New research in Science reveals that the Venus flytrap's snap is triggered by a rapid softening of the epidermal cell walls, uncovering the physical mechanism behind this remarkable movement. Learn more in this week's issue: https://scim.ag/4fXQ9sn

If life builds order from heterogeneity while never completely eliminating it, is heterogeneity merely a byproduct or could it be part of the means by which biological order is generated? Check out Lanxi Hu's review www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Very excited to share our paper "Nitrate modulates pectin metabolism and cell wall mechanics during cell expansion in Arabidopsis" 🌱 doi.org/10.1111/tpj.... Plant Systems Biology Lab (PUC) collaboration with UNAB and @slcuplants.bsky.social 🔬 Now published in @theplantjournal.bsky.social!

Mechanical forces & cell shape guide how plant stomata form🥬👄 @leoserra.bsky.social & Euan Smithers from @robinsonsci.bsky.social's team uncover how the interplay between cell shape & mechanical stress influences the orientation of stomata doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/news/mechani...

Supercoiling not only brings DNA to life (and makes it dance) but also changes how key proteins such as #CRISPR interact with it. Thanks @qmsmith.bsky.social for the brilliant collaboration, Sylvia for developing an amazing new #imageanalysis pipeline & @eddierollins.bsky.social for beautiful #AFM.

Register Now! #SLS26 Sainsbury Laboratory Symposium | 22-24 Sept 2026 | Cambridge, UK Theme - Shaping Life: Mechanisms of Morphogenesis! If you are into Plant Development - join us! In-person + livestream Limited fee waivers www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/sls

Registrations now open for #SLS26 Sainsbury Laboratory Symposium 2026 in Cambridge, UK — Shaping Life: Mechanisms of Morphogenesis! Join us explore how cellular, genetic & mechanical forces sculpt plant form 📅 22–24 Sept 2026 In-person + livestream Limited fee waivers www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/sls #plantsi

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/JAIVZX... Excited to share my latest work in @newphyt.bsky.social. Here, we used TurboID proximity labeling with CLAVATA receptors FEA3 and BAM1D in maize meristems to better understand the signaling pathways important for meristem regulation. #PlantScience

Launch your own independent research group! 2x David Sainsbury Career Development Fellowships at @slcuplants.bsky.social 📆 Apply by 30 Jan 2026 More info: 👉 www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/careers/grou... Job details: 👉 www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/david-s... Please share this post #PlantSciJobs #PlantSciJob

Won best thesis award with this video! 4 years of research and play in 3 minutes :') youtu.be/so0fPlK1-LM

🧵 Just out in Cell after more than 10 years in the making! 🎓 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... Plants and animals evolve radically different body plans. Do they also operate under fundamentally different molecular evolutionary constraints during organ formation? @cellpress.bsky.social

Project Name: DIY Plant Walls: Engineering Plant Cell Size and Material Strength using Fungal Proteins Supervisors: @dromius.bsky.social & @robinsonsci.bsky.social Application Deadline: 5pm Monday 19 January 2026 Start Date: 1 October 2026 More details: www.findaphd.com/phds/project... 2/3🧵

Thrilled to have our paper out in @science.org. Cell division guides plant cell wall formation. Does the reverse hold? We show that bimodal pectin methylesterification, via PME5 mRNA nuclear sequestration, influences plant cell division and cell plate orientation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We are delighted to announce the 2025 Accelerate – @c2d3.cam.ac.uk funded projects! 🎉 Projects will catalyse discoveries to accelerate scientific progress & create AI tools capable of delivering benefits for science & society. Find out more: bit.ly/4rpvSiy

Very excited to advertise 15 plant engineering biology PhD projects @biologyatyork.bsky.social @camplantsci.bsky.social @slcuplants.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social & University of Bristol. 🪴 🥬 🔧 🧬 Come join this new Plant BioDesign community! www.findaphd.com/phds/?Keywor...

Roses don’t just defend themselves. Their prickles are geometrically ideal for gripping surfaces, supporting vertical growth, and, when needed, creating lacerations that deter herbivores. Students - join us to investigate how biological form and physical law work together!

Final, edited version of the paper now available www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New pre-print from the team! The manuscript is @emma-raven.bsky.social's PhD work showing that whether a leaf is a carbon sink or a carbon source influences how they execute immune responses. Have a read! #PlantScience @johninnescentre.bsky.social

I was tremendously lucky to be in @xanderjones.bsky.social's lab to watch @bijuntang.bsky.social move from technician to PhD to Postdoc and produce this magnum opus. #SalicS1 is the just reward for years of brilliance and hard work.Well done Bijun, Xander, Jing, and everyone involved! #SalicylicAcid

While the first image showed the outside edge of surface mature Arabidopsis root cell, this second image from the same experiment shows the border between two root cells. The large plastid (blue due to chlorophyll autofluorescence) is squashed between the two membranes. #arabidopsis #cellbiology

🧪🌾News - How do seedlings straighten when emerging from the soil?🔬 @srobertgroup.bsky.social & collaborators have identified a protein that promotes this seedling straightening via the plant hormone auxin. Read more about the story published in @pnas.org here👇: www.upsc.se/about-upsc/n...

