Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Ben Long

Prof Ros Gleadow FAA @rgleadow.bsky.social · 10h

It’s happening - This is something I’ve wanted to do for years and it’s finally happening #SafeCassava

The Global Plant Council @globalplantgpc.bsky.social · 10h

🚨REGISTRATION OPEN!🚨

Join us for the International Safe Cassava Network 2025 Symposium

📅 27–28 October 2025
💻 Online
🕑 2 sessions per day | 1.5h each | 30min break between

Day 1: buff.ly/curtgRb
Day 2: buff.ly/IvFYbZh

🔗 Register now to secure your spot!

1 2 2

Reposted by Ben Long

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 10h

🌿 UPCOMING SPECIAL ISSUE 🌿

🔬🧱 Plant Cell Wall Biology 🧱🔬

Editors: George Haughn, Shawn Mansfield & Lacey Samuels

📅 Deadline: 31 December 2025

📣 We welcome contributions! 🔗 Contact us: bit.ly/JXBissues?utm...

#JXBspecialissues #PlantScience 🧪
@sebiology.bsky.social

(1/2)

Front cover of a postcard to promote an upcoming special issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany titled "Plant Cell Wall Biology". The issue will be edited by George Haughn, Shawn Mansfield & Lacey Samuels. There are two images on the postcard:
Above Cross-section of a developing Arabidopsis seed (courtesy of George Haughn, UBC Botany).
Left Holly leaf skeleton showing the vasculature of lignified plant cell walls (courtesy of Lacey Samuels, UBC Botany).

1 2 4

Reposted by Ben Long

Prof Ros Gleadow FAA @rgleadow.bsky.social · 14h

giving a free public talk on ‘The poisonous plate of climate change’ for ANZAAS at Bio21 tomorrow evening - deets in the link

www.anzaas.org.au/victoria/

Victoria « « ANZAASANZAAS

Almost every aspect of our life is touched by science Without science our way of life would be almost unimaginable and sustainability of life in the future will be impossible without science. Despite ...

www.anzaas.org.au

1 5

Reposted by Ben Long

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 1d

📢 NEW ISSUE ALERT 📢

✨ JXB Issue 16 of 2025 is out now ✨

🫛 On the cover: Blooming flowers of a faba bean plant from a crop in Australia (photo credit: Dr Jason Brand; see Manson et al.) 🫛

🔗👉 Read the full issue: academic.oup.com/jxb...

#PlantScience 🧪 @sebiology.bsky.social

4 15

Reposted by Ben Long

Bowie's butler @80incognito.bsky.social · 2d

"In 1774, Joseph Priestley ran an experiment that seemed simple — but changed everything...

From a candle, a mouse, and a plant, humanity began to glimpse one of nature’s greatest truths: plants sustain life on Earth."

web.facebook.com/share/p/1EM2...

2 9

Ben Long @botbml.bsky.social · 2d

Convergence, stability, and thermal adaptation in the rubisco enzyme in plants

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Convergence, stability, and thermal adaptation in the rubisco enzyme in plants

Enzymes are thought to be tuned to perform similarly in different thermal regimes. Whether the photosynthetic enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (rubisco) follows similar rules, es...

www.biorxiv.org

1 4

Reposted by Ben Long

the Inner Ring blog @inrng.com · 3d

RedBull and Decathlon working on the front of the bunch #ilLombardia

1 12 120

Reposted by Ben Long

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 3d

🌱 SPECIAL ISSUE RESEARCH 🌱

26S proteasome disassembly occurs during leaf senescence. While proteasomal subunit genes are up-regulated, proteasome protein levels do not increase. However, cytokinin application enhances proteasome activity - Wang et al.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪

Fig. 3 (shortened, full legend in paper): Regulation of proteasomal subunits during proteotoxic stress and leaf senescence. (A) Transcriptional response to proteotoxic stress of genes coding for proteasome subunits as assayed by promoter–GUS lines. Seedlings grown for 10 d on half-strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with or without 15μM MG132 were stained for GUS activity and imaged. (B) Proteasomal subunit abundance during proteotoxic stress. Total protein extracts from 10-day-old wild-type seedlings treated for 2 d with either 30 μM MG132, 2 μM bortezomib, or DMSO were assessed by western blotting using protein-specific antibodies. Coomassie Brilliant Blue- (CBB) stained gels were used as loading control. (C) Expression of proteasomal subunit genes during leaf senescence as visualized by promoter–GUS reporter lines. Shown are the results for the first leaf pair, harvested from either 15-day-old plants (young) or 43-day-old plants (old).

