Sjon Hartman

Super cool and fundamental work! Congratulations. I can update my lectures ;)

What features are required to shape hypoxic niches enclosing meristems? We @viktoriiavoloboeva.bsky.social in collab @pieterverboven.bsky.social found that a combination of cuticle barrier, densely packed tissue and metabolic activity all uniquely contribute to maintain shoot apical meristem hypoxia

🚨 PhD Position in Plant Molecular Biology 🌱
We are looking for a motivated PhD student to join our team to study root protective barriers. If you are interested in confocal microscopy, cell wall biology, and plant development, this project might be for you! Please share!
#PlantScience #PlantSciJob

Congratulations to all those involved!

THIS WEEK!!! @johninnescentre.bsky.social @cbgpmadrid.bsky.social

Nanodomain-localized formin gates symbiotic microbial entry in legume and solanaceous plants Colonization of plant roots by symbionts requires substantial morphodynamic reorganization. Examples are actin-scaffolded microcompartments called infection pockets formed during root nodule symbiosis...

Happy to share our latest work in collaboration with the lab of @pengbo10.bsky.social. Here, we describe that a formin protein mediates the polarity switch from root hair to infection thread growth during symbiotic interactions.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Congrats Markus! Seems like a must read

In Vivo Monitoring of Energy Metabolism with Genetically Encoded Fluorescent Biosensors All organisms fuel and build themselves through their energy metabolism. While classic biochemistry conceptualizes the fluxes of energy and matter, our understanding of how energy metabolism works in ...

Freshly online 🗞️
In Vivo Monitoring of Energy Metabolism with Genetically Encoded Fluorescent Biosensors 🌱🔋🌈🔬

@jan-oleniemeier.bsky.social
@morganlab-saarland.bsky.social
@uni-muenster.de
doi.org/10.1146/annu...

Congrats @ottlab.bsky.social and @pengbo10.bsky.social for leading this work!

A molecular ‘gatekeeper’ in plants opens the door for beneficial microbes CIBSS researchers at the University of Freiburg are part of an international team that sheds light on a crucial step in the initiation of the symbiosis between plants and soil bacteria.

A molecular 'gatekeeper' in plants opens the door for beneficial microbes
Congratulations, @ottlab.bsky.social on a great paper in Science.
www.cibss.uni-freiburg.de/news/a-molec...

A molecular ‘gatekeeper’ in plants opens the door for beneficial microbes CIBSS researchers at the University of Freiburg are part of an international team that sheds light on a crucial step in the initiation of the symbiosis between plants and soil bacteria.

📢 #CIBSS research highlight!

Prof. Dr. Thomas Ott @ottlab.bsky.social helped identify SYFO2, a protein that lets legumes 🫛☘️“open the door” to nitrogen-fixing bacteria. 🦠 The team even activated it in tomato 🍅 — suggesting this symbiosis could be engineered in new crops. 🌱

🔗 kurzlinks.de/v7bi

Welcome to Carlos Rodríguez Cisneros and @isabellembke.bsky.social ! 🪴🌊 Carlos and Isabel are new lab members joining our ranks for their doctoral research projects at @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social @cibss.bsky.social @dompsfr.bsky.social .

www.hartman-plantlab.com/team

Accessory subunits of PRC2 mimic H3K27me3 to restrict the spread of Polycomb domains Some proteins mimic the repressive mark H3K27me3, but the physiological relevance of this phenomenon was unclear. Agius et al. show that the PRC2 subunits JARID2 and PALI1 mimic H3K27me3 to antagonize...

1/ 🧵 In our new paper, we show that JARID2 and PALI1 mimic H3K27me3 to antagonise PRC2. www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

EPIPLANT conference

🌱 You like plants and epigenetics?
Explore mechanisms of chromatin regulation & epigenetics in Nantes, France!
🎤 Great speakers + oral & poster slots from selected abstracts.
22-24 June 2026
Abstract submission deadline: 24 April 2026.
epiplant-2026.sciencesconf.org

EIN3-Like family members fine-tune fruit coloration by divergently regulating flavonoid and carotenoid biosynthesis in tomato Tomato EIN3-like transcription factors shape fruit color by differentially regulating pigment pathways, providing targets for breeding.

