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Carolyn Rasmussen

@carolynplants.bsky.social
3.7K followers 3.6K following 610 posts

Prof of Plant Cell Biology at UC Riverside. Views are my own. She/her

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Reposted by Carolyn Rasmussen
Samaj Lab @samaj-lab.bsky.social · 13h
very nice 😃 here is link to the paper showing triple marked nuclei, nucleoli and microtubules in barley: doi.org/10.1111/tpj....
doi.org
Spatial organization and dynamics of chromosomes and microtubules during barley mitosis
We studied 3D chromosome organization and nuclear and microtubule dynamics in the live root apical meristems using a newly developed series of barley (Hordeum vulgare) translational fusion fluorescen...
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jane phượng, Ph.D (she/her) Ngunnawal Country @janephuong.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
#WaterWednesday
Reflection of cloud at a wetland.
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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Earlier this year the scientific community successfully fought back on dramatic changes in Federal funding proposed by the Trump Administration.Now another RFI is proposing substantial changes that would damage peer review. This letter from SDB President Helen McNeill lays out the issue clearly 1/n
Dear SDB Members,
 
I am writing you now to ask everyone to respond to a proposed change to the way that grant review information at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is communicated to grant applicants, institutions, and NIH program staff. This is your opportunity to provide feedback on the process that selects our grants for funding.
 
The proposed change means that individuals, institutes and NIH staff will no longer receive the final overall impact score or percentile score that reflects the scientific opinion of a panel of experts. Currently, three reviewers provide their detailed opinion of a grant, and then the entire panel asks questions, can examine figures, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a grant, and then members all independently score. The final overall impact score reflects this discussion and careful consideration of the entire scientific panel.
 
The proposed change is to now simply divide the scored grants into three categories: Scored applications would be grouped into three broad categories - “Most Competitive (top 25%),” “Competitive (26%-50%),” and “Not Discussed”. The motivation for the change is that decisions would now focus on the comments of reviewers, not the score of the grant to determine which grants to support. However, the current mechanism allows for scores and comments to be considered. Thus, removing the score component from NIH staff makes selection of which grants to fund more burdensome for NIH staff.The loss of detailed scores will also make it more difficult for researchers to assess how competitive an application was and determine whether to revise and resubmit it. An application ranked top 2% and one ranked 24th% would receive the same label, even if the scientific panel viewed them quite differently. Meanwhile, applications ranked 25th%and 26th% would be placed in different categories because of a tiny difference that NIH itself says should not be treated as meaningful. The proposal would erase potentially important differences while creating arbitrary new dividing lines.
 
This is a dramatic loss of transparency in the scientific review process. Under the new plan, principal investigator(s), applicant institutions, NIH program staff, ICO leadership, and the relevant NIH Advisory Council will no longer have access to the final overall score.
 
NIH is explicitly asking for input on this particular question.
 
This is a Request for Information (RFI), not simply an announcement of a policy that has already been finalized. NIH says comments will be used to inform the final recommendation, including implementation and communication.
 
