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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

Nature Plants @natplants.nature.com · 07/04/2026

Now with a News & Views: "Breeding mitochondria in crops" rdcu.be/fb7TR Mitochondrial genes in most crops are inherited maternally. In this issue of Nature Plants, Gonzalez-Duran et al. report that mitochondrial genes can be inherited from both parents.

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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology 🌱🧪 @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

📢New paper alert: 🍄 Friendly #fungi hijack #plant regulator to promote #symbiosis - study uncovers #mechanism that helps fungi to colonize plant #roots 👉 Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41... @an-pocheng.bsky.social @carogutj.bsky.social

Two scientists in lab coats analyzing plant samples in a greenhouse filled with yellow flowers.

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Enrique Gonzalez Duran @egonzalezduran.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Plants with faulty mitochondria are male-sterile (left) and their defect is passed down maternally. Our latest discovery lets the father pass down its healthy mitochondria, restoring fertility of the offspring (right) #plantscience www.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/2889956/news... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

mpimp-golm.mpg.de

Paternal Mitochondria Rescuing Plant Fertility

A groundbreaking study reveals paternal mitochondria can restore fertility in plants, reshaping our understanding of mitochondrial inheritance.

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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

Fay-Wei Li @fernway.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Our work on #hornwort #pyrenoids is finally out in @science.org! 🎉 We uncovered how hornworts pack their Rubisco into pyrenoids and successfully recreated them in Arabidopsis. A key step toward engineering more efficient photosynthesis in crops @btiscience.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

An unconventional Rubisco small subunit underpins the CO2-concentrating organelle in land plants

In many algae, photosynthesis is boosted by biophysical CO2-concentrating mechanisms, which pack the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco into liquid-like organelles called pyrenoids. Engineering C3 crops with a...

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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

Kin Pan Chung @kinpanchung.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Glad to see that our Viewpoint article is now online! doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... We highlight recent exciting advances in plastid-to-nucleus gene transfer and share our perspectives in this evolving field. 💪🙏Many thanks to Yuyang and Femke for their contributions to this work. @jxbotany.bsky.social

doi.org

Validate User

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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

Edoardo Gianni @edogia.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

How could a simple self-replicating system emerge at the origins of life? RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but existing ones are so large that their self-replication seems impossible. Could they be smaller? Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase. 1/n

science.org

A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand

The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

💡 INSIGHT 💡 Vittoria Clapero comments on Liu et al.’s recent JXB paper - showing how ¹³C tracing reveals intra-leaf photosynthetic dynamics during drought & rewatering ☀️💧 Insight 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... Research 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #PlantScience 🧪 @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social

Fig. 1.Effects of drought on plant metabolism and coping strategies. Drought is suggested to be first sensed in the roots and communicated to the rest of the plant via Ca2+, ROS, ABA, and small peptide signalling. Drought responses are manifold (left half); for example, plants can escape drought by increasing developmental speed in combination with early flowering, invest in their root system to maintain soil water uptake, synthesize compatible solutes to maintain the osmotic potential, and decrease their leaf transpiration by reducing stomatal conductance (reviewed in Farooq et al., 2009; Kuromori et al., 2022; Yang et al., 2021). Stomatal closure in turn starts a cascade of effects on metabolism (right half), causing reduced CO2 influx and ROS stress in the chloroplast, negatively affecting photosynthesis. Processes stimulated by drought are indicated with upwards arrows, and processes negatively affected by drought are indicated by downwards arrows. Figure created in BioRender

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Enrique Gonzalez Duran @egonzalezduran.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Last week I was awarded the Jeff Schell Prize 2025 for outstanding research by our MPl, in recognition of our most recent Nature Plants paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... I am deeply honored, and thankful to my co-authors + the many, many helpful colleagues who made this research possible.

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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

Nature Plants @natplants.nature.com · 23/06/2025

The June issue is now fully online: www.nature.com/nplants/volu...

