Cecilia Blikstad (@cblikstad) — Bluesky Profile

6 days ago

This odd little plant could help turbocharge crop yields. An international team of researchers has uncovered a remarkable molecular trick used by a unique group of land plants called hornworts, one… ... This odd little plant could help turbocharge crop yields. An international team of researchers has uncovered a remarkable molecular trick used by a unique group of land plants called hornworts, one t...

www.linkedin.com/posts/this-o...

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1 week ago

An unconventional Rubisco small subunit underpins the CO2-concentrating organelle in land plants In many algae, photosynthesis is boosted by biophysical CO2-concentrating mechanisms, which pack the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco into liquid-like organelles called pyrenoids. Engineering C3 crops with a...

Our work on #hornwort #pyrenoids is finally out in @science.org! 🎉 We uncovered how hornworts pack their Rubisco into pyrenoids and successfully recreated them in Arabidopsis. A key step toward engineering more efficient photosynthesis in crops @btiscience.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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1 week ago

[CO2] Alters Cyanobacterial Carboxysome Encapsulation and Redox State Responsible for fixing 25% of CO2 globally, cyanobacteria use carboxysomes to house their CO2 fixing machinery. The formation and permeability of the proteinaceous shell of carboxysomes is an area of ...

[CO2] Alters Cyanobacterial Carboxysome Encapsulation and Redox State www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-4...

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1 week ago

🍃🎤🍃 Speaker announcement 🍃🎤🍃

Its that time again... introducing our next set of Invited Speakers for Photosynthesis 2026 🌱

🌿 Join us in Liverpool this July 🌿
⏰️ Abstract submission for oral presentations closes 31st March

Find out more 👉 photosynthesis2026.com

#plantscience #ICPR26
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1 week ago

🍃 Invited Speakers 🍃 photosynthesis2026.com

Biophysical CO2-concentrating mechanisms
🌿 Martin Jonikas, Princeton University
🌿 Cecilia Blikstad, Uppsala University

@mjonikas.bsky.social @cblikstad.bsky.social
#ICPR26 #photosynthesis

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1 week ago

[CO2] Alters Cyanobacterial Carboxysome Encapsulation and Redox State Responsible for fixing 25% of CO2 globally, cyanobacteria use carboxysomes to house their CO2 fixing machinery. The formation and permeability of the proteinaceous shell of carboxysomes is an area of ...

[CO2] Alters Cyanobacterial Carboxysome Encapsulation and Redox State www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-4...

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2 weeks ago

[CO2] Alters Cyanobacterial Carboxysome Encapsulation and Redox State Responsible for fixing 25% of CO2 globally, cyanobacteria use carboxysomes to house their CO2 fixing machinery. The formation and permeability of the proteinaceous shell of carboxysomes is an area of ...

[CO2] Alters Cyanobacterial Carboxysome Encapsulation and Redox State

www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-4...

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2 weeks ago

Come join us in Liverpool this summer!

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3 weeks ago

🍃🎤🍃 Speaker announcement 🍃🎤🍃

Photosynthesis 2026 will feature 20+ concurrent sessions - today we're happy to introduce the first set of invited speakers!

🌿 Join them in Liverpool, 26- 30th July 🌿
Register now 👉 photosynthesis2026.com

#plantscience #ICPR26 #photosynthesis
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1 month ago

A little protein with a big role in building Earth's carbon fixing machinery An international team of scientists has discovered that a small, low-abundance protein plays a surprisingly big role in assembling carboxysomes—specialized bacterial microcompartments that enable efficient carbon fixation and underpin much of life on Earth.

A small, low-abundance protein has been identified as essential for assembling carboxysomes, key bacterial structures that enhance carbon fixation and underpin global photosynthetic efficiency. doi.org/hbn967

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1 month ago

Congrats everyone! It looks great 🤩

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1 month ago

Stages of biomolecular condensate formation in pro-β-carboxysome assembly - Nature Plants Carboxysomes are cyanobacterial CO2-concentrating compartments with a proteinaceous shell. The elucidation of the role of the shell adaptor protein ApN in stepwise β-carboxysome assembly will aid the ...

Stages of biomolecular condensate formation in pro-β-carboxysome assembly www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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1 month ago

Stages of biomolecular condensate formation in pro-β-carboxysome assembly - Nature Plants Carboxysomes are cyanobacterial CO2-concentrating compartments with a proteinaceous shell. The elucidation of the role of the shell adaptor protein ApN in stepwise β-carboxysome assembly will aid the ...

The new publication "Stages of biomolecular condensate formation in pro-β-carboxysome assembly" from the Manajit Hayer-Hartl team is out at Nature Plants!

❕ Publication: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Rubisco #carboxysome #cyanobacteria

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1 month ago

Great fun working with Manajit Hayer-Hartl and her amazing team at @mpibiochem.bsky.social bringing this work on the beta-carboxyome protein ApN (CcmN) together.

