Dr Elizabeth Orton holding germinating ash tree seeds on a plate, in the lab

ICYMI 📻

Catch up on yesterday’s BBC Radio 4 World at One programme - Sarah Montague caught up with JIC's Dr Elizabeth Orton to hear about the process she has refined to speed up ash seed germination, from years in nature down to a week in the lab (from 39:20): www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

UK Precision Breeding – Farming Futures Conference | John Innes Centre Healthy Plants, Healthy People, Healthy Planet Join us for a one‑day conference bringing together farmers, breeders, researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders to explore the fast‑evolving…

Find out more: www.jic.ac.uk/event/uk-pre...

@pennyhundleby.bsky.social

EVENT - UK Precision Breeding – Farming Futures Conference

🔔 SAVE THE DATE 🔔

Join us for a one‑day conference uniting farming, science, policy, and industry to explore precision breeding in the UK 🌱

🗓️ 24 Sept 2026
📍 Norwich Research Park

Register your interest: forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...

The trunk of an immature ash trees showing signs of necrosis. Credit WTML.

‼️Researchers at @johninnescentre.bsky.social have developed a fast-track method of breeding disease-resistant ash, reducing germination time from up to 6 years in nature to a week in a lab! Long way to go but this looks really promising. 🤞 buff.ly/AyjgcRV #AshDieback #TreeResearch

Congratulations to Mustafa Emre Gül, PhD student at the @johninnescentre.bsky.social, named as one of the 20 Most Promising Young Plant Breeders in Europe 2026 by Seed World Europe! 🎉🌱

"I am truly honoured to receive this recognition," said Emre. "I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to my late supervisor, @philippaborrill.bsky.social, who nominated me for this award. I will carry her encouragement with me throughout my journey."

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20 Most Promising Young Plant Breeders in Europe 2026 Seed Worlds 20 Most is back with Europe's 20 Most Promising Young Plant Breeders.

Congratulations to Mustafa Emre Gül, who has been recognised as one of the 20 Most Promising Young Plant Breeders in Europe by @seedworldeu.bsky.social 🌟

You can find the full list of finalists here: www.seedworld.com/europe/2026/...

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Surveys of non-EU Cicadomorpha vectors of Xylella fastidiosa Updated 19 March 2026 (Version 1). Taxonomy: insects. Host plants: broadleaved trees, citrus, coniferous trees, grape, nuts, olive, ornamentals, stone fruits, other. Regulation: quarantine pests.

A guide has been published to support the use of two #PestSurveyCard on the non-EU Cicadomorpha vectors of #Xylella fastidiosa:

➡️ link.europa.eu/dhBkfm

@ipsn-bgci.bsky.social
@johninnescentre.bsky.social
@emersys-irhs.bsky.social
@iascsic.bsky.social

#leafhopper
#Treehopper
#spittlebug

Flying over Norwich Research Park this morning. The start of the HP3 project providing new infrastructure to @johninnescentre.bsky.social and @thesainsburylab.bsky.social is visible now as well as the new data centre by @earlhaminst.bsky.social

@gressenhallfw.bsky.social @wendlingbeck.bsky.social

PRESS RELEASE - The fast-track tree breeding method that is restoring ash to the landscape

A fast-track method of breeding disease-resistant ash trees has been developed by researchers leading efforts to conserve the species.

www.jic.ac.uk/press-releas...

Funding also from @wellcometrust.bsky.social BBSRC @royalcom1851.bsky.social. Collab between @johninnescentre.bsky.social @york.ac.uk @ceitec.eu @masarykuniversity.bsky.social Rowland Institute @harvard.edu

Congrats to first author @emmajbanks.bsky.social, #ListerFellow @tunglejic.bsky.social and collaborators 👏 Discovered 3-gene control hub and strict regulator genes for gene transfer agent activation and bacterial cell lysis.

Paper in @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Big thanks to @oilseedrachel.bsky.social for her support throughout. This work was carried out during my time at @johninnescentre.bsky.social and includes a co-author supported by @rsb.org.uk's Plant Health Undergraduate Studentship programme.

@aph-isp.bsky.social @bric-isp.bsky.social

Larval antibiosis to cabbage stem flea beetle (Psylliodes chrysocephala) is absent within oilseed rape (Brassica napus) We screened a panel of 98 Brassicaceae genotypes (97 Brassica napus and 1 Sinapis alba) for cabbage stem flea beetle (Psylliodes chrysocephala) larval antibiosis. We found limited evidence for antibi...

Out now in Pest Management Science:
We screened a diverse oilseed rape (Brassica napus) population against cabbage stem flea beetle larvae and found...

🥁🥁🥁🥁

...no evidence for reduced larval survival or development across B. napus genotypes.
doi.org/10.1002/ps.7...

