Stephanie Watts-Fawkes

Researcher being presented a medal in front of a conference audience

Gold-coloured medal inscribed with the researcher’s name and the year 2025

Thank you so much to the @asps-oz.bsky.social for the 2025 Peter Goldacre medal 🌱

It was a privilege to speak at the annual conference last week on my last 10 years of research into plant-mycorrhiza associations and zinc nutrition.

I really would like our stuff before Christmas! 😭

We're up to 6 months since we last saw our stuff! Double the time estimated by the company 🥲 Now, it's closeby in Belgium, but seems to be held up for 2 weeks (so far), by union strikes there.

What are the major questions unanswered relating to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi?

It is just me, or are too many fundamentals still not resolved around some basic biology and ecology?
Their genetics, their growth patterns, host-preferences, sporulation, and so on.

Takeaway coffee sitting on an outdoor table.

There have been days in the Netherlands where I just daydreamed about the next time I’d taste a Melbourne coffee. The time is finally here 😍

🌿🍄‍🟫🌱🍄We’re recruiting!!🌿🍄‍🟫🌱🍄

I’m looking for two postdocs and a technician to join my group @sheffielduni.bsky.social @sheffieldpps.bsky.social to work with me on my exciting @royalsociety.org Faraday Discovery Fellowship project, details for each post as follows:

Lettuce fortification through vitamin B12‐producing bacteria – proof of concept study BACKGROUND Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) can be produced de novo only by certain bacteria and archaea. It plays a crucial role in the health of animals and humans, which obtain it only through diet, mainl...

Last of a very long list publications: improving vitamin content in crops using microbiomes (a way around GMO-laws preventing the use of other fortified crops?)
scijournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

www.asps.org.au/phytogen/oct...

Poor Quality of Commercial Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Inoculants Used for Agriculture and Home Gardening There is an urgent need to develop microbial inoculants that can consistently improve crop performance as part of efforts to implement sustainable agricultural practices and reduce the environmental ...

New study from @mvanderheijden.bsky.social lab, showing that many commercial mycorrhizal inoculants are snake oil. So important for this data to be published!

Between this, @lizkoziol.bsky.social and Matt Salomon’s work… well I think we make a strong point.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Sunrise over a large building on university campus

Photo taken to mark my first lecture at @w-u-r.bsky.social.

It was an 8:20am lecture and I was 40 minutes early to it 🙈 the lecture room wasn’t even unlocked until 8:00.

Family of a dad and two kids standing in a rainy market square decorated for holiday season in the Netherlands

Our kid just found out he gets to celebrate Christmas AND Sinterklaas ✨

I’m so excited that I get to catch up with @lmueller.bsky.social at #ASPS2025!! All the way from Netherlands and California, meeting in Adelaide for #mycorrhiza catch-ups!

🎉

The river Rhine with a windmill in the background

Wow, they have blue skies in the Randstad! ☀️

A bike path littered with autumn leaves.

The last 100 metres home 🍂

And from next year the eligibility extends to ten years post-PhD, so even more competition (but also I become eligible next year, even though I’m not this year, so that’s nice for me) 🙃

I seem to have acquired an intolerance to dairy in the last two weeks, and I’m scheduled to go to my Dutch friend’s house for lunch on the weekend… where lunch for us traditionally consists of copious amounts of varied types of cheese. This is really een jammer 😭 Getting older kinda sucks.

Ik leer Nederlands so I need to read more Dutch science bits on Bluesky!

How soybeans get the most out of offered help A symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi helps plants during nutrient shortages. But in legumes this is slightly different regulated. A new study analysing this finds that once the symbioses i…

A symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi helps plants during nutrient shortages. A new study shows that once the symbioses is initiated the plant actively recruits more microbes to help.
Read more about this study on my blog
plantenzo.net/2025/10/14/h...

🧪 #PlantScience

We are pleased to announce this new ECR award generously supported by @newphyt.bsky.social Foundation for travel to ICOM2026. Details 👇

A mobile DELLA controls Medicago truncatula root cortex patterning to host arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Cell division and specification are crucial for plant development and coping with diverse environmental cues. Most land plants rely on symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi to cope with soil nutrient limitations by forming arbuscules in root inner cortex cells. What determines the AM susceptibility of these inner cortex cells is currently unknown. Here we show that DELLA transcriptional regulators control the number of inner cortex cells with an AM-susceptible identity at the root stem cell niche of Medicago truncatula in a dose-dependent manner. Genetic analyses suggest that this activity converges with the well-known mobile SHORT-ROOT transcription factor regulating ground tissue development. Furthermore, we show that MtDELLA1 protein moves from the stele/endodermis to the cortex in the mature part of the root to facilitate arbuscule formation. We propose that the formation of a root inner cortex cell identity controlled by mobile DELLA and SHORT-ROOT is a fundamental basis for AM symbiosis.

Beautiful work from Erik Limpens, Ton Bisseling and coll. in @natplants.nature.com. A must read! -> A mobile DELLA controls Medicago truncatula root cortex patterning to host arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi | Nature Plants

Rooting for function: community‐level fine‐root traits relate to many ecosystem functions Humans are driving biodiversity change, which also alters community functional traits. However, how changes in the functional traits of the community alter ecosystem functions—especially belowground...

📢 Hot off the press in New Phytologist!
A fresh study explores the link between root traits and ecosystem functions 🌱🌍, with our very own Thom Kuyper among the co-authors! 👏

🔗 Check it out :
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Oh noooooo 😩

A large brown building on the campus of Wageningen university

When will we see the sun again? 😶‍🌫️

Ship tracker map showing the location of the container in China with a predicted journey to Netherlands.

Today it's 120 days since we last saw our "stuff". Supposedly today was the latest date for it arrive to us in the Netherlands.

Our stuff is in... *checks tracker*... China. Awesome.

And it's going ALL the way around Africa to get to NL??

Taking donations for warm clothing now 🙃

Want to meet this awesome group of plant scientists?

Join us at ASPS 2025 in Adelaide, 24-27 November!

(Photo from ASPS 2023 conference in Hobart)

Register: bit.ly/4p25OJ0

#ASPS2025 #PlantScience #Adelaide

ICOM2026 – Call for Symposia Call for Symposia The Call for Symposia at ICOM2026 is open! Download Application Form below Deadline for submission: 15 October 2025 Decision: 1 November 2025 ICOM2026 will host a series of sympos…

TWO WEEKS TO GO!

The submission deadline for the Call for Symposia for #ICOM2026 is October 15th!

Form and submission deatils here:
icom2026.org/symposia/

🎉Come to the Wageningen Hotspot of the Weekend of Science on Sunday 5th Oct!✨

You will find a variety of activities from the Soil Museum, soil painting, measuring photosynthesis, genetics, games with roots & more...

Spread the word and see you there! Info: weekendvandewetenschap.nl/hotspots/hot...

Lithium in plants: Summary.

Lithium in plants

📖 buff.ly/YFP0LxE
#TansleyReview by Sebastian Garcia-Daga, Sina Fischer and Matthew Gilliham

@plants4space.bsky.social @ionplants.bsky.social
Figure created in BioRender (buff.ly/3dnJ39o).