Abdellah Lakehal

Excited to share our latest review on hydrosignaling: moisture-dependent molecular pathways that help plants grow towards water. Insightful review of the literature and discussion of moisture sensing mechanisms by Will Dwyer and @hhtormar.bsky.social. Enjoy!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Soils drive convergence in the regulation of vascular tension in land plants Terrestrial vascular plants operate under negative water potential, which results in hydraulic tension in the vascular system. Vascular tension varies with transpiration and soil drying and is regulat...

Out in @science.org this week. Soils drive convergence in the regulation of vascular tension in land plants. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#plantscience
#ecophysiology

Cell-type specification at criticality underlies rhizoid patterning in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha Rhizoid specification in Marchantia polymorpha gemmae involves lateral inhibition mediated by the microRNA FRH1, which represses the rhizoid-specific …

Happy to see this out! We describe a patterning mechanism underlying rhizoid specification in Marchantia. Contrary to classic patterning mechanisms (e.g., Turing), rhizoid specification depends on both randomness and lateral inhibition, involves subcritical bifurcations, and occurs at criticality!

I had a great time writing this dispatch @currentbiology.bsky.social about Jacob Suissa's recent paper on the link between fern phyllotaxis and vascular architecture. "Evo–devo: Ferns flourished due to developmental covariance between leaves and vasculature"
authors.elsevier.com/a/1mH793QW8S...

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN NON-SEED PLANT DIVERSITY (BRYOPHYTES, FERNS, LYCOPHYTES).
Vancouver, Canada.
#plantscijobs #plantscijob
botany.ubc.ca/job-postings...

The B-class auxin response factor MpARF2 is essential for meristem organization in free-living plant gametophytes Land plants (embryophytes) are multicellular eukaryotes with a remarkable capacity to grow continuously during their life span. They achieve this by m…

Out today... From Bowman lab, MpARF2 is the first essential transcription factor to be described for meristem maintenance in Marchantia. Glad to have contributed to another paper with Eduardo. #plantsciences #evodevo www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Proud and honoured to be one of the two laureates of the 2025 Rósen Linné Prize. Warm thanks to all students, PhD students and postdocs who joined me over the years and greatly contributed to our research success. Thanks also to colleagues at UPSC, IJPB and INRAE for their continued support always.

Well deserved. Big congratulations Catherine!

🧪🌾 @cathbell62.bsky.social works @umeauniversitet.bsky.social & @ijpb-versaillescly.bsky.social in France and has been instrumental to establish #INUPRAG, a collaboration between @umeaplantsciencecentre.se, @inrae-france.bsky.social & @cragenomica.bsky.social.

Ethylene modulates cell wall mechanics for root responses to compaction - Nature Soil compaction traps ethylene around roots, which causes transcriptional upregulation of Auxin Response Factor1, resulting in decreased root cortical cell wall thickness and thereby promoting root ra...

One environmental factor that affects crop yield is soil stress. Work @nature shows how soil compaction stress affects plant root growth through hormonal signals and cell-wall remodelling.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our contribution to the Day of Sciences last Sunday was again a great success!

Very inspiring meeting so far 👍

warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fa...
I also have a plant evo-devo PhD opportunity open to study the evolutionary origins of female meiosis with me ^^.

Deadline Thursday 27th November, so if you know anyone who might be interested, please do let them know!
#Plantscience

No #auxin? 🤔

Again great stuff by @apmahonen.bsky.social

A synthetic transcription cascade enables direct in planta shoot regeneration for transgenesis and gene editing in multiple plants #resource #MolecularPlant cell.com/molecular-pl...

Left, a zoomed out image of the habit of the green branching lycophytes Oxroadia. Right, a zoomed in image of the highly branched rooting system

Huge congratulations @jeremywyman.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social for publishing the results of your masters thesis @annbot.bsky.social
The work includes a new reconstruction of the Carboniferous isoetalean Oxroadia by the brilliant @palaeojules.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/aob/advance-...

Universiteit Gent - Verborgen plantenleven - Op Locatie - Dag van de Wetenschap Ontdek het uitgebreide aanbod aan activiteiten van Dag van de Wetenschap. En goed nieuws: heel wat digitale Dag van de Wetenschap-activiteiten blijven immers gewoon online staan. Voortaan is het dus e...

www.dagvandewetenschap.be/activiteiten...

