Kyoka Kuroiwa

Co-translational control of protein stability and quality in plants Abstract. Proteostasis relies on the coordinated control of protein synthesis, folding, modification and degradation, and an increasingly clear picture is

My review “Co-translational control of protein stability and quality in plants” is now online at @jxbotany.bsky.social, in which I describe how co-translational processing and ribosome-associated quality control together establish protein stability and fate early in synthesis. tinyurl.com/5dhhz9h6

RNA splicing generates a functionally specialized Rep protein isoform in geminiviruses — enabling timely control of the viral cycle. Strikingly, similar strategies might have evolved in DNA viruses infecting different kingdoms: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Spearheaded by @delphinem-p.bsky.social!

Target of rapamycin kinase is involved in regulating maize radicle development through starch metabolism Abstract. Target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling plays a pivotal role in regulating various cellular processes, including energy metabolism and growth. In thi

Radicle, dude! 🏄

Liu et al show that 'target of rapamycin' or TOR signaling regulates #maize radicle development by modulating starch metabolism and energy homeostasis 🌽

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/pcp/...

#PlantScience

Big news from our lab: we can now stably edit the genome of a parasitic plant! Transgene-free, genome-edited P. japonicum in one generation! This will transform how we study #parasiticplants and other hard-to-transform plants.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

(Sorry I’m finally learning this news after one month… 🤦‍♀️😂)

Wow!! Congrats Spyros!!!! 🤩🤩

📋 Join us on Friday 19th for a fascinating talk by Rosa Lozano-Durán from Center for Molecular Plant Biology (ZMBP), University of Tübingen (Germany) @unituebingen.bsky.social as part of the #IHSMLaMayoraSeminars series

Don't miss it!
🕑 9:30 AM
📍 IHSM La Mayora Auditorium

More information here ⬇️

Organelles do NOT have a single uniform pH.
And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you.
A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n

Cellular and viral RNA polymerases: evolutionary insights into eukaryotic origins Nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDVs) encode multi-subunit RNA polymerases (msRNAPs) that challenge conventional views of viral evolution. Phylogenetic and structural studies reveal that NCLDV RNAP catalytic cores share deep evolutionary roots with eukaryotic counterparts, implicating ancient gene transfers that shaped the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA), underscoring NCLDVs’ pivotal role in eukaryotic origins. NCLDV RNAP retains the fundamental architecture of cellular RNAPs while evolving and adapting for viral gene regulation. This review summarizes structural and functional divergences between viral and cellular RNAPs, synthesizes evidence for virus-driven RNAP evolution, and evaluates emerging hypotheses of viral eukaryogenesis. Viewing viruses as evolutionary collaborators offers new insights into RNAP adaptability and bridges virology, evolutionary biology, and synthetic biology across diverse biological contexts.

Cellular and viral RNA polymerases: evolutionary insights into eukaryotic origins

Last week @science.org mRNA initiation and termination are spatially coordinated | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... from @anafiszbein.bsky.social @athmapai.bsky.social et al.

Salicylic acid biosensor, SalicS1, tracks the plant immune hormone salicylic acid in real time - revealing propagation of hormone surge during plant pathogen advance

Latest biosensor from @xanderjones.bsky.social team
In Science doi.org/10.1126/scie...
Summary www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/news/new-bio...

📢 A Junior Professorship (W1, tenure track) is open at the Center for Plant Molecular Biology at Uni Tübingen (@zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social) — to work on plant protein biochemistry (composition, structure, dynamics, or regulation of protein complexes). 🌱 Great opportunity — Apply by Oct 17th!

The human ribosome modulates multidomain protein biogenesis by delaying cotranslational domain docking - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology By studying dynamic folding intermediates on the human ribosome, Pellowe et al. show that newly made domains help each other to fold but do not stably interact until synthesis is complete, avoiding in...

Our article on human multidomain protein biogenesis is now published in @natsmb.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Ig Nobels are science’s most lighthearted event. This year is ‘not typical’ Amid Trump research cuts, visa restrictions, and international conflicts, some winners sit out the celebration of whimsical science

The 2025 Ig Nobel-winning research was as wacky as ever. But wars, visa restrictions, Trump's border and research policies, and even an all-too-frequent airplane incident kept nearly half the winning teams from traveling to Boston @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

Assistant Professor in Plant Molecular Genetics - Montréal, Quebec (CA) job with Institut de recherche en biologie végétale (IRBV) | 12844852 A full-time tenure-track assistant professor position at the IRBV, Université de Montréal.

Join us at the Plant Science Research Institute of the University of Montreal to develop your research group in Plant Molecular Genetics:
www.nature.com/naturecareer...

