Reposted by Ben Field 🌿bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Neofunctionalised plastid translocon regulates chloroplast ageing in Arabidopsis www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20… 031
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿James Bradley @drbradbrad.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Paid Masters M2 internship: Microbial dormancy in the cryosphere 🦠❄️🌡️ @erc.europa.eu #ERC_SIESTA @lassezj.bsky.social 📢 PLEASE RT 🧬 Microbial activity measurements, flow cytometry, ecological interpretation ☀️ Marseille, France @mioceanologie.bsky.social ‼️ Apply via email ASAP & before 15 Oct 1911
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 08/09/2026ACHT2 deactivates carbon assimilation during light-dark transition www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20… 031
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Juan Carlos De la Concepcion @delaconcepcionjc.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Super excited of obtaining a ERCstg to support our project MORPHEUS 🎉🎉 Receiving this grant is a pivotal moment for my lab at @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social as will allow to extend the scope of our research in cellular reprogramming using ribosome dormancy as entry point 😴🌱❄️🔬 @erc.europa.eu 2814421
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Mariana Schuster @marischuster.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Thrilled to have the opportunity to investigate the role of membrane protein proteolysis in plant immunity through the ERC Starting Grant FRONTERA! A heartfelt thank you to my mentors, friends, and family whose support, encouragement, and guidance made this possible. #ERCStG @erc.europa.eu 109718
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Oh. my. god. The biggest scientific publishers are collecting nearly $4 BILLION A YEAR in author fees. This is absurd. We've got to break free of this system. If everyone would just agree to it, we could just post all our new papers on bsky and it wouldn't cost anything. Or something. But not this. 24319
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Peer Community Journal @peercomjournal.bsky.social · 01/09/2026A new article is out in the free, generalist, open-access Peer Community Journal! 🔗 Free full-text article: peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.... Free public peer-reviews and recommendation by PCI Plants: doi.org/10.24072/pci... #PlantScience #PlantVirology #CRISPR #Rice #RYMV #PlantBreedingpeercommunityjournal.orgeIFiso4G editing confers high and broad-spectrum resistance against rice yellow mottle virusAuguy, Florence1 ; Chéron, Sophie1; Dossou, Laurence1 ; Pinel-Galzi, Agnès1 ; Thomas, Emilie1; Aribi, Jamel1; Celli, Marcos Giovani1, 2 ; Cunnac, Sébastien1 ; Hébrard, Eugénie1 ; Albar,… 054
Ben Field 🌿 @benfield1.bsky.social · 28/08/2026💰 We spent an estimated $3.7bn in APCs in 2025. Peer Community Journal has now published 500+ papers for $0, on preprints reviewed by researcher-run communities. The plant science topic 🌱 recently started up and is looking for reviewers and manuscripts. peercommunityjournal.orgpeercommunityjournal.org Home | Peer Community Journal 011
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Alizée Malnoë @alizeemalnoe.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Our new study on plant light harvesting complexes (LHCII) is live 🎉 We found that complexes engaged in energy dissipation show enhanced fluorescence intermittency ("blinking"). This links a native photoprotective state in plants (qH) to the fluorescence dynamics of individual antenna complexes 🌱✨ 086
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Dan Gibbs 🌱🧬 @djgibbs.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Protein synthesis is dynamically responsive to the environment, but how do cells ensure that their protein quality control mechanisms are appropriately scaled to changing translational demand? We address this question in our new study in @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comTOR–NOT4 signalling couples translation to co-translational quality control in plants - Nature CommunicationsHere, Schwarze et al. reveal how plant cells match protein quality control to changing rates of protein production through a functional link between TOR kinase signalling and NOT4 E3 ubiquitin ligases 34622
