Kromdijk Lab

🚨 SPECIAL ISSUE - CLOSING SOON 🚨

🤖 Accelerating progress in plant science via AI-driven research 🤖

✍️ Guest edited by Johannes Kromdijk & Zoran Nikoloski

📅 Deadline: 31 January 2026

📄 Research and review paper inquiries are welcome, contact us 👉 bit.ly/JXBissues

#JXBspecialissues #PlantScience 🧪

Check out the newest publication from our lab!! 🌱🌽❄️

List of invited papers to the Accelerating progress in plant science via AI-driven research special issue and paragraph introducing the special issue: Advances in genotyping and phenotyping technologies have resulted in heterogeneous data from different model plants and crops. Whilst the resulting data have been integrated with state-of-the-art approaches from data science, artificial intelligence (AI) offers an untapped potential for innovative usage of these data sets. This special issue will provide detailed overviews and case studies of how AI has transformed predictive models that address diverse problems, from gene function prediction and analysis of cellular networks to prediction of complex crop phenotypes. The special issue will also point at challenges related to data handling and reproducibility in AI-driven research. The special issue is published in association with the SEB Annual Conference Antwerp 2025.

Check out some of expected reviews so far 📝

@plantphys-cam.bsky.social
@mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social
@sebiology.bsky.social

#PlantScience 🧪
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Front cover of a postcard to promote an upcoming special issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany titled "Accelerating progress in plant science via AI-driven research". The issue will be edited by Johannes Kromdijk and Zoran Nikoloski. The image on the postcard is A stylistic representation of a neural network, representative of artificial intelligence advances, powering a growing plant (generated by ChatGPT).

🤖🌿 UPCOMING SPECIAL ISSUE 🌿🤖

💻 Accelerating progress in plant science via AI-driven research 💻
Guest edited by Johannes Kromdijk & Zoran Nikoloski

📅 Deadline: 31 January 2026

📣 Got a manuscript? 👉 Contact the JXB office: bit.ly/JXBissues

#JXBspecialissues #PlantScience 🧪

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Designing photoprotection in future crops (Plant BioDesign Cambridge project) at University of York on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Designing photoprotection in future crops (Plant BioDesign Cambridge project) at University of York, listed on FindAPhD.com

Are you interested in crop improvement using photosynthesis?

We have a new PhD project in our lab available as part of the Plant BioDesign project. Using sequence diversity in PsbS and LHCII antennae to uncover optimal strategies.

Find more detail here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Our postdoc Ali is looking for some help working with an Arabidopsis diversity panel!

Let him know if you have any ideas 🌱 #software #science #plantscience #arabidopsis

Check out Ali’s new paper! 🌱

Dr Tina Schreier awarded ERC Starting Grant

A massive congratulations to @tinaschreier.bsky.social for being awarded an ERC Starting Grant!! Exciting news for the photosynthesis world. Best of luck to you, Tina! 🍃🥼

Read more here: www.biology.ox.ac.uk/article/dr-t...

About 10 tickets left. register today and be part of the @blackinplantsci.bsky.social community
Registration closes this week. blackinplantscience.org/bips-confere...

Had an amazing time at PEPG Workshop 2025 in Lisbon! It was great to gain hands-on experience in plant physiology techniques including chlorophyll fluorescence and gas exchange. Grateful to @sebiology.bsky.social and #PEPG for the opportunity to learn and connect with such a brilliant community!”

Thrilled to join the #JXB75 Symposium, marking the 75th anniversary of the @jxbotany.bsky.social , founded by @sebiology.bsky.social

The meeting opened with workshops on manuscript prep & publication ethics, followed by talks on plant science spanning beginning to future!

Mutation of a stromal C-terminal threonine residue of Photosystem II subunit S slows down NPQ induction and speeds up relaxation In order to prevent damage by excess light, photosystem antennae can switch to an energy dissipative mode (termed non-photochemical quenching, NPQ). In higher plants, this switch is facilitated by the...

Check out our recent pre-print which identifies the role of the first stromal residue involved in PsbS’ NPQ function!

We found mutating the c-term b-strand reduced induction but increased relaxation ☀️ 🌿

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

Welcome Anna! Excited to have you as part of the team 🌿🥼

Exciting times @thepallavisinghlab.bsky.social

Glad to be awarded the Opportunity Seed Funds by @aria-research.bsky.social for our Mistletoe research on
“PlantPlug: Bioengineering Parasitic Plants into Programmable Modules”

Join our group (www.luginbuehllab.com) at @camplantsci.bsky.social! Are you excited about mycorrhiza, (single-cell) transcriptomics, carbon physiology, and the model crop rice? We have a 2-year postdoc position available, starting ASAP. Closing date 23rd May 2025!