'Wakate' Monthly Journal Club- English Session Welcome! To register, kindly fill-up the information below. If you encounter some registration problems, please email akiba.yusa.36u@st.kyoto-u.ac.jp

🦠 ‼️WEBINAR ALERT‼️🦠
Join us for the September edition of the Virology Wakate Journal Club.
Our featured speaker is Dr. Chantal Vogels, Assistant Professor at Yale School of Public Health (@yalesph.bsky.social).
Please repost!
To register: forms.gle/jGn9Y8c55Mp5...

Restricted edition of ALS is required during co-edition in order to maintain normal tomato development https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.27.672575v1

Schematic showing that Med23 inhibits the antiviral IFN-I response by negatively regulating RIG-I. Med23 interacts with Foxo3 to transcriptionally repress RIG-I, thereby inhibiting the RNA virus-induced phosphorylation of TBK1 and IRF3, suppressing antiviral innate immune response, and promoting virus replication.

Cytosolic viral RNA is detected by #antiviral #PatternRecognition receptors like RIG-I. This study shows that #Mediator subunit MED23 limits RIG-I expression via FOXO3, dampening #InnateImmunity & highlighting MED23 as a potential therapeutic target @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/457VwOe

Do plasmids evolve faster 🐇, slower 🐢, or just like chromosomes 🧬?

In our new paper, we tackled this question using theory, simulations, bioinformatics, and experiments!

👇 Check out all the details in Paula’s thread!

Hint: 🐇 (most of the time)

ProtPhage: a deep learning framework for phage viral protein identification and functional annotation. #PhageProteins #FunctionalAnnotation #DeepLearning #Phages #Bioinformatics 🧬 🖥️
academic.oup.com/bib/article/...

A hypoxia-responsive tRNA-derived small RNA confers renal protection through RNA autophagy Transfer RNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs, or tDRs) perform a range of cellular functions. Here, we showed that a hypoxia-induced tDR, derived from the 3′ end of tRNA-Asp-GTC (tRNA-Asp-GTC-3′tDR), activ...

In First Release @science.org this week
A hypoxia-responsive tRNA-derived small RNA confers renal protection through RNA autophagy | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mechanism of cotranslational protein N-myristoylation in human cells In structure-function studies, Gamerdinger and Echeverria et al. uncover the cotranslational mechanism of N-myristoyltransferases (NMTs), essential enzymes that attach a lipid anchor to newborn proteins. They show that NMT activity is orchestrated by a key regulator at the ribosomal tunnel exit, the nascent polypeptide-associated complex (NAC).

Mechanism of cotranslational protein N-myristoylation in human cells

Fig. 3.Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in plant cells. Both circular (eccDNA, black circles) and linear (eclDNA, black lines) ecDNA of mobile elements can be found in plant cells. These molecules can enter the cell as viral forms (marked with 1) or be generated by endogenous DNA copies integrated into the genome, directly (2) or by reverse transcription into virus-like particles, starting from transcribed RNA molecules (3). Independently propagated eccDNA is also found associated with organelles (4). The ecDNA can leave the cell using viral carrier systems, in the presence of infections.

🌱 🌽 SPECIAL ISSUE REVIEW 🦠 🧬

The role of mobile DNA elements in the dynamics of plant genome plasticity - Emmerson & Catoni

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪 @robynemm.bsky.social‬

We just released in #GenomeBiology an important collective work. Improved assembly and annotation of a virus resistance locus in #cassava. @universitedeliege.bsky.social @kuleuvenplantinst.bsky.social @kuleuvenuniversity.bsky.social @inrae-cnrgv.bsky.social @yvdp.bsky.social
rdcu.be/et1TZ

TOC1 supresses PAMP-triggered immunity in Arabidopsis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.16.665052v1

Are you interested in how DNA virus infection can change host chromatin localization🦠 ?

Come to see my poster at #2025ISMPMI @geminiteamlab.bsky.social

📃Poster P-224:Tuesday 15th, Session 1

The @geminiteamlab.bsky.social on the way to #2025ISMPMI See you all there!! 🫶🏻

Have you ever wondered why virus-infected plants twist, curl, yellow, and/or stop growing? We did—you can read what we found in our latest review: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... @gmvalora.bsky.social @annualreviews.bsky.social

Transgene- and tissue culture-free heritable genome editing using RNA virus-based delivery in wheat - Nature Plants Efficient delivery systems are urgently needed for genome editing in monocot plants. Here, this study develops a system of virus-induced genome editing in tillers (ViGET) to achieve heritable editing ...

Seen a number of groups working on this, but impressive work to produce transgene free heritable genome editing that avoids tissue culture in monocots. Importantly has potential for a range of species www.nature.com/articles/s41...