I'm so thankful to @naascarabidopsis.bsky.social for the Community Impact award, shared with @yoselin.bsky.social & Sterling Field. www.arabidopsiscommunity.org/news-events/.... It's especially sweet as I'll retire from ASPB Dec 31, 2026. I'm leaving my job so I'll have more time for my work 😉

For our series of profiles of senior academics, this month we hear from Prof. Bernadine Idowu from University of West London. She shares valuable tips for early-career staff. To read her interview, join our LinkedIn group (your institution must be a HUBS member): www.linkedin.com/groups/13191...

Mary-Dell Chilton, NC biochemist who revolutionized agriculture, dies at 87 www.newsobserver.com/news/local/a... #PlantScience #PlantBiotech 🧪

Chris Thorogood: "We Can’t Live Without Plants" www.botany.one/chris-thorog... Botany One interviews Dr Chris Thorogood, who aims to foster a greater care and attention for plants through science and art. #Botany #PlantScience

Glad to see this story and coverage of an important paper. www.statnews.com/2026/06/17/n... 1/16

@zeineradam.bsky.social et al. proposed CYSTEINE-RICH RECEPTOR-LIKE PROTEIN KINASE2 as negative regulator of CALS1 and CALS3 regulating source to sink transport, which impacts plant growth and development. @charlesmelnyk.bsky.social @rople.bsky.social @mwrzaczek.bsky.social #CSEBR

CLAVATA3 peptide signaling from stem cells integrates vascular organization and stem cell maintenance in Arabidopsis shoots https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.25.734304v1

🕸️ DARWIN REVIEW 🕸️ Robil & Scarpella show that vein patterns are more diverse than commonly thought, and identification of vein precursor cells is arbitrary and inconsistent across species, thus challenging current understanding of vein patterns 🌿 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #PlantScience 🧪

The authors discuss the possibilities offered by diverse genetic technologies to enhance the vitamin and mineral content in crops as part of the solution: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It is a pleasure to join the UPSC community and begin this new chapter. I’m excited for the years ahead and grateful for the opportunity to work alongside such inspiring colleagues. Many thanks to Anne Honsel for this beautifully written research portrait.

Save the date! We are working hard to organise the second iteration of this conference! 🌱

Let's meet with our speakers! 👏 DR. GWENDOLYN DAVIS is a Postdoctoral Researcher @hhu.de @ceplas.bsky.social. She will explain how plant cells communicate and coordinate. Looking forward to meeting you all at our #soapboxscience event on 4th July at 1 pm. 🎉 #womeninstem #womeninscience#cologne

Congratulation @transitionalform.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social for publishing the next chapter of your thesis @currentbiology.bsky.social ! Great work showing that the two fundamental vascular tissues - xylem and phloem evolved asynchronously. Read Laura's thread for more details 👇👇

Thrilled and grateful to receive an ERC Adv Grant! 🎉 We will explore how the endoplasmic reticulum contributes to plant ☘️ cell-to-cell communication 📞. 🤝 Thanks to my team, collaborators, and @bic-bordeaux.bsky.social. More details 👇 www.aquitaine.cnrs.fr/fr/cnrsinfo/...

I am incredibly excited and grateful to have received an ERC Advanced Grant for my project, WOODIER: What Makes Trees Woody! 🌳 This award feels like the culmination of many years of work carried out in our research group, and the biggest thanks go to my lab members. bsky.app/profile/erc.... 1/x

LOVED seeing this bio inspired paper just recently published on @science.org: Viola seed pod architecture shapes sequential, force-augmented pinching. A perfect example of how plant anatomy can be used far beyond the "conventional" plant sciences! 🌱🤖 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Excited to share that our work on single-nucleus RNA-seq of the shoot apical meristem — the shoot stem cell niche — has found a home. #Plantascience #scRNAseq #stemcells www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I always love when an underdog does well, but I have an issue with the headline. I think all the Arabidopsis researchers know about Cvi! 😜 💚 www.nytimes.com/live/2026/us... (PS - it is a famous variety of plant collected at Cape Verde, very tolerant to drought and salt).

An interesting study on Arabidopsis Cvi colonization and adaptation nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Congratulations to Gwennogan Dubois, Marija Smokvarska, and Jessica Perez Sancho, who were honored at the French Academy of Sciences during the “Grandes Avancées Françaises en Biologie” event! 👏 A source of great pride for the lab, alongside their research directors Emmanuelle Bayer & Yvon Jaillais.

Excited to share our new @ThePlantCell Perspective on training plant scientists in the era of #GenAI 🌱🤖 A practical framework for research, teaching & mentorship across career stages. Open access + actionable ideas—please share! "Read the article" (academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...)

New insights into cell fates of the Arabidopsis inflorescence meristem @sebamorenor.bsky.social generated the most detailed map to date of this critical stem cell niche, identifying 18 distinct cell type clusters, including precursors to cortex & vascular tissues www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/news/new-ins...

Our last invited speaker for the #NRPDTP26 conference is @hee-kyung-ahn.bsky.social from the @instmolplantsci.bsky.social!

🌺 How does a hibiscus flower pattern its petals? A new computational model reveals hidden "boundary" cells can spontaneously emerge during flower development, helping to create stable petal patterns. Prediction confirmed experimentally! 🔗 www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/news/how-hib... #PlantsInTheSpotlight

Happy to celebrate the first of my former PhD student George Greiff’s first author papers from his funded PhD work in my lab today. Aiming to analyse CLAVATA/WOX interactions in Physco, a first step was to address PpWOX13LC function, which he found to suppress polysety. Moss photo: Des O’Callaghan

"Okra up north: how a forgotten heirloom travelled the African diaspora to Toronto" @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/environment/...

