Ivan Radin
@radinbio.bsky.social
330 followers 320 following 72 posts
🌱🪴🌿🔬🏳️‍🌈 Lover of plants and microscopy. Assistant Professor, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Univerisity of Minnesota. Lab: radinlab.org/ Instagram: radinbio
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radinbio.bsky.social
Are you planning any plant fluorescent microscopy experiments? 🔬🌱🪴
Then this is a must-read. Here we provide tips and advice on how to improve your plant microscopy experiments and how to appropriately report your imaging results. ☺️
academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...
Best practices in plant fluorescence imaging and reporting: A primer
Abstract. Microscopy is a fundamental approach for plant cell and developmental biology as well as an essential tool for mechanistic studies in plant resea
academic.oup.com
Reposted by Ivan Radin
ehaswell.bsky.social
I started to work on MscS-Like proteins 20 years ago, dreaming that they were involved in plant mechanotransduction. And it is becoming more & more clear that they are!
#plantscience 🧪
"DmMSL10 is crucial for mechanosensing, facilitating AP firing by generating a receptor potential (RP) amplitude."
aribidopsis.bsky.social
🍀🔬

MSL10 is a high-sensitivity mechanosensor in the tactile sense of the Venus flytrap @natcomms.nature.com from Toyota lab.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Ivan Radin
elife.bsky.social
Inside a thylakoid membrane

The molecular architecture of the thylakoid membrane in a vascular plant has been determined with single-molecule precision.
buff.ly/U9TzrOh
radinbio.bsky.social
Fun fact: In mature plant cells, vacuoles occupy most of the cell volume (>90%). The entire cytosol of two neighboring cells and their shared cell wall, are squished into small spaces between two large vacuoles you can see in parts of the image.
radinbio.bsky.social
The formation of the brighter green bulbs inside the vacuolar lumen is promoted by dimerization of EGFP in the vac-GB marker. However, some types of bulbs can occur in the WT plants, even without the marker.
The image was captured on the FV1000 confocal system from Olympus.
radinbio.bsky.social
This is a section of the cotyledon (first leaf) surface from the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, which is expressing the green fluorescent protein vacuolar membrane marker (vac-GB). Chloroplasts are in magenta, visible due to the autofluorescence of the chlorophyll.
#microscopymonday
The image shows epidermal Arabidopsis cells (shaped like puzzle pieces) outlined by green lines. Some cells have bright green within them. Ovoid-shaped chloroplasts in magenta are visible throughout the image.
radinbio.bsky.social
In case you missed it, our workshop on Fiji Basics for Visualization and Quantification of Plant Images is now available on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TMJ...
We give a lot of practical tips on how to get started with Fiji.
Keep an eye out for announcements on follow-up workshops.
Imaging Workshop Webinar Series: FIJI Basics for Visualizing and Quantifying Plant Images
YouTube video by Plant Cell Atlas
www.youtube.com
radinbio.bsky.social
Protoplasts are always fascinating to look at 😄
Reposted by Ivan Radin
plantcellatlas.bsky.social
In Two Days!

Attendees: we encourage you to download and install FIJI in advance of the workshop if you wish to follow along on your own computer. Keep an eye on your email & visit:
hpc.nih.gov/apps/Fiji and fiji.sc

Register Now! bit.ly/45zJE7V
Promotional image for the PCA Imaging Workshop Webinar Series: FIJI Basics for Visualizing and Quantifying Plant Images. The promo has a purple and green plant cell graphic with a black background. It also includes the details for the webinar including the date/time: Wednesday September 24, 2025 9:30am CT/10:30am ET/7:30am PT, the Zoom Link, and the Organizers: Ivan Radin, Kirk Czymmek, and Daniel Kierzkowski.
radinbio.bsky.social
Only some of the protoplasts were successfully transformed.
This is a maximum projection of a Z-stack captured on the FV3000 point scanning confocal system using a 20x/0.75 objective and subjected to deconvolution.
radinbio.bsky.social
This is what happens when you remove the wall from plant cells. They become perfectly spherical and are called protoplasts.
These protoplasts were isolated from Arabidopsis and transformed with a vector to express cytosolic GFP (in orange). The chloroplast autofluorescence is in grey.
#microscopy
The image shows many perfectly spherical cells (protoplasts). All of them are filled with numerous oval-shaped chloroplasts in grey.  Some also have orange signal filling either the whole sphere or only part of it.
radinbio.bsky.social
Glad to hear that. I try to add as much as I can about plant electrical and calcium signaling to my lectures too 😄
radinbio.bsky.social
Session 2 (Times are North American Central Daylight Time)

Tuesday, October 28, 2025
9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
9:00 a.m. - Preparing a strong application: Advice from admissions committee members
9:15 a.m. - Open, drop-in Q&A with current PMB students
Zoom link: umn.zoom.us/j/95884546895
radinbio.bsky.social
Session 1 (Times are North American Central Daylight Time)

Thursday, October 23, 2025
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
2:00 p.m. - Preparing a strong application: Advice from admissions committee members
2:15 p.m. - Open, drop-in Q&A with current PMB students
Zoom link: umn.zoom.us/j/95884546895
radinbio.bsky.social
Our Plant and Microbial Biology Graduate Program (cbs.umn.edu/pmb/graduate...) is organizing two Zoom Admissions open houses where you can learn about preparing a strong application and get advice about graduate school from current PMB students.
Drop in at any point on either or both days, see below
Plant and Microbial Biology Graduate Program | College of Biological Sciences
cbs.umn.edu
radinbio.bsky.social
Sundews need to be very sensitive to touch, to recognize when their prey has been captured.
This project was a great collaboration with Carl Procko from @salkinstitute.bsky.social. Videos were captured with the THUNDER Imager Model Organism dissecting scope from @leicamicrosystems.bsky.social
radinbio.bsky.social
These sundews (Drosera spatulata) plants are expressing a cytosolic calcium biosensor. The video is false-colored, where the color corresponds to the calcium concentration in the cytosol of the cells. Blue = lowest, green = medium, and yellow = highest calcium levels
doi: 10.1073/pnas.2206433119
radinbio.bsky.social
Do you know what happens when you touch a carnivorous sundew plant?
If the touch is strong and large enough, a cytosolic calcium wave will spread from the site of touch throughout the whole plant, but if you only touch one tentacle (see post below), the calcium wave will be local and less intense.
radinbio.bsky.social
Yes, in mature plant cells, vacuoles often occupy more than 90% of the total volume. 😄
radinbio.bsky.social
Both are labeled by proteins. For the plasma membrane, it was a mCherry-based marker pm-RK from Nelson et al. 2007 (doi: 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2007.03212.x), while for tonoplast, it was GFP-tagged PIEZO channel (a protein we work on). 😊
radinbio.bsky.social
Yes, please feel free to use them for a class. 😊