Please comment here: https://rfi.grants.nih.gov/?s=6a2b1c22c3fcfda46e0badd2
 
Deadline for response receipt is October 13, 2026, 11:59 PM ET.
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Carolyn Rasmussen @carolynplants.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
This looks useful for Arabidopsis imaging 👀 doi.org/10.64898/2026.08.20.745988
Root cells with nuclei, plasma membrane and microtubules outlined in blue, magenta and yellow
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Carolyn Rasmussen @carolynplants.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
What on earth
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Wendy Miller @burrowingowl.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Ms. belted kingfisher hanging out over a canal this morning. 🪶
Dark blue and white bird sitting on a rail that says "Plum" on it.
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Dongmei Li @dongmei960.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Dahlia #photography #flowers #plants #blossom #BloomScrolling
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FrontRangeWildflowers @frwildflowers.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Lecidea atrobrunnea (Brown Tile Lichen) I think growing on granite last Saturday. Or perhaps Lecidea fuscoatra? 🤷🏻‍♂️ 🌿
Brown and black lichen
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Carolyn Rasmussen @carolynplants.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
No cheating. Share the last photo of the sky from your camera roll.
Sunset oranges blues and yellows with some houses and palm trees
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Brendan Maher @bmaher.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Can you name the women who have won a science Nobel prize? Take Nature’s quiz on female Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry or physiology or medicine. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Can you name the women who have won a science Nobel prize?
Take Nature’s quiz on female Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry or physiology or medicine.
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Joanna🌱 @rainbowofcrazy.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I always miss out on the okra flowers so today was a nice treat. I didn't know they'd be this pretty! 🌱
okra flower. pretty white petals with a dark red center.
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Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Think I'm gonna try growing seedbox next year! Just look at this autumnal cuboid weirdo.
Seedbox, Ludwigia alternifolia. Focus is on one of the two eponymous cubic seed pods on a forked stem, which projects above long, bright red-orange foliage. The pods have a little hole in the center of the top face of the cube.
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Journal of Cell Science @jcellsci.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Cutting corn-ers: @stephanieemartinez.bsky.social and @carolynplants.bsky.social discover that KATANIN p60 guides asymmetric division plane positioning in maize. Highlight: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/... Article: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
Figure showing that PPBs are incompletely formed in p60 mutants.
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Journal of Cell Science @jcellsci.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Read more about this research in our ‘First person’ interview with Stephanie Martinez @stephanieemartinez.bsky.social: journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
Stephanie Martinez
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Mina @mariemina2010.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
#Stunday #ColorADay #OrangeSun #Dahlia #Bloomscrolling
Close-up of a fully blooming dahlia in bright orange and pink tones. The outer petals are wide, pointed and strongly orange, with a bright yellow towards the middle. The center of the flower consists of densely packed, still unopened petals in a dark magenta pink. Green leaves and reddish plant stems can be seen in the background.