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1 month ago

Functional characterisation of bicarbonate transporters from the cyanobacterial SbtA2 family and subsequent expression in tobacco Abstract. Cyanobacteria rely on bicarbonate (HCO3-) as the primary inorganic carbon (Ci) source for photosynthesis in aquatic environments. To use this Ci

Functional characterisation of bicarbonate transporters from the cyanobacterial SbtA2 family and subsequent expression in tobacco academic.oup.com/jxb/article/... @jxbotany.bsky.social

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1 month ago

Announcement for photosynthesis 2026 Keynotes and Plenaries featuring black and white pictures of 12 scientists

🍃🎤🍃 Speaker announcement 🍃🎤🍃

Join our incredible line-up of Keynotes & Plenary Speakers at Photosynthesis 2026 in Liverpool this July!

✍️ Register & submit an abstract now
👉 photosynthesis2026.com

#plantscience 🧪 #ICPR26 #photosynthesis

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1 month ago

We genetically disconnected starch from the matrix in the algal pyrenoid!

A saga1;saga2 double mutant lacks a starch sheath!

Our model: SAGA1 & SAGA2 locally initiate starch on the pyrenoid surface by enriching starch precursors.

🌞🦠🔬🔌👀

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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1 month ago

How does molecular valency shape condensate assembly and function? We used the CO2-fixing organelle in algae—the pyrenoid—to find out… 🧵

Preprint here!:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

@cellarchlab.com @phaips.vd.st @biologyatyork.bsky.social
#Rubisco #PhaseSeparation #Condensates #Pyrenoid

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2 months ago

Atomic resolution structure of spinach rubisco reveals protons and dynamics www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.22.696010v1 #cryoEM

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1 month ago

Sticker number modulates pyrenoid condensate assembly to support algal fitness The valency of intrinsically disordered proteins underpins liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), yet how this parameter shapes condensate function and cellular fitness remains poorly understood. Here we exploit the algal pyrenoid—a minimal, two component LLPS system—to directly link condensate properties to physiological performance. Pyrenoid assembly is driven by a disordered, multivalent Linker protein that binds Rubisco at symmetry-related surface sites, with the number of binding motifs (″stickers″) varying across species. Using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii , we systematically tuned sticker number from two to nine and examined effects on Rubisco condensation, pyrenoid architecture and CO2 fixation. Three stickers were sufficient for condensation in vitro, but at least four were required for pyrenoid assembly in vivo. Cryo-electron tomography and single-molecule tracking revealed that increasing sticker number enhances Rubisco packing and mobility, while time-resolved imaging and competition assays demonstrated that sticker number governs the kinetics of pyrenoid formation and determines cellular fitness under fluctuating carbon conditions. Our findings establish sticker number as an evolutionary tuning parameter that balances condensate formation, dynamics, and function, providing a quantitative framework for linking the molecular grammar of phase separation to biological fitness. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. EPSRC, EP/W024063/1

Sticker number modulates pyrenoid condensate assembly to support algal fitness www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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1 month ago

Pyrenoid Structure, Function, Evolution, and Characterization Across Diverse Lineages Pyrenoids are eukaryotic CO2-fixing organelles that are evolutionarily diverse, globally abundant, and critical to global carbon cycling. Despite being described over 200 years ago, the vast majority ...

Pyrenoid Structure, Function, Evolution, and Characterization Across Diverse Lineages.

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

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2 months ago

Very proud to be part of this project!
This not only is the (nominally) highest resolution non-ApoF cryoEM structure, but also for the first time resolved a ligand and structural hetetogeneity in that resolution range, giving new insights into the Rubisco enzyme mechanism. A nice start for Krios 5!

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2 months ago

Thanks for a great collaboration Oliver! We are very fortunate that we got the opportunity to have you collect the data.

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2 months ago

Original post on fediscience.org

RE: https://fediscience.org/@Guillawme/111534984107819771

Something really cool happened to me this year!

@HRBridges re-processed a #cryoEM dataset from some previous work of mine and colleagues (publicly available as EMPIAR-10739; see quoted post below for a summary of this work). She […]

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3 months ago

Feeding from the sun—Successes and prospects in bioengineering photosynthesis for food security

www.sciencedirect.com:5037/science/arti...

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8 months ago

Great carboxysome review from @botbml.bsky.social and team!

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8 months ago

Understanding carboxysomes to enhance carbon fixation in crops Carboxysomes are bacterial microcompartments that enhance photosynthetic CO2 fixation by encapsulating ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) within a high-CO2 environment. Their mo...

Understanding carboxysomes to enhance carbon fixation in crops portlandpress.com/biochemsoctr...

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9 months ago

The 11th International Symposium on Inorganic Carbon Utilization by Aquatic Photosynthetic Organisms (CCM11) Wed 20 Aug - Fri 22 [EDT]: 11th International Symposium on Inorganic Carbon Utilization by Aquatic Photosynthetic Organisms (CCM11) will take place at the University of York on August 20-22 later…

📅New #PlantSciEvents Event Added: The 11th International Symposium on Inorganic Carbon Utilization by Aquatic Photosynthetic Organisms (CCM11)

👉 buff.ly/jWqcD6B \

#PlantScience

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9 months ago

Join us in Denmark for a great meeting!

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9 months ago

#postdoc #biochemistry #co2fixation #cryoem

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