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Vangeli Geshkovski @vgeshkovski.bsky.social · 19/08/2026And now also in @lemonde.fr 🎉 www.lemonde.fr/sciences/art...lemonde.frLe ballet épigénétique derrière la floraison des plantes mis au jourLa vitesse de fleurissement et la quantité de pétales produits par les plantes à fleurs dépendent d’un mécanisme bien orchestré mais complexe. Des chercheurs sont parvenus à déterminer les acteurs et ... 0167
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Sam Mugford @samtmugford.bsky.social · 12/08/2026New pre-print from the @saskiahogenhout.bsky.social lab We (@qunliu07.bsky.social et al.) show that the aphid effector protein CathB6, in addition to suppressing plant immunity via EDS1, also alters the regulation of chloroplast-nuclear signalling to maintain photosynthetic gene expression. 1/n 11613
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Fede Aballay 🇦🇷 @fedeaballay.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Thanks for the opportunity! it was my first experience speaking to a big english-speaking audience and, thankfully, it went out good! 🫶🌱🧫 152
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Christine Mayr @christinemayr.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Jim Shorter and his postdoc Miriam wrote a beautiful preview about our most recent paper on mRNAs preventing misfolding of IDR-containing proteins. UTR-ly unexpected: RNA chaperones tame intrinsically disordered proteins: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...cell.comUTR-ly unexpected: RNA chaperones tame intrinsically disordered proteinsHow do cells ensure that complex, multidomain proteins fold correctly? Luo et al. reveal a self-contained solution. The 3′UTR of an mRNA co-translationally chaperones the protein it encodes, preventin... 14312
Ben Field 🌿 @benfield1.bsky.social · 21/07/2026Nice thread by @fedeaballay.bsky.social on part of his PhD work on chloroplast alarmone (ppGpp) signalling and plant immunity. 🌱🦠 #PlantScience 064
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Fede Aballay 🇦🇷 @fedeaballay.bsky.social · 21/07/2026The preprint of our work on ppGpp–immunity crossroads is out! We delved deeper into the regulation of plant immunity by alarmone ((p)ppGpp) in Arabidopsis and found surprising stuff 😱. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...biorxiv.orgAlarmone ((p)ppGpp) signalling tunes Arabidopsis thaliana nuclear gene expression to shape the balance of plant immune outcomesRSH enzymes (RelA/SpoT homologs) synthesize ppGpp (guanosine tetra-/pentaphosphate) in plastids, regulating organelle function. More importantly, whether ppGpp acts as a simple rheostat on immune outp... 195
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Jonas Blomme @handle.invalid · 17/07/2026Excited to share our latest preprint on #PhycologyFriday. We map out the carbon fixation pathway for the first time in a multicellular alga, the green seaweed Ulva, and reveal a unique Rubisco-Linker interaction in the pyrenoid, a chloroplast condensate. Below I summarize some key points. #seaweeds 34520
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Takehiro A. Ozawa @tkozawa.bsky.social · 08/07/2026Great work by Tian et al. (2026) on how #PlantTOR regulates the protein abundance of EBS, a bivalent #histone reader, by phosphorylating it at Ser195/Ser196 to modulate the floral transition of #Arabidopsis in response to nitrogen availability 🌱💮. 🔗 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 081
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Sarah Courbier @scourbier.bsky.social · 29/06/2026I've got something to "TORC" about! 😅 After 4 years building this project at @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social, I'm so excited to share that my first independent preprint is now online! ✨ I hope you like it: doi.org/10.64898/202... A short thread... 🧵 #PlantSci #PlantSciencedoi.orgThe TARGET OF RAPAMYCIN (TOR) kinase controls shade-mediated hypocotyl elongation responses in Arabidopsis.Plants perceive neighboring vegetation through an enrichment of far-red light (shade) in the environment. These changes in light quality trigger molecular and physiological responses aimed at outgrowi... 108642
