Thorben Krüger

Warm temperature and mild water stress cooperatively promote root elongation Hayes and Leong et al. show that warm temperature and mild water stress synergistically enhance root elongation in Arabidopsis. The response is mediated by SnRK2.2/2.3 and COP1 through regulation of H...

Warm temperature and mild water stress cooperatively promote root elongation: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
Led by Scott Hayes and @minnieleong.bsky.social
@pph-wur.bsky.social @wurplant.bsky.social

Proteome profiling of plant Cajal bodies uncovers kingdom-specific components https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.10.664108v1

If you want to hear about our latest work at @suaybuestuen.bsky.social's lab on pathogen manipulation of host translation and P-bodies at #2025ISMPMI, pass by my presentation today at 12:20 in the concurrent session "Effector interference mechanism" (Room M+N).

Parallel evolution of salinity tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana accessions from Cape Verde Islands Plants from the Cape Verde Islands evolved parallel mutations to protect from high salinity.

Our story about salinity tolerance in the Cape Verde islands is out in Science Advances! @science.org. Two independent mutations in the same gene conferred salt resistance to Arabidopsis plants!

Check it out here!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cell-to-cell translocation of florigen is inhibited by low ambient temperature through abscisic acid signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
#plantscience

Are you going for the most stylish persons award as well?

Confocal image showing a nucleus of a maize endosperm cell expressing proNAC130:NL-mCherry counterstained with DAPI.

Our latest on cell death and our second on maize: Using single-nucleus RNAseq of maize endosperm, Nicolas Doll (now @rdplab.bsky.social‬) shows that KIL transcription factors promote endosperm cell death to facilitate embryo growth - with a genomic imprinting twist! academic.oup.com/plcell/advan...

Was super fun to present our recent work on protein translation and bacterial infection in the proteostasis session at #ICAR2025 Thanks to the organizers again!

Must read for all who use Nicotiana benthamiana as a platform: “Causes and consequences of experimental variation in Nicotiana benthamiana
transient expression”
#plantscience

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

Antagonism as a foraging strategy in microbial communities In natural habitats, nutrient availability limits bacterial growth. We discovered that bacteria can overcome this limitation by acquiring nutrients by lysing neighboring cells through contact-dependen...

Thrilled to share our new paper in @science.org describing our discovery that bacteria can switch from competitors to bonafide predators when resources run dry—arming nanoscale “spears” (T6SS) to stab & consume neighbours.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#MicroSKy #Microbiology

Control of seed-to-seedling transition by an upstream open reading frame in ABSCISIC ACID DEFICIENT2
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
#plantscience

Ribosomes modulate transcriptome abundance via generalized frameshift and out-of-frame mRNA decay Zhang et al. identify a regulatory mechanism for how cells adapt to nutrient scarcity through widespread −1 ribosomal frameshifts, culminating in accelerated mRNA decay. This process, dependent on codon optimality and conserved across species, establishes direct feedback coupling the translation of new proteins with the stability of the mRNA that encodes for them.

Ribosomes modulate transcriptome abundance via generalized frameshift and out-of-frame mRNA decay

📢 It's online (and open access) @newphyt.bsky.social
🍅
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
"Autophagy restricts tomato fruit ripening via a general role in ethylene repression"

& why timing is everything...
Let's dig into it 👇
#plantscience
#autophagy
@volcaniinstitute.bsky.social

Delighted to share one piece of my postdoc work in preprint: Through forward genetic screening for suberin deposition in root endodermis, we identified SUBER GENE 1 (SBG1) by GWAS as a novel regulator for suberization by interacting with Type One Protein Phosphatase. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🌱 10 days left to apply: join us for a 3y postdoc in the GEH funded project "Optimising crop root growth and function for enhanced drought resilience in legume-sorghum intercropping" - karriere.hochschule-rhein-waal.de/jobposting/a...

Herbivory-induced green leaf volatiles increase plant performance through jasmonate-dependent plant–soil feedbacks - Nature Plants This study reports that herbivory-induced volatiles can trigger plant–soil feedbacks that boost performance and yields of cereals in the field.

