Antony Dodd

January 2026, The Plant Cell cover

We made the front cover of @theplantcell.bsky.social!

Huge congratulations to co-first authors @katielong.bsky.social and Ashleigh Lister, corresponding author @cristobaluauy.bsky.social and everyone at JIC, @earlhaminst.bsky.social and @vizgen.bsky.social who collaborated on this exciting work 👏

Two people are standing in a lush greenhouse, each holding a potted plant. One holds pink circular signs. There are various green plants in the background, and the ground is paved.

A greenhouse door features a colourful poster for "Talking Plants" at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, running from 11 February to 12 April in the Glasshouse Range. The poster includes colourful plant illustrations, a QR code, and a note about free entry with garden admission.

An individual stands in a greenhouse, holding a phone and looking at lush green plants and ferns. There's a sign in the background reading "Life Before Flowers." The setting is serene with natural lighting.

🌱One week to go until Talking Plants opens!

📱Scan a QR code and strike up a conversation!

🪴Our team is busy preparing the plants and testing conversations before the exhibition opens on 11 February.

📍Find out more: https://www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/talking-plants/

#CambridgeUniversityBotanicGarden

That is very good to know.

Fig. 2 (shortened, full legend in paper): Structurally characterized M. oryzae effectors in complex with the HMA or HMA-like domains of host target proteins and ID-NLRs. Crystal structures of (A) AVR-PikF with the HMA-like domain of OsHIPP19 from rice (7B1I) (Maidment et al., 2021); (B) APikL2A with the HMA-like domain of sHMA25 from foxtail millet (7NLJ) (Bentham et al., 2021); (C) Pwl2 with the HMA domain of OsHIPP43 from rice (8R7D) (Zdrzałek et al., 2024); (D) AVR-PikD with the HMA-like ID of Pikp-1 from rice (5A6W) (Maqbool et al., 2015); (E) AVR-Pia with the HMA-like ID of Pikp-1 (6Q76) (Varden et al., 2019); (F) AVR1-CO39 with the HMA-like ID of RGA5 from rice (5ZNG) (Guo et al., 2018). Complexes are displayed such that the HMA/HMA-like domains are in equivalent orientations. Domains from HPP/HIPP host targets are coloured light green. Domains from ID-NLRs are coloured dark green.

⚙️🦠 REVIEW 🦠⚙️

Turley & Faulkner explore the function of plant heavy metal-associated domain-containing proteins and speculate about their functions at plasmodesmata by drawing from plant–pathogen interaction studies.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪 Christine Faulkner

Two postdoctoral positions (3-year) in Experimental Evolution of Methanogenic Microbiomes in Bioelectrochemical Systems Application deadline: 4 March 2026 at 23:59 hours local Danish time

I’m looking for two postdoctoral scientists in experimental evolution to join my team from April 2026 (or soon after). Please share! fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Evolution and development: What makes a merry stem? From tiny mosses to giant redwoods, around 450,000 species of land plants show a huge variety of forms, yet all land plants develop from stem cells in proliferative meristems. What makes a meristem? T...

It was good to catch up on my reading for this dispatch in Current Biology. Sjoerd Woudenberg in the Weijers lab, Wallner et al. In the Dolan lab and Flores Sandoval et al. In the Bowman lab have done a great job! Evolution and development: What makes a merry stem?: www.cell.com/current-biol...

New publication for the CfTB!
Time of day of cardiac surgery and postoperative outcomes in the UK: a secondary analysis of linked national datasets

associationofanaesthetists-publications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/VKP7YS...

Full professor for plant ecology in Regensburg. #plantscience #plantscijobs

jobs.zeit.de/jobs/w3-prof...

'They've probably been untouched for 49 million years': The New Mexico cave expanding our search for alien life In one of the most baffling discoveries of the last decade, scientists have found a clue in a cave to how life might survive in deep space without light.

This is cool! "Plants and cyanobacteria use chlorophyll a for photosynthesis, but cyanobacteria in the Carlsbad caves use chlorophyll d and f, which can generate energy from near-infrared light."

www.bbc.com/future/artic...

Alison Smith, Author and Emeritus Fellow at the John Innes Centre said, “We were inspired to write this book by the stimulating, creative and supportive environment provided by our JIC and TSL colleagues. It is intended to provide a new generation of plant scientists with an appreciation of the wealth and breadth of radically new knowledge and technologies in plant science. The book also reveals some of the exciting opportunities for fundamental discovery and innovation in plant science to help tackle global challenges including sustainable food production, environmental pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss.”

📢 New plant science textbook

Staff and alumni from our institute and @thesainsburylab.bsky.social have recently published Essential Plant Biology, a new textbook presenting current and comprehensive knowledge of plant biology 🌱

Someone has been sending fake/phishing emails that impersonate my work email. If you get such an email- it is probably obvious- please check with me/delete.

Full Professor and Chair Laboratory of Biophysics We are looking for a Full Professor in the Biophysics chair group, part of Wageningen University & Research (WUR)

www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/f...

Become our new colleague (and next door neighbor) and lead a chair/group/department of Biophysics at Wageningen University. Reach out to me for info and please spread!!!

