#PlantSciConfi

Hypothetical mechanistic model of haploid induction in the semigamy mutant of island cotton (Gossypium barbadense).

Transcriptional and epigenetic dynamics underlying semigamy and haploid induction in Gossypium barbadense

Li et al.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/93IWED...

An early Christmas present from our team for all of the tomato 🍅 & recombination fans:

Chromosome-scale Solanum pennellii and Solanum cheesmaniae genome assemblies reveal structural variants, repeat content and recombination barriers of the tomato clade

biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

The cover image of this issue of CSH Protocols shows an ear of maize segregating for an active transposable element.

A new issue of CSH Protocols is out!

The cover image, provided by @damonlisch.bsky.social, highlights an article by Grüning et al., who describe a protocol for the generation of maize DH lines using maternal haploid-inducing maize lines

⬇️Links below

Chromosome-scale Solanum pennellii and Solanum cheesmaniae genome assemblies reveal structural variants, repeat content and recombination barriers of the tomato clade Crop wild relatives are important resources for improving cultivated crops, yet the precise introgression of wild genetic material into cultivated crops is often difficult and cannot be fully defined ...

Solanum pennellii and S. cheesmaniae genome assemblies reveal structural variants, repeat content and recombination barriers
doi.org/10.64898/202...

Phylogenomics and metabolic engineering reveal a conserved gene cluster in Solanaceae plants for withanolide biosynthesis
doi.org/10.1101/2024...

A new bioRxiv preprint reports that a team from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has synthesised fully penetrant apomictic hybrid rice — a potential game changer for breeding.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#Apomixis #HybridRice #PlantBreeding #Agriculture

Monopolar orientation of kinetochores at meiosis is enforced by COHESINS and their regulators, CENP-C, and the deSUMOylase SPF2 The first division of meiosis is unique in its capacity to halve the ploidy of the future gametes. To this end, one key innovation compared to mitosis is the monopolar orientation of the pairs of sist...

Preprint Alert! 🚨🧬
Not one, but two preprints!

Meiotic orientation of kinetochore at meiosis is inforced by...[see below]
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

and

Unlocking meiotic crossovers next to plant centromere
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#meiosis4ever
#everythingisconnected

a thread👇

We are looking for a new colleague to work as a postdoctoral researcher on crop genomics and machine learning! The position is within our GenomeDesigner project (www.ru.nl/en/research/...). Feel free to be in touch or directly apply here: www.ru.nl/en/working-a... Please share!!!

#OPR
Study defines 6 floral bud stages in Fritillaria, identifying 44 key genes regulating development via circadian, hormone & metabolic pathways.
Details: maxapress.com/article/doi/10.48130/opr...
#FloralDevelopment #Fritillaria

PLOS Biology Associate Editor- FTC UK-Remote

Great opportunity! #PlantScience
PLOS Biology hiring full-time Associate Editor.
Requires PhD+2 years postdoc experience
"Expertise in molecular cell biology is required, preferably in context of plant science"
job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/plos/jobs/46...
I know folks who should apply to this!

Haplotype-resolved genome assembly and genome-wide association study identifies the candidate gene closely related to sugar content and tuber yield in Solanum tuberosum Abstract. As an important noncereal food crop grown worldwide, the genetic improvement of potato in tuber yield and quality is largely constrained due to t

High-quality potato genome unveiled, new gene StTST2 boosts yield. #PotatoGenomics #MolecularBreeding @oxfordacademic.bsky.social
Details: doi.org/10.1093/hr/u...

Engineering crop flower morphology facilitates robotization of cross-pollination and speed breeding A genome editing and AI-driven robotic system that overcomes floral barriers to facilitate automated hybrid breeding in tomato and soybean.

🌱🤖 BREAKTHROUGH: Engineering tomato & soybean flowers with exposed stigmas using CRISPR, enabling AI robots to automate cross-pollination! 🔬 Genome editing (ABC genes) + deep learning + robotics
@cellpress.bsky.social @theinnovation.bsky.social
🌱Sustainable Farming🔥🔥🔥
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Haploid induction in sweet potato by activating the AP2/ERF family transcription factor IbBBM Click on the article title to read more.

"Haploid induction in sweet potato by activating the
AP2/ERF family transcription factor IbBBM"

From: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Since sweet potato is hexaploid, the corresponding haploid is actually triploid then?

Dr. Luca Comai - 2025 Raymond F. Baker Plant Breeding Symposium YouTube video by Iowa State University Plant Breeding Symposium

Haploid Induction through Centromere Destabilization
Dr. Luca Comai - 2025 Raymond F. Baker Plant Breeding Symposium
Iowa State University Plant Breeding Symposium
youtu.be/dVOfrixHHYw?...

