Michael Prigge

Check out our new review in JXB:
tinyurl.com/yta6fd5b

@pablidopsis.bsky.social and I write about the cell's decision between division and differentiation. 🌱 What factors promote one or the other in different cell types? 🤔 Are they really mutually exclusive?

Seeing Red: A UC San Diego Invention is Transforming the Way Scientists Track Genes UC San Diego biologists have created a transformative new way to monitor genes. The game-changing tool known as RUBY is an inexpensive, easy-to-use technology that allows researchers to visualize gene...

Nice write-up about RUBY in our university newsletter:
today.ucsd.edu/story/seeing...

Fig. 4.Model of auxin de-repression. When the auxin concentration in the nucleus is low (A), the effect of ARFas, as well as other non-ARF transcription factors, is limited by Aux/IAA-mediated recruitment of the TPL co-repressor, closing the locus. As auxin levels rise (B), AFBs ubiquitinate Aux/IAAs, thereby allowing all transcription factors to act on the locus. As a result, there is a significant difference in gene expression between baseline and auxin induction. In afb1,2,3,4 mutants (C), Aux/IAAs are not degraded, and therefore the promoter remains closed. In the iaa2mDII degron mutant (D), one of three Aux/IAAs is stabilized, thereby resulting in only partial promoter closure. In arfasept lines, Aux/IAAs are not recruited to the promoter. While gene expression remains diminished without activating ARFs, other non-ARF transcription factors are allowed to provide baseline gene expression. However, there is no auxin-mediated induction.

🌱📖 RESEARCH 🌱📖

Bascom et al. used CRIPSR/Cas9 to produce a septuple AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR mutant in the model bryophyte Physcomitrium patens , revealing the developmental consequences of the complete loss of auxin-mediated gene activation 🌱📖

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪

I’ll streak it out tomorrow. If it looks good, I’ll ask for an address

Do you want a recA- strain? I primarily used AGL1 (C58[pTiBo542ΔT] recA::bla/CarbR+RifR) until I started doing tobacco leaf infiltrations with mixed strains. (Old plasmids were already in GV3101.)

Last time I flew, the MSP airport had dozens of monitors over the TSA lines playing Noem spewing some hateful nonsense on a loop

Fig. 1 (shortened, full legend in paper): Auxin responses and auxin-adjacent transcription factors (TFs) control developmental transitions in bryophyte gametophytes. (A) Wild-type (WT) auxin responses (left) cycling between low and high auxin. Under low auxin, A-ARFs are kept in a repressive complex by AUX/IAAs via recruitment of the TOPLESS co-repressor and associated histone deacetylases (HDACs). Under high auxin, auxin mediates the interaction between TIR1/AFB and AUX/IAAs, leading to AUX/IAA ubiquitination and proteolysis. A-ARFs are then free to interact with SWI/SNF ATPases and histone acetylases (HACs), leading to open chromatin states. Positive (TIR1/AFB, A-ARF, SWI/SNF, HAC), negative (AUX/IAA, TPL, HDAC) and auxin-adjacent (TFs) factors are shown. Auxin is represented by an A.

🌱🧬 INSIGHT 🧬🌱

Complete loss of A-ARF activity in bryophytes reveals a role for auxin-adjacent regulatory networks – Flores-Sandoval & Bowman comment on an original research article by Bascom et al.

📝 Insight: doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

🔬 Research: doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪

A friend of mine has a preprint out with an ingenious method to directly generate collections of NILs surrounding a locus or a collection of loci. They used the yeast KO collection, but it’d be cool to adapt for mapping traits in plants.

I just returned from vacation to find my smoke alarm chirping (sorry neighbors!). Unfortunately, it is 16 feet up & I didn't have a ladder, so I had to try to sleep that night with "beep-beep-beep" every 60 seconds.

I was about to watch one of the recent Alien movies a few weeks ago, but I realized that I hadn’t watched any of them since grad school.

Stem cell regulators drive a G1 duration gradient during plant root development - Nature Plants A positional and developmentally regulated cell cycle duration gradient exists in the root meristem whereby the G1 phase is very long close to the stem cell niche. This relies on the interplay of PLET...

Did you know that there is a cell cycle duration gradient in plant root meristem? New story by joining forces between Plant dynamics lab and Crisanto Gutiérrez & Bénédicte Desvoyes lab @cbgpmadrid.bsky.social @cbm-csic-uam.bsky.social #Plants #roots #cellcycle www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I had just finally cut cable and switched to Hulu/Disney+Live TV. Now I need to decide whether I want to switch again.

Inflorescence of an Arabidopsis lyrata plant with a black fly visiting an open flower

Oh well. I like this close-up picture with a black fly taking a break from biting humans to pollinate an A. lyrata flower.

Just A. thaliana? I have lyrata pictures from the dunes in Michigan

Please repost and spread the word! 🙂

Took some time off to visit family and to see Courtney Barnett for the first time this weekend. Amazing show! (Picture from @tbobrowsky.bsky.social blows all my phone-snaps out of the water.)

Diversification of functional requirements for proteolysis of Auxin Response Factors https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.03.673984v1

Reusse: Padres have come a long way from their early years of fan apathy Baseball reigns in San Diego, and the Padres are no longer second-class citizens in their own city.

www.startribune.com/reusse-padre...

Here it is! Epidermal cells in the root can figure out if they are covered by the root cap or not using mechanical signals! Thanks to @ckirchhelle.bsky.social, @moritznowack.bsky.social, @nathan-german.bsky.social Annamaria Kiss and all the others!

Did America really need this product?

Ok, hear me out, here's the plan:

I wasn’t too interested before, but now I really want to see it

I love being a cell biologist, look at these beautiful cells! P. patens glam shot!

I don't want to link to it, but there is a shockingly bad AI-generated 'news' story already posted about the News & Views article. (If you really want to see it, search "ARF degradation")

ARF degradation fine-tunes auxin response in land plants Nature Plants - Two recent studies in phylogenetically distant plants integrate a new layer of control into the canonical auxin pathway. A deeply conserved degron that affects the stability of...

There is a nice News & Views article by @suruchiroy.bsky.social and others regarding our recent Nature Plants paper (@mestelle.bsky.social, @drannisr.bsky.social, and @luciastrader.bsky.social labs) and another from @dolfweijers.bsky.social 's lab. #PlantScience #Auxin rdcu.be/eAEnz

Our new work uncovering how WIND1 promotes somatic embryogenesis as a bifunctional chromatic regulator!!!!

We knew WIND1 promotes new fate acquisition and now we show WIND1 also helps repressing existing identity!

Foliar mRNA spray induces protein synthesis in monocot crop and dicot model plant species In planta gene expression via exogenous mRNAs has a wide range of potential biotechnological applications from genome editing to plant protection and to circumventing tissue culture. Yet, regarding mR...

😮 Just WOW!!

Spray GFP mRNAs on plant leaves and the leaves translate this and you get glowing leaves.

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

How conserved are plant transcription factor binding sites?
academic.oup.com/plphys/artic...
Great study by @andreabraeutigam.bsky.social lab shows a mixed pattern. Thanks for making good use of #TAPscan onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... also. C2H2 neofunctionalization fits ny thoughts.

Hey all!
We have been awarded a Spanish national grant to keep researching. Best of all is we have a full PhD contract assigned. We are looking for candidates interested in molecular biology and evolution of (plant) transcription factors, please spread the word!!
Check our web for more information.