Jonathan D G Jones aka JJ

Our final talks of Day 1 focus around the Precision Breeding Act

📝 Jim Dunwell, gives us an update on UK legislation from the Advisory Committee for Releases to the Environment (ACRE)

🧬 @jonathandgjones.bsky.social takes us through using PBA-compliant methods to elevate crop disease resistance 🌾

A Palestinian, son of Palestinians displaced from Gaza (Al-Masmiyya) to Jordan, wins the Nobel Prize in Chemistry... Professor Omar Munis Yaghi from the University of Berkeley!!

..Some members of the Yaghi family are still under the rubble in Gaza!

Yesterday I talked* science with modellers, mathematicians, biochemists, cell biologists and geneticists. Sound like your kind of place? Join us!

Applications for a tenure-track or tenured Group Leader ar JIC close Monday.

(*I love chatting - if you come to JIC I *will* stop you in the corridor)

excellent question!

‘This wasn’t obvious’: the potato evolved from a tomato ancestor, researchers find Hybridisation event took place about 9 million years ago, helping to ‘spark the emergence of a new organ’

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Scientists Unveil Genetic Map to Wheat 'Cancer' Chinese scientists have created the world's first genetic map for wheat resistance to yellow rust, a destructive fungal disease. Published in Nature Genetics, this breakthrough was a collaborative eff...

www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiote...

Proposed EU NGT legislation in light of plant genetic variation The European Commission (EC) proposal for New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) of July 2023 specifies that Category 1 NGT (NGT1) plants, which are considered equivalent to conventional plants, that is those...

Hot off the press: our analysis of the proposed EU limits to NGT1 category of genome editing in light of recent data on genomic diversity.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Franklin W. Stahl, 95, Dies; Helped Create a ‘Beautiful’ DNA Experiment

As an undergraduate who loved physical chemistry and was just starting biology, I thought the Meselson-Stahl experiment was the coolest thing ever. It was so simple in its application of physical theory and experiment to prove a biological truth that it was perfect. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/s...

LordRooker2 | SSA Yes, the SLSC report on gene editing was 'biased'

excellent commentary from Lord Rooker

www.scienceforsustainableagriculture.com/lordrooker2

Proposed EU NGT legislation in light of plant genetic variation The European Commission (EC) proposal for New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) of July 2023 specifies that Category 1 NGT (NGT1) plants, which are considered equivalent to conventional plants, that is those...

Proposed EU NGT legislation in light of plant genetic variation - Schulman - Plant Biotechnology Journal - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Wonderful talk by Baptiste Castel @baptistebio.bsky.social on fern immune system here at @instmolplantsci.bsky.social Great to meet @jonathandgjones.bsky.social lab alumni in Edinburgh too!

Royal Society: UK can beat US in science — if it fixes one problem Gloomy mood among scientists under the Trump administration presents an opportunity for Britain, provided it changes its visa system, says Sir Adrian Smith

www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

more fool @nytimes.com

Trump’s new ‘gold standard’ rule will destroy American science as we know it | Colette Delawalla The new executive order allows political appointees to undermine research they oppose, paving the way to state-controlled science

important commentary on the dangers to science of current US Gov actions and policies

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Hold your news and read the link in my post on X.
"..officials on the UK side stressed that there will be no such alignment when it comes to the UK’s fast-growing gene editing sector."

Good news. These technologies are urgently needed to support more sustainable and productive agriculture.

important commentary from
@alanhschulman
and colleagues about NGTs and the EU's proposed new regulations. Preexisting genomic diversity dwarfs anything we can do with CrispR ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

New OA Letter: "Viral delivery of an RNA-guided genome editor for transgene-free germline editing in Arabidopsis" rdcu.be/eiJVL

...engineered the tobacco rattle virus to express the RNA-guided TnpB enzyme ISYmu1 and guide RNA for transgene-free germline editing.

Top cancer experts ‘being put off UK by politicians’ messaging on immigration’ Exclusive: Leaked report says high visa costs also derailing clinical trials and research, denying NHS life-saving drugs

we appear to be shooting ourselves in the foot www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Mythbusting MAHA’s Claims About Food and Farming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his HHS are on a public health crusade that is largely a distraction

Mythbusting MAHA’s Claims About Food and Farming
www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/mythbustin...

!!New Preprint!! On the activation of RRS1-R/RPS4 paired NLRs!! Thanks to @jonathandgjones.bsky.social for this opportunity to work on this project, and thanks to all the coauthors for their effort and support! Thread (1/)
@thesainsburylab.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social
t.co/aHNCKj4KUn

It’s Springtime on Polaris-9b, and the Exoflowers Are Blooming An artist imagines the flora of distant, nonexistent worlds.

very cool. "roads not taken" www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/s...

a prescient commentary www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Proud to present the first data paper from the lab, published today in @pnas.org.

We describe a new mechanism for CLE peptides as local symbiosis-amplifying signals, promoting plant interactions with beneficial arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

Congratulations @sagarbashyal.bsky.social et al.!

@jonathandgjones.bsky.social spoke to Louise Hulland on BBC Radio Norfolk today about developing crops that resist plant diseases and being a co-recipient of the Wolf Prize for Agriculture.
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
The clip started forty minutes in at 14:40

SNP urged to approve gene editing as Scottish farmers face disadvantages Tim Eagle urges the SNP to rethink its stance on gene editing, calling their opposition outdated. Could this technology benefit Scotland’s food…

www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/news/2503428...

See, it's funny cuz it's true. 🤣

(also: #sad) 😞

🚨 New #Breakthrough research article "A new level of RNA-based plant protection: dsRNAs
designed from functionally characterized siRNAs highly
effective against Cucumber mosaic virus" #RNA 👉 Read here: doi.org/10.1093/nar/...
Pictured: Selma Gago-Zachert, Torsten Gursinsky and Sven-Erik Behrens

important work www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

European Union takes giant leap forward toward embracing technologically-enhanced agriculture, advances de-regulation of gene edited crops On Friday 14 March 2025, Member States' representatives (Coreper) endorsed the Council's negotiating mandate on the regulation on plants obtained by new genomic techniques (NGTs) and their food and fe...

European Union takes giant leap forward toward embracing technologically-enhanced agriculture, advances de-regulation of gene edited crops geneticliteracyproject.org/2025/03/17/e...

Very happy to see my colleague Julia Vorholt being recognized with the Novonesis Biotechnology Prize for her groundbreaking work on the plant leaf microbiome.
novonordiskfonden.dk/en/news/pion...
#plantscience