Mary Williams @PlantTeaching

Tomato leaves with late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans

Hello friends of science! I’m migrating over here from X. There, I had 3,000 followers enjoying plant pathology content! Please help me rebuild. I’ll post plant disease photos, management info, science & nature content. Kicking off with some tomato late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans.

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...

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/...

Sargassum natans: Sargassum is a floating, fast-growing algae that constantly extracts CO2 from the atmosphere

🚨 Post-doctoral position alert! 🚨

The Bhattacharya Lab at Rutgers University is seeking a postdoc in the field of algal multi-omics and metabolic engineering 🌊 🦠 🧬

Ideal start by June. Applications will be reviewed as received. Please share widely :)

jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/269...

#evobio

We were delighted to welcome Duarte Figueiredo

Duarte leads the Seed Development & Apomixis lab at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam.

He presented the talk “Molecular mechanisms driving seed formation in angiosperms” at the #dcvtalks 🌱🧬

Many thanks for the visit!

Regine Kahmann received the Communitas Prize from the Max Planck Society

Regine Kahmann will never cease to be extraordinary:
www.mpi-marburg.mpg.de/1564905/2026...

Are you a postdoc in a plant-related field such as🌿 Plant Biology 🌿 Agriculture & Crop Sciences 🌿 Ecology & Environment 🌿 Plant Pathology & Protection or 🌿 Biotechnology ?

We invite you to join a community of 700+ postdoctoral researchers from around the world at www.plantpostdocs.com

We are inviting applications for a joint appointment:

Director at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Biochemistry

Full Professor (W3) at MLU

Apply by April, 24 via: berufungsportal.uni-halle.de

Join us in advancing innovative research at the interface of chemistry and bioactive natural products.

Latest preprint from the lab!

Did you ver wonder whether the symbiotic function of DELLA is something ancestral in land plants ☘️?

@katharinamel1.bsky.social found out for you! 🔽

Mark Webber opens the Centre for Microbial Interactions Annual Conference at Norwich Research Park @thesainsburylab.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social @earlhaminst.bsky.social @quadraminstitute.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social #CMINorwich26

ViroiDoc MSCA Doctoral Network announces workshop:

What: Don’t Perish! A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Scientific Paper

When: Thursday, 2 April 2026, 9:30–12:30 CET

Where: online, Webex

This event in English is open free of charge. Registration will open soon.

www.viroidoc.eu/b/dont-peris...

Insect herbivory dependent on a specialised bacterial symbiosis - fascinating talk by new @johninnescentre.bsky.social group leader @hassansalem.bsky.social #CMINorwich26

I am happy to announce the launch of a new Arabidopsis genomics resource! Check out arabidopsislyrata.org Now you can easily look at the natural genetic variation across the entire species range of A. lyrata and A. arenosa.

Crossing Arabidopsis thaliana plants

Back to crossing, this time with the horrible mutant nia1 nia2 #arabidopsis #genetics #plantscience

New paper from the lab. Important insights into the compartmentalisation of terpene biosynthesis in Marchantia oil body cells. #PlantScience #SynBio www.nature.com/articles/s42...

1/ ✨ New preprint alert ✨

It is my pleasure to share:
"Stepwise evolution of the developmental and symbiotic functions of DELLA in land plants"

Here we investigated the role of the single GRAS transcription factor DELLA in #MyMarchantia

doi.org/10.64898/202...

#PlantScience
A thread...

How to wow a popular-science writer with your research expertise Prepping for an interview with an author? Keep it simple, meet in person if possible, and stick to your subject, say five writers who regularly talk to scientists about their research.

Wow me with your plant science. But maybe read this article first.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Very happy about this nice piece of work by @eugeniapitsili.bsky.social on developmentally controlled cell death in plants @dev-journal.bsky.social‬ !
Special thanks also to @ingridtsang.bsky.social for a terrific editorial job bringing out the best of this manuscript!!
doi.org/10.1242/dev....

