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Marco Duenas

@marcoaduenas.bsky.social
36 followers 61 following 18 posts

•UC Berkeley PhD @ Merchant Lab •F31 NIH Fellow marcoduenas.org

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Reposted by Marco Duenas
aspbplantbiology.bsky.social @aspbplantbiology.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Happening now: Translational Control in Plants: From Ribosome Dynamics to Stress Resilience! Featuring talks by: Albrecht G. von Arnim, Marco A. Dueñas, Ha Ngoc Duong, Jacob O. Brunkard, and Dong Xinnian. #PlantBio2026 #PlantScience
Photo of event meeting space full of attendees
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Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Woohoo!
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Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
I’m super happy to share that I have been awarded the University of California (UC) Dissertation-Year Fellowship. This fellowship provides extra funding and opportunities to bring my research to a successful conclusion. I am grateful to have received this award and will finish my PhD strong!
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Itay Budin @ibudin.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
New paper where we report that Npc2 - a shuttle-like lipid transfer protein - in yeast directly transports sphingolipids to the = vacuole membrane during formation of microautophagy-linked ordered domains #lipidtime www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Transport of sphingolipids by yeast Npc2 supports phase separation of the vacuole membrane
The yeast vacuole membrane forms ordered microdomains that facilitate microlipophagy under nutrient limitation. We previously found that this process …
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Erica Dinatale @ericadinatale.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Behind the scenes! go.nature.com/4bYY8BM
go.nature.com
What brown algae taught me about the importance of jumping genes for genome evolution
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
The Plant Cell @theplantcell.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
IN BRIEF: Auxenochlorella: The green algal reference we’ve been waiting for (Regina Mencia) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience @aspbofficial
doi.org
Auxenochlorella: the green algal reference we’ve been waiting for
In biology, we use reference organisms to study, test, and observe natural phenomena. The ideal reference is one whose behavior represents a broad range of
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
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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Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
I am thrilled to have been selected to attend the 75th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting to have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for international exchange and direct dialogue with Nobel Laureates. I am incredibly grateful to have been chosen for this prestigious honor. #LINO26 #Lindau #Nobel
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Tanner Robison @tarobison.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Do you like it when weird organisms do silly things?? Then you're going to love this!
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Kyle J. Lauersen @kylelauersen.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Algae and the Chocolate Factory. Great writeup by KAUST Discovery! discovery.kaust.edu.sa/en/article/2...
discovery.kaust.edu.sa
Algae and the chocolate factory
Ancient algae turn chocolate factory waste and other organic matter into valuable bio-based products, supporting a sustainable circular bioeconomy.
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
The Plant Cell @theplantcell.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Ojeda grew up in Moriles, a small village in the south of Spain, known for its wine and olive oil.#WeAreASPB academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...
Valle Ojeda (she/her) is the First Author of Too dim, too bright, and just right: Systems analysis of the Chlamydomonas diurnal program under limiting and excess light published 19 April 2025. Ojeda is a Profesora Permanente Laboral (Assistant Professor) and the University of Seville. Educational background includes a 2019 Ph.D in Biology at University of Seville; a 2014 MSc in Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology at the University of Seville; 2013 BSc in Biology at the University of Seville. Research interests include Redox regulation, Photosynthesis, and Plant metabolism. Personal interests include Traveling, Photography, Hiking, Music.
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
The Plant Cell @theplantcell.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
“Understanding algal biology is critically important for understanding and potentially regulating global carbon cycling.” #WeAreASPB doi.org/10.1093/plce...
Sunnyjoy Dupuis (she/her) is the First Author of Too dim, too bright, and just right: Systems analysis of the Chlamydomonas diurnal program under limiting and excess light published 19 April 2025.  She is a Graduate Student Researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. Education background includes: 2025 PhD Candidate in Microbiology at University of California, Berkeley; 2017 BS in Microbiology with Minor of Environmental Studies at California Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo. Research interests include Systems biology, functional genomics, photosynthesis, and microbial ecology. Personal interests include Music and yoga.
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Sunnyjoy Dupuis, PhD @sunnyjoydupuis.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Honored to be a featured first author this month!
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Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
My first paper got a cool little feature in the Department of Energy's Science Highlights! Come read about how green algae have revealed an interesting quirk in eukaryotic translation. Link below: www.energy.gov/science/ber/...
energy.gov
Not Lost in Translation: Algae Show How to Make Two Proteins from One Messenger RNA
Scientists uncover a hidden feature of protein translation in green algae, offering a new perspective on the basic rules of gene expression.