SMARCA5 restricts chromatin accessibility to promote male meiosis and fertility in mammals | PNAS Establishment of correct chromatin configuration in male meiosis is essential for sperm formation and male fertility. However, how chromatin remode...

Truly a team effort from the Lesch lab @ambystoma22.bsky.social Happy to share this paper where we study the role of Smarca5 in spermatogenesis.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Ancient hybridization underlies tuberization and radiation of the potato lineage Genomic and functional analyses reveal that the potato lineage originated from a homoploid interspecific hybridization event between the Tomato and Etuberosum lineages 8–9 million years ago. The alter...

So actually potato comes from tomato! 🤯🤯
A cross between a Solanum and a tuberosum derived in the actual potatoes! (Another) Incredible work by the lab of Sanwen Huang and colaborators

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Efficient Haploid Induction in Arabidopsis thaliana by Fine-Tuning CENH3 Function #correspondence #PlantCommunications cell.com/plant-commun...

The cenH3 assembly factor ZmKNL2 boosts haploid induction in maize Click on the article title to read more.

The cenH3 assembly factor ZmKNL2 boosts haploid induction in maize
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

MAP is proud to announce a significant milestone in our publishing journey, as 8 journals have received their first-ever JIF in the 2025 update to the JCR by Clarivate. This achievement marks a major step forward in the recognition and visibility of our journals in the global scholarly landscape.

Bimodal centromeres in pentaploid dogroses shed light on their unique meiosis - Nature Insights into the dogrose genome and centromeres explain their ability to achieve stable sexual reproduction.

1/7
I am very excited to announce our🌹NEW PAPER OUT IN 𝑁𝐴𝑇𝑈𝑅𝐸!🌹
𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐔𝐑𝐕𝐈𝐕𝐄: Bimodal centromeres in pentaploid dogroses shed light on their unique meiosis
With the Ritz and Kovařík labs we show a potential role for centromeres on 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘢 bizarre reproduction!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Downside: The deficiency lies in the fact that there is still a certain proportion of aneuploidy.🤔

🌱 CENH3 new story!
By fine-tuning CENH3 with the RPS5a promoter, researchers achieved 66.7% haploid induction in Arabidopsis at 22°C! 🌡️ Stacking gene tweaks boosted efficiency without harming plant health.
🔗 [DOI](doi.org/10.1016/j.xp...

Thrilled to announce our study on the histone variant H2A.W & pericentromeric crossovers is now out in PNAS! We show that loss/knockdown of H2A.Ws boosts meiotic crossovers in Arabidopsis pericentromeric regions: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Horticulture Research #JCR2023 7.6

The phased pan-genome of tetraploid European potato - Nature A haplotype-resolved pan-genome of autotetraploid European potato founder lines shows high nucleotide diversity at remarkably low haplotype diversity, which is probably the result of hybridization eve...

📢 Excited to share our work out now in @nature.com! 📢

We present the phased pan-genome of tetraploid European potato, based on 10 historical cultivars representing 85% of European potato diversity.

Learn more below!

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

1/7

▶️Maternal haploid induction in maize via mutation of Gamete Expression protein 1 (ZmGEX1) 🌱

-->Plant Biotechnology Journal

📖 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Haploid facultative parthenogenesis in sunflower sexual reproduction - Nature Spontaneous parthenogenesis in sunflower has been used to develop a scalable doubled haploid breeding system.

Certain sunflower genotypes can undergo parthenogenesis when they are without pollen. This a surprising result and was discovered serendipitously during a plant breeding programme. A lesson to pay attention to your controls!

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

Our (@jeffsekelsky.bsky.social, Corbin Jones, & me) #Meiosis, Recombination & Evolution of Sex class @uncchapelhill.bsky.social loved talking w/ @takashiakeralab.bsky.social about his lab's @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social on meiotic cohesin errors & sterility in hybrid mice. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Our new review article “To infinity and beyond: recent progress, bottlenecks, and potential of clonal seeds by apomixis” is now published open access in @theplantjournal.bsky.social
dx.doi.org/10.1111/tpj.... @ribesresearch.bsky.social

Synergistic induction of fertilization-independent embryogenesis in rice egg cells by paternal-genome-expressed transcription factors - Nature Plants The efficient induction of embryos without fertilization, which is important for crop breeding and hybrid seed production, can be achieved by combined expression in the egg of BBM1 and WOX9A, two rice...

🌾 Hui Ren, Kyle Shankle, Imtiyaz Khanday and Venkatesan Sundaresan collaborated on a discussion of enhancing parthenogenesis in #rice: Co-expression of OsBBM1 & OsWOX9A boosts haploid production >90%, advancing crop breeding & synthetic apomixis.

▶️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#PlantBiology