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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra
@leoserra.bsky.social
730 followers 320 following 14 posts
Postdoc @ SLCU Cambridge | Plant Morphogenesis | Cell Division | Cell Growth | Mechanobiology | Microscopy
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Reposted by Leo Serra
mc-caillaud.bsky.social
Marie-Cécile Caillaud @mc-caillaud.bsky.social · Aug 25
🌱✂️ How do plant cells decide where to divide?

Our work shows that actin can override the geometric rules—guiding cells to divide in alternative orientations.
#PlantScience #CellBiology #Arabidopsis

@camilagoldy.bsky.social @rdplab.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
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Reposted by Leo Serra
biorxiv-plants.bsky.social
bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · Jul 17
Brassinosteroid controls leaf air space patterning non-cell autonomously by promoting epidermal growth https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.14.664710v1
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Reposted by Leo Serra
brownalgaedev.bsky.social
CharrierLab @brownalgaedev.bsky.social · Jul 16
Asymmetric cell division: (re) visiting the concept in light of brown algae 🧲review in Curr Op Plant Biol doi.org/10.1016/j.pb...
Redirecting
doi.org
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Reposted by Leo Serra
prakashlab.bsky.social
Prakash Lab at Stanford @prakashlab.bsky.social · May 29
Incredible Molly Herring wrote a story on the philosophy behind the work we do at PrakashLab. Wonder & curiosity.. even more important to share when every day is a new attack on the fundamental principles of scientific explorations. Thanks @quantamagazine.bsky.social for this interaction.
quantamagazine.bsky.social
Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.bsky.social · May 28
Manu Prakash practices “recreational biology,” a scientific approach that explores life in the same playful way that puzzles probe math. “Basic science is not at the service of something, but the groundwork that is our entire society’s foundation.” www.quantamagazine.org/how-paradoxi...
How Paradoxical Questions and Simple Wonder Lead to Great Science | Quanta Magazine
Manu Prakash works on the world’s most urgent problems and seemingly frivolous questions at the same time. They add up to a philosophy he calls “recreational biology.”
www.quantamagazine.org
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Reposted by Leo Serra
fabienmiart.bsky.social
Fabien Miart @fabienmiart.bsky.social · May 9
🚀 Big news!
I’m happy to share with you the launch of MIAtecs’ brand-new website: www.miatecs.com 🌿

If you work in plant #phenotyping, #microscopy, or #AI-based image analysis, especially around #stomata, #trichomes, or other hard-to-capture traits, it’s worth a visit! 😊
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Reposted by Leo Serra
plantteaching.bsky.social
Mary Williams @PlantTeaching @plantteaching.bsky.social · May 8
Good article on academic bullying (it's not just a German problem).
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Can Germany rein in its academic bullying problem?
Researchers and administrators are exploring ways to restructure a rigid hierarchy that can breed power abuses.
www.nature.com
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Reposted by Leo Serra
tengzhanguh.bsky.social
Teng Zhang | 张腾 @tengzhanguh.bsky.social · Feb 1
Please Repost! We are offering a three-year fully funded doctoral researcher position to study how floral meristem patterning in woodland strawberry, and how it implicates the diversification in floral ground plans in Angiosperm flowers. jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsini-...
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Reposted by Leo Serra
botanicaljim.bsky.social
Jim Rowe @botanicaljim.bsky.social · Mar 14
The Rowe lab is recruiting a #PlantScience PhD student for 2025! You'll use our new ABACUS FRET biosensors to map the leaf #AbscisicAcid accumulations at low humidity in Arabidopsis, wheat and rice to understand how ABA regulates stomatal dynamics. #PhDposition