Nahaufnahme einer voll aufgeblühten Dahlie in leuchtenden Orange- und Pinktönen. Die äußeren Blütenblätter sind breit, spitz zulaufend und kräftig orange, wobei sie zur Mitte hin in ein helles Gelb übergehen. Das Zentrum der Blüte besteht aus dicht gedrängten, noch ungeöffneten Blütenblättern in einem dunklen Magenta-Pink. Im Hintergrund sind grüne Blätter und rötliche Pflanzenstängel zu sehen.
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Sunil Kenchanmane Raju @kenchanmane.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
2026 Harvest wrapped up 🌽 Great day in the field #Kenchanmane-Raju lab and #RasmussenLab @carolynplants.bsky.social @ucriverside.bsky.social
Rasmussen and Kenchanmane-Raju lab members in front of the maize field at Riverside CA
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Dave Baltrus 🦦 @surtlab.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My Uni has had serious money issues for past 5+ years. the kind that mean my Dept has lost 14 faculty in that time and next replacement hire scheduled for 2030 (not joking) The University President just sent an email that he’s hiring a new “Special Advisor to the President” to help solve problem
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Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The University of California system contains 6 of the top fifteen public universities in the US, including the top two. This rests on a long-ago vision that public education is a good thing and worth a lot of funding by the taxpayers of California. www.usnews.com/best-college...
usnews.com
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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
ProPublica got the literal check Collins was bribed with.
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Carolyn Rasmussen @carolynplants.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Check out this summary of our recent paper in JCS journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
journals.biologists.com
Cutting corn-ers: KATANIN p60 guides asymmetric division plane positioning in maize
decorative imageIn plant cells preparing to divide, a cytoskeletal ring called the preprophase band (PPB) forms to mark the future plane of division. Later, a microtubule (MT) array called the phragmo...
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Omaya Dudin 𓂆 ¦🍉¦🦠¦🔬¦ @dudinlab.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Must admit, ever since I was a kid, I’ve dreamt of seeing microscopy images of #protists in @lemonde.fr Today, protists are everywhere, and several images were taken by the team. And seeing #ichthyosporeans there too?! 🥹 One step closer to showcasing the beauty of the invisible microbial world. 🔬✨
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Jess McLaughlin, PhD (they/them) @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Cabbage fractals
The cross-section of a red cabbage. It looks like a mandala with lots of trianglesAnother one. This one is more wiggly
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SoCal Leslie @socalleslie.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Black throated magpie jay in the Tijuana River Valley here in San Diego. 🪶
Black throated magpie jay on the grass
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Carolyn Rasmussen @carolynplants.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Datura #nativeplants
Enormous white flower
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Chenxin Li, PhD @chenxinli2.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Single cell transcriptome reveals the molecular pathways of MADS-box genes in maize ovule development From: academic.oup.com/plcell/advan...
academic.oup.com
Single cell transcriptome reveals the molecular pathways of MADS-box genes in maize ovule development
Abstract. Flowers are the reproductive structures of flowering plants, involved in seed production. A mature flower has four whorls of specialized organs t
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Kasper van Gelderen @kaspervangelderen.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
The first preprint of my lab has just come out doi.org/10.64898/202... This paper came out at the same day on the sudden passing of Prof. Meng Chen. Without his work, this paper would not have existed. He was an extremely supportive member of the plant photobiology community..
doi.org
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Shrew @shrewshrew.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Today could be the day you say YES to showing individual data points
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Arif Ashraf @aribidopsis.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
It's a pleasure to work on my podcast, No Time To Read, for past several years. It gave me the opportunities to talk to some amazing plant biologists about their recent research articles. I just wrapped up Season 4. Thanks for your kind support. Podcast: tinyurl.com/3abx6khm
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Janet Hill @saskajanet.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Look at this magnificent beast! #fungi 🍄
Large, complicated shelf fungus on a large tree trunk. Rippled shelves of velvety golden fungus with carpet of green on each shelf. Pretty sure it's a Cerrena species, maybe Cerrena unicolor.Large, complicated shelf fungus on a large tree trunk. Rippled shelves of velvety golden fungus with carpet of green on each shelf. Pretty sure it's a Cerrena species, maybe Cerrena unicolor.Large, complicated shelf fungus on a large tree trunk. Rippled shelves of velvety golden fungus with carpet of green on each shelf. Pretty sure it's a Cerrena species, maybe Cerrena unicolor.
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Glen Grambo 🇨🇦 @glengrambo.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
So this photo contains zero birds, but in my defence, we were sitting outside waiting for birds. But the sun was almost setting and the backlit Snapdragons stole the show!
A backlit  snapdragon flower that is partially opened. The background is dark green with a round sun like highlight in the top right corner. It’s actually an out of focus highlight that appears large because it’s a telephoto lens. The pink snapdragon flower is rim lit but has some light bouncing back to light the flower. 
For those interested, the lens is a 400mm and required 5 frames focused on slightly different  parts of the flower to be stacked together so the entire flower was sharp .
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Laurens Pauwels @laurenspauwels.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
BackBone Builder (B3): a modular Golden Gate standard with a compatible Agrobacterium parts library is now published in @plantphys.bsky.social ! Has been a very useful system for our lab. @psb-vib.bsky.social #PlantScience academic.oup.com/plphys/artic...
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Armando Rubio Ramos @bioarm.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Essential paper if you want to study open/closed mitosis in non model organisms!!! Super cool!👇👇😍
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Carolyn Rasmussen @carolynplants.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Hibiscus!!! 🌺 🌿
Pink and white flower
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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
“Q: Did the decision to drop the SAT lead to declines in student preparedness at UC? A: While preparedness seems to have declined in recent years, this has been a nationwide phenomenon, and as such cannot be attributed to UC’s admissions policies…
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Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts @elliemackinroberts.net · 10/09/2026
Anyway, here is my cat:
A brown tabby cat is asleep in a bookshelf
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Anh Hoang Le, PhD 🏳️‍🌈🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇻🇳 @anhhle2702.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Very happy to share my postdoc paper is out now in @natcellbio.nature.com titled "Tissue flow acts as a guidance cue for immune cell polarization and directional migration". If you love imaging and immune cells, this is for you! #microscopymonday www.nature.com/articles/s41... A 🧵: 1/n
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JRho @jrho.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The most absolutely massive flex from the state fair exhibit. This quilt is made of 40 years of prize ribbons from various categories at the New Mexico State Fair won by Carol St. Clair Johnson. She also won a prize for this quilt.
Massive quilt made of prize ribbons in blue, red, yellow, and whiteCenter square of quilt made of yellow and red ribbons and yellow rosettesBlock of quilt made of blue, yellow, red, and white ribbons. Ribbons state the year. Some have the prize winning object written on in markerCarol St. Clair Johnson
born 1954; resides Albuquerque, NM

O Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years
2023
satin ribbons

After unexpectedly winning her first blue ribbon for a sewn cape in 1981, Carol St. Clair Johnson developed an enduring love for the New Mexico State Fair. The quilt Fair New Mexico-41 Fair Years incorporates more than six hundred of the ribbons she won at the fair every subsequent year except 2020 (when the fair was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic). Johnson earned ribbons for needlework, knitting, crochet, pies, cookies, cakes, canning, jewelry, flowers, vegetables, and potted plants. The title of the quilt is a reference to the state song, and the design places the state's Zia sun symbol at the center. The quilt earned Johnson yet another ribbon: Best in Category (miscellaneous quilt) at the 2023 New Mexico State Fair.