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Silvia Ramundo @sramundo.bsky.social · 24/06/20261/7 New preprint: we found that Chlamydomonas carries a giant and unexpectedly elaborate chloroplast RNA polymerase with 12 previously unknown subunits, overturning the idea that the complexity of this organellar enzyme emerged during plant terrestrialization! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...biorxiv.orgThe structure of a 2-MDa chloroplast RNA polymerase reveals unexpected evolutionary complexityTranscription in chloroplasts depends on the Plastid-Encoded RNA polymerase (PEP), a bacterial-derived enzyme whose catalytic core remains encoded by the highly reduced genome inherited from the cyano... 510843
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿KunzLab@LMU @kunzlab.bsky.social · 20/06/2026Super exciting work after many conference talks finally seeing the light. Congrats and kudos to all authors: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 0187
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Ryo Yokoyama @yokoyama-ryo.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Chloroplast sunscreening by protein condensates confers high-light tolerance: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... @cellcellpress.bsky.socialcell.comChloroplast sunscreening by protein condensates confers high-light toleranceThe conserved MBS1 protein assembles into chloroplast-associated condensates to sense singlet oxygen and shield chloroplasts against excess light penetration. 011
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿The Plant Cell @theplantcell.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Heat stress induces the formation of unreduced male gametes by targeting translation in Arabidopsis meiocytes (Cédric Schindfessel , Albert Cairo , Pavlína Mikulková , Chunlian Jin , Laura Lamelas , Philip A Wigge , Karel Říha , Danny Geelen) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience @aspbofficialdoi.orgHeat stress induces the formation of unreduced male gametes by targeting translation in Arabidopsis meiocytesTAM regulates the translation of meiotic cell cycle genes under heat stress to prevent premature meiotic exit and ensure ploidy consistency in the natural 0127
Ben Field 🌿 @benfield1.bsky.social · 13/06/2026Chloroplastic plastoglobules compartmentalize nitrogen assimilation in maize #plantscience www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comPlastoglobules compartmentalize nitrogen assimilation in maize - NatureChloroplast plastoglobules act as nitrogen-assimilation hubs in maize, with key enzymes enhancing nitrogen-use efficiency and offering new strategies for developing high-yield, sustainable crops. 0117
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Will Shaw @willshaw.bsky.social · 11/06/2026New preprint out 🌱 We present a new T-DNA vector system for Arabidopsis that supports clean, genomically mapped, single-copy T-DNA insertion with predictable cell-type/conditional gene expression. @mokhalil.bsky.social + Gehring labs biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵1/16biorxiv.orgRational design of T-DNA vectors enables predictable, single-copy integration in Arabidopsis thalianaAgrobacterium-mediated transformation is the dominant method for plant transgenesis, yet it frequently produces multi-copy, structurally complex T-DNA insertions associated with transgene silencing, u... 14025
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Ryo Yokoyama @yokoyama-ryo.bsky.social · 27/05/2026Plants tolerate substantial rates of plastid mistranslation via regulated proteostasis | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @pnas.orgpnas.orgPlants tolerate substantial rates of plastid mistranslation via regulated proteostasis | PNASIn bacteria, protein mistranslation can improve stress tolerance. Mitochondria and plastids evolved from bacteria and use a prokaryotic-type expres... 085
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Fede Aballay 🇦🇷 @fedeaballay.bsky.social · 24/05/2026What a way to be for the first time in Europe!!!! I had the pleasure to work during 3months in the LGBP-CNRS lab in Marseille, France thanks to an UBAINT fellowship! This is just the beginning of such a big collaboration along with @benfield1.bsky.social :)) 121
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Team_Zuccaro @algazuccaro.bsky.social · 20/05/2026Proud to share our new paper on how prion-like fungal effectors target plastids and modulate host metabolism during root symbiosis. Exciting collaborative work uncovering PEPSI effectors and the interaction of one of them with DXR in plants. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... bsky.app/profile/eell...biorxiv.org 13618
