Happy to present our latest: Evolutionary adaptations to the hormonal regulation of vascular tissue development | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/.... Work by Wei Xiao and funded by @erc.europa.eu
Arabidopsis roots
Back in June at ICAR2025, @ignaciorubiosomoza.bsky.social and I organised a Workshop, where we invited ECRs Hantao Zhang and Katarína Heldesová with travel support to co-organise. Here’s their blog post reflecting on the session & their experience—check it out! plantae.org/icar2025-wor...
It was easy with this amazing team!!
give me some time...:p
Gracias Nacho!!
Thank you!!
(9/9) This work was a joint project between the labs of @bertderybel.bsky.social, Tom Beeckman, Tina Kyndt and Carolina Escobar. Huge thanks to all co-authors, especially PhD students Melissa and Almudena. @psb-vib.bsky.social 🌾🌱
(8/9) We hope this approach inspires others to study complex plant–pathogen interactions across species, using single-cell transcriptomics to uncover molecular mechanisms in systems that are otherwise very hard to track!
(7/9) These orthologous genes were previously linked to auxin distribution across tissues. Strikingly, mutating them in both rice and Arabidopsis reduced infection by >30%. This offers a promising opportunity to engineer resistance in both dicots and monocots.
(6/9) Next, we looked for the TFs driving the transcriptional reprogramming captured in our dataset. AtATHB2/OsHOX28 emerged as prime candidates, specifically expressed under infection and predicted by MINI-EX to be enriched only during infection.
(5/9) In fact, this population of cells correspond to the giant cell precursors, that a few days later will develop into the giant cells induced by the nematode.
(4/9) Within the nematode clusters, we found a subpopulation of cells characterized by the expression of the orthologous genes AtEXPA4 and OsEXPA7.
(3/9) We found clusters that were exclusive to RKN infected roots, which we call “nematode clusters”, and they appear to be transcriptionally very similar between Arabidopsis and rice.
(2/9) We used single-cell transcriptomics in Arabidopsis and rice roots, comparing mock vs. RKN infection, to capture the transcriptional reprogramming underlying this process from the very early stages.
(1/9) Root-knot nematodes (RKN) are plant parasites that induce giant cells inside root galls. The origin of giant cells is a 𝘥𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘰 organogenesis process, occurring from very few cells when the nematodes invade their hosts.
New preprint! 🐛 Root-knot nematodes hijack root cells, turning them into feeding sites and making plants very sick. Using a cross-species scRNA-seq approach we mapped this process and show how this knowledge can be used to engineer resistant crops.🌱 A summary🧵 :
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
And he made it again!...tour the force from JIa-Wei´s Wang lab using comparative sc-transcriptomes, and developing new analytical tools, to tackle evolutionary trajectories of plant cell types!. Amazing work as usual! www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
Hey all!
We have been awarded a Spanish national grant to keep researching. Best of all is we have a full PhD contract assigned. We are looking for candidates interested in molecular biology and evolution of (plant) transcription factors, please spread the word!!
Check our web for more information.
🔥Postdoc opportunity 🌱
The Legris lab at the University of Neuchâtel 🇨🇭 is looking for a Postdoc to work on the regulation of branching by warm temperatures. If you have a background on plant physiology and development, and you're interested in shoot thermomorphogenesis, apply now!
Tomorrow at #ICAR2025!, don't miss it!
#PlantScience Come join us on this exciting workshop #ICAR2025 icar2025.com in Ghent in less than two weeks!, Great speakers and panel discussion!. Organized by myself @cragenomica.bsky.social along with @tatsuyanobori.bsky.social @thesainsburylab.bsky.social , Katarina Heldesova and Hantao Zhang
See you in beautiful Ghent in two weeks!!
Arabidopsis mesophyll cells display two distinct drought responses.
Dual and spatially resolved #drought responses in the #Arabidopsis #leaf mesophyll revealed by single-cell transcriptomics
A #CommunityResource by Berrío et al.
👇
📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#LatestIssue
A single-cell and spatial wheat root atlas with cross-species annotations delineates conserved tissue-specific marker genes and regulators: Cell Reports www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Next month I will be in #LausanneGenomicsDays2025 talking about plants, nematodes and single-cell 🌾
If you're curious about my postdoctoral research at @psb-vib.bsky.social in the labs of @bertderybel.bsky.social, Tom Beeckman , and Tina Kyndt, join me!
A single pathogen-secreted protein reprograms plants for drought resilience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01....
His Majesty The Moss (#moss, #bryophytes)
This is a really fascinating documentary to watch. The filming and pictures are ... just watch it (in French, desole).
www.arte.tv/fr/videos/09...
New year, new paper! Now published in @nature.com. We identified and characterised diverse immune cell states in plants under pathogen attack. My postdoc work in the Ecker lab at @salkinstitute.bsky.social. A thread (0/n)
#PlantScience
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
