📢🌿Annals of Botany invites submissions to the new focus issue "Gnetales - Controversies of Seed Plant Evolution", edited by guest editors Stefanie M. Ickert-Bond, Cecilia Zumajo-Cardona & Dimitry Sokoloff. (1/4) #Gnetales #SeedPlantEvolution #EcoEvoDevo #PlantEvolution #Botany

1/9 Our latest paper on immunity mechanisms in Marchantia just out @pnas.org ! 🔽 Close collaboration between our former PhD students @karimaelm.bsky.social and @chloe-beaulieu.bsky.social ! and the old gard @jacquet-chris.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Plant Science Research Weekly --  Not a Fungi after all: new clues to the identity of Prototaxites (Science Advances) (Summary by Katarina Kurtović, katarinakurtovic.bsky.social) @sandyheth.bsky.social @transitionalform.bsky.social buff.ly/DwgUr2f #PlantaePSRW

A new blog is out on our website! 📄 Go check it out! Diego Sanchez Ganfornina from @sandyheth.bsky.social's lab talks about the field work he just completed in Scotland. He is trying to generate a lycophyte living collection – likely UK’s largest! 🌿 biology.ed.ac.uk/plant-scienc...

Please share! My group at @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social is offering a post-doctoral position (4 years). We look for a structural biologist with experience in Cryo-EM/Cryo-ET to investigate the mechanisms of host invasion by pathogenic fungi. Deadline February 28th! uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...

#MAdLand Expression: adding sexual reproduction stages to the #Physcomitrium patens web tool. Great collaboration with @noefpbio.bsky.social @jandevries.bsky.social @watertoland.bsky.social Paper online in @theplantjournal.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/tpj....

Calling all OrthoFinder users! We’ve just released GLADE, a tool to infer gene gains, losses, duplications, and ancestral genomes across a phylogeny. GLADE runs directly on OrthoFinder results. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... github.com/lauriebelch/... (1/10)

One of the most rarest and enigmatic bryophytes is now in the lab: Takakia lepidozioides. Thanks to the IMSC and Reski lab at Freiburg for maintaining them. #PlantScience

This is today - please come along if interested!

We’re looking for a postdoc to investigate Pseudomonas viridiflava virulence across diverse plant lineages. The 3yr position will combine plant and microbial molecular biology to understand core processes of infection - email for more info & apply online @ www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

Having fun with the microscope lately. Here’s one of my favourite artsy and slightly psychedelic shots of #Marchantia chloroplasts and a fluorescent membrane reporter. (z-stack maximum projection)

Ferns alternate between asexual #sporophyte & sexual free-living #gametophyte. This study uncovers the mechanism of male-to- #hermaphrodite conversion in the #fern #Ceratopteris, revealing a novel role for #auxin biosynthesis during #meristem formation @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4k5EcAU

Thanks to Sandy for excellent supervision, to the very supportive lab group (who are also very creative with making my hat!) and the examiners for their rigorous questioning!

The very first Dr from the group! Congratulations Laura @transitionalform.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social for passing your viva yesterday!! 🎉🎉 Thanks so much @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social and Paul Kenrick for acting as examiners

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

Fossil reveals secrets of entirely different form of life no longer found on Earth

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/...

Really exciting to get some press coverage on our Prototaxites paper @instmolplantsci.bsky.social @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below! Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage

Happy to share the pre-print on GEMMIFER, a novel ERF required for the initiation of gemma in Marchantia. One of the coolest phenotypes that I have ever seen. Congratulations to Yuki and Go, who led this research. #PlantScience @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Come and hear me yap about the #LiverwortHunt, a citizen science project which we (@slcuplants.bsky.social) ran in 2021, and was published last year as a part of the Marchantia polymorpha pangenome paper doi.org/10.1038/s415...

📣 Join us for the upcoming Plantae webinar on January 28 at 8:00 am Eastern time, hosted by the 2026 Plantae Fellows.🌱 👉 Free registration at buff.ly/FbmaFGR #PlantScience

We have an open POSTDOC position to explore Marchantia immune receptor biology that is closing on the 18th of Jan. Apply using the link below, and/or email me for more details. www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

Photosynthesis beyond the visible spectrum detected by a research group from the University of Padua www.unipd.it/news/photosy... Nannochloropsis gaditana is of great biotechnological interest for the production of biofuels, fatty acids, and omega-3. #PlantScience @elisabettaliistro.bsky.social

Looking for a new 📕 to read about plants?? I highly recommend the brilliant book ‘Ferns, Lessons in survival from Earth’s most adaptable plants’ Written by @fernway.bsky.social and Jacob Suissa with amazing illustrations by Laura Silburn 🌿 #FernFriday 🌿

Love this really cool method for gene editing briwn algae- greens or lycophytes next? www.cell.com/cell-reports...