SAVE THE DATE! Friday 30 October 2026 We are delighted to announce that we will again be hosting our annual Black in Plant Science Conference this October at The Guildhall in York. Our moment, dedicated to connection, celebration, and cultivation. Stay informed: buff.ly/PMAxXkd

“Not an attempt to make evolution cuddlier, but a corrective deeply informed by what we have learned since Darwin. Written with immense charm & passion, it is a paean to the wonders of nature & the value & urgency of preserving them.” @philipcball.bsky.social on @rowhoop.bsky.social's Togetherness:

Tune in this coming Monday on zoom! I'll be presenting work from my PhD @slcuplants.bsky.social on how plants regulate their shoot branching architecture via auxin, strigolactone, and BRC1.

Want to know what links stomatal evolutionary development with legume nodulation? Do you love peptide signalling and rhizobia? If so, I hope you love our new paper as much as I do. FREE ACCESS for a couple of months: authors.elsevier.com/c/1nE~A3QW8S...

Essential reading

Over the past year, @biologyopen.bsky.social has expanded its Fast & Fair initiative to accelerate peer review. The results are impressive - take a look at their latest preprint to find out more: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This #PrideMonth, we revisit this blog by Leah Milner-Campbell on ‘Being proud of our authentic selves’ 🙌🌈 Read Leah’s thoughts on Pride Month, a time to celebrate resilience and living openly as our true selves, particularly in research environments where self-expression drives innovation

This spring I took over and redesigned the only Gen Ed on plants here #IB103. We walked through every core aspect of plant bio in lectures & labs, but also through art & design. I had a blast, the evaluations are rewarding (4.9/5), the redesign got an award from the college, and a little press too!

So proud to share our latest publication @CellCellPress! Yue Rui reveals that the same enzyme that makes the wall, cellulose synthase complex (CESA), also tethers the plasma membrane to the wall during water-deficit stress, providing resilience. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

To celebrate this year's Fascination of Plants Day (18 May), students & postdocs from @instmolplantsci.bsky.social ran a number of exciting activities at @thebotanics.bsky.social. We had plant fossils, 3D-printed plant models, and more! Well done to our amazing team of volunteers! 🌱🌸

🌿 Applications are NOW OPEN for the ROOT & SHOOT RCN Fall SI-MI Mentoring Course! This free, online training helps plant scientists become more effective mentors by exploring how social identity, power, and culture shape mentoring relationships. Space is limited! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

#PlantSciJobs 🌱 Postdoctoral Research Associate (x2) and Research Assistant (x2) Dr Edwige Moyroud is seeking 2 Postdocs and 2 Research Assistants to join her team investigating petal patterning Applications close: 5 June: Research Assistant bit.ly/4a32ffK 17 June: Postdoc bit.ly/4dT2LOC

Early career PI starting package, getting the basics right 🌱 #PlantScience

For our series of profiles of senior academics, this month we hear from Dr. Catherine Mansfield @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social She shares valuable tips for early-career staff. To read her interview, join our LinkedIn group (your institution must be a HUBS member): www.linkedin.com/groups/13191...

🌱🌾🌍🌺🌳🌲🌿🐡🌴🖌️Not often moss & fungus feature on BBC News. Heath-star moss, Campylopus introflexus & fungus Bryoscyphus granulosus that causes moss to die back. Work by group including George Greiff, who competed in the earliest Botanical University Challenges! #BUC2026 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

thought-provoking talk on soil persistence by @mrillig.bsky.social at the New Phytologist workshop “From deep time to living networks: the evolution of plant–microorganism interactions”

Last week, to celebrate Prof. Andrew Hudson’s new Emeritus status, members of @instmolplantsci.bsky.social competed in a friendly cricket match: the Snapdragons 🌸 vs. the Tomatoes 🍅. The Snapdragons, fittingly Andrew’s team, were determined to be the best model system of the match!

🌱 SAVE THE DATE 🌱 Our ECPros have been hard at work on their first in-person event... 🍃 Early Career Essentials for Applied Biologists 🍃 Join us in Nottingham, 20-21 October 2026, for a jam-packed 2 days of talks, workshops & opportunities to grow your career & network! 👉 cvent.me/8o1kkP

Happy to announce that I have started my own research group at the MPIPZ and that I am looking for a postdoc who would like to investigate Marchantia prothallus development with me! Please spread the word and/or apply if interested :)

Cultivating “scientific identity”: insights from plant cell and developmental biology (Drew and Nagel, 2026 @theplantcell.bsky.social) Very nice comparison of how intrinsic and extrinsic factors help shape identity, in people and guard cells 💚 doi.org/10.1093/plce...

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I'm collecting together my prior Bluesky threads addressing popular misconceptions about genetics. A thread of threads, beginning with this brief guide to heritability: 🧬🧵🧪

⏰ Less than 2 weeks left to nominate a colleague for the inaugural AAB President's Medals!! ⏰ Nominations close 31st May! 👉 aab.org.uk/aab-presidents-medal/ 🌱 Plant Science 🌎 Sustainable Futures 👥 Accessibility in Applied Biology #plantscience #sustainableagriculture #farming #forestry

Delighted to see this piece in The Biologist, the magazine from @rsb.org.uk. Tried to capture themes that emerged from valuable conversations with many great 🌱 colleagues. Thank you @tomireland.bsky.social for the opportunity to contribute!