Peter van Dijk

A new bioRxiv preprint reports that a team from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has synthesised fully penetrant apomictic hybrid rice — a potential game changer for breeding.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#Apomixis #HybridRice #PlantBreeding #Agriculture

An historic illustration of of two brown stripy butterflies and a caterpillar on a plant with white flowers.

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Postdoc in Plant Molecular Biology: The Role of PAR in Dandelion Apomixis | Peter J van Dijk Apomixis is a fascinating plant reproduction system with the potential to revolutionise agriculture.

www.linkedin.com/posts/peter-...

images of the apomixis congres in Montpellier

Just returned from the Apomixis Congress in Montpellier. #Apomixis, clonal seeds, allows one-step fixation of genetically complex traits, including heterosis. So exciting to see the progress. The next apomixis meeting will be in two years in Perugia. Curious to see where the science will be by then.

Looking forward to discuss latest results on Apomixis at the 5th international Apomixis conference in Montpellier this week: www.alphavisa.com/apomixis/2025/

Did you catch anything?

The Meselson and Stahl experiment demonstrated in 1958 that DNA replicated semi-conservatively.

Meaning, each of the two strands of DNA serves as a template for a new copy to made of the complementary strand.

Foundational finding, elegant experimental design.

Photo of a hand holding a mini tube and a hand holding a pipetting device

@keygene.com is hiring, for its research team in the USA, an experienced and passionate PhD-level scientist who will support plant innovation research at the interface of plant breeding & molecular biology.
Working autonomously and in changing project teams.
www.keygene.com/career/phd-s...

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📢 The #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary is entering a bold new chapter – and we need your help! Today we release our official Call for Support. We’re seeking new hosts for BHL’s staff, infrastructure, and services. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL

The only site in the Pyrenees where this orchid occurred was a few hundred meters from where I conducted my population cytogenetic studies in 2x-4x Plantago media, as part of my PhD thesis. Minority Cytotype Exclusion and Repoductive Character Displacement as predicted.

Century-old genetics mystery of Mendel’s peas finally solved Researchers pinpoint the genes responsible for the final three pea traits studied by the famed citizen scientist.

Researchers pinpoint the genes responsible for the final three pea traits studied by Gregor Mendel more than 160 years ago

https://go.nature.com/3EC3eqT

Genomic and genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes - Nature Characterization of the genetic architecture underlying the 7 pairs of contrasting traits studied by Mendel and the over 70 additional agronomic traits in pea (Pisum sativum) reveals their m...

New genomic & genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes, including previously uncharacterised alleles

159 years after Mendel published his work, this is a real delight (especially for a geneticist)

🧪
@nature.com

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

Bringing together the three giants of 19th-century biology with ChatGPT: Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and Louis Pasteur. Of them, Mendel remains the most enigmatic. Noel Ellis and I are writing a new book exploring his legacy: Mendel’s Genetics: Heredity, Hybrids and History. Expected early 2026.

🧪 I know it sounds like a cliché but I am TRULY AND UTTERLY THRILLED that this work from my postdoc at #unimi is out. SPL/NZZ is a very important gene (it initiates sporogenesis) but a very mysterious one. 🧵
1/8

Experts foresee negative ripple effects in termination of USDA scientists in St. Paul lab A team at the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Cereal Disease Lab in St. Paul got notice last week that some of their jobs were getting cut. Experts warn that cutting jobs in this area will harm resear...

USDA scientists terminated from Cereal Disease Lab in St. Paul www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...

Video Former USDA employee terminated days before her due date Justine Beaulieu was impacted by the Trump layoffs days before she was due to give birth, losing her maternity leave and her health insurance in limbo.

Dr. Justine Beaulieu is an excellent Agricultural Scientist who was serving our country evaluating risk for importing plant material into the US.

She was illegally fired in Musk's purge just days before giving birth.

abcnews.go.com/Politics/vid...

Our new review article “To infinity and beyond: recent progress, bottlenecks, and potential of clonal seeds by apomixis” is now published open access in @theplantjournal.bsky.social
dx.doi.org/10.1111/tpj.... @ribesresearch.bsky.social

I’m an NSF panel reviewer that was scheduled to meet today. Just got notice that all NSF panels were canceled today. I reviewed some innovative proposals in support of students. Devastating if these scholars don’t get to do this work. For the love of science & students I hope this is just a delay.💔

Plate on the Brno school where Gregor Mendel taught physics and natural history and the Natural Sciences Society held monthly meetings.

Today, Noel Ellis and I submitted the manuscript for our 2025 book Mendel’s Genetics: Hybrids, Heredity, and History to the publisher. Biological insights and new historical sources deepen our understanding of Gregor Mendel in his time.