Big congratulations to my postdoc Ran on receiving Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship! Well done 👍 @johninnescentre.bsky.social

Using X-ray Crystallography and 1,n-ADEQUATE NMR to Revise the Structures of Highly Substituted Aromatic Natural Products: The Absolute Configuration of Formicamycin Congeners Formicamycins and their biosynthetic precursors, the fasamycins, form part of the phenylnaphthacenoid family of polyketide natural products. A recent atroposelective total synthesis of formicamycin H brought into question our original stereochemical assignment of the axially chiral linkage between C-6 and C-7. To address this, we obtained an X-ray crystal structure for formicamycin H that unambiguously confirmed our original assignment as the Sa atropisomer. X-ray structures for multiple additional fasamycins and formicamycins confirmed that this is common to all congeners. However, these studies identified a compounded error made by us whereby several structures previously reported as para-methoxy were found to have ortho-methoxy groups on the hanging E-ring. To address this for congeners that did not crystallize or gave nondiffracting crystals, we turned to the surprisingly underutilized 1,n-ADEQUATE NMR experiment. In total, we generated X-ray structures for 15 phenylnaphthacenoid metabolites and by combining these results report the corrected structures for three formicamycins, six fasamycins, and three biosynthetic lactone intermediates, noting that several revised fasamycin structures now match previously reported naphthacemycins. Our results highlight the utility of 1,n-ADEQUATE experiments for regiochemical determination in polysubstituted aromatic molecules. Moreover, our investigations uncovered a potential deracemization step during biosynthesis of the formicamycin framework.

New paper with @barriewilks.bsky.social. There are many reports on fasamycins and formicamycins (aka accramycins, naphthacemycins, streptovertimycins). Here, we unambiguously solve their structures and stereochemistry. A great effort, led by Dr Edward Hems

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

@tunglejic.bsky.social @emmajbanks.bsky.social

Image – Caulobacter crescentus bacterial host cells producing GTA particles. Left: fluorescence microscopy showing C. crescentus bacterial cells producing GTA particles (cells have been engineered to glow green when producing GTAs). Right: cryo-electron microscopy tomogram showing a ‘cross-section’ through a single C. crescentus cell producing GTA particles (magenta and yellow). Bacterial envelope layers are shown in blue, cyan, and green. A nutrient storage granule is visible (grey). Ribosomes (protein factories) are shown in orange.

NEWS - Ancient viruses serving as gene delivery couriers to help bacteria resist antibiotics

Research has shed important new light on the enemies-turned-allies that allow bacteria to exchange genes, including those linked to antimicrobial resistance.

www.jic.ac.uk/news/ancient...

Do you want to know how to build an organ from a single cell?

Check out our paper about phyllid development in moss by Weney Lin @irbv.bsky.social

Colaboration with Yoan Couder @ensdelyon.bsky.social and and Richard Smith @johninnescentre.bsky.social

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

I'll soon be visiting @johninnescentre.bsky.social, hosted by C Dean & @jonathandgjones.bsky.social; @cecad.bsky.social & @unicologne.bsky.social,hosted by @bjornschumacher.bsky.social & @frezzalab.bsky.social; & @molgen.mpg.de,hosted by @aktast.bsky.social.

If you're around, come say hi! #EuroTour

VACANCY - We’re recruiting for a Research Assistant to support our Wheat Transformation and Gene Editing (WTGE) facility, working on cutting-edge precision breeding technology.

www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/re...

Deadline - 27 April 2026
Contract - Until 30 April 2028, full-time

Professor Philippa Borrill

We are devastated to announce that our colleague and friend Professor Philippa Borrill died over the Easter weekend following a rare immune system disorder (HLH). She was a fantastic scientist, collaborator and mentor, and a close friend to many: www.jic.ac.uk/news/profess...

On the left a photo of growing leafy greens, on the right a woman in a shop with a basket of vegetables. In the middle there is the text "Proof of Concept Awards Funding, Research projects on: Biofortification of food, feed and fodder, Consumer science, social and policy aspects of crop and food biofortification." Deadline: 24 April 2026

📣 The #BiofortificationHub has funding to pump-prime collaborative projects on:

🌱 Biofortification of food, feed & fodder
🛒 Consumer science, social and policy aspects of crop and food biofortification.

Apply by 25 April 2026
➡️ buff.ly/x9CnANl

@johninnescentre.bsky.social

🪲 More info about the project here: my.rsb.org.uk/services.php...

📝Deadline to apply 28 April: www.rsb.org.uk/plant-health...

Exciting Plant Health Undergraduate Studentships on offer this summer, including one with our very own Dr Wells @oilseedrachel.bsky.social on feeding preference and larval resistance to cabbage stem flea beetle, sponsored by Defra! 🌿🪲

Our 11th (!) Preprint Pizza Party was a success! 📑
Students, postdocs and RAs from our lab and @johninnescentre.bsky.social discussed recent @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social papers and enjoyed a pizza break 🍕
Stay tuned for the publication of our comments online!
#PreprintCommentClub

Delighted to share our JIC guidance for precision-bred plant field trials. Field experiments link controlled research and real-world agricultural performance, and by sharing our insight and methodologies we aim to support compliant trial delivery within the new regulatory framework.

Field trial site drone photograph

Experts at our institute have developed best-practice methodologies for conducting field trials which include gene edited/precision bred crops, including wheat in particular 🌾

The John Innes Centre guidelines for precision-bred plant field trials are published here: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Excellent undergraduate opportunity via the RSB sponsored by Defra for this summer! Come join team flea beetle for 10 weeks to work on larval feeding behaviour and transcriptomics.

my.rsb.org.uk/services.php...