It's been great to virtually host Alex Eve @amjeve.uk, from the Company of Biologists @biologists.bsky.social today at the RDP @rdplab.bsky.social for a wonderful webinar on scientific publishing and the different forms we scientists have to contribute to a fairer system 📣
Congratulations, Charlotte! You rock! 🎉
New pre-print from the lab! We show that the subtilase SBT12a is essential for symbiosome stabilization in Medicago. Using HUNTER proteomics, we even got some of its substrates. Have a look.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Multifaceted roles of MTL/NLD/PLA1 in plant reproduction:
In addition of inducing haploid embryos, loss of OsMTL function in rice 🌾 could lead to triploid embryo formation !!
@newphyt.bsky.social
▶️ doi.org/10.1111/nph....
Great discussions today with @daanweits.bsky.social who visited our @rdplab.bsky.social in Lyon, France.
Plenty of fresh ideas on plant oxygen sensing, the room definitely had good O₂ levels! 🌱🫧
Happy to share our latest work in collaboration with the lab of @pengbo10.bsky.social. Here, we describe that a formin protein mediates the polarity switch from root hair to infection thread growth during symbiotic interactions.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Great to see that our initial haploid induction discovery in Arabidopsis ( @plantphys.bsky.social : doi.org/10.1093/plph... ) translated into a legume🫛
▶️ In Vivo Maternal Haploid Induction by Disrupting KOKOPELLI in Medicago
📖 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@plantbiotechj.bsky.social
Overview of dPCD processes during plant life cycle. Instances of dPCD (developmental programmed cell death; skull and crossbones) occurring during vegetative (A-D) and reproductive (F,E) plant development, and senescence (G). (A) In vegetative tissues, dPCD occurs during xylem differentiation, which progresses sequentially through stages of (i) cell specification, (ii) secondary cell wall deposition and lignification, and (iii) cell death and protoplast clearance. (B) Root cap turnover in Arabidopsis. The lateral root cap (LRC) and columella are indicated in purple and brown, respectively. (C) Leaf perforation in some taxa. (D) Lysigenous aerenchyma formation. (E) dPCD is involved in reproductive development in the fully grown plant. During sexual reproduction (i), dPCD occurs in nurturing layers such as the anther, tapetum and ovule nucellus, during anthesis, during functional megaspore (FM) selection and in antipodal cells of some species. During pollination and fertilization (ii), it occurs as part of the self-incompatibility response in some taxa, in the transmitting tract, and in the pollen tube and synergid cells to facilitate fertilization. (F) During seed development, dPCD occurs: (i) in the suspensor; (ii) in the embryo-surrounding endosperm, or the endosperm-adjacent-to-scutellum (EAS) region; and (iii) during seed coat formation and in the aleurone layer during germination. DAP, days after pollination. (G) dPCD is the terminal phase of senescence. Created in BioRender. Pitsili, E. (2026) https://BioRender.com/uo9f4fn. Republished with permission.
In this Primer, @eugeniapitsili.bsky.social and @moritznowack.bsky.social discuss the cellular and molecular frameworks governing the initiation and execution of programmed cell death in plants: doi.org/10.1242/dev....
The 🌽maize🌽 crew from @rdplab.bsky.social representing at the Maize Genetics Meeting in Köln 🇩🇪
Great discussions, inspiring science & valuable time with the international maize community.
Proud of this team and the contributions we’re making to advance maize reproduction 🌱
Happy to share our 🌽 work:
ZmSWEET mediate sucrose transport at the 🌽maize endosperm–embryo interface and are required for proper carbon partitioning, embryo growth, and seed vigor.
📖 tinyurl.com/5n8dc6p4
Great collaboration with @leibnizipk.bsky.social, @lacombeb.bsky.social et al.
Two days of retreat and amazing discussions with @cosheidelberg.bsky.social ; @igflyon.bsky.social ky.social & @rdplab.bsky.social
The power of science really shows when different organisms (and minds!) come together.
Ahead of Clara Igisch’s PhD defense tomorrow, we enjoyed four excellent talks today in a 🌱 mini-symposium:
@emmanuellebayer.bsky.social / @ottlab.bsky.social / @jennyrussinova.bsky.social & @structplantbio.bsky.social
Great science, great stories!
New Article: "ATG5–HSP90.2-mediated micromitophagy as a cytological basis for maternal inheritance of plant mitochondria" rdcu.be/eZ87l
Micromitophagy in male germline cells underpins paternal mitochondrial elimination and supports the zygote-to-embryo transition.
Save the date: Plant Development PhD school (i.e. Retzbach 2.0) in Neustadt, Germany.
Sept 23rd-25th, 2026
~€350 all inclusive
Excellent speakers and a relaxed atmosphere for early-career researchers (PhDs & postdocs). Registration opens soon.
