Robyn Emmerson

Only two weeks left to submit your abstracts for the SEB meeting in Florence! There will be two sessions on plant epigenetics - don't miss this great opportunity to showcase your research and network with a fab community 😀

Black in Plant Science Summer Studentship 2026 For the second time we will be offering Black undergraduate students from universities across the UK the opportunity to undertake a research experience placement at a UK university or research…

📣 Applications are currently open for a @blackinplantsci.bsky.social Summer Studentship working with @cgrandel.bsky.social and the Earlham #Biofoundry team. 🌱

This is a great opportunity for Black undergraduate students to gain experience in #automation and #syntheticbiology in plants. 🧬

🪧Join the Annual Meeting of @sebiology.bsky.social , which includes a dedicated Plant Section🌱🪴🌵🌾☘️.

Session P8 🧬is organized by @anna-amtmann61.bsky.social , one of our @episeedlink.bsky.social External Advisors.

📌A great opportunity to connect with leading experts in the field

Gene body methylation buffers noise in gene expression in plants Abstract. Non-genetic variability in gene expression is an inevitable consequence of the stochastic nature of processes driving transcription and translati

Hot off the press, our latest publication on the functional role of gene body methylation (gBM).

academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Work spearheaded by Jakub Zastapilo with help from @robynemm.bsky.social and Liudmila Mikheeva and co-led by Marco Catoni and @ubechtold.bsky.social 1/3

A reference-free pipeline for detecting shared transposable elements from pan-genomes to retrace their dynamics in a species - Genome Biology Background The role of transposable elements (TEs) in host adaptation has gained interest in recent years. Individuals of the same species undergo independent TE insertions, providing genetic variabil...

🚨📢📄 Article in press in Genome Biology doi.org/10.1186/s130...
We introduce panREPET, a reference-free pipeline to detect shared transposable element (TE) insertions across pangenomes and retrace their evolutionary dynamics #TEsky 🧵👇

Mitochondrial fusion safeguards stomatal defence in plants - Nature Plants Plants close their stomata to block pathogen entry, but how this defence is supported at the organelle level remains unclear. Our study reveals that immune signalling promotes MIRO1-dependent mitochon...

All together now 🗣️🗣️ : mitochondrial dynamics are vital *even in plants*! 🗣️🗣️ Fantastic work looking looking at the prime candidate for the mysterious & elusive plant mito fusion factors: MIRO1

The momentum for plant mito dynamics is picking up 💪🏻

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

AI nudification: the latest weapon of violence against women and girls In Julie Burchill’s recent article in the Spectator, Does it really matter if Grok undresses us all?, she makes the argument that those who, like me, have repeatedly had their clothes removed by socia...

This week, an X user created an AI video of me being chloroformed and prepared for rape.

Victims are told it's not real and they're getting offended for no reason.

But nudification tools are weapons of sexual assault, and the harm they cause is real 👇

jessasato.substack.com/p/ai-nudific...

Are you, or do you know someone that is excited to do a PhD in plant biology. We are happy to offer a position to explore physiology, gene regulatory networks and wild species. Come join our team in a stimulating scientific environment at the University of Groningen!
werkenbij.rug.nl/vacature/phd...

Congratulations Abdo! Very well deserved

If you are a masters or early stage PhD student interested in evolutionary biology, consider applying for a place on Guarda Summer School. Based in the Swiss alps, this was one of the best experiences of my PhD!

Application deadline: 20 Jan 2026

tb.ethz.ch/education/gu...

Finding balance: the dynamic interplay between H3K27me3 writers and erasers in regulating environmental plasticity and memory Subject to an ever-changing world, plants must respond to harmful conditions and environmental fluctuations. Their evolutionary success can be attributed to their plasticity in both perceiving and in...

So happy to see this work finally online!

In this Research Review, I discuss the emerging roles of H3K27me3 writers (the enzymes that lay it down) and erasers (the enzymes that remove it) in controlling plant adaptation 🌿🌡️❄️🦠

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

warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fa...
I also have a plant evo-devo PhD opportunity open to study the evolutionary origins of female meiosis with me ^^.

Deadline Thursday 27th November, so if you know anyone who might be interested, please do let them know!
#Plantscience

Research Fellow (Postdoctoral) at University of Birmingham An opportunity for an academic position as a Research Fellow (Postdoctoral) is available, as advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Apply now and explore other academic job openings.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPI115/r...

A postdoc position is open in my group for a bioinformatician with expertise in RNA-seq as part of our tree speedbreeding project with @forest-protection.bsky.social.

