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Mikel Lavilla-Puerta

@mikellavi.bsky.social
148 followers 154 following 26 posts

Oxygen, yeast, SynBio and sometimes, plants. Postdoc at Oxford Biology, PhD at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. I also sing and am very fond of my village.

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Reposted by Mikel Lavilla-Puerta
Plant Energy Biology Lab @schwarzlanderlab.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Such a privilege to collaborate with @s-akter.bsky.social @monicaperri1.bsky.social @mikellavi.bsky.social @vinayshukla.bsky.social @lauradc.bsky.social @beagiuntoli.bsky.social @emilyflashman.bsky.social @syno2xis.bsky.social
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Plant Energy Biology Lab @schwarzlanderlab.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
We knew PCOs & ERFVIIs regulated plant hypoxia, but this work shows they also manage the 'reoxygenation' stress. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @biology.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk @uni-muenster.de
nature.com
H2O2 repurposes plant O2 sensing to regulate post-hypoxia responses - Nature
Experiments in Arabidopsis demonstrate that group VII ethylene response factors show differential responses to different stimuli, enabling plants in flood-prone environments to adapt to both submergen...
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Vinay Shukla @vinayshukla.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
The big takeaway: these O2 sensing systems are functionally interchangeable across kingdoms, but they're not identical. The kinetic differences matter!
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Vinay Shukla @vinayshukla.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
New paper out from the Synoxys lab! We asked an important question: what if plants sensed oxygen like animals do? what if we swapped the O2 sensing across? We built the system to find out. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #plantscience @syno2xis.bsky.social @beagiuntoli.bsky.social @biology.ox.ac.uk
media.tenor.com
a poster for indiana jones and the last crusade with a man in a hat
ALT: a poster for indiana jones and the last crusade with a man in a hat
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Francesco Licausi @syno2xis.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
It's finally out! With this new paper, Salma and Monica show that hypoxia-regulated ERFVIIs are not immediately destabilised during reoxygenation: they instead persist in the nucleus to control oxidative stress genes. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Reposted by Mikel Lavilla-Puerta
Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford @oxengsci.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
When oxygen drops, plants respond in minutes 🌱 Oxford @biology.ox.ac.uk's @mikellavi.bsky.social and @syno2xis.bsky.social + Engineering Science researchers, with Prof Antonis Papachristodoulou, reveal a circuit key to plant survival. 🔗 eng.ox.ac.uk/news/without...
Young green seedling with two leaves sprouting from rich soil against a dark, blurred background.
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Mikel Lavilla-Puerta @mikellavi.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Very happy to see this out!! Thank you all! Check out or latest publication www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
A synthetic ERFVII-dependent circuit in yeast sheds light on the regulation of early hypoxic responses of plants | PNAS
Plants face hypoxic conditions either chronically, as particular tissues are characterized by fluctuating or stable low oxygen levels, or acutely, ...
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Reposted by Mikel Lavilla-Puerta
Oxford Biology @biology.ox.ac.uk · 20/03/2026
Without oxygen, the first minutes matter 🌱 In low oxygen, eg when flooded, plants need to act quickly to survive. New research led by @mikellavi.bsky.social has revealed a molecular circuit that kicks into gear in minutes - and it can work completely independently 👇
bit.ly
Without oxygen, the first minutes matter: a molecular circuit helps plants survive
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Daan Weits @daanweits.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
What features are required to shape hypoxic niches enclosing meristems? We @viktoriiavoloboeva.bsky.social in collab @pieterverboven.bsky.social found that a combination of cuticle barrier, densely packed tissue and metabolic activity all uniquely contribute to maintain shoot apical meristem hypoxia
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Mikel Lavilla-Puerta @mikellavi.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Finally officially out!! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... We moved the main oxygen sensing machinery from plants to yeast and we learned a few things!
pnas.org
A synthetic ERFVII-dependent circuit in yeast sheds light on the regulation of early hypoxic responses of plants | PNAS
Plants face hypoxic conditions either chronically, as particular tissues are characterized by fluctuating or stable low oxygen levels, or acutely, ...
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Reposted by Mikel Lavilla-Puerta
N End Rules @n-end-rules.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Surprisingly: "Conditional stability of HY5 through the ATE N-degron pathway regulates environmental responses in Arabidopsis thaliana". The shining bounds of N-degron pathway influence expands! @charlene-kunaka.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Vinay Shukla @vinayshukla.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
🚨 Positions available in Plant Science! Please share. We’re hiring: 1. Postdoc 2.PhD (UK applicants only) Focus: root oxygen dynamics, developmental signalling. Come help us uncover how O2 shapes root development. More info here- sites.google.com/view/root-re... #plantscijobs #plantscience
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International Society for Plant Low Oxygen Research @isplore.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
#ThrowbackThursday to last week Thursday at #ISPLORE2025JP where we took a group picture of our fantastic community. Missing those conferences vibes? Scroll back through the #ISPLORE2025JP hashtag for some of the best moments 🌱🌊
