We have been cooking up this story for a while and we are excited to finally be able to share!
Read on if you're interested in whole plant regeneration WITHOUT the application of hormones!
A break from science and teaching. The wonderful Raye. I haven't been this excited for an album release since I was about 15. open.spotify.com/album/3ZN01x...
Amazing! Huge congratulations to Richard Dekeya from the lab for successfully defending his PhD thesis, and @alexwebblab.bsky.social and Barrie Wilkinson for examining #chronobiology
Mature wheat field with low sun in background
How does wheat tell time?🌾🕰️
New model by @abhibiotech.bsky.social with @alexwebblab.bsky.social & James Locke reveals the flexibility of plant circadian clocks. Unlike Arabidopsis, wheat ELF3 peaks at dawn, model suggests TOC1 repression drives this shift
doi.org/10.1098/rsif...
@royalsociety.org
#Monogram2026 Session 6 - From Meristem to Harvest: Building the Plant
Big session seeing us through to lunch, featuring not one but two Keynotes!
🕐 Alex Webb @alexwebblab.bsky.social @camplantsci.bsky.social
🌾 Sarah McKim @intbarleyhub.bsky.social @hutton.ac.uk
That moment in an online grant application form where you discover there is another page of questions that you have not noticed in the 209 previous times that you have accessed the form 🧪
I think this is a very interesting paper that adds significant understanding in plant water relations.
Out in @science.org this week: A decline in epigenetic silencing of TEs in older plant organs but not in the shoot meristem. TCX5 and TCX6 help regulate DNA methylation in this context.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#plantscience
Out in @science.org this week. Soils drive convergence in the regulation of vascular tension in land plants. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#plantscience
#ecophysiology
The deadline for submissions on the website has already passed. Has the deadline been extended?
Job opportunity!
Research Assistant / Research Associate in Molecular Physiology
Fixed term
Closes on Wednesday 28 January 2026
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
#PlantSci #PlantSciJobs
This is a very special paper for me. I had the idea of combining transcription factor binding with chromatin in 2016/8. It took some time, but thanks to Fred and Vikas, we can finally share the story in @plos.org Genetics looking at chromatin states in Arabidopsis and Marchantia. #PlantScience
📢 Save the date!
49th New Phytologist Symposium: Biological timing in photosynthetic organisms
📅 24–27 May 2027
📍 @johninnescentre.bsky.social, Norwich, UK
www.newphytologist.org/events/49-nps
#PlantScience #photoperiodism #chronobiology
@slcuplants.bsky.social @camplantsci.bsky.social authors made this paper. We had big discussion as what to call a post on Blue Sky. We settled on "bleet". This is a bleet about our new paper. doi.org/10.1098/rsif...
Our model of wheat circadian clock based on our finding that orthlogues of ELF3 (Arabidopsis evening complex gene) peak at dawn in the cereals. TOC1 repression of ELF3 explains the different behaviours of Arabidopsis & wheat circadian clocks doi.org/10.1098/rsif...
#plantresearch 🧪
Rhythmic ovulation in Clytia species. Top row: In Clytia hemisphaerica, the oocytes develop (blue arrow) becoming competent to respond to the maturation-inducing hormone (MIH), which triggers meiosis. MIH (red triangle) is released by neurosecretory cells in the gonads when they become exposed to light. After completion of meiosis (about 2 hours), the mature eggs are released. Ovulation (green square) lasts about 10 min. Since light is required to start a cycle, whose duration is regulated by the developmental programme, in C. hemisphaerica rhythmic ovulation is analogous to an hourglass. Bottom row: In Clytia sp.IZ-D light is required for synchronous development of the oocytes (blue arrow). However, the final maturation process, which makes them responsive to MIH, is gated by an unknown mechanism that likely operates individually in each oocyte (black-and-blue arrow). Light also drives the accumulation and progressive release of MIH. Meiosis begins when the oocytes reach the right maturation stage and MIH the right concentration. After about 2 hours ovulation begins, lasting about 60 min (green box). Together, the timing mechanisms controlling oocyte development and MIH release constitute an incipient clock. Two light-dark cycles are shown for reference.
In hydrozoan #jellyfish, the timing of gamete release is often coordinated by light. Ezio Rosato explores a @plosbiology.org study that elucidates a novel, endogenous clock-based mechanism that governs #egg release in a new species of jellyfish 🧪 Paper: plos.io/4btAwpY Primer: plos.io/49eTOya
A drawing of Dr Nicola Patron
Look who is adorning the shopping centre in Cambridge. @camplantsci.bsky.social very own Nicola Patron #plants
New Year. New Office 365. The horrible Co-pilot icon that was present in the bottom right all office documents in December has disappeared from the Office app on my PC in 2026. Things are looking up, perhaps I was not alone in finding it an annoying distraction? Or temporary respite? @microsoft.com
At the end of 2024 I did a chronological round up of all the #plantscience in @science.org that year.
So how did 2025 pan out? This year, I’m grouping papers thematically instead of chronologically so read on to find out what exciting plant science came out over the last 12 months. (1/22)
Happy Solstice
PS "Life, don't talk to me about life."
co-pilot = clippy. I really do not want a brightly coloured icon right in my line of sight whilst trying to read and write a Word document. There menu bar is where to put icons. #Microsoft #Office365 @microsoft.com
That is very nice of you it made me smile.
JOB ALERT - Join us as a lecturer/senior lecturer in plant-microbe interactions in the School of Biological Sciences at Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland. Applications close 31st January 🌱🧪
jobs.smartrecruiters.com/TheUniversit...
Junior Professorship Plastid Homöostasis. Kaiserslautern, Germany.
#plantscijob #PlantSciJobs
www.academics.de/jobs/w1-juni...
Professorship Plant Physiology. Kaiserslautern, Germany.
#PlantSciJobs #plantscijob
www.academics.de/jobs/w2-prof...
Professorship for Functional and 3D Modeling of Plants. Bonn, Germany.
#PlantSciJobs #plantscijob
www.academics.de/jobs/w3-prof...
Professorship Stress resilience of plants. Aachen, Germany.
#PlantSciJobs #plantscijob
www.academics.de/jobs/w3-univ...
Nice interdisciplinary #plantscience -related paper in Science handled by our neuroscience editor, @mattiamaroso.bsky.social
Infrared heat from cycads as a pollination signal before flowers evolved.
Paper here
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Perspective here
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
This week in @science.org
Structural insight into the incorporation of far-red chlorophyll f in cyanobacterial photosystem I
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#cyanobacteria
#plantscience