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Joshua Kaste

@joshuakaste.bsky.social
930 followers 675 following 21 posts

Postdoctoral researcher. Working on metabolic modeling of plant systems to identify engineering targets for improved food security and sustainability. He/him

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Reposted by Joshua Kaste
ENSA - Enabling Nutrient Symbioses in Agriculture @ensa-research.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
🫛ENSA researchers identified three enzymes that could boost nitrogen fixation in legumes. Their model predicts up to 11% higher efficiency and nearly 9% higher rates of fixation, providing new targets for sustainable crop improvement. @meganlmatthews.bsky.social Rourou Ji @joshuakaste.bsky.social
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Reposted by Joshua Kaste
The Plant Cell @theplantcell.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Mitochondrial glutamine synthetase overexpression in tomato source leaves increases assimilate export and fruit yield (José G Vallarino , Laise Rosado-Souza , Youjun Zhang , R George Ratcliffe , Lee J Sweetlove , Sanu Shameer , Alisdair R Fernie) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience @aspbofficial
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Reposted by Joshua Kaste
ENSA - Enabling Nutrient Symbioses in Agriculture @ensa-research.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
🌽The road to nitrogen fixing maize is long, but important. A new modelling study by ENSA researchers suggests maize could grow much faster when partnering with two soil microbes – nitrogen fixing bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.@meganlmatthews.bsky.social @plantphys.bsky.social Link👇
🌽Maize grown by ENSA group leader Ruaridh Sawers at Penn State University helped to experimentally validate the model of maize and AM fungi.
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Joshua Kaste @joshuakaste.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
New preprint where Rourou Ji, with support and supervision from me and @meganlmatthews.bsky.social, builds and analyzes a kinetic model describing N-fixation in determinate root nodules: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Reposted by Joshua Kaste
Nature Plants @natplants.nature.com · 03/09/2025
New Article: "Metabolic flux analysis in leaf metabolism quantifies the link between photorespiration and one carbon metabolism" rdcu.be/eDWLH C flux quantification between two major plant metabolisms—photorespiration and C1 metabolism—using 13CO2 labelling and...
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Joshua Kaste @joshuakaste.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
New flux mapping study out in Nature Plants (doi.org/10.1038/s414...), led by Kelem Gashu, that puts some numbers on the connection between photorespiration and one carbon metabolism. I had the privilege of helping out with some of the modeling and statistics in the study.
doi.org
Metabolic flux analysis in leaf metabolism quantifies the link between photorespiration and one carbon metabolism - Nature Plants
This paper quantified carbon flux between two major plant metabolisms—photorespiration and C1 metabolism—using 13CO2 labelling and isotopically non-stationary metabolic flux analysis.
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Joshua Kaste @joshuakaste.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Hi - I’m looking for roles inside and outside of academia in Canada, and would appreciate any leads or contacts y’all may have. I’m a computational and molecular biologist with a broad range of prior experience in both wet lab and dry lab work. If you or someone you know is hiring, get in touch!
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Joshua Kaste @joshuakaste.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
New article that I played a small part in, headed up by Yuan Xu, now out in Scientific Reports: doi.org/10.1038/s415.... Yuan gathered some great labeling data in Camelina sativa under high light and high CO2 conditions and compared the INST-MFA estimated central carbon fluxes to control conditions
doi.org
The effects of photosynthetic rate on respiration in light, starch/sucrose partitioning, and other metabolic fluxes within photosynthesis - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - The effects of photosynthetic rate on respiration in light, starch/sucrose partitioning, and other metabolic fluxes within photosynthesis
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Joshua Kaste @joshuakaste.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
Nice article about work I collaborated on in MSU's Plant Research Laboratory newsletter: prl.natsci.msu.edu/news-and-eve...
prl.natsci.msu.edu
MSU researchers glean photosynthetic insights from volcanic hot springs
Expanding knowledge of the carbon concentrating mechanism in the extremophilic algae C. merolae allows scientists to better understand and possibly improve photosynthesis.
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Joshua Kaste @joshuakaste.bsky.social · 02/02/2025
🚨Preprint alert🚨We present models of real and hypothetical maize symbioses (with AMF and rhizobia, respectively) individually and in tandem to assess the costs-and-benefits of these to maize growth. Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Metabolic modeling reveals synergistic growth benefits of engineering maize symbiosis with rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
Engineering N2-fixing rhizobia symbiosis in cereals and enhancing association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are two strategies being pursued to improve agricultural sustainability. However, ...
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Reposted by Joshua Kaste
Lee Sweetlove @leesweetlove.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
www.nature.com/articles/s41... They "identified many highly conserved positions that tolerate mutation and rare mutations that improve CO2 affinity. These data indicate that non-trivial biochemical changes are readily accessible" #PlantScience
nature.com
A map of the rubisco biochemical landscape - Nature
A massively parallel assay developed to map the essential photosynthetic enzyme rubisco showed that non-trivial biochemical changes and improvements in CO2 affinity are possible, signposting further e...
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Joshua Kaste @joshuakaste.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Very nice 'news & views' write-up about the C. merolae modeling work @anne-steensma.bsky.social, me, and our wonderful co-authors presented in Plant Phys: doi.org/10.1093/plph...
doi.org
Metabolic modeling suggested non-canonical algal carbon concentrating mechanism in Cyanidioschyzon merolae
Maneesh Lingwan; Metabolic modeling suggested non-canonical algal carbon concentrating mechanism in Cyanidioschyzon merolae, Plant Physiology, , kiaf019, h
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Reposted by Joshua Kaste
Kyle J. Lauersen @kylelauersen.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
New paper alert 😎🔔🚨. We present a standardized protocol for the polyextremophile Cyanidioschizon merolae 🦠 transformation🧬! Together with our team at ASU AzCATI🇺🇸, and Uni Northern BC 🇨🇦 #openaccess #algae #Biotechnology www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Joshua Kaste @joshuakaste.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
How do you effectively photosynthesize in hell (figuratively speaking)? See our new article, just published in Plant Physiology: doi.org/10.1093/plph...
doi.org
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Reposted by Joshua Kaste
in silico Plants @insilicoplants.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
A starter pack for scientists involved in developing computational algorithms, software, models, and tools to advance #plantscience. Let me know in the comments or DM if you'd like to be added. go.bsky.app/KcVXefi
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