Description of the PhD position

Ad banner: germinating plant, Utrecht University, VACANCY: Postdoc position in Experimental & Computational Plant Biology

I am excited to announce that we have two open positions on our recently funded MYBstery M-WEAVE (NWO-DFG) project!

1) Postdoc in my team at Utrecht University (NL). www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

2) PhD in the team of @lauraragni.bsky.social at University of Freiburg (DE). (See thread)

Integrating root exudation into belowground carbon economics The ecological significance of root exudation has long been recognized, yet most research on root-trait organization has focused on easily measurable morphological and chemical traits. Root exudation,...

Suberin plays roles as the gatekeeper of root exudation, an important player in belowground carbon economics.

www.cell.com/trends/plant...

Do root apoplastic barriers have a role in keeping our food supply free of microplastics?

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The 7th International Symposium on Plant Apoplastic Diffusion Barriers (PADiBa2026) will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland from August 31th to September 3rd 2026. We now have a website: wp.unil.ch/padiba2026/ Registrations will open on April 1st.

Members of the MYB68 subclade orchestrate cork differentiation by regulating stem cell proliferation and suberin deposition Molina et al. show that transcription factors of the MYB68 subclade promote cork differentiation in the Arabidopsis root. On the one hand, they activate suberin biosynthesis and polymerizing enzymes; ...

Another Suberin paper on the role of MYB68 in the cork from @lauraragni.bsky.social team In collaboration with @tonnigrubeandersen.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Speakers of the session Robert Malinowski, Nora Gigli Bisceglia, Timo Engelsdorf, Fariha Naz Apon, Luca Piccinini, Olga Serra And chair Kaisa Kajala

The audience during Olga Serra’s talk

Thank you for the speakers of the cell wall diversity session #ICAR2025, really highlighting the diversity of cell wall roles and approaches!

Also thank you @lauraragni.bsky.social for efficient co-organization!

A must read for suberin lovers!

Establishing a suberin tool kit for determining suberization within classical and ‘orphan’ tissues Suberin is a complex biopolymer found in land plants that serves as a natural barrier, regulating water and nutrient uptake while also providing defense against invading pathogens. Structurally, suber...

📜 Establishing a suberin tool kit for determining suberization within classical and ‘orphan’ tissues

🧑‍🔬 Justin B. Nichol, Lorena S. Yeung, Mark A. Bernards, Marcus A. Samuel

📔 @cp-trendsplantsci.bsky.social

🔗 www.cell.com/trends/plant...

#️⃣ #PlantScience #Suberin #PlantMethods #PlantCellWalls

Single-cell transcriptomics reveal how root tissues adapt to soil stress - Nature Single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomic approaches reveal major expression changes in outer root cell types when grown in soil versus gel conditions, and also uncover how root tissues communicate and adapt to contrasting soil conditions at single-cell resolution.

Nature research paper: Single-cell transcriptomics reveal how root tissues adapt to soil stress.

https://go.nature.com/4iLoetp

Delighted to share one piece of my postdoc work in preprint: Through forward genetic screening for suberin deposition in root endodermis, we identified SUBER GENE 1 (SBG1) by GWAS as a novel regulator for suberization by interacting with Type One Protein Phosphatase. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Full house on our first departmental seminar this year. Which biopolymer is your favorite? If you ask @lauraragni.bsky.social it's suberin and lignin, if you ask @reskilab.bsky.social he will say sporopollenin and cutin, but in the opinion of @huguesrenault.bsky.social all four of them!

Great to kick off our @dompsfr.bsky.social seminar series with @huguesrenault.bsky.social this year, on key players in biopolymer formation that allowed terrestrialization 🌱 #plantscience

A single-nuclei transcriptome census of the Arabidopsis maturing root identifies that MYB67 controls phellem cell maturation Using small nuclear RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq), Miller et al. produced a gene expression census of the maturing Arabidopsis root and, by exploring the development of the suberizing phellem, identify that MYB67 controls phellem cell maturation. This census may serve as resource for engineering future plants with improved stress resilience and carbon capture capacity.

Suberin-rich roots can increase🌱stress resilience &help sequester carbon in the soil. We mapped the complete development of "plant amor" suberin-rich root phellem cells via single-nuclei sequencing and found a new regulator. #PlantScience @salkinstitute shorturl.at/ZFqLw

A single-nuclei transcriptome census of the Arabidopsis maturing root identifies that MYB67 controls phellem cell maturation Using small nuclear RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq), Miller et al. produced a gene expression census of the maturing Arabidopsis root and, by exploring the development of the suberizing phellem, identify that MYB67 controls phellem cell maturation. This census may serve as resource for engineering future plants with improved stress resilience and carbon capture capacity.

