Michael Raissig

Interested in learning about the latest and greatest research in how plants respond to excess salt, too little or too much water? Come to the GRC in Salt and Water Stress in Switzerland. Lots of opportunities for all career levels. www.grc.org/salt-and-wat.... Please repost!

Look at this remarkable preprint by @lbmountain.bsky.social, presenting a single-cell RNA-seq atlas of the developing Brachypodium distachyon leaf.
What a joy it was to watch Lea progress during the analysis and to continuously find more and more exciting facts about the developing leaf 🌾

Thanks so much for the shoutout Dominique! Indeed, a good day for American democracy and thus democracy worldwide

🙏 Anybody knows from where I can download a raster map with the different ecoregion of Europe?

A wonderful collaboration with our colleagues from Düsseldorf within the @cerealcell.bsky.social consortium. @isaiavardanega.bsky.social @simonrdg.bsky.social Jan Maika.
Thanks to the sequencing facilities at Uni Heidelberg and Uni Bern, and past and present team members for this "tour de force"

7/ Finally—our community tool 🌾
shiny.ips.unibe.ch
The B. distachyon Leaf Gene Expression Viewer allows visualization of any gene across the whole leaf, epidermal, or stomatal subsets.
Interactive UMAPs and ggPlantmap provide an eFP-browser-like experience for grass developmental biology.

6/ As a proof of concept we functionally analyzed two novel marker genes, one that is expressed in dividing leaf cells and another one that is expressed in the developing stomatal lineages.

5/ Gene regulatory network analysis of the stomatal clusters identifies top transcription factors per clusters and could distinguish the targetome of co-expressed yet functionally distinct stomatal transcription factors BdMUTE and BdFAMA

4/ Pseudotime analysis reconstructs the guard cell lineage trajectory, mapping the sequential activation of key transcription factors and identifying novel stage-specific marker genes. Again, RNA-FISH validates sequential activity of the novel markers along developmental stages.

3/ 
Focusing on the epidermis, we resolved most cell lineages of the grass leaf epidermis including stomatal guard cells and subsidiary cells, hair cells and silica cells. We used known and novel marker genes and multiplexed, RNA-FISH to confirm the in silico clusters in the actual leaf epidermis

2/ Our Brachypodium leaf atlas spans all major tissues.
UMAPs resolve epidermal, mesophyll, vascular, and meristematic compartments.
Known markers define cluster identities—revealing a coherent developmental continuum across the vegetative leaf.

1/ Preprint alert:

🌾 The developing leaf of the wild grass Brachypodium distachyon at single-cell resolution

👉 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
A 70k-cell single-cell RNA-seq atlas of the developing grass leaf—from the shoot meristem to mature leaf tissues. @cerealcell.bsky.social @lbmountain.bsky.social

Check out this advertised professorship in Bern with my colleagues at the Institute of Plant Sciences! Please share widely to reach candidates from across the world and beyond our local academic bubbles. 🫧

#QueerInSTEM #DisabledInSTEM #BlackInSTEM #WomenInSTEM #CarersInSTEM #AcademicSky #HigherED

Last but not least, I want to thank Sharon Kessler and @stanfordstomata.bsky.social . Your continuous support throughout my career, your encouragement to keep going even if my career path was far from straightforward, means a lot!

@priyaramakrishna.bsky.social,Sara Simonini,Edwige Moyroud,@anneroulin.bsky.social,Aurélia Emonet,Charlotte Delesalle,@pejullien.bsky.social,@matthiaserb.bsky.social, @rodrigoreislab.com,Rubén Manzenado Delgado,@joopvermeer.bsky.social,Sergio Acebron, @lmueller.bsky.social,Pep Vilarrasa-Blasi

I want to thank Uta Paszkowski @paszkowskilab.bsky.social, whom I met during the Brachy conference in summer, and who boosted my self-esteem tremendously. Having successful mothers in science role models means the world to me.

Thank you to our PhD student Ari (not on Bluesky, why??). Without Ari’s help, this proposal would not have been possible. I am beyond excited to continue our path together and teach and learn new things all at the same time.

🌵 So proud of my fav scientist in the world 🌵
Thrilled to see what will come of this super innovative project dissecting how leaf succulence is built and how it affects CAM photosynthesis!
Congrats @heikelindner.bsky.social and the Kalanchoë team!

🌿🌱 We’re hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor (potentially open rank) at the Institute of Plant Sciences
@unibe.ch in Plant Population Ecology 🌻🌳

Be our colleague and join us in beautiful Bern, Switzerland

Apply by Jan 23 2026 👉 ohws.prospective.ch/public/v1/jo...

Last chance to apply! Join us for the Rigi Workshop and take a journey into the beautiful diversity of cell and developmental biology!

Happy to share our recent thoughts on how grasses form and pattern stomata
doi.org/10.1016/j.pb...
🌾From fate establishment, through within-file patterning to dumbbell formation🌾
Congrats to
@lbmountain.bsky.social
on getting two publications out in a single day - a first for the lab!

Great idea, we did not try polarized light imaging. Will keep it in mind for future experiments, thanks for the input!

Arabinan was previously suggested to be important for stomatal function and we propose that its absence in B. stacei subsidiary cells affects stomatal opening capacity.

Thanks so much to @heikelindner.bsky.social and our research gardeners for their support and Tracy Lawson for providing R code.

Using cell wall immunostainings, Alex found differential staining of LM6, which stains arabinans. B. distachyon showed strong staining in subsidiary cells, and this staining was absent in B. stacei.

Anna therefore looked at the subcellular features of these stomatal complexes using TEM and found no striking differences between B. stacei and B. distachyon. Nonetheless, Anna saw the huge symplastic connections between the grass guard cells and shared vacuoles (a feature specific to grass stomata)

When comparing stomatal gas exchange dynamics and capacity, however, B. hybridum and B. distachyon performed similarly, but B. stacei severely underperformed despite showing the same stomatal anatomical properties as B. distachyon.

We analysed stomatal anatomy and physiology and found that the allotetraploid B. hybridum forms bigger but fewer stomata compared to their diploid parent species B. distachyon and B. stacei (not very surprising).

Our paper comparing stomata of the three annual Brachypodium species is out 🌾
bmcplantbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
A great collaborative effort between @lbmountain.bsky.social, & our friends at University of Silesia (Alexander Betekhtin and Anna Milewska-Hendel). Funded by @dfg.de and NAWA

🧪 Last chance! Registration for the #RigiWorkshop 2026 closes next week! Our guest speakers include @dudinlab.bsky.social, @michaelraissig.bsky.social, @annikaguse.bsky.social, @gautamdey.bsky.social & @jandevries.bsky.social. More details here 👉 biol.scnat.ch/rigiworkshop26

#PlantSciJobs #PlantSciJob

W2-Professorship: Plant Genetics

@uni-kiel.de

Deadline: 19 October 2025
www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/en/job-openi...