We're excited to be collaborating with @ox.ac.uk on a major new project to digitise over a million natural history specimens for climate research. Read more: tinyurl.com/ynb2rk7z @docbroc.bsky.social @jackdashby.bsky.social @cambridgebiosci.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk 🧪 #DigitalCollections #DiSSCoUK

1/ Excited to share the newest tool in the pangenome MUMiverse: Shredtools! Shredtools enables a user to navigate the pangenome coordinate system with multi-MUMs. More in the thread🧵 Code: github.com/vikshiv/shredtools Interactive tool for querying HPRC assemblies: vikshiv.github.io/shredtools

✨ Paper spotlight ✨ (🧵 1/8) The roads most traveled: genetic convergence in plant repeated evolution nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

CREation of an expanded plant memory gene circuit toolkit www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #PlantResearch #PlantScience #PlantSci #PlantBiology @jamespblloyd.bsky.social

The evolutionary origins of #streptophyte multicellularity #TansleyReview by Tatyana Darienko, et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @jandevries.bsky.social @caeciliafkunz.bsky.social Summary also available in German. #PlantScience

Our new preprint is out! Using AI-guided design (RFdiffusion + ProteinMPNN), we engineered a plant immune receptor to recognise non-cognate pathogen effectors. Huge thanks to our amazing co-authors for making this possible! doi.org/10.64898/202...

Computational design of de novo integrated domains enables rational control of pathogen effector recognition in plant NLR immune receptors. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.10.737686v1

Interested in joining our group in Oxford? We are looking for a PDRA with single particle Cryo-EM experience to help us figure out how sphingolipids are transported to the cell surface of Gram-negative bacteria. The deadline is 31st July. Informal enquires are welcome. Please share!

The MicroTron: a microfluidic platform for single cell studies in P. patens https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.30.735479v1

What’s that, Dale? You want to give me an unconditional personal gift of £5million to do whatever I want with? Sure! I just need to fill out a form. If I didn’t declare it that would be silly.

How plant stem cells are kept robust summarized by GreenRobust PIs Jan Lohmann (@meristemania.bsky.social) and Thomas Greb (@thomasgreb.bsky.social). Enjoy! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

‪ #Bacteriophages help sustainable plant protection ✅#Phages restore 🌱 growth during 🦠 infection. ✅🧬 shows ⬇️🌱immunity & ⬇️bacterial virulence. #Biocontroll #PlantSci 🧪 #PMI @frunzkelab.bsky.social @guidogrossmann.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social @fz-juelich.de www.cell.com/cell-reports...

@breakliquid.bsky.social and I are delighted to say our OpenEVO preprint is finally live! An open source hand-made turbidostat that's modular, affordable, and made to be customized. Designed with love for the research community. Enjoy!!!💚 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

My journey with @anthropic.com's Fable 5 model has been a very short one; characterized by "No". So, in my most recent blog post, I explain why I think "Fable is not a useful model" combine-lab.github.io/blog/2026/07...

EDTA v2: enabling scalable TE annotation in animal genomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.01.735963v1

Excited to be able to advertise 1x postdoc and 2x technician positions to join my group in Cambridge working on an exciting ARIA funded project to help bring a plant artificial chromosome into existence! Reposts very welcome please 🙏 (1/2)

🌱🧬 LEC2 and SPEECHLESS reprogram a stomatal precursor into a totipotent somatic embryo founder cell. A new insight into plant regeneration and stem cell reprogramming #plantscience @keikoutorii.bsky.social @cp-cellreports.bsky.social www.cell.com/current-biol...

RNA can build. A short RNA self-assembles into a 60-subunit icosahedral cage like a viral capsid, but made entirely of RNA. The striking preprint also reveals a 57-nt RNA filament at ~2.7 Å. Congratulations, Lin Huang and colleagues! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to share our new preprint led by Fred and me in collaboration with the archaeal community! We found that the molecular foundation of histone-based chromatin has pre-eukaryotic roots in Asgard archaea. (1/4) #ArchaeaSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Emergence of histone-based chromatin complexity in Asgard archaea https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.02.735847v1

Also last week: our first review led by @jackpcw.bsky.social Cis-regulatory strategies in developmental patterning We discuss how cells choose their fate either changing their regulatory landscape or using the same elements without accessibility changes. authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