Ben Field 🌿 @benfield1.bsky.social · 19/05/2026New preprint dissecting #ppGpp regulation of E. coli RNAP by cryo-EM and NET-seq. Great dissection of allosteric effects, and shows how GTP depletion dominates the in vivo pausing signal. GTP may be the unifying story across lineages- chloroplasts 🌱 included? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...biorxiv.org 030
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Pablo Pulido @pablopulidopqc.bsky.social · 18/05/2026El corazón verde del fuego. Desde el interior de un #volcán extinto en la isla de Terceira, en las Azores, la luz revela un proceso fundamental: la vida #vegetal como fuerza pionera. 131
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Fede Aballay 🇦🇷 @fedeaballay.bsky.social · 08/05/2026Our preprint on an affordable device for plant tissue grinding is out!! “Fast-lyzer”: A low-cost 3D printable device for plant tissue disruption and homogenization www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-9...researchsquare.com“Fast-lyzer”: A low-cost 3D printable device for plant tissue disruption and homogenizationBackground: Sample disruption and homogenization are critical steps in numerous biological extraction procedures (i.e., DNA, RNA, or protein isolation). These steps are often performed manually which ... 031
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Adam Steinbrenner @adsteinbrenner.bsky.social · 13/05/2026We are excited to release the BAT!🦇🚨 We've used this phylogenetic analysis pipeline in our lab for years, and grad Ben Sheppard now presents a Github release and preprint. I run BAT analyses almost daily. It makes exploring gene families routine, customizable, and fun🧵 26831
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Guillaume Hummel 🌱 🇪🇺 🇫🇷 🥨 🇮🇹 @guillaumehummel.bsky.social · 05/05/2026Why are #tRNA genes organized the way they are in 🌱 plant genomes? In our new @qbiope-bot.bsky.social preprint 🚨📄, we show that their position, copy number, and regulatory sequences are not random! #PlantGenomics #ComparativeGenomics #Evolution arxiv.org/abs/2511.01943 🧶 A thread 👇arxiv.orgMultilevel genomic constraints shape nuclear tRNA gene organization in plantsTransfer RNAs (tRNAs) are essential components of the translational machinery. Their abundance and diversity shape decoding capacity and protein synthesis efficiency and accuracy. Because tRNA abundan... 1127
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿The BioStimulaTOR Lab @meyerchrisscience.bsky.social · 04/05/2026We are happy and proud to share our preprint describing an Arabidopsis mutant (named loki:) that develops cell clusters when TOR is inhibited. The mutated gene codes for a component of the conserved eukaryotic RAVE complex regulating V-ATPase activity. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...biorxiv.org 097
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 28/04/2026Next: Salek Ahmed Sajib (CNRS, Marseille 🇫🇷) dives into “The Role of Bioenergetic Organelles — Plastids and Mitochondria — in Arabidopsis Seedling Development in the Dark” 🌑🌿 Organelle talk incoming! #UPSCSymposium #Arabidopsis 271
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Laura Bacete @laurabacete.eurosky.social · 28/04/2026For the 4th time in a row, we organise the UPSC (@umeaplantsciencecentre.se) Symposium for Early Career Plant Scientists! 🌱 We invite talented young scientists to present their research, meet our group leaders, explore collaborations, and tour our facilities. Let the day begin! 🧵👇 #PlantScience 1153
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿New Phytologist @newphyt.bsky.social · 13/04/2026Curious about PsbS and Lhcsr in zeaxanthin mediated NPQ? New insights into plant photoprotection Beraldo et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 012
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Henrik Toft Simonsen @htsbiotechmoss.bsky.social · 02/04/2026Hi - we are looking for a PhD student to finish the thapsigargin biosynthesis. If you are up for some great work, then apply. 023
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Hugues Renault @huguesrenault.bsky.social · 28/03/2026Ever wondered how the #cuticle, a hallmark of land plants, was established? In our latest study, we show that the CUTIN SYNTHASE enzyme family was a key driver of this evolutionary innovation. #plantscience ▶️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... A thread 🧵 [1/8] 48939
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿New Phytologist @newphyt.bsky.social · 26/03/2026How microalgae use phytochrome to sense the ocean’s light #TansleyInsight by Duchêne et al. @afalciat.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #plantscience 01110
