ERC SYNERGY Project HYDROSENSING

One of the key aspects influencing morphogenesis is mechanics. We mapped the mechanical properties of living roots at the tissue and cellular levels using Brillouin microscopy and molecular rotors.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

He introduced the fundamentals and recent developments in CRISPR, sparking curiosity (and questions!) from groups not directly involve with this line of research.

Thanks to everyone who joined, we’ll now take a summer break during August, and return in September.

#PostDoc #Hydrosensing

Today, Amichai Berman, PhD student from TAU - @eilonshani.bsky.social - deliver an engaging seminar on CRISPR; the 1st session on this & 3rd seminar overall in our ongoing series for PhD students & PostDocs.

With 13 attendees across the 4 different teams of the project.

#CRISPR #PhDLife #Science

Congrats to the RUN-Hydrosensing team! Proving that even on a biologically relevant timescale, you can still snag second place! Silver is golden! @hydrosensing.bsky.social

Photos of our 2025 editorial interns: 🇳🇴 Luis Alonso Baez (NTNU) @luisalonsobaez.bsky.social‬ 🇩🇪 Vittoria Clapero (MPIMP) 🇧🇷 Níkolas Mateus (USP) 🇳🇬 Henry Njoku (Ibadan) 🇺🇸 Deeksha Singh (UC Davis) @sdeeksha1994.bsky.social‬ 🇭🇰 Katie Watson (HKU) @katiemwatson.bsky.social‬

📝 EDITORIAL

In JXB’s 75th year, Editor-in-Chief John Lunn reflects on the journal’s evolution and looks ahead to future directions - including the announcement of our 2025 editorial interns! 🌱🎉

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪 #JXB75
@sebiology.bsky.social

Not only small model plants! 🌱

#Hydrosensing team at Tel Aviv (Shani Lab) is carrying out large-scale CRISPR libraries in crops.

@sara-morghen.bsky.social giving a great talk about her PhD project involving ABA and mechanics at #PlantCellWallMeeting2025 in Vancouver. @hydrosensing.bsky.social

Francesco Saffioti from @ntnu presenting results from brillouin work in the @hydrosensing.bsky.social project at the international brillouin workshop in Perugia.

Arrived together with @sara-morghen.bsky.social to the beautiful UBC campus in Vancouver for the Plant Cell Wall Conference 2025. Ready to discuss the relation between cell walls, water sensing, abscisic acid and mechanobiology. @hydrosensing.bsky.social #plantcellwalls

Congratulations to Prof. @eilonshani.bsky.social Eilon Shani, #Hydrosensing PI, on being elected to EMBO 2025! 🎉

This honor recognizes his outstanding contributions to plant molecular genetics and scientific excellence @embo.org

www.embo.org/press-releas...

Outstanding life scientists elected to the EMBO Membership – Press releases – EMBO Sixty-nine new members join the community of leading life scientists in Europe and beyond

Welcome and congratulations to the 60 new members and 9 associate members who have been elected to the EMBO Membership! This honour celebrates #research excellence and outstanding achievements in the #LifeSciences. 🧪

Learn more here:
www.embo.org/press-releas... #EMBOMembers2025

Malcolm Bennett & Danielle Colyer w Marc Van Montagu, the legendary pioneer who co-discovered Agrobacterium DNA transformation; the foundation of plant genetic modification.

Malcolm Bennett catching up with Tom Beeckman, one of the driving forces behind ICAR

Moments from #ICAR2025 by HS team members

1️⃣ Malcolm Bennett & Danielle Colyer w Marc Van Montagu, the legendary pioneer who co-discovered Agrobacterium DNA transformation; the foundation of plant genetic modification 🧬🌱

2️⃣ MB catching up with Tom Beeckman, one of the driving forces behind ICAR 💪

YouTube video by Euro-BioImaging Communication Plant Imaging Expert Group: Discovering how plants sense water stress

Wed 28th June, Euro-BioImaging ’s Plant Imaging Expert Group featured Hydrosensing in a webinar session.

youtu.be/lj9HA2TpJvo?...

👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️ @hamannlab.bsky.social, @ziegler-lab-ur.bsky.social & Malcolm Bennett (@uniofnottingham.bsky.social)

🌐 hydrosensing.eu/2025/06/plan...

Happy to see this paper www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
in @science.org showing how ROS regulate auxin signalling and control root branching @uniofnottingham.bsky.social & Durham University @hydrosensing.bsky.social @ukri.org @erc.europa.eu Many congratulations to the team!

Want to know more about Cryo-EM? We have you covered!

👇

cryoem101.org/chapter-2/#p...

In the very 1st session this Tuesday, @greg-madej.bsky.social, from @uniregensburg.bsky.social @ziegler-lab-ur.bsky.social, presented how their expertise is applied within the project; specially the use of Cryo-EM in the study of membrane-embedded proteins.

🌐 www.uni-regensburg.de/biologie-vor...