AOP @ijpsjournal.bsky.social Coulter Review: Patterning and Evolution of the Land Plant Gametangia Elissa Suphapun Sorojsrisom, Dennis Wm Stevenson, Barbara A Ambrose www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.... #PlantScience #Botany

✨ Paper spotlight ✨ (🧵 1/7) Transfer cells in Horneophyton lignieri illuminate the origin of vascular tissues in land plants. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Our framework provides an explanation for lineage-specific phenotypic transitions—such as the complete loss of oil bodies or the shift from ubiquitous to patterned oil body cells—as outcomes of a conserved patterning module that has been repurposed over evolutionary time.

Interested in fossils, evo-devo, and how mathematical modeling can help us understand the evolution of developmental processes? In our latest preprint, we uncover an ancestral lateral inhibition mechanism underlying epidermal patterning in liverworts.

Homology of the dark cells of Paleozoic liverworts with the specialized oil body cells of modern liverworts (Marchantiophyta) https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.24.696392v1

🚨Two fully-funded #PhD positions🚨 Join @slcuplants.bsky.social to help us explore intriguing fundamental plant development questions in a supportive, friendly institute with fantastic supervisors & exceptional support services 🌿🧬🔬 Find out more www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/PhD Pls share #plantscijobs 1/3🧵

Mosses love to decorate with slime molds. Northwest Territories, Canada. #slime #fungifriends #myxo #moss #bryophyte #botany

I’m excited to share a new preprint from Carella group #CarellaCapybaras! biorxiv.org/content/10.6... In this study, we show molecular co-evolution of two popular nonhost resistance genes in plants, RAR1 and SGT1, in ferns. For a quick read before Christmas, here’s the thread:

Excited to share our latest preprint on the conservation of RAR1-SGT1 across plants and their unexpected divergence in ferns! @hynmn-jeong.bsky.social @michaelwebster.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social @yusugihara.bsky.social. Check out the preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

“A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress - though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known" - Bertrand Russell, 1976. Time-lapse video of Vampyrella lateritia eating Spirogyra algae from Science Source/Oliver Skibbe. 🦠

New opportunity to join our #EvoMPMI group @johninnescentre.bsky.social as a Postdoctoral Researcher working on the mechanistic basis of immunity in diverse plants. Please spread the word, reach out by email, and/or apply if interested! More details here: www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

I had a great time writing this dispatch @currentbiology.bsky.social about Jacob Suissa's recent paper on the link between fern phyllotaxis and vascular architecture. "Evo–devo: Ferns flourished due to developmental covariance between leaves and vasculature" authors.elsevier.com/a/1mH793QW8S...

I just published: In praise of experts: distinguishing sense from nonsense in the age of AI Can chatbots flag bad science? In a sea of polished, plausible noise, expertise matters more than ever. medium.com/p/in-praise-...

Check out amazing confocal images by @alexguyon.bsky.social, former member of @dromius.bsky.social lab and now postdoc in Maria Harrison’s group. He managed to image haustoria from a pathogen and arbuscules from a symbiont in the same cell! 🤩

Thanks to everyone who came along to the #nonseedUK25 meeting. Another fantastic day of non-seed science. Thanks to @philcarella.bsky.social and Kayla Robinson for looking after us all so well 👍

We’re delighted to announce that the #nonseedUK26 meeting will be held in Edinburgh. Watch this space for further details 🌱 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 😃

@davidjhoey.bsky.social discusses the acquisition of vasculature as an evolutionary innovation - lovely comparative approaches across multiple land plant lineages #nonseedUK25 🌱 😊

🌱 2x David Sainsbury Career Development Fellowships at @slcuplants.bsky.social Unique opportunity for early-career researchers to launch their own independent research programme in quantitative plant development, with generous support & world-class facilities. www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/david-s...

We’re looking forward to seeing you all at the #nonseedUK25 meeting tomorrow, and hearing about some jolly exciting non-seed science 🌱 😊

Looking forward to Friday's Non-seed plant meeting in Norwich. Together with @karimaelm.bsky.social, we wrote a Review about the last year meeting. We discuss about the latest advances and the importance of using in models. Thanks @biologists.bsky.social and @biologyopen.bsky.social. #PlantScience

Very happy to share this study in collaboration with @jaz-humphreys.bsky.social and @frannybarbs.bsky.social , with our little contribution, on the role of Ck on Sugar-mediated gemma formation @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

MarpolBase #Marchantia academic.oup.com/pcp/advance-...

Out today... From Bowman lab, MpARF2 is the first essential transcription factor to be described for meristem maintenance in Marchantia. Glad to have contributed to another paper with Eduardo. #plantsciences #evodevo www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Sphagnum moss spore capsules. #Newfoundland, Canada. #moss #bryophyte #fungifriends #hiking