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Ryo Yokoyama @yokoyama-ryo.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Lipid droplet on the move: remodeling, trafficking and interaction with other organelles academic.oup.com/jxb/article-... @jxbotany.bsky.social
academic.oup.com
Lipid droplet on the move: remodeling, trafficking and interaction with other organelles
Abstract. Lipid droplets (LDs) are subcellular organelles consisting of a neutral lipid core surrounded by a monolayered membrane and a protein coat. Recen
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
The Plant Cell @theplantcell.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Targeted genetic manipulation and yeast-like evolutionary genomics in the green alga Auxenochlorella (Rory J Craig, Marco A Dueñas, Dimitrios J Camacho, et al) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience @aspbofficial
doi.org
Targeted genetic manipulation and yeast-like evolutionary genomics in the green alga Auxenochlorella
Auxenochlorella, green algae shaped by evolutionary forces acting on vegetative diploids, are amenable to discovery research and bioengineering via efficie
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
UC Berkeley MCB @berkeleymcb.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Did the first animal look like a sponge or a comb jelly? The debate continues. Check out the article from MCB's Nicole King and postdoc Jacob Steenwyk @jlsteenwyk.bsky.social: news.berkeley.edu/2025/11/19/d...
news.berkeley.edu
Did the first animal look like a sponge or a comb jelly? The debate continues. - Berkeley News
Two years ago, a novel analysis by UC Berkeley researchers pointed to comb jellies as the root of the animal tree of life. Another Berkeley group now says it’s sponges.
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
New Phytologist @newphyt.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Chromosome‐level #genome assembly of the #photobiont microalga Trebouxia sp. ‘A48’ from the #lichen Xanthoria parietina 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... by Tagirdzhanova et al. @metalichen.bsky.social @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social @WileyPlantSci
Trebouxia sp. ‘A48’.
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Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 01/11/2025
My personal website is now live! Come learn a little about me and my research 🧬🦠🐠🪸🐈! marcoduenas.org
marcoduenas.org
Marco Alonzo Dueñas
Unlocking Biology, One Cell at a Time
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
The Merchant lab's paper describing the Auxenochlorella genome and genetic toolkit is now published in The Plant Cell! I’m honored to have contributed to this project led by @rorycraig.bsky.social, Jeff Moseley, and @merchant-lab.bsky.social. Check it out below! academic.oup.com/plcell/advan...
academic.oup.com
Targeted genetic manipulation and yeast-like evolutionary genomics in the green alga Auxenochlorella
Auxenochlorella, green algae shaped by evolutionary forces acting on vegetative diploids, are amenable to discovery research and bioengineering via efficie
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Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
The Merchant lab's paper describing the Auxenochlorella genome and genetic toolkit is now published in The Plant Cell! I’m honored to have contributed to this project led by @rorycraig.bsky.social, Jeff Moseley, and @merchant-lab.bsky.social. Check it out below! academic.oup.com/plcell/advan...
academic.oup.com
Targeted genetic manipulation and yeast-like evolutionary genomics in the green alga Auxenochlorella
Auxenochlorella, green algae shaped by evolutionary forces acting on vegetative diploids, are amenable to discovery research and bioengineering via efficie
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Mike Lange @mikelangelipid.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Excited to share my postdoc work @olzmannlab.bsky.social! We found lipid droplets, the cell’s lipid storage depots, are subject to oxidative damage and are protected by FSP1. Loss of FSP1 triggers droplet peroxidation and cell death, revealing a new layer of lipid quality control! shorturl.at/B5XYD
nature.com
FSP1-mediated lipid droplet quality control prevents neutral lipid peroxidation and ferroptosis - Nature Cell Biology
Lange et al. identify a lipid droplet quality control pathway in which FSP1 safeguards stored neutral lipids from lipid peroxidation, thereby preventing the induction of ferroptosis.
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Rory Craig @rorycraig.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
(6/6) Overall, we found that the “yeast-like” processes of allodiploid hybridisation, mitotic recombination, loss-of-heterozygosity and aneuploidy all occur in an alga, showing the generality of these forces to vegetatively diploid eukaryotes
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Rory Craig @rorycraig.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
(5/6) We also saw aneuploidies in two strains and we successfully transformed a trisomic chromosome using an allele-specific construct. We’re hopeful that we can utilise these redundant chromosomes for synthetic biology by sequential introduction of transgenes
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Rory Craig @rorycraig.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
(4/6) Most remarkably, our reference strain UTEX 250 is an allodiploid hybrid of two close relatives, A. protothecoides and A. symbiontica, that are distinguished by highly rearranged karyotypes. The UTEX 250 sub-genomes have been further shuffled by rearrangements and recombination
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Rory Craig @rorycraig.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
(3/6) Unlike most green algae, Auxenochlorella are vegetatively diploid and their genomes are shaped by evolutionary phenomena that reflect this. While these processes are well-understood in yeast, we were surprised to see extensive mitotic recombination and loss-of-heterozygosity in several strains
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Rory Craig @rorycraig.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
(2/6) We introduce selectable markers, inducible promoters and fluorescent reporters for protein localisation, and @marcoaduenas.bsky.social has written a protocol for HR-based transformation: dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.x54v922mql3e/v1. All credit to a team led by Jeff Moseley here
dx.doi.org
Transformation Protocol for Targeted Homologous Recombination in Auxenochlorella protothecoides
Detailed instructions for the introduction of targeted gene cassettes into the genome of Auxenochlorella Protothecoides using a lithium acetate transformation method. Following...
