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Nichola Hawkins

@nicholahawkins.bsky.social

200 followers 250 following 29 posts

Plant pathologist / evolutionary biologist researching crop protection and antimicrobial resistance in fungal diseases of plants. Evolution and sustainable agriculture. Wild flowers and sharing the love of plants and botany. 🌾🧫🧬🍄🌼

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Aug 11

New paper out now in @britmycolsoc.org.uk Fungal Biology Reviews. Learning from fungicide resistance: Evolutionary insights to guide RNAi-based control of fungal crop pathogens. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Learning from fungicide resistance: Evolutionary insights to guide RNAi-based control of fungal crop pathogens

Crop protection against fungal pathogens is essential to prevent crop losses and maintain food security. Current crop protection relies heavily on che…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Nichola Hawkins

Association of Applied Biologists @aabiologists.bsky.social · 29d

A fab bunch of talks for Session 1 Disease Management in Practice #PPATH2025
🌾 Helen Bates @niab-uk.bsky.social
🥔 Ashleigh Holmes @hutton.ac.uk
🧬 Aimee Fowkes - Fera x @newcastleuni.bsky.social
🍓 Avice Hall @herts.ac.uk

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Sep 7

Sea couch #SeedHeads, some infected with ergot fungus. On the sand dunes at Bridgwater Bay. #WildFlowerHour

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Sep 6

And on the fungal side, my first puffballs of the year.

Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Sep 6

And a rather deceptive plant: this is actually Lesser knapweed, but a rayed form, so it looks like Greater knapweed flowers on a Lesser knapweed plant!

Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Sep 6

I always enjoy getting the chance to go out botanising in the field with the @wildflowersociety.bsky.social . This morning's plants included Silver cinquefoil Potentilla argentea, and the stunning hybrid goat's-beard Tragopogon x mirabilis.

A hybrid goat's-beard flower with purple outer rays and yellow centre

A silver cinquefoil plant, showing the silver downy underside of the leaves

Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Sep 2

And taking an empty screw-top 2ml tube to practice one-handed opening and closing.

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Aug 13

We've seen lots of examples of parallel evolution at the point mutation level in fungicide target encoding genes (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...), and now @thorstenlangner.bsky.social has found repeated evolution of point mutations in a plant pathogen effector, too!

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Aug 11

Resistance evolution means we absolutely need more tools in the crop protection toolbox, but it also means those new tools must be designed and deployed with resistance in mind. Considering resistance risk and management in advance is far better than only reacting after it emerges.

Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Aug 11

We also consider what we have learned (sometimes the hard way!) about resistance management and IPM over almost six decades of single-site fungicide use, and what this means for the deployment and management of new measures to maximise durability.

Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Aug 11

We consider how the molecular mechanisms of resistance against fungicides, and mechanisms of fungal genome evolution more generally, could apply to potential RNAi resistance, and what this means for RNAi target selection and construct design.

Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Aug 11

Contributors include @melonamaranth.bsky.social, @dannagifford.bsky.social, @florianhartig.bsky.social, @gmpreston.bsky.social, @mfseidl.bsky.social, @pietrospanu.bsky.social.

Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Aug 11

This paper was the result of a workshop co-organised by @timbarra.bsky.social, Joris Alkemade and I, bringing together experts in RNAi, fungicides, AMR and fungal evolution.

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Aug 11

Fungicide resistance is a big reason why we need alternative crop protection measures, but we must consider the risk of those other crop protection measures also selecting for resistance, especially for target-specific methods like RNAi.

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Aug 11

Learning from fungicide resistance: Evolutionary insights to guide RNAi-based control of fungal crop pathogens

Crop protection against fungal pathogens is essential to prevent crop losses and maintain food security. Current crop protection relies heavily on che…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Jul 27

Ash flower galls, caused by a mite, Acerina fraxinivora. A heavy infestation like this will reduce seed production but won't kill the tree.

An ash tree branch with some seeds and some rough brown galls.

Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Jul 13

Viper's bugloss in the evening sunlight #WildFlowerHour #HairyPlants

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Jul 4

A great day hearing from other plant-related research groups around Cambridge.

Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU) @slcuplants.bsky.social · Jul 4

Botanicon 2025 - the 3rd annual Plants @ Cambridge conference bringing together plant scientists from across Cambridge to share their work and ideas.

@camplantsci.bsky.social @cropscicentre.bsky.social @niab-uk.bsky.social @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social #PlantsAtCambridge

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Jun 19

This week I've been in France for a project meeting of our JPI-AMR project, Aerobiomics-AMR. Between meetings, we saw one of the Cyclone spore traps in action, visited Arvalis field trials with very high levels of brown rust, and stayed in the lovely town of St. Quentin.

Wheat plants heavily infected with brown rust

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · May 18

For the #WildFlowerHour #PinkFamily challenge, White campion with bonus #WildPlantDisease Anther smut.

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Reposted by Nichola Hawkins

Jake Dalzell @bitheolaidhe.bsky.social · Mar 7

For the past few months I've been working on bringing to life something that I think is really needed: a field guide to plant pathogens (focusing on fungi and oomycetes). It has gotten to the point where I feel I can share it publically - read more at irishplants.org/blog/2025/03... ! #FungiFriends

screenshot of the home page of the Field Guide to Plant Pathogens

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Mar 4

Fungal antimicrobial resistance: online mini-symposium, March 27th. Cutting-edge genomics & fungal AMR breakthroughs with world-leading experts (and me!)

TARGetAMR @target-amr.bsky.social · Mar 4

🧬 AMR & Genomics: Major Event Loading... 🧬
🚀 Get ready for the TARGetAMR & Fungal ONE Health Joint Mini-Symposium! 🍄🦠
📅 Thursday 27th March | 🕐 1-4 PM GMT
🔥 Cutting-edge genomics & fungal AMR breakthroughs with world-leading experts! 🌍💡
🔗 Register now! 👇
www.targetamr.org.uk/hdrevents/jo...

Reposted by Nichola Hawkins

Willem van Schaik @wvschaik.bsky.social · Mar 3

I am very excited that @target-amr.bsky.social and the Fungal AMR One Health network (www.fungalamr.org) are organising an online mini-symposium on Fungal AMR Genomics on 25 March 1-4 pm GMT.

Please sign up here! www.targetamr.org.uk/hdrevents/jo...

Tackling AMR Together: Insights from the Genomics & Fungal ONE Health UKRI Transdisciplinary Networks Online Mini-symposium: 27 Mar 25 – TargetAMR

www.targetamr.org.uk

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Mar 2

First celandine of the year! #WildFlowerHour

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Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Feb 23

#TheWinter10 part 3 (chickweed is behind the Shepherd's purse)

Nichola Hawkins @nicholahawkins.bsky.social · Feb 23

#TheWinter10 part 2

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