Excited to share the Hanson Lab’s @adhansonlab.bsky.social new preprint! We used OrthoRep to evolve Arabidopsis HDH, a short-lived enzyme, selecting variants with up to 20× higher abundance. Mutations boosted lifespan, catalytic efficiency, or inhibitor resistance. 🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Can biofuels replace fossil energy sources? A few calculations indicate otherwise 👉🏻 e360.yale.edu/features/cor.... Running numbers academic.oup.com/plphys/advan...) is the way to go. Things get worse with jet fuel (source @adhansonlab.bsky.social) 👇

Journals are just part of a system that incentivizes overselling end-to-end. But, as gatekeepers on the final products, they have agency. An editorial policy of “It’s complicated” falls short. Journals can ask for field trials to be done right & interpreted prudently.

Food Rx: Integrating horticulture research to improve nutrition and health. A compelling perspective - the chronic health problems facing Americans require better access to affordable, nutritious fruits & vegetables! Yet the US greatly underproduces these healthy foods. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Traditional wisdom tells us that healthy food, in particular fruits & veggies, is the best medicine. Here @adhansonlab.bsky.social elaborates an straightforward 1-stop resource for decision-makers & concerned citizens 👉🏻 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Excellent reflection on #SynBio in a company context, and on the future of engineering biology.

OrthoRep as a lab-scale sandbox to study molecular evolution ⬇️ Great to see directed evolution being connected with the vast field of evolutionary theory! Up to now, there’s been surprisingly little crossover between #SynBio and #Evolution.

#SyntheticBiology postdoctoral position in our group in University of Florida's Horticultural Sciences department. Work is directed evolution to improve enzymes that underlie important crop traits ⬇️

Vertical farming limitations and potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations (Samuel J Lovat, Εlad Noor, Ron Milo) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience

I 💯 endorse the CSPB/SCBV Annual Meetings as first-class science in a congenial & collegial environment!

This is analogous to 1930s German work to bring aurochs back from extinction by selectively breeding modern cattle that had some traits of the aurochs. The result was cattle that look like, but genetically are not, aurochs. theconversation.com/the-quest-to... time.com/7274542/colo...

On a per-cup basis, coffee requires almost 7.5 x the land area that tea does. doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Sam Lovat, Elad Noor, Ron Milo run the numbers on #VerticalFarming to get ⚡️ cost ≈$10/kg dry plant matter. Which explains why it's viable only for high-value 🥬 ('fru-fru baby lettuce') Vertical farming limitations & potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations doi.org/10.1093/plph...

Congratulations to 2 outstanding @ufhorticulture @UF_IFAS colleagues on their 2024 election to AAAS! 🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽🌽 www.aaas.org/programs/fel...

"Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus." (Horace)

Three days of engaging Plant Synthetic Biology discussions from sunrise to sunset. More avenues are needed to connect academic researchers, industry and government representatives and to support multidisciplinary efforts that bring new ideas and products to market.

🙏 NSF for supporting @uf-ifas.bsky.social / UF Horticultural Sciences' trailblazing workshop 'How SynBio can *realistically* impact crop improvement & agriculture'! We brought🌱 SynBio ECRs together w/ top ag biotech & crop breeding experts to identify disconnects btwn their worlds & how to fix them⬇️

In 🐀 🐀. Such an important qualifier should be featured in headlines like this. Optimism is crucial - but there’s such a thing as false optimism, so please let’s dial back the hype.

Useful references but otherwise uncritically recites typical ideas about what #SynBio & #AI *might perhaps one day* do in plant breeding ⬇️ Enough boosterism! Let's focus on *realistic, specific* applications & *numbers not adjectives* for projected benefits. doi.org/10.1016/j.xp...

Very relevant to #DirectedEvolution and what transition vs. transversion mutations do if they happen at the 2nd base.

Excellent 🇨🇦 lecture on 'Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF): Farmland, Biomass Demand, & Planetary Boundaries' TLDR: SAF is *not* a feasible path to net-zero air travel youtu.be/UWoFcDzemE8?... See also our own calculations on this doi.org/10.1093/plph...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... They "identified many highly conserved positions that tolerate mutation and rare mutations that improve CO2 affinity. These data indicate that non-trivial biochemical changes are readily accessible" #PlantScience

“Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” [“But who will guard the guards themselves?" Juvenal, Satires]

⬇️ How the (otherwise pretty good) dictation app on my iPhone renders ‘horticultural’…

For users of yeast OrthoRep or any continuous directed evolution system: If all accessible beneficial synonymous mutations have been made, synonymous ones that just boost expression dominate, giving improvement 'mirages'. Attests to OrthoRep's power! @chang-c-liu.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/pbi....

Here are Estrella and Luna🐭 celebrating the 12th Day of Christmas in the (hi-carb) Gingerbread Village!

“GLP-1 drugs” were not discovered in 2024, @TheAtlantic.com. Or even in 2014 or 2004. The 1st one was FDA-approved in 2005. See gertitashkomd.com/history-of-g...

BREAKING: Dramatic #Drone development! Residents of Gingerbread Xmas village report Unmanned** Aerial Vehicle flying low over residences & the high-security zone in front! Village authorities say it is not a threat, the foolish villagers mistook it for a 747. **But not unmoused

Most of this article is true enough. Agriculture by definition isn’t natural - and so never can be.

This special issue is a one-stop shop to see research ideas and progress from up-and-coming leaders in 🌱 #SynBio!

Are you an early-career SynBio researcher (PhD student/postdoc/Asst Prof) at a US institution & want your work to *really* help agriculture? If so, this workshop is a great chance to learn & network. 30 places available, fully funded! Apply before Jan 15. hos.ifas.ufl.edu/advertisemen...