College students, professors are making their own AI rules. They don't always agree More than three years after ChatGPT debuted, AI has become a part of everyday life — and professors and students are still figuring out how or if they should use it.

More than three years after ChatGPT debuted, AI has become a part of everyday life — and professors and students are still figuring out how or if they should use it. n.pr/4biVAz8

We recommend a read of the new MBE editorial on how society journals work towards protecting the scientific record.

Publishing in society journals, such as @molbioevol.bsky.social or @genomebiolevol.bsky.social, promotes transparent science that benefits the research community.

Revisiting Europe's temperate forests: Palaeoecological evidence for an herbivory-driven woodland-grassland mosaic biome
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We are very excited to share a new resource from our team: spatial subcellular proteome maps in plants! We developed an MS-based method that registers localizations of about 8000 proteins in Arabidopsis roots in a single experiment.

(1/9)
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

High resolution, proteome-wide mapping of subcellular protein localization in plants https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.27.708449v1

🚨Two fully funded PhD opportunities in Australia!

Improving C4 photosynthesis in vegetation models.
Supervised by Dani Way (ANU, Canberra) and myself (UTS, Sydney).

1. Lab- and field-based project at ANU – see flyer below

2. Modelling project at UTS – www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Webinar: Plant Ecophysiology (Feb 26). Speakers: Amanda Cardoso, Thomas Williams, Sabina Villadangos. Hosted by Agustin Zsögön and moderated by Thomas Depaepe.

We had a great @plantphys.bsky.social webinar last week on the topic of Plant Ecophysiology. If you missed it, no worries. The recording is now available on YouTube!
blog.aspb.org/plant-physio...
📺 youtu.be/uhSXMdv2ZN0?...

There is a week left to apply for two available positions in my lab @ipbhalle.bsky.social

- PhD: ipb-halle.mhm.jobs/12-phd-posit...

- Postdoc: ipb-halle.mhm.jobs/13-postdocto...
Earliest start date: 01/05/2026.

We are interested in plant immune receptor biochemistry and evolution. Please share!

As a forest researcher, I very often (far too often) encounter questions such as: What does a forest researcher do in Spain? Do you even have forests there? The international image of Spain as a mostly desert-like country, and mainly associated with sun and beach,has contributed to this stereotype.

Oh that would be wonderful! I was considering a midnight raid in the park but would never sleep well again with the guilt!
Legit agamous Galanthus sounds would be perfect 💚.

As a developmental geneticist it brings me endless joy. A simple form but oh so wonderful 💚.

Hazel - a tree of wisdom and inspiration, that gives joy with early catkins - one of the very first pollen sources of the year and a lifeline for queen bumblebees now emerging from hibernation. #Wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social

Interreg North-West Europe REBORN. Co-funded by the European Union. Unlocking seagrass restoration in NWE as a BGI and natural capital opportunity Climate and environment. 11 partners from NL, BE, FR, IE, DE. Cooperating from 2026 - 2029. EU funding €2,9 million. Total project budget €4,9 million. Objectives: REBORN unlocks seagrass restoration at scale (>1 ha) in NWE for biodiversity and natural capital gains by simultaneously driving seagrass-related governance, practice and capacity-building to: Drive long-term seagrass restoration governance and policy change in NWE through a multi-actor community of >30 organisations; Test a novel restoration model in -15 ha in collaboration with 250 community members and facilitate its uptake to up to 50,000 ha across NWE; Increase the capacity of 40 organisations (practitioners, community members, businesses, policy makers) as seagrass restoration ambassadors through tailored capacity building modules. reborn.nweurope.eu Map:EuroGeographics Association for the administrative boundaries (NUTS regions).

🐟 Sunday 1st March marks World Seagrass Day🪿 Healthy seagrass is vital for the achievement of the SDGs.

This week, we launched the €4.9m Interreg NWE REBORN Project - feat. 11 partners across 5 countries. Learn more on our latest blog post: www.naturalcapitalireland.com/post/interreg-nwe-reborn