of developing leaves directs morphogenesis, is now out in Science Advances! We found that developing leaves oxygenate from tip to base, strikingly mirroring their developmental axis, and this drives leaf dev. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aef2430 #plantscience
This work nicely quantifies a major issue in our universities: "In higher education, administrative costs have risen much faster than instruction and research costs (4). MIT Faculty grew by only 9.2% between 1985 and 2023, while administrative staff grew by 189%." www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
I am super excited to announce that I am recruiting a new post-doc to join my team at UWA & @plants4space.bsky.social to work on plant synthetic biology, with a focus on genome engineering. If you are interested, please apply or reach out to me. external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/cw/en/job/52...
Prospective staff : Jobs at UWA : The University Of Western Australia
external.jobs.uwa.edu.au
Here’s the press release by @ruhr-uni-bochum.de for our newest publication 🧬✨ “Bacteria use P-body condensates to attenuate host translation during infection” How pathogens rewire host translation via condensates 🔄🌱 #plantscience #proteostasis www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
How Bacteria Circumvent Plants’ Immune System
Bacteria deactivate the protein synthesis of host cells to hamper immune reactions. This insight could aid in the development of more resistant plants.
news.rub.de
Just as low-oxygen levels stress plants that are exposed to flooding, so does post-flooding reoxygenation and the associated burst of reactive oxygen species. Work @nature, shows that in both cases, the same molecular players mediate plants’ stress response. shorturl.at/kIRDf
H2O2 repurposes plant O2 sensing to regulate post-hypoxia responses - Nature
Experiments in Arabidopsis demonstrate that group VII ethylene response factors show differential responses to different stimuli, enabling plants in flood-prone environments to adapt to both submergence-induced hypoxia and reoxygenation upon desubmergence.
shorturl.at
It's finally out! With this new paper, Salma and Monica show that hypoxia-regulated ERFVIIs are not immediately destabilised during reoxygenation: they instead persist in the nucleus to control oxidative stress genes. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New paper out from the Synoxys lab! We asked an important question: what if plants sensed oxygen like animals do? what if we swapped the O2 sensing across? We built the system to find out. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #plantscience @syno2xis.bsky.social @beagiuntoli.bsky.social @biology.ox.ac.uk
a poster for indiana jones and the last crusade with a man in a hat
ALT: a poster for indiana jones and the last crusade with a man in a hat
media.tenor.com
Synthetic hypoxia sensing in Arabidopsis from @syno2xis.bsky.social & @vinayshukla.bsky.social Prolyl hydroxylase-dependent proteolysis enables the orthogonal hypoxia responses in plants www.nature.com/articles/s41...
ICYMI, our ECPro group member Dr Charlene Kunaka-Dambire shared this fantastic blog post last month for #IDWGS about the importance of community support, mentorship & visibility in her scientific journey 🧪 Check it out 👉️ aab.org.uk/idwgs2026/ @charlene-kunaka.bsky.social #IWD2026 #WomeninScience
PhD opportunity in the newly minted RO2T Respiration Group! Please share! Interested in root biology, oxygen dynamics, imaging & modelling? We’re recruiting a PhD student at the University of Nottingham. Deadline 15th February. jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx... #plantscijobs #plantscience
Are you, or do you know someone that is excited to do a PhD in plant biology. We are happy to offer a position to explore physiology, gene regulatory networks and wild species. Come join our team in a stimulating scientific environment at the University of Groningen! werkenbij.rug.nl/vacature/phd...
PhD position Growth-resilience trade-offs in plants - Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
werkenbij.rug.nl
Our study led by the extraordinary multitasking Daai Zhang shows here (tinyurl.com/3uhbkh54) that an additional O2 sensing mechanism based on histone methylation helps roots to prepare for potentially lethal hypoxic stress (such as in waterlogging)
Happy to share the key part of my PhD! In our latest preprint with Salma Akter, @emilyflashman.bsky.social & @beagiuntoli.bsky.social, we show that H₂S is involved in oxygen sensing in plants! How? Check it out!🌱✨ Many thanks to all the authors involved! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Hydrogen sulfide modulates plant hypoxic responses through the persulfidation of Plant Cysteine Oxidases
Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) is a gaseous molecule historically regarded as toxic. Nevertheless, increasing evidence has brought to light important physiological roles in both animals and plants. In plants,...
biorxiv.org
We are beyond excited to reveal the full line-up for our Environmental Signaling in Plants summer school 2026! Registration is now open here eps.sites.uu.nl - we look forward to seeing you in Utrecht on 24th-26th August!
Introducing the 1,000 Flower Collection 🧬🌹 I’m creating 1,000 genetically designed flowers each crafted with new colors, patterns, and shapes. Here’s how I’m making it happen… and how you can join me on this journey 🧵(1/7)
How exciting! The program for our ISPLORE #plantscience conference is now available and covers a wide range of speakers and topics 🌱🌊 Check it out! sites.google.com/view/isplore...
ISPLORE 2025, Nagoya, JAPAN - PROGRAMME
Confirmed Speakers
sites.google.com
Engineered mutations in the AtPCO4 active site reduce its activity and improve plant submergence resilience! Our new preprint: tinyurl.com/2ydj7qx5, 1 of 2 preprints out this week from the @emilyflashman.bsky.social and @syno2xis.bsky.social labs to link PCO function in plants with flood tolerance!
