View from my office.. finally spring time in Bavaria 😃

US lawmakers intensify scrutiny of scientific-publishing practices A congressional hearing covered the rise of paper mills and the costs of open-access publishing — but there was little agreement on what reform would entail.

In a rare show of unity, both R and D US lawmakers agree: the scientific publishing industry needs reform.

Lawmakers are worried about the literature being flooded with 'AI slop' and the high open-access fees that some publishers charge.

Read more @nature.com on this week's House Science hearing

Herzliche Glückwünsche 🍾🎉

I am thrilled and beyond grateful to receive a CNRS bronze medal this year - this is an incredible honour especially for an INRAE researcher like myself! A big thanks to my amazing team and the research community @RDP for all the great science we have done together!

🍀🔬

Turgor reduction triggers FERONIA nanodomain assembly for osmosensing in plants @currentbiology.bsky.social

www.cell.com/current-biol...

#Recherche en #Biologie

Our first study on how the leaf succulent Kalanchoë laxiflora makes stomatal subsidiary cells is finally peer-reviewed & out - and it made the cover! 🌵 🧬 🔬
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
Despite 150 years of evolution, grasses and Crassulacean succulents use the SAME gene to make subsidiary cells! 🤯

And the This year’s winner of the Reinhold-von-Sengbusch prize for best Talk are:
- Susanne Mühlbauer - LMU Munich
- Jakob Weber Böhlen - RWTH Aachen University
- Jan Multhoff – University Münster
#MBP2026

ERECTA‐family receptor kinases: versatile regulators of plant developmental signaling How plant cells coordinate developmental patterning remains a fundamental question in biology. This review synthesizes current knowledge of how ERECTA-family receptors interpret spatiotemporal peptid....

📚𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰

How do plants read positional cues? 🌿
ERECTA-family receptors interpret spatiotemporal peptide cues, integrating receptor activation, signaling dynamics, trafficking, and non-canonical pathways.

✍️ Bai and @keikoutorii.bsky.social

👉 doi.org/10.1111/tpj.70793

Whole-embryo spatial transcriptomics at subcellular resolution from gastrulation to organogenesis Gene expression patterns underlie development, but their systematic detection in whole embryos has remained elusive. We introduce a whole-embryo imaging platform using multiplexed error-robust fluores...

That‘s one cool paper from the Schier lab ….

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

Full professor for plant ecology in Regensburg. #plantscience #plantscijobs

jobs.zeit.de/jobs/w3-prof...

We are really excited that Euro Evo Devo will take place here in Scotland from the 9th-12th June, at the University of Glasgow!

Deadline for Early Bird Registration and Abstract Submission are rapidly approaching in March so do register soon!

www.evodevoconference26.com/important-da...

It's officially out 🥳🥳🥳 doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... #MorphoGraphX #MorphoDynamX #Physcomitrella #Phyllotaxis @roederlab.bsky.social @richardsmithlab.bsky.social

Our preprint on sex determination in Cannabis - now updated with a strata analysis and new gene expression data.
Great collaboration with @tatianagiraud.bsky.social and her team!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Nice!

The mechanical properties of Arabidopsis thaliana roots adapt dynamically during development and to stress Brillouin microscopy reveals in vivo dynamics of mechanical properties during plant development and response to stress.

Our work now on its final version. We mapped the mechanical properties of roots at tissue and single cell levels using Brillouin microscopy and molecular rotors. Additional mutants and stress measurements from what we previously showed in the preprint are included.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Giant cells: from random initiation to nonrandom pattern

Our recent paper is explained here in a more accessible way!

"We often think of the emergence of order as arising from self-organization or cell–cell interactions, but here, order emerges from random cell fate decisions amplified by the geometry of tissue growth."
www.mpipz.mpg.de/pr-formosa-2...

Dear PPRM community, we are pleased to invite you to the next PPRM meeting, 14-16 September 2026 in Freising, Germany.

Registration opening soon!

Workflow for Samplify-based phenotyping of seed abortion.

Samplify – automated quantification of seed abortion

Bente et al. @hebente.bsky.social @claudiakohler11.bsky.social @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social

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

Happy to share our preprint on how responses to closely related peptides are shaped by SERKs

Long-distance transport of siRNAs with functional roles in pollen development - Nature Plants This study shows that many small RNAs in Capsella rubella pollen originate from maternal tissues. These mobile small RNAs support proper pollen development, revealing that non-cell-autonomous small RN...

🧬 From Nature Plants: Plants send mobile small RNAs from maternal tissues to pollen, enabling essential gene control for normal male fertility. (Blake C. Meyers)

▶️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#PlantScience #PlantBiology

Nighttime photo of a modern building with illuminated windows and bare trees in front. Above the building, green aurora lights stretch across the sky, blending into a purple‑red night sky. Stars are visible as well

With this throwback to the #northernlights at our Weihenstephan #campus last month, we want to wish you the best of luck for your exams and a wonderful #semesterbreak! 🍀🤩 Thanks to Julia Keberle for the campus #photoofthemonth for January.

library(tidyplots) study |> tidyplot(x = group, y = score, color = group) |> add_median_bar(alpha = 0.3) |> add_median_dash() |> add_data_points_beeswarm(white_border = TRUE) |> remove_x_axis_labels() |> adjust_size(width = 20, height = 50)

This is how you can adjust the plot size in #tidyplots 🔥

All measures are in mm.

#rstats #dataviz #phd

Evolution and development: What makes a merry stem? From tiny mosses to giant redwoods, around 450,000 species of land plants show a huge variety of forms, yet all land plants develop from stem cells in proliferative meristems. What makes a meristem? T...

It was good to catch up on my reading for this dispatch in Current Biology. Sjoerd Woudenberg in the Weijers lab, Wallner et al. In the Dolan lab and Flores Sandoval et al. In the Bowman lab have done a great job! Evolution and development: What makes a merry stem?: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Duckweeds are an important plant research model but have been challenging to modify genetically. A study published in @newphyt.bsky.social by the Marí-Ordóñez group at the GMI, presents a new and highly reproducible method for genetic transformation in the duckweed species Spirodela polyrhiza.

A negative feedback loop between TERMINAL FLOWER1 and LEAFY protects inflorescence indeterminacy Inflorescences of flowering plants adopt diverse genetically programmed and environmentally tuned architectures. By contrast, continued maintenance of the stem-cell pool within the apical meristem is ...

Out First Release in @science.org this week:
A feedback loop allows two shoot stem cell populations to respond differently to environmental conditions: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#plantscience

👩‍🔬La @segenetica.bsky.social ha elegido como "Artículo del mes" en su boletín de enero el trabajo de @tank-silvia.bsky.social, investigadora del #IRNASA-CSIC, publicado en 'Nature Communications'. 👏👏👏
🔗Boletín: segenetica.es/newsletter/e...
🔗Más info: www.irnasa.csic.es/una-investig...

New tidyplots.org version 0.4.0 now on CRAN 🚀

🪓 Split plots by one or two variables
🤓 Custom `axis.titles` in multiplot layouts
🌈 Custom background and foreground colors
🦇 Dark themes using `paper` and `ink`

#tidyplots #rstats #dataviz #phd

great to see it come back to life!!

Save the date: Plant Development PhD school (i.e. Retzbach 2.0) in Neustadt, Germany.

Sept 23rd-25th, 2026
~€350 all inclusive

Excellent speakers and a relaxed atmosphere for early-career researchers (PhDs & postdocs). Registration opens soon.

For more info, see
raissiglab.org/plantdevosch...