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51214/

Great new article on our work on the Cambridge plant sciences website! Have a read! 🌽☀️

Early bird deadline is fast approaching (16/05)

Join Johannes at the #SEBconference in Antwerp.

Book your place now ⬇️
sebiology.org/events/seb-a...

Check out our plant sessions ⬇️
sebiology.org/events/seb-a...

please share - 2 postdoc positions available - molecular physiology of stomata and plant water use of efficiency
lab.igb.illinois.edu/leakey/post-... @ripeproject.bsky.social @aspbofficial.bsky.social

If you haven't already - make sure to save the date to the Black in Plant Science Conference taking place on Friday 24 October at the University of Leeds. Registration will soon be opening so make sure to save the date to avoid disappointment.

Wanne has co-authored a paper on the EPS2 conference last year that was held in Padova 🇮🇹🍝

Four of us were able to attend and hear great talks about all things photosynthesis. It was really great to share our data with the photosynthesis world! ☀️🍃

Find the paper here:

doi.org/10.1111/ppl....

🌿 Excited to share our latest preprint!
We tracked how plasmodesmata numbers evolved across the path from C₃ → C₄ photosynthesis in Flaveria - and found a stepwise increase in cell-to-cell connectivity.
Thoughts or feedback are most welcome 😊
#PlantScience

Extensive photophysiological variation in wild barley is linked to environmental origin ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Wild relatives of crop species provide untapped genetic potential for ecological resilience. We looked at 320 wild relatives of Barley and combined physiology experiments with GWAS data to determine variation in light capture and photoprotection 🌾🧬📊🌱 check it out here!
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

The whole lab has been busy today tidying and cleaning our lab space 🧪🧼🫧🥼
Luckily this is all made easier with pizza for lunch! Also welcome to Eva, our new PhD student who started today! 🍕

Great opportunity to join the wonderful plant biologists at @lancasterplantbio.bsky.social and work on Rubisco biochemistry and engineering 🥼🧪🌱☀️

And a 3 year tech position is also now live. Synthetic biology project funded by the Advanced Research + Innovation Agency (ARIA). Please apply / RP! www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51027/
@camplantsci.bsky.social

Faster relaxation of nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) in C4 than in C3 species Acceleration of photoprotective non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) responses to changes in light intensity has been suggested as a strategy to enhance crop yield. Despite many key crops utilising C4 ph...

Have you ever wondered about NPQ in C4 plants? ☀️🪴 Check out the recent pre-print from Lucìa who used to be a PhD student/post-doc in our lab and now works for the @ripeproject.bsky.social in Illinois. She shows that C4 plants have faster NPQ than related C3 plants.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

A deficient CP24 allele defines variation for dynamic non-photochemical quenching and photosystem II efficiency in maize (John N Ferguson, Leonardo Caproni, Julia Walter, Katie Shaw, Lucia Arce-Cubas, et. al.) academic.oup.com/plcell/advan... #PlantScience

A deficient CP24 allele defines variation for dynamic non-photochemical quenching and photosystem II efficiency in maize High throughput phenotyping of a maize multi-founder mapping population reveals genetic factors controlling dynamic photoprotection and photosystem II effi

Happy to share the publication of our recent work on the identification of CP24 as a determinant of variation in NPQ and PSII efficiency in maize 🌽☀️.

This paper involved a massive team effort in the lab and collaboration with colleagues at @essexuni.bsky.social 🧬🧪

tinyurl.com/yn7hwjyk

New paper from Georgia Taylor et al. @plantphys-cam.bsky.social on the role of hydrogen peroxide in coordinating photosynthesis with stomatal opening:

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Chloroplast-derived hydrogen peroxide coordinates photosynthesis with stomatal opening Stomatal pores on plant leaves control the entry point of carbon into the terrestrial biosphere and concomitant release of water vapour into the atmosphere. Stomatal aperture changes need to be coordi...

She shows that when hydrogen peroxide scavenging is compromised in mutants, stomatal opening is increased but can be rescued by H202 production derived from plastoquinol.

Pre-print can be found on @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social

biorxiv.org/content/10.1...