If interested in speeding trees, please apply, deadline Dec 2nd 🙂
#Plantscience
#Plantscijobs

Research question for the #epigenetics community: Anyone on here tested using NEB's EM conversion with Illumina Infinium microarrays and want to share there experiences? Please share 🙏

My students have set up a petition to persuade the University of Nottingham not to close our Plant Biology BSc course
c.org/VPhzVVrHPS

Please consider signing

Happy to share our latest paper on a new method iNOME-seq that acts as an in vivo bookmarking system to measure open chromatin and other features in plants rdcu.be/eMh36. Project started several years ago with Prof Jose Gutierrez-Marcos and a great collaboration with @plantevolution.bsky.social.

FindAPhD : Prestigious Sainsbury PhD Studentships in plant sciences at Gatsby Charitable Foundation Apply for a PhD: Prestigious Sainsbury PhD Studentships in plant sciences at Gatsby Charitable Foundation

If you’re looking for a PhD studentship in some really exciting areas of plant science 🌿 take a look at this year’s Sainsbury PhD studentships - you could come and study orchid mycorrhizas 🌸🍄 with me & @garethphoenix.bsky.social! www.findaphd.com/phds/program...

FindAPhD : NorthWestBio Fully Funded Doctoral Training Programme Studentship 2026 at University of Glasgow Apply for a PhD: NorthWestBio Fully Funded Doctoral Training Programme Studentship 2026 at University of Glasgow

New #PhD opportunities! NorthWestBio projects now online for 2026! Including a #photosynthesis project w/ @marjorielundgren.bsky.social looking at how photosynthetic diversity may affect future crop nutrient quality. Plant projects and the full set of projects available here: tinyurl.com/529yz4jd

🚨 Hurry! Only 3 days remaining to submit your session proposals for SEB Florence 2026.

Deadline: Wednesday, 1 October 2025 — time is almost up!

🔬 Organise a session, share your expertise, and help shape the future of experimental biology.

Apply now:
www.sebiology.org/resource/ses...

Schematic representation of the experimental design used in this study.

DNA methylation contributes to plant acclimation to naturally fluctuating light

📖 buff.ly/3QP9OJ5
by Emmerson et al.

@robynemm.bsky.social @raduzabet.bsky.social @ubechtold.bsky.social @proftlawson.bsky.social #PlantScience

We are looking for a Postdoc with expertise in plant molecular/synthetic biology, or single-cell/spatial transcriptomics to join the UKRI-FLF funded project focused on understanding and improving water-use efficiency in rice.

Apply online before 15/10/2025:
vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

RP

We are looking for a PDRA for the PlantPlug project, turning parasitic plants into programmable bio-modules! Using mistletoe as a novel chassis, we are exploring the frontiers of inter-species communication.
Apply online by 15/10/2025.
*RP*
#PlantSciencesJobs

vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

Excited to see our story on epigenetic mediated aclimation of plants to fluctuating light patterns out today in doi.org/10.1111/nph..... This work started 6 years ago co-supervised with the amazing @proftlawson.bsky.social and led by the brilliant @robynemm.bsky.social. 1/2

I'm so pleased this is out, I loved my PhD project so much!
We found that natural fluctuations in light impacts both DNA methylation and gene expression, and identified a possible candidate (MCCA) for further exploration. Check it out ⬇️

I can't stress it more. This conference has been designed for us by us. Support @blackinplantsci.bsky.social conference at the University of Leeds funded by the SEB, Faculty of Biological Science at Leeds, the Grow More and New Phytologist foundations and Gastby. Join us on 24/10, details below.

Large group of diverse scientists and researchers gathered outside a modern building for a New Phytologist next generation scientists symposium.

Thank you to our brilliant delegates, mentors, speakers, the organising committee and our hosts at the University of Birmingham for making New Phytologist next generation scientists 2025 a great success!

I really enjoyed writing this with Marco! If you're interested in the possible consequences of transposon movement and viral infection on plant genome plasticity, check it out ⬇️

Vol 76 | Issue 9 | 2025 Journal of Experimental Botany Special Issue: Epigenetic Plasticity Cover image: This cover design features an octopus in a glass jar, symbolizing chromatin and the nucleus. The artwork is rendered in the Ukiyo-e (浮世絵) style. The ancient Chinese characters, written in cursive script (草書), represent ‘the dynamic regulation of chromatin’. The Yang seal (朱文) in seal script (篆書) signifies ‘chromatin’; the Yin seal (白文) signifies ‘nucleus’ (credit: Dr. Yihan Dong).

📣 NEW SPECIAL ISSUE 📣

Epigenetic Plasticity: From Model Plants to Crops

📘 Edited by Marco Catoni, Tamara Lechon Gomez, and Aline Probst

📸 Cover image by Yihan Dong

🔗 academic.oup.com/jxb...

#JXBspecialissues #PlantScience 🧪

@sebiology.bsky.social @alineprobst.bsky.social‬

⚠️ SEB MEMBERS: This is for you.

Don’t let your research live and die in a PDF.

Bring it to life in the SEB Spring 2025 Magazine.

Contact us now:
🔗 www.sebiology.org/resource/promote-your-work-in-our-spring-2025-magazine.htm