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Rory Craig @rorycraig.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
(1/6) First and foremost, Auxenochlorella spp. are oily green algae that can be readily transformed by homologous recombination, enabling efficient site-specific transformation of the nuclear genome. This is a first for chlorophytes, and we hope that it will facilitate lots of interesting research
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Rory Craig @rorycraig.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Excited to introduce Auxenochlorella as a new algal reference organism for fundamental plant science and bioengineering. A paper in two parts: a genetic toolkit for site-specific genomic manipulation, paired with the most unusual genome I’ve ever worked on academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...
academic.oup.com
Targeted genetic manipulation and yeast-like evolutionary genomics in the green alga Auxenochlorella
Auxenochlorella, green algae shaped by evolutionary forces acting on vegetative diploids, are amenable to discovery research and bioengineering via efficie
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Sunnyjoy Dupuis, PhD @sunnyjoydupuis.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
Our large-scale biology article is out in @theplantcell.bsky.social! Dig into these rich datasets to see how light-induced stress not only impacts what algae do during the day, but also how it shapes their physiology and gene expression at night. doi.org/10.1093/plce...
doi.org
Too dim, too bright, and just right: Systems analysis of the Chlamydomonas diurnal program under limiting and excess light
Chlamydomonas populations acclimate to low and high diurnal light and maintain altered photosystem abundance, thylakoid architecture, and non-photochemical
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
Sunnyjoy Dupuis, PhD @sunnyjoydupuis.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Check out this piece I wrote with @qb3.bsky.social’s awesome science communication team *highlighting* (pun intended) recent work in @theplantcell.bsky.social by Valle Ojeda and yours truly! 🌱🦠🔬
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Scripps Institution of Oceanography @scrippsocean.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
You can learn more about the study's lead author, Daniel Wangpraseurt (a marine biologist at Scripps Oceanography), and his research below.
youtube.com
A Scientist’s Life: Marine biologist Daniel Wangpraseurt
YouTube video by Scripps Oceanography
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Reposted by Marco Duenas
QB3-Berkeley @qb3-berkeley.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
This month's interview is with Marco Dueñas! Marco is a PhD candidate in Sabeeha Merchant’s lab in @berkeleymcb.bsky.social and @natureatcal.bsky.social. He chats with us about his recent paper in @pnas.org, overcoming research challenges, and more. Read the story: bit.ly/m-duenas
A researcher in a blue lab coat holds up a beaker with yellow liquid in it.
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Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Thrilled to share that my first first-author paper is officially out as a PNAS direct submission! In this study, we uncovered the mechanism diving polycistronic expression in green algae! Come check it out below: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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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Michael Hothorn @structplantbio.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Nice analysis of bicistronic transcripts in green algae in @pnas.org, featuring our CDC26 - TTM3 pair previously identified by @lorenzoorts.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Thrilled to share that my first first-author paper is officially out as a PNAS direct submission! In this study, we uncovered the mechanism diving polycistronic expression in green algae! Come check it out below: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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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Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
The Auxenochlorella genome is finally out in preprint form. This green alga has great genetic tools and precise gene targeting useful for both basic biology and engineering applications. I'm excited to have contributed to this, publication coming soon! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Allodiploid hybridization, loss-of-heterozygosity and aneuploidy in the green alga Auxenochlorella, an emerging model for discovery research and bioengineering
Auxenochlorella are diploid oleaginous green algae that are highly amenable to genetic transformation by homologous recombination, providing great potential for discovery research and bioengineering. ...
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Noah Whiteman @nkwhiteman.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
Suggestion—call the Office of the Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions (HELP) Committee, chaired by LA Senator Bill Cassidy. Calmly explain that you are concerned further delays in NIH study section and advisory council meetings will do irreparable harm to US science/competitiveness: (202) 224-6770
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Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
Super happy to share that I was awarded a NIH F31 NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship through the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). For the rest of my PhD I will be a NIH fellow! This was a beast of a fellowship to write but am honored to be presented with this opportunity.
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Marco Duenas @marcoaduenas.bsky.social · 30/12/2024
I was honored to be able to present my work on the polycistronic project at the Bay Area RNA club at UCSF and be selected as one of the best talks! It was so much fun and I got to see so much cool research. Keep an eye out for more updates on the polycistronic to come!
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