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Reposted by Ali Leverett

Annals of Botany @annbot.bsky.social · 8d

🎉🆕📰🎉: The winner takes it all: a single genotype of Kalanchoe × houghtonii is a global invader
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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Amanda Cavanagh @cavycavs.bsky.social · Aug 25

Since I’ve moved to England in 2020 we’ve lived through three of the hottest years on record. Unsurprisingly, this is impacting crop yields. Read more about the impact, and the work we do to mitigate this in this weekend’s times: www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

Inside the Essex ‘drought room’ testing crops for climate change

After one of the driest springs on record, and with British harvests collapsing, urgent research is finding creative ways to help farmers adapt

www.thetimes.com

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Nature Plants @natplants.nature.com · Jun 6

New Article: "Leaf venation network evolution across clades and scales" rdcu.be/epLNP

Evolution of leaf venation networks, from fewer, corrugated veins to high vein density and smoother loops. Herbivory as a potential driver of venation architectural changes.

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Arthur Leung @aleungplants.bsky.social · May 15

New #CAM paper dropped! nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... #plantscience

A high‐quality genome of the Atacama Desert plant Cistanthe cachinalensis and its photosynthetic behavior related to drought and life history

Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) photosynthesis has independently evolved many times in arid-adapted plant lineages. Cistanthe cachinalensis (Montiaceae), a desert annual, can upregulate CAM facul...

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Plant Physiology @plantphys.bsky.social · May 13

Regulation of Crassulacean acid metabolism at the protein level in Kalanchoë laxiflora (Katharina Schiller , Saskia Janshoff , Sanja Zenker , Prisca Viehöver , James Hartwell , Jürgen Eirich , Iris Finkemeier , Andrea Bräutigam) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience

doi.org

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Andrew Leakey - lab.igb.illinois.edu/leakey/ @leakey77.bsky.social · Apr 24

please share - 2 postdoc positions available - molecular physiology of stomata and plant water use of efficiency
lab.igb.illinois.edu/leakey/post-... @ripeproject.bsky.social @aspbofficial.bsky.social

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Tina Schreier @tinaschreier.bsky.social · Apr 22

🌿 Excited to share our latest preprint!
We tracked how plasmodesmata numbers evolved across the path from C₃ → C₄ photosynthesis in Flaveria - and found a stepwise increase in cell-to-cell connectivity.
Thoughts or feedback are most welcome 😊
#PlantScience

bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · Apr 22

Stepwise increase in plasmodesmata during C4 evolution in Flaveria https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.18.649591v1

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Annals of Botany @annbot.bsky.social · Apr 16

♻️🆓: Elevated nocturnal respiratory rates in the mitochondria of CAM plants: current knowledge and unanswered questions
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...

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The Pallavi Singh Lab @thepallavisinghlab.bsky.social · Apr 14

Welcome to the Pallavi Singh Lab account! We explore how plants respond to water stress, investigate shoot-root interactions via monocot grafting & work on enhancing photosynthesis. Follow us for research updates, fieldwork adventures & behind the scenes lab moments!
#PlantScience #Photosynthesis

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Kromdijk Lab @plantphys-cam.bsky.social · Apr 11

Have you ever wondered about NPQ in C4 plants? ☀️🪴 Check out the recent pre-print from Lucìa who used to be a PhD student/post-doc in our lab and now works for the @ripeproject.bsky.social in Illinois. She shows that C4 plants have faster NPQ than related C3 plants.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Faster relaxation of nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) in C4 than in C3 species

Acceleration of photoprotective non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) responses to changes in light intensity has been suggested as a strategy to enhance crop yield. Despite many key crops utilising C4 ph...

eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com

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Kromdijk Lab @plantphys-cam.bsky.social · Mar 28

Check out our postdoc Georgia's new paper on the role of hydrogen peroxide in coordinating photosynthesis with stomatal opening 🌱

In it she shows that chloroplast-derived hydrogen peroxide coordinates stomatal conductance and that this signal predominantly arises from the guard cells.

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Kromdijk Lab @plantphys-cam.bsky.social · Mar 14

WE’RE HIRING!

Funded 3-year postdoc looking at the impact of chilling on maize 🌽

The project will be looking at chilling responses in roots and shoots 🌱❄️ including the role of ABA and photoinhibition.

Applications close 28th March. More details below www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50591/

Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term) - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge

Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term) in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk

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Yadvinder Malhi @ymalhi.bsky.social · Jan 28

I just signed (this one is for British citizens only)

Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · Jan 27

This petition to stop Musk donating insane amounts of money to UK political parties just hit 70,000 signatures - up from 30k a day ago. Can we make it hit the 100k mark tomorrow and trigger a parliamentary debate??

bsky.app/profile/guys...

Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · Jan 26

Stop Musk from funding far-right politics in the UK!

I just signed this petition 'Tighten the rules on political donations' - it's nearly at 30,000 signatures - can you add your name too? -

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...

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Ali Leverett @alileverett.bsky.social · Dec 18

Sorry I know that’s so vague and unhelpful - but feel free to email me too I’ll see if I can remember much from 2016

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Ali Leverett @alileverett.bsky.social · Dec 18

I used one during my PhD - there was a super useful A4 booklet that someone had made as a guide, but I can’t remember who it was by. It had a blue cover and cartoons of a scientist with a beard.

Tried finding it online but hard without remembering the author - someone on here might know

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Luke Gregory @lukemgregory.bsky.social · Dec 13

I need help finding a pdf of a paper that seems to be impossible for me to find - can anyone help?

“Physiological conditions in cucumber houses” (1917) F.G. Gregory

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Ali Leverett @alileverett.bsky.social · Dec 12

Please can I join

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Reposted by Ali Leverett

Amanda Cavanagh @cavycavs.bsky.social · Dec 4

Over 3 pandemic summers @kmeacham-hensold.bsky.social led a fabulous team characterizing a photorespiratory bypass in field-grown potato, giving us more evidence that manipulating PR can enhance crop thermotolerance!

Out today : onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/oidcS...

@globalchangebio.bsky.social

Shortcutting Photorespiration Protects Potato Photosynthesis and Tuber Yield Against Heatwave Stress

Over two growing seasons, a chloroplast localized synthetic glycolate metabolic pathway expressed in potato, enhanced tuber biomass. We confirmed that this yield benefit did not come at the cost of t...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Karolina Heyduk @kheyduk.bsky.social · Nov 5

Election day distraction: new preprint!

David Wickell @wickellomics.bsky.social · Nov 4

Check out our new preprint where we explore downstream impacts of CAM on primary metabolism in Yucca. There's more to it than just malate! doi.org/10.1101/2024...

Integrative analysis of CAM photosynthesis reveals its impact on primary metabolism in Yucca

Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) is an adaptation that temporally separates carbon uptake at night from photosynthesis during the day. CAM has evolved repeatedly across vascular plants, perhaps, in ...

doi.org

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Brad Posch @bposch.bsky.social · Oct 15

Leaf cooling during extreme heat 🌡️🍃
Leaf thermal thresholds breached 🥵
Tradeoffs between thermal and hydraulic safety 🤝

Read about all this and more in our new paper in PNAS!
#Botany #PlantScience 🌾🧪

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Intensive leaf cooling promotes tree survival during a record heatwave | PNAS

Increasing heatwaves are threatening forest ecosystems globally. Leaf thermal regulation and tolerance are important for plant survival during heat...

www.pnas.org

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Ali Leverett @alileverett.bsky.social · Sep 5

I know that feeling!

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Ali Leverett @alileverett.bsky.social · Aug 29

New paper out - led by Milad Rahimi-Majd

This study uses non-linear models to explore the relationships between anatomy and leaf mesophyll conductance

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴

Nonlinear models based on leaf architecture traits explain the variability of mesophyll conductance across plant species

We demonstrated that systematic training and testing of random forest regression models using a comprehensive data set, covering different plant functional types, can pinpoint leaf structural and ana....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Ali Leverett @alileverett.bsky.social · May 28

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

New review paper out:

We outline the uncertainties/ambiguities that are present when estimating mesophyll conductance (gm).

We also explore whether genetically engineering higher gm will lead to greater crop yields.

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The long and tortuous path towards improving photosynthesis by engineering elevated mesophyll conductance

Plant, Cell & Environment is an ecology journal analysing the ways plants respond to their environment including biological, physiological and ecological factors.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Department of Plant Sciences Cambridge @camplantsci.bsky.social · May 9

Many thanks to [email protected] for his excellent presentation today on Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) and succulence in the genus 'Clusia' - part of Cambridge's Plant Sciences seminar series.

Photo: 'Clusia pratensis' plant in Panama taken by Ali during field research.

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Annals of Botany @annbot.bsky.social · Feb 5

🌵 #CAMPlantsWeek

Elevated nocturnal respiratory rates in the mitochondria of CAM plants: current knowledge and unanswered questions by Alistair Leverett and Anne Borland in @annbot

#openaccess article
botany.fyi/jSfqIr

#PlantScience #Botany

Understanding the nocturnal respiratory metabolism in CAM plants is crucial for comprehending their adaptation to water-limited environments. Recent insights and physiological data underscore the significance of elevated nocturnal respiratory rates, emphasizing the need to address key questions for effective utilization in changing climates.

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