Check out the ToC of our latest Special Issue about auxin in plant development.
https://bit.ly/3KSt2BW
All articles are free to read for 2 months. @srobertgroup.bsky.social

The A to Z of Auxin in Plant Development: Physiologia Plantarum Click on the title to browse this issue

@marhava.bsky.social and myself have edited a special issue on Auxin for Physiologia plantarum! Have a look at the nice contributions! @umeaplantsciencecentre.se
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

Coordination of cortex modifications in time, space, and under stress In roots, cell-type-specific differentiation enables specialized responses to environmental stress. The cortex, located between the vasculature and epidermis, is a key site for stress-responsive modi....

Delighted to present our Tansley Insight on what we know about the potential of different root cortex layers to do develop into different things!

👩‍🔬 @dorotakawa.bsky.social @hannahschneider.bsky.social

📗 @newphyt.bsky.social

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New OA Article: "A single-cell rice atlas integrates multi-species data to reveal cis-regulatory evolution" rdcu.be/eHce3

Chromatin accessibility in rice & related grasses: how regulatory DNA elements evolve across cell types & species; identifying potential silencers.

Start of the Root Development group (VIB-Ugent) on Bluesky

Marker-assisted in vivo imaging reveals pre-patterning events prior to lateral root organogenesis The branching pattern of the Arabidopsis root is established as early as in the distal tip of the primary root.

Looking for some clarity in the labyrinth of terms regarding lateral root initiation (priming, founder cell specification, pre-branch sites, oscillation zone, root clock,...)? Here is our new paper hopefully bringing some light in the darkness:
track.smtpsendmail.com/9032119/c?p=...

Transgenerational polarity axis inheritance during Ceratopteris embryogenesis For sexually reproducing organisms to pass on their genetic information, progeny must successfully establish. Various life history strategies have evolved, using either dispersal of large numbers of p...

We are happy to present the magnum opus of Sjoerd Woudenberg, at the close of his PhD – Transgenerational inheritance of the polarity axis in a fern embryo…a thread (1/17)

tinyurl.com/4y53xekv

Plants monitor the integrity of their barrier by sensing gas diffusion - Nature A study using Arabidopsis shows that plants can monitor the integrity of their outer barriers by sensing gas diffusion, enabling them to initiate wound repair to prevent water loss and pathogen entry.

How plants sense injury in their barrier tissue, periderm? Painstakingly detailed and amazing work by post doc Hiroyuki Iida shows that wounding is sensed by the diffusion of two gases: ethylene and oxygen. @treebiocoe.bsky.social‬ @erc.europa.eu‬ 1/x 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Injured plants use gaseous cues to initiate repair of their outer layers The periderm layers of plants form an outer protective barrier. If the periderm is broken, movement of the gases ethylene and oxygen triggers a healing process.

How do plants notice loss of structural barriers (e.g. the periderm, which prevents water loss and pathogen infection) to regenerate them? Work @nature shows that plants sense damage to barrier integrity from diffusion of gases such as ethylene and oxygen. shorturl.at/FIhJ8
& N&V
shorturl.at/u7PYs

I just published: Mountains can meet: farming the desert with microbes, not fertilizers

In the harsh deserts of Southern Algeria, Nadjette Djemouai is uncovering the power of native microbes to support sustainable agriculture.

@getgenome.bsky.social 🇩🇿

kamounlab.medium.com/mountains-ca...

📣 Join us for the 3rd Carbon Allocation in Plants Workshop 🇨🌿

🗓️ Oct 27–29, 2025

📍 INRAE Versailles – @ijpb-versaillescly.bsky.social

🌱 Explore carbon flow in plants with top researchers!

🔗 Register: bit.ly/4kYzzrT ⏳ 10th of August

ℹ️ Info: bit.ly/43HpN5P

🙏 Thanks to all partners 👇 see below

Check out this insightful review article from our lab @psb-vib.bsky.social ,proposing that root evolution may have been driven by the stepwise assembly of (auxin-dependent) gene regulatory networks. Enjoy the read!

And last but not least at #ICAR2025, the Marc Van Montagu Prize for Sustainable Agricultural Systems ipbo.vib-ugent.be/en goes to Cecilia Adhiambo Shinda
from the lab of Steven Runo spas.ku.ac.ke/department-o... at Kenyatta University for her work on Striga resistance in Sorghum. Congratulations !!