In our Forest of Biologists we fund the restoration and preservation of ancient woodland and dedicate these trees to our peer reviewers. There are now over 10,000 trees for peer reviews! Thank you to all our peer reviewers. Find out more: forest.biologists.com #PRW2025 @peerreviewweek.bsky.social

OrthoFinder just dropped a major update It’s faster, more accurate, and ready for thousands of genomes Let’s break it down (1/10) github.com/OrthoFinder/... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Researchers in @biology.ox.ac.uk and Wild Bioscience Ltd are to receive backing of a £6.7 million grant from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to pioneer a new synthetic biology approach which promises to improve yields in potato and wheat. Read more ⬇️ #OxfordClimate

So true: "In a very short time, we have created not only silly systems of governance and regulation, but are also managing to subvert academic life through the creation of bullshit jobs and, I would argue, bullshit practices."

Second writeup! This paper made me fall back in love with photosynthesis evolution. ❤️

Plant Science Research Weekly -- Review: The complexities of metabolite transport in C4 photosynthesis (The Plant Cell) @stevenkelly.bsky.social (Summary by Mae Mercado @maemercado.bsky.social‬ ) buff.ly/LyHf7qN #PlantaePSRW

#PlantSci Research Weekly March 7 plantae.org/plant-scienc... Review: C4 metabolite transporters; Insights from Marchantia pangenome; cry1 & phot work synergistically; Plasmodesmata as MCS for intercellular communication; Developmental robustness from antagonizing cis-elements; (1/2)

@stevenkelly.bsky.social @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social @dubcovskylab.bsky.social @williamsanu.bsky.social

Wild is hiring! If you’re passionate about making an impact in crop improvement using genomics and comp bio come join the team! jobs.recruit.charliehr.com/wildbioscien...

Lots of ✈️ traffic over Oxford today. Never seen so many before

In the May 2024 @ijpsjournal.bsky.social Endopolyploidy in the Leaf Cells of Rhodes Grass (Chloris gayana Kunth) Hidekazu Kobayashi, Takao Oi www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

The first step on a path to C4 rice by genome editing ✂️🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A preprint several years in the making… A holistic review of metabolite transport in C4 photosynthesis. Current understanding, key gaps, future directions and new molecular blueprints for NAD-ME. A masterpiece by former PhD student Oliver Mattinson ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

A quick visit to my (scientific) roots today… haven’t changed a bit 😂😂😂

Engineering the cyanobacterial ATP-driven BCT1 bicarbonate transporter for functional targeting to C3 plant chloroplasts https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.14.580295v1

A surprising discovery - a role for lineage in leaf development. Great work by @chiaraperico.bsky.social

The NHM was looking spectacular this evening 🦖

Musk’s Starlink satellite train just passed over Oxford.. satellites stretched horizon to horizon … I genuinely thought it was aliens!

Very pleased to have finally got this out there - many years work by the team - primarily Dana Vlad. Discovered that large vein ranks are actively repressed to allow smaller veins to develop. All grasses we looked at are the same. Allowed us to change patterns in rice - not quite C4 rice but closer

So it turns out that electroporation of exogenous DNA into organisms is entirely natural. peerj.com/articles/165...

Exciting opportunity at the Queen’s College Oxford in association with @oxfordbiology.bsky.social. The Browne JRF is a three year independent research fellowship available in any area of biology that complements Oxford Biology. www.queens.ox.ac.uk/vacancies/br... Please repost!

🚨Come join the lab🚨 to lead on developing Selaginella apoda as a genetic model system 🌿 1.5 yr PDRA, Deadline 13th Dec Full details: elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

"People don't take climate action because they don't understand the science", someone said in a discussion yesterday. But why do we treat climate science different than medicine? If people are told they have diabetes, they don't go "I don't understand the endocrine system, yum, cake" do they? 🧪

Our prepring about comparative gene regulatory network analysis is available on bioRxiv! We focused on the regulation of C4 and C3 photosynthesis and identified conserved regulators for other pathways too. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #Bioinformatics #generegulation #photosyntheis #PlantScience

The genetic basis of dynamic non-photochemical quenching and photosystem II efficiency in fluctuating light reveals novel molecular targets for maize (Zea mays) improvement https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.01.565118v1

Seems as if Plan-S was only the beginning The continuous revolution in science publishing continues... www.nature.com/articles/d41...

This was a surprise - for years we thought GLK1 must function to regulate chloroplast development in mesophyll cells of maize given its expression profile - but it doesn’t. Great work by Julia Lambret (not yet on bsky)

I determined the sequence of the NcoI recognition site as an undergraduate in Rich Robert’s lab in 1981 - one of my unknown claims to fame 🤣

kiwi anaphase gone wrong

The details will be important to get right… but this is great news for innovation in oxford… good quality lab space for startups and spin outs is in huge demand. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-engl...

Most academics know that MDPI is not the most reputable publisher but this is particularly grim: a special issue in which 27th of the 28th papers are authored by the two guest editors. https://www.mdpi.com/journal/processes/special_issues/Biologics_Botanicals

Re-upping this, as we start to review applications in 10 days!

Here we show that rubisco is not stuck! But is instead continually evolving for improved catalytic efficiency and CO2 assimilation in plants. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Extra ordinary ≠ extraordinary

Complexity is simple. Simplicity is complex.

This orchid always reminds of an x-ray diffraction pattern … I see crystal structures

Hello Bluesky … I like plants… I also like guitars … and guitars that have plants on them 😉