Here it is! Epidermal cells in the root can figure out if they are covered by the root cap or not using mechanical signals! Thanks to @ckirchhelle.bsky.social, @moritznowack.bsky.social, @nathan-german.bsky.social Annamaria Kiss and all the others!

We have two open Post-Doc positions in my group at the interface with: 1- @ataly.bsky.social for molecular dynamics 2- Bruno Guillotin from protein mobility Apply by sending CV, two ref letters and a short motivation letter to me : [email protected]. Deadline 15 sept.

The maintenance of plant cell wall integrity involves complex molecular interactions. In this review, preetmanchanda.bsky.social summarizes the pivotal roles of RALF, LRX, and FERONIA as well as their interactions in different cell and tissue systems. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Cell-to-cell translocation of florigen is inhibited by low ambient temperature through abscisic acid signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... #plantscience

How plants sense injury in their barrier tissue, periderm? Painstakingly detailed and amazing work by post doc Hiroyuki Iida shows that wounding is sensed by the diffusion of two gases: ethylene and oxygen. @treebiocoe.bsky.social‬ @erc.europa.eu‬ 1/x 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Plz repost. Fresh Preprint led by @alexguyon.bsky.social When a pathogen pushes into a cell already occupied by a symbiotic fungus, things change. New membrane phospholipids at pathogen haustoria! This may impact immune receptor positioning & defense secretion. - And the roots are more resistant!

🚨 Calling all plant modelling enthusiasts! Plant Computational Biology Workshop Open to researchers at all levels Workshop is free. Participants cover own travel, food & accommodation 📅 8-12 Sept | 💻 Talks, tools & hand-on sessions 🔗 www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/computationa... #ComputationalBiology #PlantSci

🤯 Look at this confocal image of a endomycorrhiza fungus inside a 400 million old fossil plant. Check out the new preprint by Christine Strullu-Derrien, @dromius.bsky.social and Ray from @slcuplants.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... for more pictures and a video. Congratulations 🎉

Explaining our science at the Chelsea flower show.

Cool SEM images being captured at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this week. We are looking for more samples - so if you know a nursery or specialist grower exhibiting at #RHSChelsea, please share this post with them.

Stomatal transpiration and rapid programmed cell death ☠️ triggered by lowered ambient humidity causes anther tissue collapse for effective pollen release ! Happy to be part of this great PNAS story with @kampova.bsky.social, Matyáš Fendrych, and @svosolsobe.bsky.social! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@binebrumm.bsky.social, together with @dromius.bsky.social team colleagues, unveiled how key proteins act as 'sculptors' in plant cells, taking on different roles to shape development Read more www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/news/plant-c... And full paper doi.org/10.1126/scia...

Having an amazing time exhibiting at the Chelsea flower show

We are thrilled to have been awarded a silver-gilt medal at our first Chelsea Flower Show! 🪻 An enormous thank you to everyone who contributed to this success - @eng.cam.ac.uk, Darwin Nurseries and Oakington Garden Centre! #RHSChelsea @cambridgeuni.bsky.social

🍀🔬 Recent preprint from Chris Ambrose's lab! The Arabidopsis WAVE/SCAR Protein BRICK1 Associates with Cell Edges and Plasmodesmata @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Join our group (www.luginbuehllab.com) at @camplantsci.bsky.social! Are you excited about mycorrhiza, (single-cell) transcriptomics, carbon physiology, and the model crop rice? We have a 2-year postdoc position available, starting ASAP. Closing date 23rd May 2025! www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51214/

🚨Check out this amazing finding: Inactivation of a symbiosis-specific Glucan binding protein leads to increased nitrogen fixation in Medicago. Amazing work, congratulations to everyone!

We have a postdoc position that just opened up in the Brady lab on reprogramming tomato root system architecture in response to changes in nutrient availability - please consider applying! recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07095

​🕰️ 🦠How do circadian clocks maintain robustness in changing environments? #GreenMotherMachine helped uncover how a simple circadian clock network demonstrates advanced noise-filtering capabilities to maintain accuracy in dynamic natural environments doi.org/10.1038/s414... in @natcomms.nature.com

The heat is on — literally! With just 5 weeks to go until the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, our model plants are soaking up the sun 🌿🌞 with a little help from our very hardworking red watering can 💚💧 Let the countdown begin! 🌸🧪🌱 #RHSChelseaFlowerShow #GreenSTEM #Science #PlantScience

Three days left to apply for a fully funded #PlantScience #PhDOpportunity with me and @julie-gray.bsky.social! Deadline Monday, April 14, 2025.

🌱 🔬 🚨 There is a 2-year postdoc position available in my group in Neuchâtel 🚨 Please share! Details here: www.unine.ch/biologie/wp-...

Such an amazing time at the UK plant biomechanics meeting. Big thanks to the organisers @yoselin.bsky.social and Finn Box. And all the amazing speakers and poster presenters.

The minimal cell-cycle control system in Marchantia as a framework for understanding plant cell proliferation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.12.642684v1

A PhD position is available in my group @_SLU. Come join us in Uppsala, Sweden to work on plant regeneration and graft hybrid formation! Details below. Please share! #plantscijobs #PlantScience

So excited!!

Looks interesting

Wow