Steffen Ostendorp

A thrip walks over the surface of a petal.

Why Thrips Might Be the Unknown Heroes of Pollination

Thrips, tiny insects often seen as pests, play a key role in pollinating many plants, according to research in @annbot.bsky.social

botany.one/2025/05/why-...

Read the paper at academic.oup.com/aob/advance-...

09.05.2025 18:50 — 👍 10    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Studies on the Japanese soil-borne wheat mosaic virus movement protein highlight its ability to bind plant RNA - Virology Journal Background Plant viral movement protein (MP) function is decisive for virus cell-to-cell movement. Often, MPs also induce membrane alterations, which are believed to play a role for the establishment ...

It is finally out. A beautiful collaboration with amazing results is now finally readable for everyone. Congrats to all authors. @molplant.bsky.social @uni-hamburg.de
virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

08.05.2025 17:30 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Re-analysis of mobile mRNA datasets raises questions about the extent of long-distance mRNA communication - Nature Plants This study reveals that a substantial number of transcripts that are currently annotated as graft-mobile lack statistical support from available RNA-seq data.

If you would like to understand how difficult it is to annotate mobile mRNAs using SNPS read this.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Consider important suggestions/controls: homografts & heterografts, use barcoded reads, minimise RT-PCRs, have a reliable annotated/high quality genome sequence .. etc

17.04.2025 12:47 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

New OA Letter: "Viral delivery of an RNA-guided genome editor for transgene-free germline editing in Arabidopsis" rdcu.be/eiJVL

...engineered the tobacco rattle virus to express the RNA-guided TnpB enzyme ISYmu1 and guide RNA for transgene-free germline editing.

22.04.2025 11:29 — 👍 14    🔁 13    💬 0    📌 1

A surprising discovery in the world’s most studied plant can make seeds bigger.

Learn more: scim.ag/44oVRNW

15.04.2025 18:55 — 👍 71    🔁 20    💬 0    📌 1

Re-analysis of mobile mRNA datasets raises questions about the extent of long-distance mRNA communication - Nature Plants This study reveals that a substantial number of transcripts that are currently annotated as graft-mobile lack statistical support from available RNA-seq data.

That is a huuuge deal! That might change the view on what a mobile RNA is. Congrats to the authors!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@uni-hamburg.de @johninnescentre.bsky.social

16.04.2025 09:55 — 👍 5    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

I completely abandoned IPTG. We use lactose in autoinduction medium. Much higher yield and more soluble protein as well.

25.03.2025 15:33 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Protein codes promote selective subcellular compartmentalization Cells have evolved mechanisms to distribute ~10 billion protein molecules to subcellular compartments where diverse proteins involved in shared functions must assemble. Here, we demonstrate that prote...

❤️ Protein codes promote selective subcellular compartmentalization | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

08.02.2025 11:53 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

It finally happened! A wonderful and fruitful collaboration finally led to a marvellous new publication. That was a great journey. You did a great job @zivirus.bsky.social and all others as well ❤️

11.12.2024 18:58 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0