The first "Made in Okinawa".

Some thoughts on how bryophytes can "enhance" plant synthetic biology.

pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

#marchantia #physco #hornworts #synbio

🍃🎤🍃 Speaker announcement 🍃🎤🍃

Announcing our final set of Invited Speakers for Photosynthesis 2026 🌱 🎉

🐦️ There's just 3 weeks left to register at the early-bird rate
⏰️ Abstract submission for oral presentations closes 31st March

Find out more 👉 photosynthesis2026.com

#plantscience #ICPR26
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Antoni M. Vera-Vives (he/him) is the First Author of Cytochrome c oxidase inactivation in Physcomitrium patens reveals that respiration coordinates plant metabolism published 05 May 2025. Education background includes 2024 Research fellow by Italian National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology (INSTM); 2024 PhD in Biosciences, curr. Biochemistry and Biotechnology at University of Padova; 2020 MSc in Molecular Biology at University of Padova; 2018 BSc in Molecular Biology at University of Padova. Research interests include Plant bioenergetics, respiration, and plant mitochondria.Personal interests include .Playing the guitar, dancing, cooking, writing

Vera-Vives was born, raised, and fascinated by nature in the countryside of the beautiful island of Mallorca! academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...

#WeAreASPB

Photosynthesis beyond the visible spectrum detected by a research group from Unipd The study titled "Thylakoids reorganization enables driving photosynthesis under far‐red light in the microalga Nannochloropsis gaditana," published in «New Phytologist» and conducted by the research…

Photosynthesis beyond the visible spectrum detected by a research group from the University of Padua

www.unipd.it/news/photosy...

Nannochloropsis gaditana is of great biotechnological interest for the production of biofuels, fatty acids, and omega-3.

#PlantScience @elisabettaliistro.bsky.social

As our #H2020 project enters its last month, our coordinator, @apmweber.bsky.social, reflects on the importance and potential of the GAIN4CROPS to boost crop yields! 🌻

“Our project can [contribute] to a more sustainable agriculture in Europe, but also in other places in the world.”🌍

Evolution of protein domains and protein domain combinations provides insights into the origin and diversification of land plants www.cell.com/cell-genomic...

New opportunity to join our #EvoMPMI group @johninnescentre.bsky.social as a Postdoctoral Researcher working on the mechanistic basis of immunity in diverse plants. Please spread the word, reach out by email, and/or apply if interested! More details here: www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

Cleomaceae: diversity and potential of a model family for studies on the evolution of photosynthesis The Cleomaceae family integrates floral diversity, physiological plasticity, and the evolution of C4 photosynthesis, serving as an important model to investigate plant adaptation and evolutionary inn...

Cleomaceae are the sister group to the Brassicaceae. In contrast to the Brassicaceae, they contain true C4 photosynthetic species. This indicates that the genetic capacity to evolve C4 is ancestral to the split of Brassicaceae and Cleomaceae.

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

Glad to have this finally published: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... lots of new data since the #preprint. If you are into selective #autophagy, #evolution, #proteostasis Please have a look!

Volume 66 Issue 11 | Plant and Cell Physiology | Oxford Academic The official journal of the Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. Publishes original articles reporting significant findings in broad aspects of plant biology.

Harnessing light energy🔆

Special Issue #Photosynthesis out now!

19 articles on the basics, mechanisms & applications of photosynthesis

With thx to Guest Editors: J-R. Shen, T. Shikanai, M. Li, @mariaermakova.bsky.social @watarusakamoto.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/pcp/issue/66...

#PlantScience

This year’s @embo.org Workshop is held at the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social. Open to 120 participants, it is over-enrolled with 180 attendees! Thank you to the organizers @isabelmonte.bsky.social, Aino Komatsu, @moodytomato.bsky.social, and Liam Dolan for making this event possible. #EMBOplantEvo

There are a couple of empty chairs at our table — want to sit with us?
Reach out to me or any lab member www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/research... We’ll be hiring two postdocs in 2026.
We’re excited about ambitious and creative ideas and are committed to supporting future group leaders 1/2

Guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp) signalling promotes high-light tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. Guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp) is a hyperphosphorylated nucleotide originally discovered in prokaryotes and found in the chloroplasts of plants and algae. In plants, ppGpp signalling plays a role as...

Guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp) signalling promotes high-light tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Reprogramming encapsulins into modular carbon-fixing nanocompartments - Nature Communications Installing algal pyrenoids or cyanobacterial carboxysomes into plants to enhance photosynthetic efficiency remains a formidable challenge. Here, the authors report the construction of CO2-fixing nanoc...

Reprogramming encapsulins into modular carbon-fixing nanocompartments www.nature.com/articles/s41... @natcomms.nature.com

#photosynthesis #sustainability #environment #biotechnology #greenenergy #highvaluecompounds

Discover the power of photosynthesis at GCS 2025 – connecting science, sustainability, and innovation online.
More info: www.isb.cnr.it/green-christ...
Free registration: forms.office.com/e/PpFurbTtrU

Green Christmas Session 2025 "Photosynthetic microorganisms for sustainable development" Tue 2 Dec, 9:00 AM - Wed 3, 1:30 PM [CET]: Green Christmas Session 2025 (GCS 2025) is an online conference exploring advances in the structure, function, and dynamics of photosynthetic components,…

📅New #PlantSciEvents Event Added: Green Christmas Session 2025 "Photosynthetic microorganisms for sustainable development"

👉https://buff.ly/FoeyXSg

#PlantScience

The plastid cysteine synthase complex regulates ABA biosynthesis and stomatal closure in Arabidopsis - Nature Communications Cysteine supply is crucial for ABA biosynthesis in plants. Here, the authors report that chloroplast cysteine synthase complex regulates stomatal closure by integrating different stress signals via dy...