EIN3-Like family members fine-tune fruit coloration by divergently regulating flavonoid and carotenoid biosynthesis in tomato (Ruochen Wang , Liang Yang , Mengbo Wu , et al) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience @aspbofficial

Thank you @dvonwangenheim.bsky.social @the.3i.social for this awesome demo of your spinning disc system for #rootimaging

We are very excited to share a new resource from our team: spatial subcellular proteome maps in plants! We developed an MS-based method that registers localizations of about 8000 proteins in Arabidopsis roots in a single experiment.

(1/9)
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Photorespiration is linked to DNA methylation by formate as a one-carbon source - Nature Plants This study reveals that Arabidopsis reassimilates formate produced during photorespiration via the cytosolic folate cycle to fuel DNA methylation, forming a metabolic–epigenetic bridge that links elev...

Delighted to share our paper, out today in @natplants.nature.com

Not all “wasted” carbon is lost: formate released during photorespiration can be reused to support DNA methylation. Our work reveals a metabolic link between CO₂ levels and epigenetic regulation in Arabidopsis.
doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Switching on and off the hypoxic response in plants Abstract. Hypoxia significantly impacts plant metabolism and growth by disrupting mitochondrial respiration, and oxygen sensing plays a vital role in regul

Switching on and off the hypoxic response in plants url: academic.oup.com/jxb/article/...

Switching on and off the hypoxic response in plants Abstract. Hypoxia significantly impacts plant metabolism and growth by disrupting mitochondrial respiration, and oxygen sensing plays a vital role in regul

Happy to see our review online in @jxbotany.bsky.social 🌱

In this work, we provide an overview of the molecular mechanisms plants use to survive under low oxygen stress and during recovery after reoxygenation 🌊

doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

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

Maybe @dompsfr.bsky.social :)

Protein event of the year - sign up today! See you at beautiful Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo for the FEBS 2026 Protein Termini Workshop.
#ProteinTermini #Proteostasis #ProteinModifications #StructuralBiology #PalazzoDeiNormanni #Palermo2026
proteintermini.org/meeting/

Intragenic methylation repatterning is associated with alternative splicing and unique epigenetic phenotypes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.18.706621v1

It annoys me how often in literature authors confuse (or actively mislead) the up regulation of one or two random ERFs (out of 150+) with active ethylene signalling

Postdoctoral position in Forest Genetics at @uni-freiburg.de with a focus on local adaptation and/or stress reaction of trees. The position combines research and teaching (4 SWS), and offers the opportunity to develop an independent research profile (4+ years).

Happy to share our new review on Polycomb-mediated 3D chromatin interactions! Thanks to @mileshuseyin.bsky.social and @andersshansen.bsky.social for great discussions throughout the process :)

The mechanical properties of Arabidopsis thaliana roots adapt dynamically during development and to stress Brillouin microscopy reveals in vivo dynamics of mechanical properties during plant development and response to stress.

Our work now on its final version. We mapped the mechanical properties of roots at tissue and single cell levels using Brillouin microscopy and molecular rotors. Additional mutants and stress measurements from what we previously showed in the preprint are included.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A dual role of Arabidopsis PAL nuclear localization in fine tuning flavonoid biosynthesis PAL’s dual localization links metabolism with transcription, revealing feedback that fine-tunes phenylpropanoid regulation.

Interesting paper: Metabolic enzyme PAL can go into the nucleus in response to high product build up and sequester an activating TF of the pathway, thus acting as a feedback inhibition loop.

From: www.science.org/doi/full/10....
#PlantScience

Plant Phenotypic Plasticity: From Molecular Mechanisms to Breeding and Climate Change Adaptation Phenotypic plasticity (PP) is a fundamental property of plants, enabling a single genotype to produce different phenotypes in response to environmental variation. This ability is crucial for survival ...

Out now in Annual Review of Plant Biology! 🌱

Together with colleagues from our DFG-funded CRC on “Plant Phenotypic Plasticity” (@unipotsdam.bsky.social), we outline the mechanistic & evolutionary backbone of plant plasticity.

🔗 www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

@crc1644.bsky.social @dfg.de