Recently, our early-career researchers agreed on the value of organizing regular sessions for PhDs and PostDocs to explore key research topics in greater depth.

These sessions offer a space to understand the methods & techniques used across the 4 #Hydrosensing teams.

#science

Single-cell transcriptomics reveal how root tissues adapt to soil stress - Nature Single-cell RNA sequencing and spatial transcriptomic approaches reveal major expression changes in outer root cell types when grown in soil versus gel conditions, and also uncover how root tissu...

This #Hydrosensing findings could help the development crops that are resistant to climate stress.

Read the paper in Nature: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

For the first time we are starting to understand how root cells respond to their complex soil environment, revealing that roots actively sense their microenvironment and mount precise, cell-specific molecular responses.

hydrosensing.eu/2025/05/sing...

#PlantScience #Science

A conserved nuclease facilitates environmental DNA uptake Abstract. Bacteria acquire new traits through the uptake of genetic material from the environment, a process requiring DNA processing. However, the molecul

academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
Proud to have been a small part of the team behind the latest publication. It was a privilege to collaborate with such a talented group of researchers on this work. A massive congratulations to all the authors for this contribution to the field!
#RNA #cryoEM

In my research, I study how plants respond when they are damaged. Plants – like us – can perceive their surrounding and have an immune system. Around every cell, they have a cell wall, which provides stability and protects them. When the cell wall is damaged, plants activate their immune system...

DISCOVERING HOW PLANTS SENSE WATER STRESS | HYDROSENSING | Projekt | Fact Sheet | HORIZON | CORDIS | European Commission Water stress is an increasing probleWater stress is an increasing problem for global agriculture given the impact of climate change. Despite the fundamental importance of water, exactly how plants sen...

Pleased to have been able to support this research via an ERC Synergy Grant to the project Hydrosensing: cordis.europa.eu/project/id/1...

🚨 Exciting news!
HYDROSENSING has been invited to present by the EURO-BIOIMAGING EXPERT GROUP (Plant Imaging)! 🌱

🗓️ May 28 | 13:00 CET | Online
🔬 Discover how plants sense water stress

🔗 Scan the QR code to register or use the following link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

This is me treating tobacco plants (Nicotiana benthamiana) to study their immune reaction when their cell wall is damaged. I am wearing a red lab coat and a hair net to prevent carrying seeds or pollen outside of our secure facility.

When I talk to friends, family or others that don't work in research, I am often surprised and amused when I learn how they imagine me working in the lab 😅 So I thought I’d start sharing more from my everyday work doing plant science 👩‍⚕️🌱

@hydrosensing.bsky.social @hamannlab.bsky.social

HYDROSENSING, funded by the European Research Council (ERC), combines genomics, structural biology, biophysics, and imaging techniques.

🔗 Learn more about our work: hydrosensing.eu

@eilonshani.bsky.social @uniregensburg.bsky.social @uniofnottingham.bsky.social #Science #PlantScience #Water

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🔹 A water droplet enclosing a plant – symbolizing life & water as central elements
🔹 One side shows moist soil, the other dry – representing the environmental contrast we study
🔹 Roots extending into water – illustrating how plants sense & adapt to varying water conditions

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The logo of the Hydrosensing project symbolically and conceptually represents the scientific goals of the initiative, which focus on how plants perceive and respond to water stress. The image is framed within a water droplet, an element that directly references water as both a vital resource and the main subject of study. Inside the droplet, a plant with two green leaves grows from the center, symbolizing plant life and its interaction with water availability. The lower half of the droplet is vertically divided into two distinct sections: The left half, in blue, represents a moist or well-irrigated environment. The right half, in brown and ochre tones, suggests a dry soil or drought conditions. Roots extend downward from the plant's central stem into water, visually conveying the concept of a plant sensing and responding to different levels of water availability. The design visually reinforces the mission of the Hydrosensing project: to understand the molecular and physiological mechanisms by which plants perceive water stress, with the aim of contributing to the development of crops that are more resilient to climate change.

Glad to introduce our new logo 🎉

This new image reflects our mission: understanding how #plants perceive and respond to water stress — a step toward developing crops resilient to drought and #climatechange

🔗 hydrosensing.eu

The image tells a story:

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From ~1,300 CRISPR lines, we identified mutants with traits affecting fruit, nutrition, and disease response. We also developed CRISPR-GuideMap, a dual-barcode system for large-scale tracking. This scalable approach enhances precision editing and tackles gene redundancy in crops.

In this new paper, our team has worked to build a genome-wide, multi-target CRISPR library in tomato to address both issues. We designed 15,804 guide RNAs targeting gene families and grouped them into 10 function-based sub-libraries.

hydrosensing.eu/2025/05/cons...

New #Hydrosensing paper out!

Genetic variation drives crop breeding, but traditional mutagenesis is limited by gene redundancy and low precision. CRISPR-Cas9 offers targeted editing, yet scaling it in plants has been a challenge.

Please, take a look: hydrosensing.eu/2025/05/cons...

👇