A nice study showing the role of the chloroplast cysteine-synthase-complex as a hub that promotes ABA-induced stomatal closure and drought resistance. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #PlantScience

Locating the missing chlorophylls f in far-red photosystem I The discovery of chlorophyll f-containing photosystems, with their long-wavelength photochemistry, represented a distinct, low-energy paradigm for oxygenic photosynthesis. Structural studies on chloro...

Have you ever looked at the night sky and wondered if there’s a chlorophyll f in the reaction centre of Photosystem I from far-red light adapted cyanobacteria? 🦠

Well, we did (don’t judge) and the work that followed is now out as a First Release in @science.org

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Exploring fern pathosystems and immune receptors to bridge gaps in plant immunity - BMC Biology Land plants include angiosperms, gymnosperms, bryophytes, lycophytes, and ferns, each of which may deploy distinct strategies to resist pathogens. Here, we investigate fern-pathogen interactions by characterizing novel pathosystems and analyzing the diversity of fern immune receptors. A collection of fern species was inoculated with a diverse set of filamentous microbes, and disease symptoms were assessed. We further leveraged published genome mining tools to analyse the diversity of receptor-like kinases, receptor-like proteins (RLKs/RLPs) and nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeats (NLRs), along with key immune signalling components, in ferns. Our results reveal that ferns exhibit a range of responses to pathogens, including putative non-host resistance and more specific resistance mechanisms. Among ten ferns tested, Pteris vittata displays the broadest spectrum of pathogen compatibility. Genome mining indicates that ferns encode a diverse repertoire of putative immune receptors, antimicrobial peptides, and mediators of systemic acquired resistance. Ferns possess numerous RLKs/RLPs, resembling those required for cell-surface immunity in angiosperms. They also encode diverse NLRs, including sub-families lost in flowering plants. These findings provide insights into disease resistance evolution and open promising perspectives for crop protection strategies.

1\ bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
🌿🌿Our article on fern immunity has been peer-reviewed 🌿🌿
Thanks to @madeleinebaker.bsky.social @kellerjeanphd.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social and @jacquet-chris.bsky.social

a quick thread 🧵 1/4

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

#HorizontalGeneTransfer analysis was possible thanks to this new super-pangenome, now including 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes 🌿🧬
👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Mosses #PlantGenomics #Bryophytes

Everyone wants a NAS! 🌿🦟

Leon Dirick & Bernard Goffinet uncovered the surprising history of NAS genes shaped by horizontal gene transfer, we revealed NAS key role in Physcomitrium patens.
👉 nature.com/articles/s41...
#Mosses #HorizontalGeneTransfer

...and 10 new phylogenetically diverse hornwort genomes here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@fernway.bsky.social @jandevries.bsky.social @watertoland.bsky.social

a study that changes the paradigm of horizontal gene transfer across kingdoms, led by my former PhD supervisor Bernard Goffinet, congratulations to his team www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Contrasting biological production trends over land and ocean - Nature Climate Change The authors jointly assess the changes in land and ocean net primary production from 2003 to 2021. They show contrasting trends, with overall planetary increases (0.11 ± 0.13 PgC yr−1) driven by terrestrial enhancement and offset by oceanic decline.

A study published in Nature Climate Change analyses net primary production (NPP) trends from 2003 to 2021, revealing an overall increase in planetary NPP, primarily due to terrestrial enhancements despite a decline in oceanic productivity. go.nature.com/4fP7uBA 🧪

📢 To all molecular mossers 📢

The Moss Workshop will be held in (not always as sunny as this) Oxford next year (30th June until 2nd July 2026). More details will follow soon, but in the meantime please make a note of the dates 😃 👍

Fig. 1. (shortened legend) - Rubisco SynBio expression systems reconstitute Rubisco biogenesis in E. coli. Several assembly factors (chaperonins and auxiliary proteins) are required during chloroplast Rubisco biogenesis to fold the Rubisco large subunit (RbcL), and assemble the Rubisco L8S8 holoenzyme (with the Rubisco small subunit; RbcS). Three chaperonin subunits (chaperonin 60ɑ, 60β, and 20) form an oligomeric cage that provides a favorable microenvironment to allow the chloroplast large subunit to fold. The auxiliary proteins [Rubisco accumulation factors 1 and 2 (Raf1, Raf2), RbcX1, RbcX2, and bundle sheath defective 2 (Bsd2)] stabilize L2 and L8 intermediate complexes. Finally, eight Rubisco small subunits assemble with the L8 complex to form the L8S8 Rubisco holoenzyme, which contains eight active sites. Co-expressing all the assembly factors with Rubisco-encoding genes in E. coli allows heterologous reconstitution of the Rubisco biogenesis pathway.

🔍 INSIGHT

A SynBio explosion 💥

🧬 Loh & Gunn dive into the expanding SynBio toolkit for Rubisco engineering, spotlighting key advances from Archer et al. recently published in JXB 🧪

📝 Insight: doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
🔬 Research: doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience @laura-gunn.bsky.social

Fig. 1 The complex Sphagnum microbiome.

#TansleyReview: The challenging but unique eco-evolutionary aspects of #SphagnumMoss

@queenofpeat.bsky.social, et al. 👇

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

#LatestIssue

New Postdoc position (2yrs) available in our #EvoMPMI lab @JohnInnesCentre. Come and work with on harnessing the diversity of immune mechanisms to protect plants. jobs.jic.ac.uk/Details.asp?va…

You have always dreamed to work on mosses and on cell polarity, we have a PhD position for you at RDP in Lyon with Yoan Coudert, collaboration with @dolfweijers.bsky.social