Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · 1d

Wow, congratulations Marco!

Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · 8d

Happy to share that our multi-omic analysis comparing two Arabidopsis accessions is now published 🌿 The first story from our @ukri.org BBSRC sLoLa #plant #proteostasis project. A great collaboration between @rothamsted.bsky.social @richardmott.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk and Kathryn Lilley at Cambridge.

Richard Mott @richardmott.bsky.social · 8d

We have just published a paper in Genome Biology, rdcu.be/eIMLf. We explore the information flow between genome, gene body methylation, transcriptome, translatome and proteome in Arabidopsis. This is part of a BBSRC-funded collaboration with UCL, Rothamsted Research and University of Cambridge.

Information flow between omic levels in Arabidopsis thaliana

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · 16d

Hello to all my floodie friends currently in Nagoya! 🌾🌊👋 I'm so sorry I couldn't make it to #ISPLORE2025JP this time: will be following the posts from @isplore.bsky.social and feeling wistful all week. Hope you have a great meeting ☺️

International Society for Plant Low Oxygen Research @isplore.bsky.social · 16d

#ISPLORE2025JP is about to start in beautiful Nagoya! We're excited for a full week of low-oxygen and flooding #plantscience 🌱🌊

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · 19d

Great to be sharing exciting progress with #PrecisionBreeing in our #GreenEngineering BBSRC institute strategic programme @rothamsted.bsky.social Several valuable traits in the pipeline @ukri.org #PBO #GeneEditing

Rothamsted Research @rothamsted.bsky.social · 20d

It was a great pleasure to host 15 of the
@euinuk.bsky.social agrifood counsellors in London to campus this week. Lots of discussion around future crops and precision breeding...🧬🌱

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · 19d

It's been far too long since my last baking post, so I wanted to announce a recent acquisition: a cake dome which I am launching with a grown up but still childish slab of cake. Dark chocolate icing with sprinkles tasted better than it looks!

A slightly wonky square cake, covered in chocolate icing, with far too many sugar sprinkles, topped with a glass dome.

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Reposted by Frederica Theodoulou

Yoselin Benitez-Alfonso @yoselin.bsky.social · 22d

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.

Black In Plant Science- UK @blackinplantsci.bsky.social · 28d

📢Deadlines fast approaching for the BiPS Conference 2025!

Join us for a day of connection and celebration where we'll be hearing from the renowned academics Nicola Patron and Kevin Cox. With workshops on a variety of topics and a chance for you to build your community.

Register: buff.ly/J9PM0Wj

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Reposted by Frederica Theodoulou

Rashmi Sasidharan @rsasidharan.bsky.social · Sep 3

🚨Job Alert!! Assistant professor vacancy ‘plant abiotic stress resilience’ in our group @uuplants.bsky.social Come for the science, stay for the amazing colleagues 😀More details here www.uu.nl/en/organisat... Please share!!

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Sep 5

👏 Great to see plant scientists among the ERC StG winners 🌿 congrats all!

Suayb Üstün @suaybuestuen.bsky.social · Sep 4

Wow - congrats to all plant scientists! @izzysaurlab.bsky.social @pfeilmeier.bsky.social @jiorgoskourelis.bsky.social @clemmar.bsky.social @vinayshukla.bsky.social @tinaschreier.bsky.social so great to see 🌱s being rewarded the ERC StG!

European Research Council (ERC) @erc.europa.eu · Sep 4

The new ERC Starting Grant - funded projects include:

✴️ redefining false memories

✴️ making artificial touch feel more natural and realistic

✴️ how aging reshapes human tissues

✴️ ADHD in adults vs childhood

✴️ how plants shield from excessive sun exposure

Discover more 👉 buff.ly/APfNmCK

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Sep 4

Great news, huge congratulations Vinay! 🥂

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Sep 4

Stunning double rainbow @rothamsted.bsky.social this evening 🌈

A double rainbow (almost complete arc) with a green lawn in the foreground

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Sep 3

So very sad to hear this. Andrew was hugely supportive of our engineering biology work at Rothamsted. A rigorous scientist and so full of interesting ideas.