Courtesy of Carol St. Clair Johnson
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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
This is an obvious choice for me. Lovely red Cuprite might be full of copper but Orpiment, which literally means gold pigment is a poisonous pigment used since antiquity! Vote Orpiment! #MinCup26 But, have I got a story for you… Orpiment is used by the deep-sea worm Paralvinella hessleri 🧵
popsci.com
Deep sea worm wears Rembrandt’s favorite toxic color
Rembrandt painted with it. This worm survives on it. Say hello to orpiment.
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FrontRangeWildflowers @frwildflowers.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Eleven years ago today 🌿 Gentiana parryi, our Parry's Gentian, blooming above the East Portal #nativeplants
Deep blue five-lobed flowers with black-dotted throats
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mareikejordan.bsky.social @mareikejordan.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Check out our preprint on the structural mechanisms of how LEM2 and ESCRTs seal the nuclear envelope. Awesome collaboration with @karenpalacior.bsky.social who brought my structures to life 💃🔬❄️🌀 @hummerlab.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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FrontRangeWildflowers @frwildflowers.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Selaginella scopulorum, our Rocky Mountain Spikemoss, on Mt Falcon today #nativeplants 🌿
Tiny green spikemosses with short tips
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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Gloria Steinem died with fewer rights than she had during her lifetime. That fact needs to be front and centre of every media report, every dedication, every discussion of her death.
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Captain Mark Kelly @captmarkkelly.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Before losing her life in 1986 aboard Space Shuttle Challenger, Christa McAuliffe was set to be the first teacher in space with plans to teach a lesson to kids around the world from orbit. Today is her birthday, and even now, her courage and dedication to education continues to inspire.
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Pierre Grognet @pierregrognet.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Fast and Tortuous nuclei 😄 journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... Super happy to be part of this story with my friend and colleague Sylvain Brun in @ijmonod.bsky.social ! Have a look at the movies to see nuclei traveling and stretching like crazy;)
journals.asm.org
Fast and tortuous: extreme deformations and fast movements of the cell nucleus are driven by microtubules in the model fungus Podospora anserina | mBio
Here, using live-cell fluorescence imaging, we report the remarkable and complex behavior of male nuclei during sexual reproduction in the model fungus Podospora anserina. In particular, during their ...
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This is pretty fucking wild. I had assumed in a worst case scenario he would target blue zip codes and toss ballots based on technicalities but this is even worse than I imagined.
Not only is this system astonishingly untested, USPS has simultaneously implemented an
impracticable zero percent failure rate.
13 When ballots are submitted to USPS in large-volume
batches, if any one ballot in the batch cannot be verified against the Portal, all ballots in that
batch will be rejected. For example, if a state election official brings a batch of 10,000 ballots to
USPS and USPS is unable to match just one of those ballots against the Portal – because, for
example, someone has recently changed their name after marriage or they’ve moved – then
USPS would refuse to mail the remaining 9,999 ballots as well. As the whistleblower notes,
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Cytoskeleton Journal @cytoskeljournal.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
#Microtubule nucleation is the critical first step in building microtubule networks. This #FREE access #review in #CYTOSKELETON explores how noncentrosomal MTOCs control nucleation, cell polarity, morphology & cell division. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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Anna B @gardenchick333.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
The last day of Winter and the Leucadendron know Spring is upon us in our garden 💚🧡💛🩷 #flowerpower #bloomscrolling
A close image of a single Leucadendron flower with cream petals and an orange centre. A young Leucadendron plant in full flower
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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
an important precedent for international graduate and postgraduate students working on myriad subjects that are culturally sensitive, including in the physical and life sciences (climate change, reproductive health, vaccines)
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Michelle Facette @mfacette.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
UMass Amherst Dept of Biology is hiring a TT faculty member in Evolutionary Biology! careers.umass.edu/jobs/assista... We have a diverse and wonderful dept - please consider joining us!
careers.umass.edu
Assistant Professor - Evolutionary Biology - Amherst, Massachusetts, United States
Title: Assistant Professor - Evolutionary Biology Executive Area: Academic Affairs College/School/MBU: College of Natural Sciences Department: Biology Work Location: Amherst Schedule: Full Time Work A...
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Carolyn Rasmussen @carolynplants.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Bee 🐝 #InverteFest
Bee sleeping in a pink 
California rose
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