It’s Monday morning….Have a great start into this week with this very nice Mito rap.

Dissecting the RNA-binding capacity of the multi-RRM protein Rrm4 essential for endosomal mRNA transport Abstract. RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) utilize multiple RNA-binding domains (RBDs) to engage with extensive messenger RNA (mRNA) networks. Understanding the

Breakthrough article 😊
Joint effort of teams Zarnack & König & Feldbrügge clarifies how multiple RNA-binding domains cooperate to identify functional important binding sites in vivo
doi.org/10.1093/nar/...
@zarnack-group.bsky.social
@könig-lab.bsky.social
@mibinet.bsky.social
#EMBOrnaLocalization

The fact that Americans thought Auxin was a “Hoax from Europe” rightfully got some attention in my latest #PlantScienceClassics post. But it’s actually even funnier if you learn about the context & consequence of White speaking these words to Went at the AAAS Meeting in Pittsburgh. #PlantScience 🧪
🧵

📣Reminder:

Nominations for DBG @plantsciencedbg.bsky.social Early Career Awards are open.

See
➡️ www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/u/BS3awards

for more information.

Interested in #chloroplast or #mitochondria research?

Want to discuss your research cross-kingdom and cross-disciplinary?

Hurry up, to regsiter for this Gordon Research Conference (July 19 - 24, 2026); programme will be finalized March 21st!

Details:
bsky.app/profile/apmw...

Careers | Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford Join our team at the Ellison Institute of Technology and contribute to transformative projects in science, engineering and technology. Discover opportunities to make a lasting impact.

Please share! 📢

#plantscience #plantscijobs

Are you a plant or microbial scientist that is passionate about global innovation in sustainable agriculture? 🚨

We have a number of exciting job openings in nitrogen fixation at EIT ‼️

Find out more and apply here 👉 eit.org/careers

Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor - Nature Sequencing of marine sediments finds 136 newly identified Heimdallarchaeia and several novel lineages, and indicates that Heimdallarchaeia evolved distinct metabolic capabilities from other Asgar...

This argues against the hydrogen hypothesis of mitochondrial origin. 👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

See also this excellent context (including a microscopy 🔬movie of crawling Asgards) by @carlzimmer.com:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/s...

Bitte gerne ECRs für unsere 3 Wissenschaftspreise nominieren, um die Arbeiten von Pflanzenforscher*innen im frühen Karrierestadium (#ECR) auszuzeichnen.
Es winken:
- Urkunde
- Preisgeld
- Vortrags-Einladung zur #BotanikTagung2026

botanik-tagung.de

2/5

Three medals / horese ribbons in green, blue and red colours

Our calls to nominate #ECRs for 3 scientific awards are out

1/5

➡️ www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/u/BS3awards

It's 30 years to the day since the first GM crop product went on sale in the UK. To celebrate this milestone, here's a pic of my original tin with our new GM tomatoes engineered to accumulate omega-3 fish oils in the fruit. In collaboration with @johninnescentre.bsky.social & Susana Silvestre.

8/ 📣 Help us spread the word!
Please repost/share this thread and tag colleagues working on mitochondria, chloroplasts, protists, parasites, evolution, metabolism, or synthetic biology.
Let’s make this a truly cross-eukaryotic GRC.

7/ 📌 Details, speakers & application info:
👉 www.grc.org/mitochondria...

6/ This GRC is for anyone fascinated by how energy-transducing organelles work, evolve, break, adapt — and how we might re-engineer them. Expect intense discussion, new connections, and serious cross-pollination between fields.

5/ 🎓 First-time GRC attendee?
There will be one Carl Storm Opportunity Fellowship, covering registration costs.
If this applies to you, don’t forget to mention it in your application.

4/
• Synthetic & High-Throughput Organellar Biology

🔬 Want to give a talk?
Each session has talk slots selected from submitted abstracts.
⏰ Program finalization: March 21 → if you want to be considered, submit your abstract now.