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Sep 3

Job opportunity: come join the excellent and friendly #ProteostasisUK community!

delladavid-lab.bsky.social @delladavid-lab.bsky.social · Sep 2

Exciting news📣: #ProteostasisUK is hiring a network manager to help drive an ambitious, #BBSRC funded initiative connecting and expanding #Proteostasis research across the UK. Position initially for 3 years. Deadline September 28th. More info: tinyurl.com/f83rp673 & proteostasisuk.co.uk Please RT

hireful.

tinyurl.com

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Reposted by Frederica Theodoulou

Rebecca Mosher @rm0sher.bsky.social · Sep 1

Had to look up an old paper to get the doi. It still completely boggles my mind that TWO Nobel prizes have been given for small RNAs and this work wasn't recognized by either. Abstract is literally like "yeah, we found these tiny antisense RNAs and think they're probably causing gene silencing"

A Species of Small Antisense RNA in Posttranscriptional Gene Silencing in Plants by Andrew J. Hamilton and David C. Baulcombe
Abstract
Posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS) is a nucleotide sequence–specific defense mechanism that can target both cellular and viral mRNAs. Here, three types of transgene-induced PTGS and one example of virus-induced PTGS were analyzed in plants. In each case, antisense RNA complementary to the targeted mRNA was detected. These RNA molecules were of a uniform length, estimated at 25 nucleotides, and their accumulation required either transgene sense transcription or RNA virus replication. Thus, the 25-nucleotide antisense RNA is likely synthesized from an RNA template and may represent the specificity determinant of PTGS.

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Aug 29

Epic structure paper from @clausenlab.bsky.social @dangrabarczyk.bsky.social and collaborators providing mechanistic insight into how the UBR4 complex (=BIG in plants 🌿😊) fulfils apparently disparate roles in protein turnover 🤩

Dan Grabarczyk @dangrabarczyk.bsky.social · Aug 28

Glad to share the final version of our story about the UBR4 complex, an E4 ligase protein quality control hub @science.org. Now with more cryo-EM structures and a deeper dive into substrate recognition, especially escaped mitochondrial proteins @clausenlab.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Aug 29

🤩 Wonderful work- huge congratulations! 🥂🥂🥂 Sets the scene beautifully for our whole plant experiments on Arabidopsis UBR4 😊🌿

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Aug 27

🤯

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra @jrossibarra.bsky.social · Aug 27

This always blows my mind. Dude mapped qtl for a quantitative trait to a chromosome in 1923!

Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra @jrossibarra.bsky.social · Aug 27

Related but cool combo of cytogenetics and phenotype. Know when the first QTL was mapped?

Sax, K. 1923. The association of size differences with seed coat pattern and pigmentation in Phaseolus vulgaris. Genetics 8:552-560.

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Aug 26

Congratulations Lucia and all the best for the move! 🥂

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Aug 19

Congrats Seven and Lindsay- great to see this project being supported by ERC! 🥂

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Aug 14

Academics never go on vacation, they just read papers and emails on beaches..... 🌴

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Aug 14

Please count me in! 🌿

Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Aug 7

Good candidate for a caption competition!

Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Aug 6

Left myself a message for tomorrow morning

A piece of paper with the message: "STOP FAFFING AROUND AND START WRITING A GRANT"

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Reposted by Frederica Theodoulou

Daphne Jackson Trust @daphnejacksontr.bsky.social · Jul 29

Empower. Overcome. Reignite.
We support researchers to return after a career break — with training, funding & confidence.
Breaking down barriers to reignite research careers.
Find out more: daphnejackson.org

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Reposted by Frederica Theodoulou

Mary Williams @PlantTeaching @plantteaching.bsky.social · Jul 14

Join us Thursday July 17 for a discussion on "Numeracy, Realism & Relevance in Plant Science", featuring Steven Burgess, Samuel Lovat, Jonathan Napier, & Claudia Vickers discussing how to "run the numbers" to identify realistic solutions to today's problems. blog.aspb.org/july-17-plan...

July 17: Plant Physiology panel discussion on Numeracy, Realism, and Relevance in Plant Science | Plant Science Today

Plant Physiology webinar Numeracy, Realism, and Relevance in Plant Science When: Thursday July 17, 2025 at Noon UTC | 8 AM EDT | 1 PM UK | 3 PM Israel | 10 PM Brisbane, Australia About this panel…

blog.aspb.org

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Frederica Theodoulou @freddietheodoulou.bsky.social · Jul 8

Sorry to be missing this!

Suayb Üstün @suaybuestuen.bsky.social · Jul 8

Fantastic talk by @djgibbs.bsky.social at #SEBconference on how the N-Degron pathway regulates histone methylation to coordinate plant development #proteostasis @sebiology.bsky.social - see also @drosborneplantsci.bsky.social latest publication www.cell.com/developmenta...

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