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
A grey coloured Arabidopsis leaf epidermis, with black cell walls. Each cells has a colourful blobs - a nuclear localised fluorescent ABA sensor, with warm colours indicating high concentrations, and cooler colours indicating lower concentrations.
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Reposted by Leo Serra
brownalgaedev.bsky.social
CharrierLab @brownalgaedev.bsky.social · Jan 10
Stunning corset-like structure made of cell wall #alginate might restrict lateral growth in #kelp embryos. ➡️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Reposted by Leo Serra
srobertgroup.bsky.social
Stéphanie Robert @srobertgroup.bsky.social · Dec 11
Please spread the word, 2-year-postdoc position in my group to understand fate determination.
www.upsc.se/jobs/6548-po...
Umeå Plant Science Centre - Postdoc fellowship to work on plant cell fate determination
Umeå Plant Science Centre - A centre of excellence for experimental plant biology in Umeå Sweden. ©UPSC
www.upsc.se
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 9
Thank you Jim!
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 6
This was a nice and fun journey with great colleagues and a supportive PI @robinsonsci.bsky.social, it would not have been possible without the fantastic working environment of @slcuplants.bsky.social 12/12
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 6
Altogether these experiments allowed us to conclude that stomata were aligned by mechanical stress derived from differential growth 11/12
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 6
Since these approaches couldn’t rule out a wounding effect, we’ve decided to use a more gentle approach: tissue folding. Again we observed a change of division orientation after folding 10/12
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 6
At this point, we thought that mechanical stress could be the “mysterious factor” orienting stomata division, so we performed mechanical perturbations (stabbing or slicing with a needle), which led to a nice change in division orientations 9/12
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 6
This range of techniques allowed us to identify a drastic change of cotyledon curvature between 1 and 2 DAG, this change is associated with differential growth between the 2 sides and orthogonal stress patterns 8/12
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 6
Since we’ve found different orientation patterns between the 2 sides of cotyledons we decided to characterize the 2 sides in more detail to try to find the mysterious factor orienting stomata. For this, we used light sheet imaging, dual-view timelapse imaging, full 3D segmentation, and FEM 7/12
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 6
We time-lapsed cotyledons during stomata division and analyzed the orientation of division, on the abaxial side we found that the divisions were aligned with the organ axis and not with the cell major axis or growth direction, on the adaxial side the division were more disorganized 6/12
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 5
And rather than just looking at a few stomata divisions, we’ve made all epidermal cells turn into stomata using the iMUTE inducible line (Han et al 2018), that’s much funnier 5/12
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 5
After this characterization, we asked our big question: What factor is directing the orientation of stomata division? Our suspects were cell geometry, cell growth direction, or organ axis. 4/12
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 5
On the abaxial side, the organ scale alignment is quite obvious in the early stages, but the stomata formed later in development have more random orientations. We’ve also looked at the adaxial side, and interestingly 2 days after germination the new stomata are not aligned anymore 3/12
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 5
We first characterized the stomata orientation pattern in Arabidopsis Cotyledons, for this, we’ve manually annotated more than 10000 stomata (that’s a lot of clicking) and mapped their orientation relative to the proximo-distal axis. Here are some of these maps on the abaxial side 2/12
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 5
More details on our recent pre-print:
Alignments of stomata have been described in many species, here are 2 examples: Thym from my kitchen, and Leucadendron from a 1935 paper (Smith 1935 on the orientation of stomata)
What is directing these alignments is unknown 1/12
doi.org/10.1101/2024...
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leoserra.bsky.social
Leo Serra @leoserra.bsky.social · Dec 3
Stomata form alignments in many species, we do not know how. So, we forced a lot of cells to differentiate into stomata, and we watched them dividing, with modelling, and mechanical perturbations, we conclude that they were aligned by mechanical stress derived from differential growth
biorxiv-plants.bsky.social
bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · Dec 3
Mechanical stress orients stomata division to form tissue scale alignments. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.02.626480v1
Mechanical stress orients stomata division to form tissue scale alignments. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.02.626480v1
The last stomatal division aligns with the leaf main axis in many species. Understanding how cellula
www.biorxiv.org
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Reposted by Leo Serra
biology.ox.ac.uk
Oxford Biology @biology.ox.ac.uk · Nov 26
How does the squirting cucumber squirt?

New research has found the answer! It turns out that four key components make up a finely tuned seed dispersal system 👇
bit.ly/4g5stil
High speed video showing the ejection of seeds by the squirting cucumber (Ecballium elaterium). The video is captured at 8,600 fps, and is slowed down around 350 times.
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