CRISPR-Cas–mediated heritable chromosome fusions in Arabidopsis The genome of Arabidopsis thaliana consists of 10 chromosomes. By inducing CRISPR-Cas–mediated breaks at subcentromeric and subtelomeric sequences, we fused entire chromosome arms, obtaining two eight...

And now we have Arabidopsis plants with 8 chromosomes instead of 10 and no obvious phenotypic differences, this week in @science.org
#PlantScience
Paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Perspective here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Rewinding the tape: historical contingency and functional constraints have shaped the evolution of APikL virulence effectors in the blast fungus Protein evolution is influenced by historical contingencies and functional constraints, but their combined impact on rapidly diversifying pathogen virulence effectors remains poorly understood. Here, ...

We’re excited to share our latest work on plant pathogen effector protein evolution @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social. With @kamounlab.bsky.social and Abbas Maqbool.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Details : Research Fellow in Plant Biochemistry : The University of Melbourne Careers at The University of Melbourne

I'm looking for a postdoc to work for 3 years on the function of #circadian clock proteins in wheat.
I also have a full-funded PhD opportunity.
#plantscience
Postdoc applications close on 2 April.
jobs.unimelb.edu.au/en/job/91954...

SPO11 dimers are sufficient to catalyse DNA double-strand breaks in vitro - Nature A biochemical system recapitulates the hallmarks of meiotic double-strand break formation, with mouse SPO11 catalysing break formation in the absence of any partners and remaining covalently atta...

🥳Just published @nature.com. Over 25 years after the discovery of SPO11 as the enzyme responsible for initiating meiotic recombination, we finally succeeded in reconstituting its DNA cleavage activity.🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

SCIENCE IRL: Community SciComm mini-grant Skype a Scientist is offering $300-$1,000 mini-grants to support boots-on-the-ground science communication. The Science IRL mini-grants will support projects that put either 1) important science mess...

Apps are due FRIDAY for the Science IRL grant

We're funding projects that tackle humanity's big science-centric problems, while reaching people who are NOT engaging with science. Bring me your creative, unique projects that put science where there currently is none.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Evolution of a vascular plant pathogen is associated with the loss of CRISPR-Cas and an increase in genome plasticity and virulence genes Paauw et al. report on the evolution of a plant pathogenic Xanthomonas pathovar and show that the gain of mobile genetic elements and virulence factors coincided with the loss of the CRISPR-Cas genome...

[note: that was not the correct bsky account 😅!]

Really exciting paper out @currentbiology.bsky.social
on the evolution of virulence in Xanthomonas (possibly) made possible by the loss of CRISPR-Cas. 🔽

www.cell.com/current-biol...

To celebrate @asps-oz.bsky.social joining Bluesky, here is a starter pack of Aussie Plant Scientists. 🎉🌾🌱🪴🥳
Let me know if you or someone you know should be added. go.bsky.app/AiLTKHH

I'm happy to announce a postdoctoral position is available in my lab. We have lots of great data to analyze with respect to transposons & epigenetics and cool biological questions to answer.
Please reskeet and share.

People at a conference. A quotation from a New Phytologist next generation scientists delegate reads '#npnextgen really is an excellent way to meet inspiring people and broaden your outlook on science.'

Don't miss your opportunity to attend New Phytologist next generation scientists, the FREE meeting for early career researchers in plant science. #npnextgen

4–7 July 2025
Birmingham, UK

Apply to attend by 27 January!
www.newphytologist.org/nextgenevent...

From Lesions to Lessons: Two Decades of Filamentous Plant Pathogen Genomics | Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions® Filamentous plant pathogens pose a severe threat to food security. Current estimates suggest up to 23% yield losses to pre- and post-harvest diseases and these losses are projected to increase due to ...

From lesions to lessons:
2025 marks the 20th anniversary of filamentous plant pathogen genomics. In our new review, we present lessons we learned over the past 2 decades and discuss the future of plant pathogen genomics. Take a first look!

apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/...

Fungal genomes are 🤯🤯🤯
We wrote this review to summarise some lessons we learned in the last 20 years of fungal genomics.

Excited to see where our field is going in the next 20 years to come!

Thanks a lot to all co-authors YuSeng Huang
@thorstenlangner.bsky.social and Sophia Häußler
🧵👇

Wonderful retrospective on pathogen genomics by @wagnercfagundes.bsky.social, @thorstenlangner.bsky.social et al.! Fantastic write-up and beautiful illustrations!

Very inspiring review @mpmijournal.bsky.social

Epigenetics-2025, from mechanisms to disease | Genetics Society Meeting background This international conference will bring together leading experts to foster dynamic discussions on the latest breakthroughs in epigenetics. It will cover mechanisms of epigenetic re...

Join us in Belfast for our #epigenetics meeting and hear from fantastic speakers. Submit an abstract until 26 Jan and register until 23 Feb!

Don't miss this chance to share your research & network with experts in the field.

genetics.org.uk/events/epige...

Highly recommended (I am co-organizing this exciting meeting)! Please come and join us!

🚨 Job Vacancies

Looking for a fresh start in 2025?

We have several positions available. Check our job portal to see if these roles fit you.

𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗻 (𝟮 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀)

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘀 (𝟮 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀)

𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

jobs.tue.mpg.de/en/organizat...

