The evolution of plant actins https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.22.720131v1

We revisited the evolution of plant actins (last paper was in 1999), with the aim to understand why plants have many actin isoforms and how these isoforms can be functionally different. Strikingly, unlike e.g. the auxin response factors, actins are completely segregated per taxonomic lineage. (1/n)

LipoTag: A minimal motif for live and functional imaging of plant cell membranes. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.08.717154v1

PostDoc position available! (links in post below) Feel free to share!

Prime Minister Sanchez: “.. Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.” 🇪🇸

🎉📣 #TAIR12, the latest reannotation of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, is now available under accession number PRJEB100887 on ENA and NCBI! Thank you all the volunteer researchers whose hard work has made this possible! #plantscience #plantbiology 🧪 bit.ly/3ZHtneT

Feeling lucky on Good Friday 😍 #tawnyowl

Our new experimental evolution study across 30+ locations using the plant Arabidopsis thaliana —— we direct "see" adaptation and extinction to different climates at the genetic as it happens! Read it in Science dx.doi.org/10.1126/scie... @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social @hhmi-science.bsky.social

Wageningen autostad! Complete chaos in Noordwest vanochtend door het plotseling afsluiten van de fietspaden. Er was geen communicatie er er zijn geen omleidingen of redelijke alternatieven. Voor het autoverkeer is alles wel tot in de puntjes verzorgd 🚗. @gemeentewageningen.bsky.social

“a re-evaluation of fungal biology is not currently necessary…” Multiple nuclei means multiple chromosome sets in Botrytis cinerea and Neurospora crasse #Fungal26 doi.org/10.64898/202...

Previously on @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social now in final published version: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Komende woensdag zijn de gemeenteraadsverkiezingen. De kiezers kunnen ervoor zorgen dat natuur en landschap ook in de komende vier jaar voldoende aandacht krijgen en dat het buitengebied niet verder volgebouwd wordt. us7.campaign-archive.com?u=17288494ee...

My lycophyte photo was featured in the @waarneming.nl newsletter! Really cool, considering that there were already 2.2 million observations in 2026 and only 3 newsletters 😍. I took it to highlight the microphylls

I look at these kinds of protists ALL THE TIME. I have never seen them in situ like this. One cell. Absolutely remarkable. #protistsonsky

With 3.8 million cows, the Netherlands is by far the BEST place for butterflies EVER! Right?

Wow!

We are very excited to share a new resource from our team: spatial subcellular proteome maps in plants! We developed an MS-based method that registers localizations of about 8000 proteins in Arabidopsis roots in a single experiment. (1/9) www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Today I found my first wild lycophyte (Diphasiastrum tristachyum) in the Netherlands! We only have 7 species and most are extremely rare.

CRISPR edited lines for $100?! We have a problem considering how many hours PhDs and postdocs spend on creating and validating such lines… One would expect that high labour costs would lead to smarter solutions in Europe?

Recently, 3 academics posted a letter in the national newspaper to argue that universities are too left-winged and that this alienates right-winged students.. IMO, our former right-winged government posted such extreme budget cuts that they alienated themselves from the academics. @nrc.nl

18 februari verkiezingsdebat natuur en landschap! #gemeenteraadsverkiezingen2026 #Wageningen

Very impressive work identifying novel BIK1 substrates (and immunity players) in Arabidopsis 🔽! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself! bluesky-map.theo.io I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

Excited to share our latest review on hydrosignaling: moisture-dependent molecular pathways that help plants grow towards water. Insightful review of the literature and discussion of moisture sensing mechanisms by Will Dwyer and @hhtormar.bsky.social. Enjoy! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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...

www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/f... Become our new colleague (and next door neighbor) and lead a chair/group/department of Biophysics at Wageningen University. Reach out to me for info and please spread!!!