🍓🧬 Strawberry axillary buds can become stolons (asexual) or branch crowns (sexual). FveBRC1 is necessary for stolon formation. brc1 mutants produce branch crowns instead Gibberellin could not restore stolon formation #plantscience @newphyt.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The tiger who came to T2T: Telomere-to-Telomere genome assembly of the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) using nanopore simplex reads link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The more a virus depends on complex RNA splicing, the more vulnerable it is to these drugs. One compound (H3B-8800) is already in Phase I trials for cancer! Our data suggest it's time to test whether it can fight viral infections too. Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Glad to see Anna's final PhD paper as a pre-print. Marchantia as a bioproduction chassis not only for markers but also for useful proteins. #PlantScience #SynBio www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Speakers at #icar2026 have been incredibly open, sharing unpublished results, sparking curiosity, and seeding great discussions. Excellent conference 👏🏽 🎉

Two tools for plotting genomics data: figeno: Tool for making genomics figures in #python. github.com/CompEpigen/... Plotting Multi-omic Data with plotgardener in #rstats phanstiellab.github.io/plotgardene...

Constructive neutral evolution explains the emergence of specialised ribosomes in diverse eukaryotes. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.23.733944v1

Tatsuya Nobori from TSL is introduced as a rising star in the area of single cell dissection of plant immunity. #icar2026

For the first time, we can see individual mRNAs in 3D inside cells at nm precision. Their shapes vary by gene and subcellular location. Congrats @fbzt.bsky.social & team @impvienna.bsky.social Top 1% @qedscience.bsky.social Edited by @lifescienceeditors.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Lifestyles of Gypsy-family transposons shape their regulatory mechanisms https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.19.726053v1

🌱🧬 Epigenetic cold memory (vernalized state) is reset during somatic embryogenesis in Arabidopsis. This overturns the idea that the vernalized state cannot be erased through asexual reproduction. A strategy to reset parental effects #plantscience @natplants.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🌱🧬 FLOWERING LOCUS C integrates seasonal temperature signals over time. Prolonged winter cold is monitored in parallel through chromatin memory mechanisms. This robust system aligns flowering with spring #plantscience @sulteavn.bsky.social @miguelmontez.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Out Now! Phages tame plant pathogens #MicroSky

TAIR12…community based reannotation of the #Arabidopsis genome. #icar2026.

TSL Synbio just deposited 192 highly requested plasmids on @addgene.bsky.social! 🧪 Popular by demand: Our deposits include MoClo Plant promoters, plant terminators, C-terminal and N-terminal tags. Find them here: www.addgene.org/kits/youles-...

Sureshkumar Balasubramanian from Monash University finishes the abiotic session exploring temperature sensing. #icar2026

Uncovering the causal genes for thermal sensitivity: AVD genes found through the GYGI (get your genes instantly) approach #icar2026

Last talk of this morning’s plenary session: Is there "temperature signalling" in plants? Sureshkumar Balasubramanian Monash University #icar2026

Nice article about our biotech work. Moss Produces Human Collagen for Skincare Unlike bacteria or yeast, moss can produce large polypeptides of human collagen along with the post-translational modifications that make it stable and bioactive. www.the-scientist.com/moss-produce...

Recording the codons of E. coli might not be as simple or uneventful as one might imagine Probing the limits of genetic recoding using multi-omics-guided evolution www.nature.com/articles/s41...

ARGONAUTE10 orchestrates trans-species RNA interference as an immune response Wenbo Ma The Sainsbury Laboratory: looking at Phytophthora effectors and how they suppress host small RNA pathways #icar2026

University of Toronto alumna Wenbo Ma, now at TSL, kicks off the 2nd plenary session on biotic interactions with a story about small RNAs in trans-species defence. #icar2026

Review of CH Waddington's influence on developmental biology and evo-devo: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/... includes supp info with his 50th birthday songs!

The promises and pitfalls of biological AI algorithms, and a vision for generalist biological artificial intelligence in which models can perform diverse tasks across biological domains go.nature.com/3NdkqaE rdcu.be/fpQM4

James Walker from the Salk is talking about single cell epigenomes during leaf development. #icar2026

Next in the single cell session-James Walker from the Salk on the single cell resolution epigenome remodeling.

Link: www.cell.com/current-biol... /End

Happy to announce our study that has just been published from work done during my PhD at the University of Bristol working in Prof. Jill Harrison's lab. It's about WOX genes and sporophyte development in the model moss, Physcomitrium patens. Take a look 🧵👇

Plant cell sculptures, hand-woven by @jodiearmand.bsky.social These are some of the coolest bio-inspired and bio-accurate works I've seen. Go check out her work!!