Steven Burgess

New paper from the Hanson lab - KO of all 11 rbcS genes (!!) in tobacco to create a null line for rubisco engineering, plus resurrection of ancestral forms www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Disequilibrium between chloroplast proton motive force and ATP levels in Arabidopsis Current dogma holds that CO2 fixation by photosynthesis requires additional ATP production via PGR5-dependent cyclic electron transfer (PGR5-CET) to augment the NADPH and ATP produced by linear electr...

An interesting and provocative preprint by the Johnson group that challenges the decades old hypothesis that PGR5-cyclic electron flow is required to balance ATP/NADPH requirements for carbon fixation @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social worth a read doi.org/10.1101/2025... #photosynthesis

The fitness landscape of a Form II rubisco in a photosynthetic bacterium guides engineering of oxygen tolerance Rubisco is an important but challenging protein engineering target. Fast and selective rubiscos could enhance photosynthesis in plants and accelerate biobased production processes. To facilitate engin...

Nice paper characterizing rubisco mutants www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#plantsynbio peeps, has anyone played around with cell penetrating peptides? some of the papers look fairly convincing for delivery of DNA e.g. 10.1021/acs.biomac.8b00323. but am curious why not used more widely. Viruses and agro are just easier for most applications?

Engineering plant rubisco enzymes through high-throughput enzyme assays and cryo-EM (Plant BioDesign Cambridge project) at University of York on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Engineering plant rubisco enzymes through high-throughput enzyme assays and cryo-EM (Plant BioDesign Cambridge project) at University of York, listed on FindAPhD.com

🌱🚨 Funded PhD for UK students 🇬🇧🌿
Take a look at this Plant BioDesign Doctoral Training Program.
Come work with me and @michaelwebster.bsky.social to study plant rubiscos. High throughput biochem at Cambridge and Cryo-EM techniques at the John Innes Centre.

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Very excited to finally share my PhD paper, about advancing #chloroplast #synbio through high-throughput plastome engineering of #Chlamydomonas.
Huge thanks to the whole team!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Advert for PhD studentship on PIF protein in wheat with Matthew Terry, University of Southampton

I have a PhD studentship available to work on PIF proteins in wheat with Stephen Pearce @rothamsted.bsky.social and @colleendrapek.bsky.social at Phytoform labs. Any reposts greatly appreciated.

Very happy to share that this paper is now online on @currentbiology.bsky.social !! 🥳🧪 Check out the final published verion here: www.cell.com/current-biol...
#mimuluspropaganda

Evaluating effects of elevated [CO2] and accelerated NPQ relaxation on yield, physiology and transcription in soybean Improving photosynthetic efficiency is proposed as a means of enhancing crop productivity under rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations ([CO2]). To assess whether additive gains can be realized from sim...

Link here doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Both VPZ and WT showed equal response to eCO2, suggesting against sink limitation, but there was no growth or yield benefit of VPZ in the year tested. It is possible that environment can play an important role in determining the efficacy of this strategy and further research is required. #plantsci

There were very few genes that showed differential expression between WT and VPZ. However one was a mitochondrial thioredoxin, further studies are required, but it may point towards redox imbalance. We have some ideas why that will try to explore further in a later paper. Other take-homes...

While VPZ soy saw increased light use efficiency, we did not see increased maximum efficiency of CO2 fixation under the conditions tested. So more electrons - but not used for photosynthesis. Why this differs from previous years is unclear, but transcriptomics provides some clues..

New preprint - it has been my sad duty to help get this out after the passing of Steve Long and Amy Marshall-Colon. Testing combined effects of VPZ phenotype and eCO2 in soy (attempt to mimic improving both light use efficiency and CO2 assimilation). What exactly VPZ is doing remains unclear 1/n

Work started by Don Ort's lab. How is rubisco activase regulated? There are suggestions that phosphorylation acts redundantly with redox to control activity. This paper shows if it does, this is likely limited to Arabidopsis. The role of PTMs (if any) in regulating Rca is still unclear #plantsci

Pls help: I've read in several papers about use of kits from "Genmed Scientifics" which is quoted as a US based company, although the city quoted varies. No amount of Google searching can actually find this company, or the kits. Does anyone know what this is? I don't think it's fraud, but its weird

The @uncchapelhill.bsky.social Department of Biology is searching for tenure-track Assistant Professor in Plant Molecular Biology. Chapel Hill is a wonderful place and Biology is an amazing group of people. To apply, see:
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...