The first langner lab Xmas party! 🤩 I feel incredibly lucky and happy to have such an amazing crowd of young scientist and incredible people around me!

Front cover of a special issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany titled "Seed Biology: The Birth of Plant Life". The issue is edited by Zsuzsanna Kolbert and Christophe Bailly. The image shows germinating seeds (credit: Juliette Puyaubert & Victoria Gomez, Sorbonne University).

**SPECIAL ISSUE OPEN**

𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞

Guest editors: Zsuzsanna Kolbert & Christophe Bailly

Deadline: 28th February 2025

Email us if you'd like to submit a paper - there's still time!

#JXBspecialissue #seeds #plantscience 🧪

@sebiology.bsky.social

Decoding the Arsenal: Protist Effectors and Their Impact on Photosynthetic Hosts | Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions® Interactions between various microbial pathogens including viruses, bacteria, fungi, oomycetes, and their plant hosts have traditionally been the focus of phytopathology. In recent years, a significan...

🌱 Did you know that plant-pathogenic protists have effectors they use to infect susceptible hosts? Check out this review by @sohambio.bsky.social (apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/...) on @mpmijournal.bsky.social and listen to our latest podcast episode 🎧 : open.spotify.com/episode/0eVS...

Workshop on Molecular Evolution | Marine Biological Laboratory The workshop serves graduate students, postdocs, and established faculty from around the world seeking to apply the principles of molecular evolution to questions of anthropology, conservation genetic...

Applications are now open for the 2025 Workshop on Molecular Evolution (MOLE) at the Marine Biological Laboratory in *beautiful* Woods Hole, MA!

More info here: molevolworkshop.github.io

Apply here: www.mbl.edu/education/ad...

Application deadline: Jan. 29th

Workshop dates: May 22nd - June 1st

JOB OPPORTUNITIES IN PLANT PATHOLOGY / GENOMICS

We have extended the deadlines for the postdoctoral positions. Please apply by January 15!
Note that experience with either genome or transcriptome data, preferably on a large scale, is a must for these positions.

2025-Nominate for NAASC Arabidopsis Community Awards Nominate for NAASC awards

🌱 Keep our favorite plant model research community thriving & help recognize outstanding members of the Arabidopsis Community! 🏆 www.surveymonkey.com/r/NAASCAWARDS

Natural variation modifies centromere proximal meiotic crossover frequency and segregation distortion in Arabidopsis thaliana biorxiv.org/content/10.1... new work from us on centromere inheritance and organisation @matt-naish.bsky.social @plantevolution.bsky.social @genomeevolution.bsky.social

Centrophilic retrotransposon integration via CENH3 chromatin in Arabidopsis - Nature An Arabidopsis long terminal repeat retrotransposon integrates de novo into regions occupied by centromere-specific histone variant, showing the impact of centromeric chromatin on transposable element...

Centrophilic retrotransposon integration via CENH3 chromatin in Arabidopsis from Tetsuji Kakutani & colleagues - beautiful insights into control of transposon insertion into the centromeres
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Why biodiversity matters in agriculture and food systems Imagine a world where the variety of food sources we rely on is reduced to a mere handful of species. This is not a dystopian future. It’s the path we are on right now, and it’s happening silently in ...

Expert voice from SCIENCE.

Why biodiversity matters in agriculture and food systems
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Announcing a curated collection of long-read genomes for Arabidopsis thaliana: The 1001 Genomes Plus Project. Currently 453 unique accessions/almost 600 assemblies.
Interested in contributing? Please contact us!
#plantscience
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Starship Discovery: A Collaborative Approach to Uncover Massive Transposable Elements The ability to generate high-quality fungal genomes brought with it new frontiers of scientific discovery and paved the way for answering outstanding biological mysteries. Recently, several independen...

We wrote a review in a slightly different, lighthearted style 😁.
"Starship Discovery: A Collaborative Approach to Uncover Massive Transposable Elements" 🚀🧬

Thank you and congratulations to the coauthors!
#fungi #genomics #transposons #science #Podospora

link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

Letter to the Editor: Gene Targeting in Arabidopsis through One-Armed Homology-Directed Repair Gene targeting (GT) refers to the precise modification of genomic sequences by repairing DNA breaks through homology-directed repair (HDR). GT offers many

From animals to plants, single-handedly…. 💪

Mudgett et al. make light work of gene targeting through one-armed homology-directed repair 🧬

Find out more about this newly developed technique for plants, adapted from animal research, here:
doi.org/10.1093/pcp/...

#plantscience
#geneediting

Evolution of sympatric host‐specialized lineages of the fungal plant pathogen Zymoseptoria passerinii in natural ecosystems The barley disease Septoria Speckled Leaf Blotch, caused by the fungus Zymoseptoria passerinii, last appeared in North America in the early 2000s. Although rare in crops, field sampling of wild gras.....

Evolution of sympatric host‐specialized lineages of the fungal plant pathogen Zymoseptoria passerinii in natural ecosystems - Rojas‐Barrera - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A common immune response node in diverse plants Small molecules activate a defense mechanism shared by all flowering plants

Great to be able to comment with Jeff Dangl on a couple of important papers published today in Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...