Engineering reduced activity in the oxygen-sensing Arabidopsis thaliana plant cysteine oxidase 4 enzyme results in improved flood resilience
Plant cysteine oxidases (PCOs) are oxygen-sensing enzymes that play an important role in plant responses to low oxygen (hypoxia). PCO-catalysed dioxygenation of the N-terminal Cys of substrates, inclu...
biorxiv.org
Can we modulate plant oxygen sensing to enhance flood resilience?🌿🔧 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... This is one of two preprints out this week from the @syno2xis.bsky.social and @emilyflashman.bsky.social labs, two angles on how PCOs shape plant flood resilience. Don’t miss the full story!
Manipulating plant oxygen sensing through NCO substitution reveals trade-offs between growth and flooding tolerance
The oxygen-dependent degradation of Ethylene Response Factors VII (ERFVIIs) through the N-degron pathway is central to regulating the transcriptional responses to hypoxia in vascular plants. Plant Cys...
biorxiv.org
Got papped yesterday at the @biology.ox.ac.uk research showcase spreading the good word about mitochondrial dynamics! So fun being in the new LaMB building and interacting with psych/bio colleagues 🌱🧠 (You can check out the paper I was soapboxing about here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...)
Plz RT. We are looking for a postdoc to join our collborative project on AI-guided bioengineering of plant immune receptors @tolgaboz.bsky.social and @jiorgoskourelis.bsky.social labs: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNV032/r...
Research Associate in Programmable Plant Immunity at Imperial College London
Apply for the Research Associate in Programmable Plant Immunity role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
jobs.ac.uk
A plant's protective outer barrier is nearly impermeable to gases, making ethylene build up inside while oxygen depletes. But when wounded, the dynamics shift 🌱 New research shows this movement of gases through a wound triggers the plant's healing process 👇 bit.ly/3ZWnZVO @vinayshukla.bsky.social
Gas leakage triggers wound healing in plants
bit.ly
Plants "bleed" too, but through gases! When wounded, ethylene leaks out and oxygen seeps in. This gas shift acts as an alarm, triggering self-repair to seal the breach. Excited to share our new collaborative work uncovering this clever plant mechanism! Excellent summary here, indulge! #plantscience
Ari Pekka Mähönen@apmahonen.bsky.social · last yr.How plants sense injury in their barrier tissue, periderm? Painstakingly detailed and amazing work by post doc Hiroyuki Iida shows that wounding is sensed by the diffusion of two gases: ethylene and oxygen. @treebiocoe.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu 1/x 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
An exciting collaboration that has reignited @vinayshukla.bsky.social's interest for hypoxia and roots! Really happy that we could contribute! @isplore.bsky.social
Ari Pekka Mähönen@apmahonen.bsky.social · last yr.How plants sense injury in their barrier tissue, periderm? Painstakingly detailed and amazing work by post doc Hiroyuki Iida shows that wounding is sensed by the diffusion of two gases: ethylene and oxygen. @treebiocoe.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu 1/x 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
How did oxygen-sensing evolve in plants? In collaboration with @syno2xis.bsky.social Great work from @lauradc.bsky.social et. al. #plantscience @leverhulme.ac.uk “ERFVIIs as transducers of oxygen-sensing in the evolution of land plant response to hypoxia” www.cell.com/molecular-pl...
ERFVIIs as transducers of oxygen-sensing in the evolution of land plant response to hypoxia
Short summary:This study investigates the evolution of the low-oxygen response in land plants mediated by group VII Ethylene Response Factors (ERFVIIs). We identified conserved transcriptional signatu...
cell.com
🎉Super excited to share our story on how the substrate receptor FBXO31 functions as a quality control factor by recognizing amides. This has been an amazing collaboration between Bode lab and @jcornlab.bsky.social. Special shutout goes to @matthiasmuhar.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
C-terminal amides mark proteins for degradation via SCF–FBXO31 - Nature
SCF–FBXO31 scans proteins for C-terminal amidation and marks them for subsequent proteasomal degradation.
nature.com
The January 2025 issue of Plant Physiology is now online! Read this Focus Issue on Hypoxia and Plants here: https://academic.oup.com/plphys/issue @ASPB @OxUniPress #PlantSci
The diverse aspects of hypoxia. The size of the oxygen bubble correlates with concentration. This collection highlights the importance of hypoxia for plant development and environmental adaptation such as during flooding, in compacted or poorly aerated soils, high altitudes, and within meristematic tissues. Image credit: Moe Abbas.
academic.oup.com
Thanks to @fromani.bsky.social for organising #nonseedUK24 in Cambridge. What a fantastic meeting. Thanks for the generous sponsorship @gensocuk.bsky.social and @biologists.bsky.social 😃 🌱 🧬
Preprint alert, please share!! With our new study, we engineered an orthogonal hypoxia-responsive system in plants inspired by mammalian HIF protein degradation. We demonstrated that this system could control protein stability and activity, enabling modulation of Oxygen sensing outputs. Here's how:
First Bluesky post to share our review with the world! Is there anything, beyond oxygen biosensors, that SynBio can provide to the world of plant hypoxia? Check it out here! @plantphys.bsky.social academic.oup.com/plphys/advan...
Designed to breathe: synthetic biology applications in plant hypoxia
Novel biosensors and concepts from engineering biology expand the toolbox for plant low oxygen biology research
academic.oup.com