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Tamara Hernández-Verdeja @tamara-hverdeja.bsky.social · 23/03/2026🌱💚🎉 Sharing (again 😁) my review on regulation of chloroplast biogenesis. First work of my emerging research group at @cbgpmadrid.bsky.social 0178
Ben Field 🌿 @benfield1.bsky.social · 23/03/2026Nice story with a striking phenotype for gun1 mutants during seedling establishment at high temperatures. #PlantScience onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...onlinelibrary.wiley.comBiogenic retrograde signaling via GUN1 ensures thermotolerant chloroplast biogenesis during seedling establishment in Arabidopsis thalianaUnder heat stress, GENOMES UNCOUPLED1 (GUN1) is crucial for the formation of functional chloroplasts in seedlings under heat stress. Without GUN1, chloroplast development fails and seedlings fail to .... 183
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿The Plant Cell @theplantcell.bsky.social · 20/03/2026Domain architecture of plant eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 subunit E governs interaction with translational cis-elements to regulatepollen tube growth (Vinod Kumar , Rémy Merret , Marie C Carpentier , David Honys , Said Hafidh) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience @aspbofficialdoi.orgDomain architecture of plant eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 subunit E governs interaction with translational cis-elements to regulatepollen tube growthTranslation initiation subunit eIF3E helps balance protein production by coordinating opposing genetic cis-elements, affecting pollen tube growth and the s 071
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿PlantEvolution 🌱🌾 @plantevolution.bsky.social · 14/03/20261/11 🔥 New preprint alert 🔥 We wanted to know what plants in the wild really care about. So we asked them 🎤. Here is what we learned: “Biotic-response networks are an important organizer of the transcriptome in wild Arabidopsis thaliana populations” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 314781
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 12/03/2026🌍🌱 SPECIAL ISSUE REVIEW 🌱🌍 This review describes how plants safeguard plant-level homeostasis through coordinating resource uptake, developmental rate, and morphological efficiency in response to environmental and internal signal – Earle et al. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #PlantScience 🧪 185
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Ivan Radin @radinbio.bsky.social · 09/03/2026Moss (Physcomitrium patens) protoplasts (wallless cells) transformed with chloroplast envelope protein tagged with mGFP (green). The chlorophyll autofluorescence is in magenta. The protrusions of the chloroplast envelope are called stromules. #microscopymonday, #plantcells, #plantmicroscopy, #moss 16011
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 07/03/2026Chloroplast ABC peptide transporters TAP1, NAP8, and ATH12 are essential for heat-induced peptide export and play a key role in thermotolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20… 011
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 03/03/2026📣 Check out JXB's newest Special Issue 📣 📘 Issue 5 of 2026 📘 ⚡🌿 Energy Management: Molecular Mechanisms and Signalling 🌿⚡ 📘 Guest edited by Benoît Menand, Johannes Hanson & Vanessa Wahl 🔗 academic.oup.com/jxb... #JXBspecialissues #PlantScience 🧪 SEBiology 0165
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social · 17/02/2026The giant viruses surprised us at almost every turn of this project, but ultimately led us down a very rewarding path. Happy to share this work is now available online 🧪 04823
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿Nature Communications @natcomms.nature.com · 10/02/2026Plastids, photosynthetic organelles in plants and algae, originated from cyanobacterial endosymbiosis. Here, Shrestha et al. use metagenomics to expand plastid diversity and provide evidence for two independent origins of secondary red-algal plastids. www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comGlobal metagenomics reveals plastid diversity and unexplored algal lineages - Nature CommunicationsPlastids, photosynthetic organelles in plants and algae, originated from cyanobacterial endosymbiosis. Here, Shrestha et al. use metagenomics to expand plastid diversity and provide evidence for two i... 035