Johnathan Napier

Mutations in components of the TREX-2 complex result in misexpression of the Kelch-domain F-Box protein KFB39 promoter in Arabidopsis thaliana Arabidopsis thaliana gene At2g44130 encodes a Kelch-like domain F-box protein designated KFB39 and was previously shown to be specifically expressed on exposure to the oxylipin cis -jasmone. In order ...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A surprising diversion for me - something that isn't about omega-3s. But an interesting and genuinely puzzling excursion into Arabidopsis forward genetics and promoter-reporter gene regulation. Credit to Michaela Matthes for driving this project.

On behalf of Plant Biotechnology Journal, very happy to support this meeting. I attended Plastid Preview meetings as an ECR (quite some time ago!) and they are vibrant and productive events.

Great to see our collaborative study with Ed Cahoon and colleagues on the front cover of PBJ, describing our successful efforts to engineer the accumulation of astaxanthin in GM camelina seeds. Astaxanthin is a ketocarotenoid that is a powerful antioxidant & used in aquaculture feeds as a pigment.

In a great collaboration led by Ed Cahoon at UNL we engineered Camelina to make the pigment astaxanthin. We used genes from the Adonis plant - picture below gives a clue why! Successfully field trialled in UK & USA. Helping to make aquaculure more sustainable. www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/camelin...

It was a pleasure to be part of the team that delivered this study, led by colleagues at Malaga (and including Noemi Ruiz Lopez who used to work on our omega-3 project). @rothamsted.bsky.social contributed with our world-class lipidomics capability, delivered by @lvm.bsky.social and Richard Haslam.

In addition to our big 4000m2 GM camelina trial at Suffolk, last week we also sowed some smaller plots on the @rothamsted.bsky.social Farm in Harpenden. This trial has a range of traits & combines GE with GM approaches. Nice pics by Lihua Han of the ISPG GM field trial team & site. Blue skies too!

I have no idea what this Nat Plants Editorial is advocating for. Saying '..its a very complicated issue' is pretty feeble. But a wider question should be 'why aren't more people doing field trials'? Aren't they interested in seeing if stuff works in the real world? Or is that someone else's job?

Another GM camelina field trial successfully drilled this Saturday, under the azure skies of Suffolk. The @rothamsted.bsky.social Farm team of Mark, Samuil & Lewis did a great job in the hot & dusty conditions, but that's what testing in the real world is like. Thx also to Lihua Han for pix.

Same weight, more omega-3: rainbow trout thrive on GM camelina oil A diet containing omega-3 and astaxanthin that were both derived from the same genetically modified ...

Important and impactful data from a joint study using our GM camelina oil. Great collaboration with University of Stirling, BioMar & NTNU in Norway. Our novel oil really works as a sustainable replacement for fish oil - exciting to see this confirmed again!
www.fishfarmingexpert.com/fish-welfare...

Very happy to have contributed to this article. It's a topic I am very passionate about. We need to see significantly more translational and impact from all the investments in fundamental research. It is weird that many primary publications claim a big breakthrough, and then, nothing more happens!

Thank you to @johnathan-n.bsky.social from @rothamsted.bsky.social for visiting @ljmuofficial.bsky.social today. His talk on #plant #biotechnology showed how to tackle a global problem and develop a solution. Now there are plants producing beneficial oils for the benefit of society

Here's an update on our camelina transformation pipeline. Because we use a visual marker (DsRed) we can chip the primary transgenic seeds for non-destructive analyses. Compare that with other systems that require extended tissue culture stages, and camelina is a clear winner!

This should be an exciting session, exploring multiple aspects of translational and predictive biology. @meganlmatthews.bsky.social is the lead organiser and I am happy to provide additional support. Also pleased to acknowledge the support of PBJ for this session. See you all in Antwerp!

Glad you liked the hamster wheel analogy! It's a pet (!) hate of mine that endless cycles of discovery are given preference over translational efforts to deliver some of actual value and benefit! The utility of academic novelty is grossly overestimated, IMHO.

Rothamsted welcomes latest advance of UK Government Precision Breeding Legislation. "This Act will make life much easier for creators and developers working with precision bred - specifically gene edited - crops" @johnathan-n.bsky.social
Full story: www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/rothams...

Here at @rothamsted.bsky.social we are fortunate to have a very large area of GM glasshouse. Here we are growing up enough plants to transform 18 different constructs, optimising the accumulation of EPA&DHA omega-3 fish oils. Camelina is the ideal crop for such an iterative approach.

www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/rothams...
Great that so many @rothamsted.bsky.social people contributed to making this event a success, interacting with MPs & policy makers. Also almost certainly the first time anyone has brought gene edited seeds in the House of Commons!

I don't get into the lab much (to the immense relief of everyone else!) but this afternoon I was screening some of our high Omega-3 lines for the presence of the DsRed marker - this event is homozygous & stable, making lots of EPA after growing in the field last year. That's a success!!

Happy Holidays! Here's a rather unseasonal pic from the garden today. I always associated Primulas with Easter, but climate change has altered all that (and not in a good way).

Just because it is the festive season doesn't mean we stop our experiments - lots of GM and GE camelina plants growing in our glasshouses. Happy Holidays!

ButtonPearsallRidley | SSA Are Defra Ministers being misled by campaigning NGOs over farmland bird numbers?

An investigation by SSA into a recent UK Govt report charting further declines in farmland bird numbers in Britain raises serious questions about the scientific basis on which these statistics are collected and interpreted.

Find out more 👇
www.scienceforsustainableagriculture.com/buttonpearsa...

A word about my profile pic (with the 'nice to see you.' strapline, appropriate for Bsky!) - I took this photo in May in Bedminster, Bristol, when I was part of a panel discussing food security (in a pub!). I lived & worked in Bristol for 12 years, and it's where my omega-3 project was born.

Since everyone seems to be joining the Bluesky community, here's a photo of my GM field trial under what passes for a blue sky in the UK. As a research community, we need to do more experiments in the field, especially if we are making claims about potential impacts etc. Just go outside!

Scientists dismayed as UK ministers clear way for gene editing of crops - but not animals Advocates urge government to allow ‘precision breeding’ to combat disease, but RSPCA warns of ethical dangers

Why the regulation of gene editing in the UK needs to be fully enabling for both crops and farmed animals.
www.theguardian.com/science/2024...

Great to see the UK's new Labour government commit to enabling the Precision Breeding Act (2023) - this will make the regulatory path to market for GE crops much clearer and straightforward. An excellent first step in building a GE&GM-based bioeconomy.
www.rothamsted.ac.uk/news/uk-gove...

Colour my Life.
GM Camelina seeds engineered with different traits, including ketocarotenoids and betalain. Using metabolic engineering to do something useful doesn't mean it can't look great too!

We harvested our GM camelina field trial at Rothamsted this week - always a thrill to get to this point. I have been running GM trials since 2014 and they are essential to validate observations made in containment. As a community, we need to do more field trials to reveal viable discoveries.

Thanks, great to be here! I am currently based at Rothamsted Research in the UK, making omega-3 fish oils in GM camelina. Interested in field trials and translating fundamental results into innovations with societal benefits.