An ad for a PhD position to start fall 2026 working with me at ETSU. For more info, please email at LeeBR1@etsu.edu.

A close-up picture of dimpled trout lilies active in early spring, still largely surrounded by the previous year's senesced tree leaves.

A beautiful vista of the Blue Ridge Mountains from on top of Carver's Gap on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee.

🚨 Please repost widely!🚨

I am recruiting a PhD student to join my lab next fall to work on forest and climate change ecology projects in southern Appalachia! Come join me in one of the most beautiful, biodiverse, and understudied parts of North America. Details below and happy to answer questions

Interesting read -10.1093/plphys/kiaf465 "Allelic variants of IRKI contribute to photosynthetic efficiency by regulating rubisco activase in Populus" there is a lot we don't know about regulation of photosynthesis here a receptor like kinase interacting protein has a role @plantphys.bsky.social

FindAPhD : NorthWestBio Fully Funded Doctoral Training Programme Studentship 2026 at University of Glasgow Apply for a PhD: NorthWestBio Fully Funded Doctoral Training Programme Studentship 2026 at University of Glasgow

New #PhD opportunities! NorthWestBio projects now online for 2026! Including a #photosynthesis project w/ @marjorielundgren.bsky.social looking at how photosynthetic diversity may affect future crop nutrient quality. Plant projects and the full set of projects available here: tinyurl.com/529yz4jd

The Function, Evolution, and Future of Carboxysomes Abstract. Since their discovery as rubisco-containing compartments more than 50 years ago, significant breakthroughs have advanced our understanding of car

We really enjoyed putting together this Darwin Review for JXB. Fun to think about how carboxysomes work and why plants don't have them.

@jxbotany.bsky.social

Function, Evolution, and Future of Carboxysomes url: academic.oup.com/jxb/article-...

Dual-cycle CO2 fixation enhances growth and lipid synthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana Carbon fixation through the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle accounts for the majority of carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake from the atmosphere. The CBB cycle generates C3 carbohydrates but is inefficient ...

Just came across this paper "Dual-cycle CO2 fixation enhances growth and lipid synthesis..."
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I'm deeply saddened. A tireless champion of plant #synbio and man of integrity. His insistence on focusing on real-world problems, calling out BS and bringing together lab and Ag, industry and academia will be sorely missed

Calling #mycologists and anyone working on plant fungal interactions, please help spread the word - opportunity to come work with these wonderful people @minyaaa.bsky.social @roseamarks.bsky.social @dallingjim.bsky.social

We are hiring! The #PlantBio department at UIUC is looking to recruit an Assistant Professor in Plant-Fungal interactions. Application deadline is October 31st @dallingjim.bsky.social see the link below for more details:
illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Big news from the Demirer lab: first 4 research papers are preprinted! Check them out, feedback welcomed:

eCIS for plant protein delivery: tinyurl.com/mrx4d878
R2 for targeted insertion: tinyurl.com/5n73za6h
Transient expression: tinyurl.com/38p2ud6w
Chemotaxis assay: tinyurl.com/3nw9haes

More ⬇️

👉 my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
Join us and be part of shaping the future of #plantscience at Oxford as we move to the new Life and Mind Building lifeandmind.web.ox.ac.uk/home (recognised for its potential to change the World edition.cnn.com/2025/01/01/s...) @biology.ox.ac.uk www.biology.ox.ac.uk

A unified cell atlas of vascular plants reveals cell-type foundational genes and accelerates gene discovery A cross-species single-cell atlas highlights a core subset of cell-type foundational genes associated with major vascular plant cell types, enabling the identification of hidden cell types and the dev...

A great example of how comparative genomics across the full range of vascular plant lineages can be used as a catalyst for gene discovery!
Exciting new single cell datasets for gymnosperms, ferns and lycophytes!
The scale of this study is really amazing!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Assembly-dependent translational feedback regulation of photosynthetic proteins in land plants - Nature Plants Algae fine-tune protein synthesis to assembly demands of photosynthetic complexes. In land plants, this feedback control is conserved in Rubisco and partly in photosystem II, but varies or is absent i...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#PlantScience

I’m proud to present the main work from my postdoc, 3+ years in making from scratch, my ultimate #MimulusPropaganda up till now:

The Moment
That
Symmetry
Breaks.

#plantscience #development #imaging #microscopy 🧪🌸🔬
w. Captain Yaowu & @biancatash.bsky.social

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