3/ Sessions on:
• Origins & Evolution of Organelles (Keynote)
• Organelle Gene Expression
• Protein Import, Sorting & Assembly
• Structure & Function of Organelle Complexes
• Organelle Metabolism
• Responses to Fluctuating Environments
• Proteostasis & Biogenesis
• Non-Canonical & Novel Organelles

2/ What makes this GRC special?
The sheer breadth of biology. From classic endosymbiotic organelles to:
🦠 apicoplasts of malaria parasites
🐌 kleptoplasts in sea slugs
🧪 the recently described nitroplast
➕ deep cell biology, physiology, metabolism, evolution, and synthetic organellar biology

1/ Energy-Transducing Organelles at the Nexus of Evolutionary Biology & Synthetic Engineering
This GRC is deliberately cross-kingdom and cross-disciplinary: from biomedical to plant science, from mammals to protists. Care about mitochondria, chloroplasts, or anything in between? This is for you!

🧬⚡ Call for abstracts & participants | GRC 2026 ⚡🧬

Together with Vamsi Mootha, I’m chairing the 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Mitochondria & Chloroplasts (July 19 - 24, 2026). We’d love to see your application.

Thread 🧵👇

😍
⬇️ 👀

Promote brilliant plant science #ECRs 🌱
@plantsciencedbg.bsky.social Awards 2026 are open. monetary prize, a certificate & a plenary talk at Botanik-Tagung.
Deadline: 26 Apr 2026.
Pro tip: 👉 Self-noms welcome for Horst Wiehe Award
Details: www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/u/3awards

New AI tool “Helixer” identifies genes in newly sequenced organisms. Helixer identifies genes directly from DNA sequences.

Developed by team around @usadellab.bsky.social @fz-juelich.de, @apmweber.bsky.social , @sebtriesch.bsky.social @hhu.de et al. www.fz-juelich.de/en/news/arch...

Schere mit Doppelhelix. © iStockphoto / Ivan Bajic

Gentechnik wird zur gezielten Änderung des Erbguts eingesetzt – z.B., um genetische Defekte zu korrigieren. Eine bekannte Methode ist die Genschere, auch CRISPR/Cas genannt. Sie wird u.a. bei Pflanzen angewendet, um Krankheitsresistenzen, höhere Erträge oder bessere Klimaanpassungen zu erzielen. 1/4

BARVISTA visualises gene expression in the barley shoot apical meristem with single-cell resolution

@edgardemesa.bsky.social @usadellab.bsky.social @simonrdg.bsky.social @isaiavardanega.bsky.social @plantgen-hhu.bsky.social @hhu.de @ceplas.bsky.social

www.plabipd.de/projects/han...

Last PhD of the year. Congratulations Vanessa to an excellent PhD! @weberlab.bsky.social @hhu.de

📣Interested in doing your PhD in Plant Sciences 🌱, Microbial Sciences 🦠 or Computational Biology 👩‍💻? @ceplas.bsky.social offers 10 fully funded PhD 🎓fellowships. Pls repost and forward to interested candidates holding BSc degree.

Helixer: ab initio prediction of primary eukaryotic gene models combining deep learning and a hidden Markov model - Nature Methods By leveraging both deep learning and hidden Markov models, Helixer achieves broad taxonomic coverage for ab initio gene annotation of eukaryotic genomes from fungi, plants, vertebrates and invertebrat...

🚀 Big news in genome annotation! The latest Nature Methods paper presents Helixer. Developed as part of the @denbi.bsky.social infrastructure, Helixer makes high-quality genome annotations more accessible and efficient for the community.
🔗 nature.com/articles/s41592-025-02939-1

Spinning together agricultural and evo-devo research for Gynandropsis gynandra (spider plant) AbstractBackground. Gynandropsis gynandra (Cleomaceae; formerly Cleome gynandra) is a leafy vegetable widely cultivated across Africa, uniquely positioned

See also this one, just came out in @annbot.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/aob/advance-...

Interestingly, Arabidopsis plants over-expressing FDH1 produce significantly more biomass. Mechanism not yet understood, deserves deeper investigation.
@weberlab.bsky.social @franzikuhnert.bsky.social @

Formate dehydrogenase is targeted to mitochondria (not chloroplasts) and constitutes a C1 shunt between mitochondria and cytoplasm

Mitochondrial formate dehydrogenase links mitochondrial and cytosolic one carbon metabolism via a one-carbon shunt url: academic.oup.com/plphys/artic...