Cover of the June issue of Nature Plants. The description is the following: "Accelerando for the DNA shuffle - Whereas flowers of wild-type tobacco plants have five petals, defects in DNA repair, caused by the endosymbiotic integration of a plastid DNA fragment into the plant’s nuclear genome, produce flowers with variable petal numbers (three, four or five). Such gene transfer from plastids to the nucleus occurs more frequently when double-strand break repair pathways are inactive.".

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Enrique Gonzalez Duran @egonzalezduran.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Very excited to see one of our EGT plants in the cover of @natplants.nature.com! While tobacco flowers have 5 petals, this beauty produces 3-petal and 4-petal flowers, likely as consequence of mutation/genome instability. Article: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 📷: E.G-D., MPI-MP Cover: Erin Dewalt

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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

Kin Pan Chung @kinpanchung.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

SEB Annual Conference in Antwerp🌻 We encourage New Generation Researchers to take the stage and share their new ideas on cytoplasmic genetics. Don't miss the talks by Femke van den Berg and Schewach Bodenheimer. Registration Deadline: 13 June Link: www.sebiology.org/events/seb-a... #SEBconference

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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

Kin Pan Chung @kinpanchung.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Join us at SEB Annual Conference in Antwerp🌻 #SEBconference Early Career Researchers, @egonzalezduran.bsky.social and Tom Theeuwen, will share their excellent research with us in the Plant Session P4! Conference Registration Deadline: 13th June Link: www.sebiology.org/events/seb-a...

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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

The Global Plant Council @globalplantgpc.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Research team uncovered a stress response network in algae and #plants, spanning 600 million years of #evolution. Using bioinformatics, identified genetic 'hubs' that shape responses to stressors, offers insights into early adaptations of land plants. buff.ly/02DjhYH v @unigoettingen.bsky.social

Image: The star-shaped algae Zygnema circumcarinatum shows similar stress reactions to the moss (microscope image). Credit: Tatyana Darienko

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Enrique Gonzalez Duran @egonzalezduran.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

There's a press release for our new @natplants.nature.com article! Plants use fast DNA repair to guard against risky gene transfers from their own organelles—the lessons might go beyond plant biology Release tinyurl.com/prnpegrb by @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

mpimp-golm.mpg.de

Why Plants Patch Broken DNA So Fast

Researchers uncover how rapid DNA repair protects genomes from internal threats, with implications for cancer biology

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Enrique Gonzalez Duran @egonzalezduran.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Our new Nature Plants paper is out! Defects in nuclear DSB repair can boost gene transfer from plastids up to 20X— suggesting 1) organellar DNA has strong mutagenic potential and 2) fast repair is key for genome stability in plants & possibly other species nature.com/articles/s41477-025-02005-w

nature.com

Suppression of plastid-to-nucleus gene transfer by DNA double-strand break repair - Nature Plants

Inactivation of double-strand break repair pathways greatly increases the integration of plastid DNA into the nuclear genome of tobacco plants, highlighting the mutagenic potential of organellar DNA a...

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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

Eva Nowack @evanowack.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

With their clever setup to visualize ongoing endosymbiotic gene transfers (EGTs), Enrique Gonzalez-Duran, Ralph Bock and team reveal how double-strand break repair limits excessive EGT. Check out their new Nature Plants paper and my News and Views summary! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

A gatekeeper for gene transfers - Nature Plants

Large-scale genetic screening for plastid-to-nucleus gene transfers identifies that fast double-strand break repair functions as a key barrier for nuclear integration of organellar DNA and provides in...

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Reposted by Enrique Gonzalez Duran

Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology 🌱🧪 @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

New research by @egonzalezduran.bsky.social shows that DSB repair suppresses gene transfer from chloroplasts to nucleus. With DSB repair impaired, transfer rates jump 20× — revealing how plants protect genome stability, with lessons beyond plant biology. Read: nature.com/articles/s41477-025-02005-w

nature.com

Suppression of plastid-to-nucleus gene transfer by DNA double-strand break repair - Nature Plants

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