A new webinar series is born - ''MechanoBioTalks - Mechanics, Materials and Living Matter", to bring together and inspire researchers interested in biomechanics, biophysics and biology across different kingdoms of life. Join us! For info and registration visit green-te.nl/activities/

Excited to share our new investigation of Prototaxites! We found no support for a fungal affinity and instead suggest it is best considered an entirely extinct complex eukaryotic lineage Great team effort @transitionalform.bsky.social Corentin Loron, and many others! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Save the date! Op woensdagavond 18 februari organiseert @mooiwageningen.bsky.social samen met Mooi Binnenveld, KNNV Wageningen en @vlinderstichting.bsky.social wederom een verkiezingsdebat over natuur en landschap. www.mooiwageningen.nl/verkiezingsd...

Since when does the Congress limits its own power? This is a slippery slope…

As a molecular plant biologist, I always joked that I knew more proteins than plant species. Last year, I paid more attention to the biodiversity in my neighborhood and identified 1661 species (not only plants) in Wageningen alone. Bonus: I found really interesting places nearby. Highly recommended!

The 5.1 beta already worked like a charm! Highly recommended 😍

#PlantResearch Enjoyed writing with @beverleycubg.bsky.social a perspective about wonderful paper by Valencia-Montoya et al. in this week's Science. Cycads use thermal radiation to affect pollinators. Is this why Cycads are not as diverse as angiosperms? share.google/Xj8iH9E4tqvN...

I guess it's fitting that it's a reimagined, worse version of someone else's artwork

Out after peer review, collaborative study from Nordborg & Weigel labs with help from many others. Not the largest collection of new Arabidopsis thaliana genomes, but we hopefully put forward some good ideas for how to think about pangenomes and their analysis! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The main question here: in what kind of world do we want to live in? A world in which we can consume anything we want, but is devoid of all interesting life forms and biodiversity? Or shall we consume less and invest in more durable options (recycling) while embracing nature and its weird creations?

Last year, I saw this at a GRC conference and have been mesmerized ever since.. Great to see its final form (and being able to replay it for the rest of the day)

We are hiring! There is a PhD-position available in my group on environmental signal integration in plants. @swammerdamuva.bsky.social More information: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

The hidden danger of Biorender (& the death of scientific illustration) A short thread 🧵

“De raadsleden vroegen het gemeentebestuur scherpe voorwaarden te stellen aan de uitbreiding in #Moerdijk. (…) en niet zorgen voor toename van geluidsbelasting, milieueffecten en verkeersdruk in verschillende dorpen die in de gemeente liggen.” Vreemde eisen voor een industriegebied… Wensdenken?!

Laser ablation 😂

Moerdijk, verzwolgen door een golf van kapitalisme.. Het Saeftinghe van nu… #moerdijk

HL60 cells take on so many fun shapes as they migrate! This #InsightFromImaging data features cells prepared by Leanna and imaged on the @aicjanelia.bsky.social LLSM by @cmhobson.bsky.social

(1/2) A new study from EMBL researchers and their collaborators provides unprecedented insights into the cellular architecture of over 200 species of plankton – tiny but ecologically critical marine organisms – using ultrastructure expansion microscopy. Learn more: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Zonder vertraging graag! #formatie

Final, edited version of the paper now available www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I’m sure this guy is great, not the point, but to think the solution to Canadian scoence is to attract a few dozen scientists from abroad is complete nonsense. There are just as good scientists here. The problem is chronic underfunding. But this does not make headlines www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...

The resilience of youth 🍃What makes young Arabidopsis leaves survive flooding longer than their seniors? We tried to find out - check out our new preprint to know what we discovered @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social @leeggangers.bsky.social @hans-van-veen.bsky.social @uuplants.bsky.social

I was tremendously lucky to be in @xanderjones.bsky.social's lab to watch @bijuntang.bsky.social move from technician to PhD to Postdoc and produce this magnum opus. #SalicS1 is the just reward for years of brilliance and hard work.Well done Bijun, Xander, Jing, and everyone involved! #SalicylicAcid