Philippa Borrill
@philippaborrill.bsky.social
730 followers 320 following 26 posts
Wheat geneticist and group leader at John Innes Centre. Interested in #micronutrients, #senescence, #polyploidy and #genomics. She/her. https://borrilllab.com/
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philippaborrill.bsky.social
We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join our team! They will work on homeolog-informed approaches to tackle cold tolerance in wheat @johninnescentre.bsky.social

Please find out more and apply here: jobs.jic.ac.uk/Details.asp?...

#plantsciences #plantscijobs
John Innes Centre
jobs.jic.ac.uk
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Many congratulations!! 🎉🎉
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Many congratulations Yiliang! Very exciting news! 🎉🎉🎊
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Congratulations Katie! Wonderful news 🎉🎉👏
Reposted by Philippa Borrill
tunglejic.bsky.social
Fantastic opportunity to start your independent career at the JIC here. Great startup package. Repost = nice. Thank you!!!
Reposted by Philippa Borrill
jxbotany.bsky.social
🌾🧬 SPECIAL ISSUE RESEARCH 🌾🧬

📝 Varying gene dosage through mutating DNA methyltransferase 1-1 (MET1-1 ) in polyploid wheat generates quantitative changes to CG methylation without the lethal consequences observed in other crops - Burrows et al.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
Fig. 1. (short legend see paper for full description): Null met1-1 mutants cannot be produced by crossing TILLING lines with disruptions in the three MET1-1 homoeologues. (A) Evolutionary relationships between MET1 homologues in Arabidopsis (AtMET1), rice (OsMET1a and OsMET1b), and wheat (homoeologue groups TaMET1-1, TaMET1-2, and TaMET1-3). (B) Crossing schematic showing the generation of the hexaploid MET1-1 populations: the C0465×C0884 population (top) and the C0451×C2028×C1292 population (bottom). (C) Structure of the three MET1-1 homoeologues. Filled rectangles represent exons, open rectangles represent untranslated regions, and lines represent introns. Triangles indicate the positions of the premature termination codon mutations in the TILLING lines used to produce the two hexaploid F2 populations (C0465×C0884, orange; C0451×C2028×C1292, purple). The green box signifies the Bromo adjacent homology domain (BAH) and the blue box signifies the C-5 cytosine methyltransferase domain.
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Thanks to all authors @delfidorussen.bsky.social @emilieknight.bsky.social and @simmojsimmo.bsky.social and the many colleagues we've discussed this question with over the years!
philippaborrill.bsky.social
In #wheat mutants we've long wondered if the expression of homoeologs is upregulated to compensate. Could that explain homoeolog redundancy?

Spoiler alert: no! Great summary by lead author @delfidorussen.bsky.social ⬇️ and the whole preprint is here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#plantscience
philippaborrill.bsky.social
I enjoyed your piece! Not sure I'll take up work on Ceratopteris yet.... I'll stick to wheat for now 😀
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Wonderful to see such a range of plant model organisms featured in @cp-devcell.bsky.social. From crops like wheat and maize all the way through to liverworts, algae & ferns!🌾🌿🌽🥬🦠

Many opinions including why I propose using wheat as a model to investigate polyploidy: doi.org/10.1016/j.de...
Redirecting
doi.org
philippaborrill.bsky.social
It's an honour to be shortlisted for the Falling Walls Foundation Science Breakthrough of the Year 2025 for our work on epigenetics in crop breeding. I'm excited to see where this work leads us!

Here we describe our first steps into epigenetic mutants in wheat doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
johninnescentre.bsky.social
Congratulations to Dr @philippaborrill.bsky.social and ‘Breaking the Wall of Epigenetics in Crop Breeding’ for being shortlisted for the Falling Walls Foundation Science Breakthrough of the Year 2025! 🌟

falling-walls.com/breakthroughs
Science Breakthroughs
The Falling Walls Science Summit celebrates the forefront of scientific advancements with breakthrough speakers.
falling-walls.com
Reposted by Philippa Borrill
johninnescentre.bsky.social
EVENT - “Fundamental Biology of Legume Crops” Workshop

Discuss the latest research in genomics, metabolomics, biotic interactions and plant development.

💻 Application deadline: 16 July 2025

🗓️ 3 - 4 November 2025
📍The John Innes Centre, NR4 7UH

Find out more and apply: okt.to/fgZCWB
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Thanks for sharing Lisa. It's always interesting to see how projects deviate over time from the original idea, and great that your 'failed' experiment has been so impactful!
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Thank you to all co-authors for a great collaboration @glombikm.bsky.social Ramesh Arunkumar, Sam Burrows, Sophie Mogg and Xiaoming Wang!
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Our latest work found that homoeolog expression bias is inherited for ~26% of triads in wheat. Intriguingly we found that new patterns of homoeolog expression bias are more frequent when one of the parents is a landrace.
Read more in Genome Biology: rdcu.be/eokf2
@johninnescentre.bsky.social
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Looking for the direct target genes of a transcription factor in #wheat? Our protocol uses protoplasts, skipping transgenic plants to save months!

Great step by step protocol @emilieknight.bsky.social! Read more below ⬇️ Thanks to all contributors!
#plantscience @johninnescentre.bsky.social
emilieknight.bsky.social
Pleased to have finally got this method to work in wheat! Find out how you can identify direct targets of transcription factors in wheat using protoplasts and the TARGET method:
dx.doi.org/10.17504/pro...
A very useful method for our group to use! borrilllab.com
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Congratulations @andytruman4.bsky.social and team! 🎉 Very interesting to see the work go from genetic prediction all the way to ecological role.
philippaborrill.bsky.social
It was a pleasure to host @ismaelgf.bsky.social for 3 months @johninnescentre.bsky.social. Looking forward to continuing our collaboration with @irnasa.bsky.social on transcriptomic responses to water deficit in wheat 💦🍞🌾
irnasa.bsky.social
🌾 Our PhD student Ismael Gutiérrez has completed a research stay at the @johninnescentre.bsky.social exploring wheat responses to drought under climate change via omics data analysis. 📊 Thank you to Dr. @philippaborrill.bsky.social and her team for the warm welcome and training!
Reposted by Philippa Borrill
nikolaiadamski.bsky.social
#Monogram2025 has finished. It was a fantastic conference with outstanding speakers and great interactions. I am very grateful to the organisers for their hard work!! (Especially Ash!)

Looking forward to next year's conference hosted by NIAB.
@monogram-uk.bsky.social
@niab-uk.bsky.social
A picture showing the attendees of the Monogram2025 conference in Aberystwyth. A picture of Dr Aiswarya Girija (Ash) receiving a thank you for her work coordinating the organisation if Monogram2025. A picture showing the people who helped organise Monogram2025. A picture revealing that Monogram2026 will be hosted by the NIAB institute in Cambridge.
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Totally agree, what a great conference and well organised by the @ibers.bsky.social team.
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Congratulations to Isabel Faci @johninnescentre.bsky.social winner of the #Monogram2025 ECR excellence award! Fascinating talk on how decoupling environmental signals can induce aerial branching in wheat!
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Congratulations to @katielong.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social winner of the #Monogram2025 ECR excellence award! Fabulous talk on the intricate patterns of gene expression in wheat spikes!
philippaborrill.bsky.social
Wonderful talk from @delfidorussen.bsky.social at #Monogram2025 about DNA methylation mutants in wheat. You can read the full MET1-1 mutant characterisation which was just published this week @jxbotany.bsky.social ⬇️