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Reposted by Mikel Lavilla-Puerta
International Society for Plant Low Oxygen Research @isplore.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
#ISPLORE2025JP is over.. but not before a comedy performance and closing ceremony by the organizers Mikio Nakazono and Moto Ashikari 😆 Thanks so much to all organisers and sponsors for making this edition possible. It was truly amazing! Next edition reveal by @djgibbs.bsky.social: #ISPLORE2028UK
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Reposted by Mikel Lavilla-Puerta
Daan Weits @daanweits.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Coming to you live from #ISPLORE2025JP Fresh preprint from my lab showing that leaves progressively oxygenate and how this is important for their morphogenesis.Thanks to our collaborators from @Fra_LicO2si lab. #plantscience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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International Society for Plant Low Oxygen Research @isplore.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
We finish this #ISPLORE2025JP session with exceptional talks by @mikellavi.bsky.social, Daai Zhang, @vinayshukla.bsky.social and Lina Zhou 🌱🌊 Check out @beagiuntoli.bsky.social's recent preprint #plantscience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Pierdomenico Perata @theplantlab.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
The speed of hypoxia: great talk by @mikellavi.bsky.social at the @isplore.bsky.social conference in Nagoya!
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Reposted by Mikel Lavilla-Puerta
International Society for Protein Termini (ISPT) @ispt-proteinterm.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
A synthetic ERFVII-dependent circuit in yeast sheds light on the regulation of early hypoxic responses of plants | Preprint from @mikellavi.bsky.social @beagiuntoli.bsky.social @syno2xis.bsky.social #N-degron #hypoxia www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
A synthetic ERFVII-dependent circuit in yeast sheds light on the regulation of early hypoxic responses of plants
Plants face hypoxic conditions either chronically, as particular tissues are characterized by fluctuating or stable low oxygen levels, or acutely, when flooded. In vascular plants, transcriptional ada...
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Mikel Lavilla-Puerta @mikellavi.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
Preprint alert! 🗞 We used SynBio to "simplify" the plant oxygen sensing pathway and implement it in yeast🍄. We can now control yeast growth through oxygen! But most importantly, Here's a very short recap of what we understood thanks to it: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
media.tenor.com
a cartoon of spongebob wearing a hat with the letter f on it
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Plant Physiology @plantphys.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
“I come from a rural area where agriculture and natural spaces coexist.” academic.oup.com/plphys/artic... #WeAreASPB
Mikel Lavilla-Puerta (he/him) is the First Author of Designed to breathe: synthetic biology applications in plant hypoxia published 02 December 2024. He is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at Oxford University. Education background includes: 2022 Ph.D in Agrobiosciences at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna / 2018 MSc in Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology at Complutense University of Madrid / 2016 BSc in Biology at Complutense Univesrity of Madrid. Research interests include Synthetic Biology, Oxygen, Plant Physiology Personal interests include Reading, Music.
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Vinay Shukla @vinayshukla.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
Honoured & excited that ‘Breathing Underground’ has been funded by the ERC! This will let me explore one of the most fundamental questions of plant life: how roots breathe underground? @erc.europa.eu
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Plant Physiology @plantphys.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
The January 2025 issue of Plant Physiology is now online! Read this Focus Issue on Hypoxia and Plants here: academic.oup.com/plphys/issue @ASPB @OxUniPress #PlantSci
academic.oup.com
The diverse aspects of hypoxia. The size of the oxygen bubble correlates with concentration. This collection highlights the importance of hypoxia for plant development and environmental adaptation such as during flooding, in compacted or poorly aerated soils, high altitudes, and within meristematic tissues. Image credit: Moe Abbas.
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Mikel Lavilla-Puerta @mikellavi.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
The real deal on the topic of plant hypoxia, SynBio and orthogonality. How to use these three concepts to build new oxygen-sensitive circuits? Don't miss the thread below!
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Vinay Shukla @vinayshukla.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Preprint alert, please share!! With our new study, we engineered an orthogonal hypoxia-responsive system in plants inspired by mammalian HIF protein degradation. We demonstrated that this system could control protein stability and activity, enabling modulation of Oxygen sensing outputs. Here's how:
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International Society for Plant Low Oxygen Research @isplore.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Added many more ISPLORE researchers to our starter pack, including @theplantlab.bsky.social, @mikellavi.bsky.social @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social, @gunjansharma88.bsky.social. Welcome to BlueSky!
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Mikel Lavilla-Puerta @mikellavi.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
First Bluesky post to share our review with the world! Is there anything, beyond oxygen biosensors, that SynBio can provide to the world of plant hypoxia? Check it out here! @plantphys.bsky.social academic.oup.com/plphys/advan...
academic.oup.com
Designed to breathe: synthetic biology applications in plant hypoxia
Novel biosensors and concepts from engineering biology expand the toolbox for plant low oxygen biology research
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