New paper on leaf volatiles and plant soil feedbacks determining maize performance. Pretty crazy stuff. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Gibberellin signaling regulates pectin biosynthesis in Arabidopsis
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#plantscience

A diagrame of the molecular parts used to make a synthetic biomolecular condensate and confocal microscopy images of the condensates

Outstanding work by @anyalb.bsky.social in my lab - she targeted enzymes to synthetic biomolecular condensates in plants and showed increases in metabolic pathway activity, likely due to protection of the introduced enzymes from proteolysis
#PlantScience
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The final version of our study on SERK-BIR module in Marchantia is out.

Congratulations Cate and many thanks to collaborators!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I am happy to introduce this bioRxiv. Stomatal opening is crucial for gas exchange, but it unavoidably offers invasion by pathogens. We found that by coronatine (COR), Pto DC3000 exploits CYP707A1 activation in Arabidopsis thaliana, encoding an enzyme that degrades ABA, for stomatal invasion.

New Review Article: "RNA m6A modification meets plant hormones" rdcu.be/efNQd

Hormonal control of plant physiology involves widespread m6A RNA modification. Discussion of the crosstalk/reciprocal regulation between m6A and plant hormones during development and stress responses.

Nitrate attenuates abscisic acid signaling via NIN-LIKE PROTEIN8 in Arabidopsis seed germination (Zhichong Huang, Xiao Han, Kunrong He, Jingwen Ye, Chunlan Yu, Tingting Xu, Juping Zhang, Jiancan Du, Qiantang Fu, Yanru Hu) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience

Unravelling the dynamics of seed‐stored mRNAs during seed priming Seed priming is a pre-sowing treatment that enables more efficient and uniform seed germination; however, it negatively affects seed longevity. In this work, the mRNA dynamics underlying a hydroprim...

Our research published in @newphyt.bsky.social titled "Unravelling the dynamics of seed‐stored mRNAs during seed priming" (nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....) explores how hydropriming affects mRNA dynamics, enhancing germination but reducing longevity. Thanks to all my co-authors!

SnRK2.4 and SnRK2.10 redundantly control developmental leaf senescence by sustaining ABA production and signaling https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.25.645185v1

Apoplastic barriers are essential for nodule formation and nitrogen fixation in Lotus japonicus Establishment of the apoplastic root barrier known as the Casparian strip occurs early in root development. In legumes, this area overlaps with nitrogen-fixing nodule formation, which raises the possi...

Finally!
Im so excited to present to culmination of many years of work from the fantastic Defeng Shen and some great collaborators. For details, I have made a digested thread below, but if you are more interested feel free to reach out (and read the paper of course).
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

a penguin wearing a bear hat and a blue sweater is jumping in the air ALT: a penguin wearing a bear hat and a blue sweater is jumping in the air

The next frontier in #autophagy is understanding how it functions across cell types to maintain organismal homeostasis. w/ @moritznowack.bsky.social lab, we present TWO #preprint on cell type spec. autophagy in root hairs‼️ #plantscience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A grey coloured Arabidopsis leaf epidermis, with black cell walls. Each cells has a colourful blobs - a nuclear localised fluorescent ABA sensor, with warm colours indicating high concentrations, and cooler colours indicating lower concentrations.

The Rowe lab is recruiting a #PlantScience PhD student for 2025! You'll use our new ABACUS FRET biosensors to map the leaf #AbscisicAcid accumulations at low humidity in Arabidopsis, wheat and rice to understand how ABA regulates stomatal dynamics. #PhDposition

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

Juan Fontanet & Andres Rico did an amazing job by investigating sorghum in their PhD. It’s been a pleasure to join them in their efforts for a molecular understanding of brassinosteroid signaling in response to drought and development in this crop 💚🌾

Cryo-EM reveals mechanisms of natural RNA multivalency @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Yesterday we have just submitted our manuscript - you can find an updated version of our #preprint led by @manuelgonzalezfuen.bsky.social "Bacteria use processing body condensates to attenuate host translation during infection" with some new data on #bioRxiv 🤓 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...