For more info, see
raissiglab.org/plantdevosch...
🌟 Great seminar this week at RDP lab
with Artemis Perraki ( @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social , @lrsv-toulouse.bsky.social) sharing her exciting science to understand how developmental and environmental pathways intersect during anther development 🌱
🔥 Hot new preprint before the Christmas break 🎄
Egg cell fertilization–dependent peptide receptor signaling mediates endosperm polarity
📖
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Audrey Creff, @jackrhodes.bsky.social , Cyril Zipfel, Gwyneth Ingram and others
Today, our Director, Gwyneth Ingram, received the CNRS Silver Medal. (👇see the post below👇)
This award recognizes researchers for the originality, quality, and significance of their work, acknowledged at both national and international levels.
🌱Congratulations!🥂
Fig. 1 (shortened, full legend in paper): Constructing a new reference sequence of the maize B chromosome. (A) Schematical illustration of the steps towards generation of the new reference sequence of the maize B chromosome. Green stars indicate the use of Oxford Nanopore long reads and yellow stars the use of short reads from Illumina sequencing in particular steps. (B) High-throughput chromatin conformation capture (Hi-C) contact map of the final B chromosome pseudomolecule. The intensity of the red colour corresponds to the frequency of contacts between two particular chromosomal regions in the 3D organization of the chromatin in the nucleus; both axes represent the same pseudomolecule of the B chromosome generated in this study.
🧬🌽 RESEARCH 🧬🌽
A new whole-genome assembly of maize identifies a potential regulator of crossover frequency and other effects on expression of A-chromosome genes mediated by the B chromosome - Hloušková et al.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
Thrilled to have our paper out in @science.org. Cell division guides plant cell wall formation. Does the reverse hold? We show that bimodal pectin methylesterification, via PME5 mRNA nuclear sequestration, influences plant cell division and cell plate orientation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reinforcing the 🇫🇷France–Japan🇯🇵 collaboration in plant biology🌱
Great meeting our French and Japanese colleagues in a cozy pre-Christmas atmosphere in Strasbourg, hosted by @ibmp-cnrs.bsky.social
So glad to have brilliant Japanese researchers at @rdplab.bsky.social
Let’s grow science together! 🌱✨
🌾 Shorten the wheat gene-edited breeding cycle
✨ Haploid induction × gene editing
▶️Rapid Genetic Stabilisation of Transgenic and Edited Wheat Through Transformation of Immature Haploid Embryos
📖 doi.org/10.1111/pbi....
Congrats to Andrea Calhau from @rdplab.bsky.social for winning the Best Talk Award at "Seed 2025", the 10ᵉ edition of the French Seed Network Conference! 🌱
This year’s colloque, held in Nantes, brought together scientists around the theme Seeds & the agroecological, climatic, and food transitions.
🌱 Our latest: in Plant Biotech J we study transgenerational #CRISPR editing in #maize🌽 using a split Cas9/gRNA system, highlighting importance of event quality & choice of promoters. 👏 Christian Lorenzo, Dirk Inzé and Hilde Nelissen @fbwugent.bsky.social @psb-vib.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/pbi....
🌽 Maize vs. Fusarium 🌽
Overexpressing a maize lipoxygenase (ZmLOX4) boosts resistance to Fusarium infection.
Glad that our maize Gene editing & transformation platform, at @rdplab.bsky.social, contributed to this research, led by the Lanubile's Lab.
▶️ doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
The cenH3 assembly factor ZmKNL2 boosts haploid induction in maize 🌽
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
🌱 3 plant biology institutes, 2 great days! 🌿
PhDs & postdocs from DBMV @unil.bsky.social, @psb-vib.bsky.social & @rdplab.bsky.social rocked the 2nd Trilateral Plant Bio Symposium in Lausanne!
👏 Big congrats to all ECRs, especially to @nathan-german.bsky.social for winning Best Presentation! 🏆💥
🚨Breakthrough in haploid induction through microspore 🌾 🌱
@cp-cell.bsky.social
▶️ Reprogramming of microspore fate via BBM-BAR1 for highly efficient in vivo haploid induction
📖 www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
Here are free-access links to our article on cell death at the maize embryo/endosperm interface:
📖 academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...
or
🔓 ens-lyon.hal.science/hal-05136683v1
➡️NRT1.1B acts as an ABA receptor in integrating compound environmental cues for plants
@cellcellpress.bsky.social
📖https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.07.027
Our paper showing that variation in transcription factor binding sites underlies the majority of additive genetic variance for phenotypic variation in maize is finally out!
Sadly they didn't use our suggested cover image below (made by the inimitable Andi Kur).
www.nature.com/articles/s41...