BABYBOOM-like expression in the cowpea egg and central cellenables parthenogenesis, endosperm development, and viable haploid seed formation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.08.704694v1

RIP James Watson (1928–2025). Co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, and a complicated legacy. Crick and Watson first shared the news at The Eagle pub in Cambridge, home of “DNA ale.”

A new bioRxiv preprint reports that a team from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has synthesised fully penetrant apomictic hybrid rice — a potential game changer for breeding. doi.org/10.1101/2025... #Apomixis #HybridRice #PlantBreeding #Agriculture

🌱 Help secure the future of the Biodiversity Heritage Library! 🙏 Your donation will keep biodiversity knowledge open, connected, and growing, and fund the dedicated staff who make it all possible. 📖 👩‍💻 🌱 🌏 🧪 🔗 Donate: ancrywkv.donorsupport.co/page/BHLDona... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL

Just returned from the Apomixis Congress in Montpellier. #Apomixis, clonal seeds, allows one-step fixation of genetically complex traits, including heterosis. So exciting to see the progress. The next apomixis meeting will be in two years in Perugia. Curious to see where the science will be by then.

Looking forward to discuss latest results on Apomixis at the 5th international Apomixis conference in Montpellier this week: www.alphavisa.com/apomixis/2025/

The Meselson and Stahl experiment demonstrated in 1958 that DNA replicated semi-conservatively. Meaning, each of the two strands of DNA serves as a template for a new copy to made of the complementary strand. Foundational finding, elegant experimental design.

@keygene.com is hiring, for its research team in the USA, an experienced and passionate PhD-level scientist who will support plant innovation research at the interface of plant breeding & molecular biology. Working autonomously and in changing project teams. www.keygene.com/career/phd-s...

📢 The #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary is entering a bold new chapter – and we need your help! Today we release our official Call for Support. We’re seeking new hosts for BHL’s staff, infrastructure, and services. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL

Researchers pinpoint the genes responsible for the final three pea traits studied by Gregor Mendel more than 160 years ago https://go.nature.com/3EC3eqT

New genomic & genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes, including previously uncharacterised alleles 159 years after Mendel published his work, this is a real delight (especially for a geneticist) 🧪 @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bringing together the three giants of 19th-century biology with ChatGPT: Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and Louis Pasteur. Of them, Mendel remains the most enigmatic. Noel Ellis and I are writing a new book exploring his legacy: Mendel’s Genetics: Heredity, Hybrids and History. Expected early 2026.

🧪 I know it sounds like a cliché but I am TRULY AND UTTERLY THRILLED that this work from my postdoc at #unimi is out. SPL/NZZ is a very important gene (it initiates sporogenesis) but a very mysterious one. 🧵 1/8

USDA scientists terminated from Cereal Disease Lab in St. Paul www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...

Dr. Justine Beaulieu is an excellent Agricultural Scientist who was serving our country evaluating risk for importing plant material into the US. She was illegally fired in Musk's purge just days before giving birth. abcnews.go.com/Politics/vid...

Our new review article “To infinity and beyond: recent progress, bottlenecks, and potential of clonal seeds by apomixis” is now published open access in @theplantjournal.bsky.social dx.doi.org/10.1111/tpj.... @ribesresearch.bsky.social

I’m an NSF panel reviewer that was scheduled to meet today. Just got notice that all NSF panels were canceled today. I reviewed some innovative proposals in support of students. Devastating if these scholars don’t get to do this work. For the love of science & students I hope this is just a delay.💔

Today, Noel Ellis and I submitted the manuscript for our 2025 book Mendel’s Genetics: Hybrids, Heredity, and History to the publisher. Biological insights and new historical sources deepen our understanding of Gregor Mendel in his time.