A reminder to sign up for the 2026 EMBO archaeal meeting im Cambridge: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc.... Registration is open. We are looking forward to hosting you!

Having fun with the microscope lately. Here’s one of my favourite artsy and slightly psychedelic shots of #Marchantia chloroplasts and a fluorescent membrane reporter. (z-stack maximum projection)

I am excited to offer a postdoctoral research position in my lab in Oxford studying the distribution of small RNAs during plant sexual reproduction. shorturl.at/7Goxt
Reposts appreciated!
Obligatory cat video to brighten your day. :-)

Radio Norfolk - Listen Live - BBC Sounds Listen live to Radio Norfolk on BBC Sounds

@jonathandgjones.bsky.social on BBC Radio Norfolk sharing why Norwich Research Park hosts some of the top scientists in the world.
Starts at 11:40 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Special List Plant & Cell Physiology publishes several special issues each year that cover a wide range of research topics in the plant sciences. Special issues are

📣Special Issue - call for papers📣

‘Plant Vascular Biology: Functional Design for Transport and Signaling’🌱

Organising Editors:
Koh Aoki, Christine Faulkner @pdchristine.bsky.social, Yrjö Helariutta, Yuki Kondo & Misato Ohtani

📝More info & contact: academic.oup.com/pcp/pages/Sp...

#PlantScience

Job opportunity!

Research Assistant / Research Associate in Molecular Physiology

Fixed term

Closes on Wednesday 28 January 2026

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

#PlantSci #PlantSciJobs

Why evidence matters in health research Professor George Davey Smith explains why he encourages scientists to look for ways they might be wrong.

Mistaking correlation for causation doesn’t just waste research funding, it can shape real-world health advice.

In our new blog, Prof. George Davey Smith, 2025 MRC Millennium Medal winner, explains why he encourages scientists to look for ways they might be wrong.

www.ukri.org/blog/why-evi...

Nutrient uptake in commensal bacteria: exploring uncharacterised TonB-dependent transporters. at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Nutrient uptake in commensal bacteria: exploring uncharacterised TonB-dependent transporters. at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com

Lots of PhD opportunities for UK + international students involving my lab. Topics relate to metals & microbiology.

First up: TonB-dependent receptors in commensal Neisseria in my lab at Durham, with @kjosts.bsky.social and @mattbashton.bsky.social.

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

Light pollution creates multiple threats to the movement ecology of nocturnal arthropod taxa Light pollution is a major contributing factor to declines in global biodiversity1,2 that is steadily increasing in both severity and spatial extent.3…

Our researchers reveal that light pollution disrupts nocturnal insects & spiders' movements.🏙️🕷️

Dr Rochelle Meah & Prof Nicholas Roberts highlight two key effects:

1️⃣ Masked day-to-night transitions. 🌙🕷️
2️⃣ Blinded polarized light for navigation.☀️🦋

Read➡️: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

<i>Microbiology</i> Editors: Call for expressions of interest

Want some editorial experience? The @microbiologysociety.org flagship journal Microbiology has opened a call for new editors, more details here:

microbiologysociety.org/news/society...

New collaborative study led by @ifacisabel.bsky.social and @cristobaluauy.bsky.social, where we developed a new heating system to simulate warmer climates during field trials. This was great fun- check out the summary thread by Isabel Faci, below! @johninnescentre.bsky.social

Huge thank you to the amazing team behind this work, especially Paul Rogerson, who led the electrical engineering effort.

With @cristobaluauy.bsky.social @simmojsimmo.bsky.social @antdodd.bsky.social, Darryl Playford and Martyn Hewitt 🙏

Huge congratulations to Steph Williams from the group for defending her PhD thesis so well and @vanooijenlab.bsky.social @philcarella.bsky.social for examining @williams-steph.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social #chronobiology

Biological timing in photosynthetic organisms The meeting will focus on fundamental advances in photoperiodism, phenology and chronobiology of photosynthetic organisms.

📢 Save the date!

49th New Phytologist Symposium: Biological timing in photosynthetic organisms

📅 24–27 May 2027
📍 @johninnescentre.bsky.social, Norwich, UK

www.newphytologist.org/events/49-nps

#PlantScience #photoperiodism #chronobiology

Vacancy card with a rod-shaped microbe as background image that reads "Research Scientist. To create and use a transposon mutant library in Salmonella and build tools for transposon mutagenesis in higher organisms. Salary £37,500 to £45,350. Contract length 2 years. Apply by 28 January 2026.

🧬 Do you have a PhD in microbiology/genomics and experience working with bacterial pathogens and tissue culture?

Check out our current vacancy ⤵️

💷 £37,500 to £45,350
🗓️ Apply by 28 January 2026
➡️ buff.ly/8iXH22u

What is it with dealing with universities: “Dear Professor Dodddr Dodd”

Please check out our new review on the disorderly🍝 side of molecular circadian timing⏰.

It was so fun to write the review with @idpemery.bsky.social !

Bad again this morning. Whenever I experiment going through Mulbarton etc instead, that usually turns into a disaster somewhere also!