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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Sounds really cool! Do they senesce normally on the plant? Would be happy to grab seeds and try some things with them if you're interested

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Savage Lab @savagecatsonly.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Can CRISPR edits enable precise tuning of plant gene expression? We think: yes. In our newest manuscript, we measured the effects of >30,000 CRISPR-like promoter mutations in sorghum protoplasts.

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

👀 need to look that up, sounds interesting!

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Not a lot is understood about plants that propagate so freely, although I saw there is a big paper on kalanchoe that I will dig through at some point

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bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

DNA demethylation suppresses a state of enhanced cellular pluripotency and regeneration competence in Arabidopsis. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

But what we can say, is that knocking out the DNA demethylase pathway provides access to a space on the epigenetic landscape that leads to enhanced pluripotency, regeneration and even complete vegetative propagation from cuttings.

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

With so many methylation changes, our understanding of mechanism stops here for now -- at least some of these many methylation changes are likely underpinning the dramatic regeneration phenotypes of these mutants.

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

This regeneration signature impacts dozens of pluripotency and regeneration genes. The epigenetic state of the whole pathway of regeneration seems to have been re-wired in these plants.

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

This regeneration signature consists of ~1000 methylation gains at or proximal transcription start sites and open chromatin, which are inherited through meiosis in regenerated plant progeny. Examples below:

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

We wanted to dig deeper into understanding why a subset of drdd leaves are capable of whole-plant regeneration. We profiled the methylomes of 4 independent regenerated plants. They all shared the same methylation changes. A "regeneration signature" in the epigenome

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Enormous credit to our brave grad student Kat, who slogged through enormous sample sizes to help us build confidence

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

The pictures below begin with a single excised leaf. First they regenerate a root system. Then, a subset will start to grow and will spontaneously pop out a single shoot meristem. The result is a fairly normal Arabidopsis plant - clonal offspring!

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

So we attempted to regenerate drdd mutants without hormones at all, taking cuttings to see if they would propagate themselves, like many houseplants. To our surprise, it worked!

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

We found that DNA demethylase mutants are super regenerators, especially the quad mutant drdd. In fact, they regenerate so well you can skip callus induction entirely, regenerating shoots with a little help from cytokinin

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

A few years ago Yeonhee Choi's lab showed that DNA demethylase mutants dme regenerate much more efficiently in tissue culture (pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn as.2026806118 ) Around the same time, we were just gathering our first regeneration data on other mutants of the DNA demethylase pathway

pnas.org

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

We have been cooking up this story for a while and we are excited to finally be able to share! Read on if you're interested in whole plant regeneration WITHOUT the application of hormones!

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

But because it's a model plant, we were able to do all sorts of fun and insightful follow-up experiments! - Varying the lifespan with growth conditions - Profiling young organs that initiated in older plants - Genetic dissection of mechanisms, including an epigenetic age-less mutant!

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

In this study, we found that despite its short life-span, the model plant Arabidopsis shows some pretty remarkable dynamic changes to the epigenetic landscape during organ aging. These changes are not unlike the changes that happen to methylation in some parts of the human genome over decades

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Ben Williams @benpwilliams.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

This website is extensive, and you can download the original tracks pretty easily: systemsbiology.cau.edu.cn/chromstates/ For ATAC-seq Jacobsen lab has a nice paper with all the methyltransferase mutants as well

systemsbiology.cau.edu.cn

Chromatin state

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Henri Matisse @henrimatisse.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Vegetables, 1952

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Andy Read 🌱🦠 @hashtag-read.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Tough day for small grains research in the Twin Cities. Myself and four scientist colleagues have all been let go from the USDA because we haven't completed our 3 year probationary period - effectively gutting the Cereal Disease Lab. Taking a few days to be sad before I think about what comes next.

This is a closeup image of wheat plants in a disease trail nursery. There are yellow streaks on the otherwise healthy and green leaves caused by bacterial leaf streak

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Dan Sloan @sloanevolab.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Update: This ***NSF-funded*** study is now published in MBE. Today more than ever, I'm appreciative of what all the people at NSF do to support our science. Let's fight to support them. doi.org/10.1093/molb...

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