🤩 For #suberin lovers

A single-nuclei transcriptome census of the Arabidopsis maturing root identifies that MYB67 controls phellem cell maturation

www.cell.com/developmenta...

#plantsciences

An ancient role for CYP73 monooxygenases in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and embryophyte development | The EMBO Journal imageimageThe phenylpropanoid pathway is assumed to represent a key plant metabolic adaptation associated with terrestrial life, and processes about 30% of all photosynthetic carbon on Earth. This stu...

Happy to share our latest work! 🌱

An ancient role for CYP73 monooxygenases in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and embryophyte development | The EMBO Journal embopress.org/doi/full/10....

64 million euros for groundbreaking fundamental research projects | NWO 21 research consortia have the chance to reach a breakthrough thanks to funding from the ENW-XL Open Competition. From fundamental research on the effects of certain materials on the methane cycle to ...

Super excited to share the news that our BarrierFates consortium got 3M€ funding from NWO XL to study maize root barrier cell types! 🌽🔬

Delighted to embark on this journey with
@dorotakawa.bsky.social , @hannahschneider.bsky.social , Victoria Mironova and Jian Xu!

www.nwo.nl/en/news/64-m...

Update on the Structure and Regulated Biosynthesis of the Apoplastic Polymers Cutin and Suberin Abstract. The plant lipid polymers cutin and suberin play a critical role in many aspects of plant growth and development, and physiology. The mechanisms o

Update on the Structure and Regulated Biosynthesis of the Apoplastic Polymers #Cutin and #Suberin #plantscience

shorturl.at/lLhZL

Exploring the function of plant root diffusion barriers in sealing and shielding for environmental adaptation - Nature Plants This Review summarizes recent progress in the understanding of plant apoplastic diffusion barriers, their formation and their function in an environmental context. Open questions and promising researc...

Review on diffusion barries by Yi-Qun Gao, Yu Su & Dai-Yin Chao:

Exploring the function of plant root diffusion barriers in sealing and shielding for environmental adaptation

doi.org/10.1038/s414...
#plantscience

Rooting for survival: how plants tackle a challenging environment through a diversity of root forms and functions Abstract. The current climate crisis has global impacts and will affect the physiology of plants across every continent. Ensuring resilience of our agricul

Prashanth Ramachandran, Andrea Ramirez,
@josedinneny.bsky.social

Rooting for survival: how plants tackle a challenging environment through a diversity of root forms and functions

doi.org/10.1093/plph...
#plantscience

Formation of Apoplastic Barriers to Radial O₂ Loss in Rice Roots: Effects of Low‐O₂ and High‐Fe Conditions, and the Roles of Suberin, Glycerol Esters, and Iron Plaques Rice roots form apoplastic barriers to limit radial O₂ loss and toxic Fe uptake. In low-O₂ conditions, tight barriers containing enhanced suberin and glycerol esters are formed in the exodermis. In h...

Juan de la Cruz Jiménez et al:

Formation of Apoplastic Barriers to Radial O₂ Loss in Rice Roots: Effects of Low-O₂ and High-Fe Conditions, and the Roles of Suberin, Glycerol Esters, and Iron Plaques

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#plantscience

Regulation and function of a polarly localized lignin barrier in the exodermis - Nature Plants In tomato roots, the exodermis forms a genetically distinct polar lignin cap (PLC) barrier from the Casparian strip. SlSCZ and SlEXO1 repress PLC deposition in inner layers. The PLC cannot fully compe...

Endodermis - exodermis, less related than their names suggest…great story from the Brady lab! Congratulations to all involved!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I am so excited to share Dr. C Manzano’s work: she demonstrates the developmental timeline, function and genetic regulation of the polar lignin cap in the tomato root. It functions as a distinct intercellular barrier from the Casparian strip and is repressed in inner layers. rdcu.be/d10Pd

Many suitable parallel sessions for suberin research at ICAR 2025 - including that on Cell Wall Diversity in Development & Stress. Hope to see you there!

The concurrent sections and workshops for ICAR2025 are out! 🌟 bit.ly/4eUZOvf Excited to co-organize a section on Cell Wall Diversity in Development & Stress with @kaisakajala.bsky.social. We’ll select EC speakers from abstracts—submit yours! 🌱 #ICAR2025 #PlantScience

@suberinnetwork.bsky.social is now on Bluesky! And we have also made a suberin starer pack! Please (self-)nominate to be added.

go.bsky.app/6XQT4ek