5 13

Ben Long @botbml.bsky.social · 3d

Cyanophycinase is required for heterotrophy in cyanobacteria - Journal of Biological Chemistry www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Cyanophycinase is required for heterotrophy in cyanobacteria

Cyanophycin is a biopolymer of arginine and aspartate, and it is found in various prokaryotes. Two key enzymes of cyanophycin metabolism are cyanophycin synthase (CphA) producing cyanophycin, and cyan...

www.jbc.org

1 3

Reposted by Ben Long

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 4d

🌱 SPECIAL ISSUE REVIEW 🌱

Jeran et al discuss the trafficking of plastid-targeted proteins, focusing on regulatory bottlenecks and mislocalization. PSBO, a PSII subunit, may link proplastid-to-chloroplast differentiation with plastid quality control 🔬

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪

Fig. 3.Chloroplast quality control and degradation pathways. Accumulation of damaged proteins within chloroplasts triggers the nuclear expression of cpUPR-related genes, encoding plastid-targeted chaperones and proteases, in an attempt to restore chloroplast proteostasis. However, the prolonged presence of faulty proteins and aggregates, exacerbated by ROS and other stressors, activates chloroplast-dismantling mechanisms. These include whole-chloroplast autophagosome-mediated degradation (chlorophagy), chloroplast vesiculation-mediated pathways (CV), or fission-type microautophagy, similar to those observed in mitochondria. Ubiquitin (light blue circles, Ub) and ATG8-dependent pathways (ATG8 purple circles; autophagosome depicted in blue) play crucial roles in marking chloroplasts for degradation. Ultimately, the accumulation of damaged chloroplasts within the cell leads to vacuole-mediated programmed cell death.

5 9

Reposted by Ben Long

Prof Ros Gleadow FAA @rgleadow.bsky.social · 4d

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Here’s Saturday’s good news story. Australian Wildlife Conservancy do a great job buy properties, excluding predators and reintroducing wildlife

Baby numbats spotted at two wildlife sanctuaries in hopeful sign for one of Australia’s rarest marsupials

Video shows some of the juveniles exploring outside their den at Mallee Cliffs national park in south-western NSW

www.theguardian.com

2 2 10

Reposted by Ben Long

Dr Liz Allen @drdemography.com · 3d

University governance is broken, and it’s breaking people.

University governance and associated regulatory structures assume the most powerful senior office holders will behave in accordance with the high standards benefiting their station.

1 10 53

Ben Long @botbml.bsky.social · 4d

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

Breaking: María Corina Machado awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

www.abc.net.au

2

Reposted by Ben Long

Australian Society of Plant Scientists (ASPS) @asps-oz.bsky.social · 4d

⏰ Final reminder: ASPS 2025 registration.
Early bird and abstract registration closing TODAY!

Register: bit.ly/4p25OJ0

#ASPS2025 #PlantScience

1 3

Ben Long @botbml.bsky.social · 4d

... and what a beautiful alarm clock to wake up to!

1

Ben Long @botbml.bsky.social · 5d

Good morning #straya

Photo of a kookaburra in a eucalyptus tree, siloetted by the morning light.

1 5

Reposted by Ben Long

Karolina Heyduk @kheyduk.bsky.social · 6d

Anna has some cool results from a pretty bonkers hybrid system - hit her up if you're looking for a speaker in your PAG workshop!

Anna Pardo, Ph.D. @annapardo-phd.bsky.social · 6d

Are you organizing a talk session at PAG 33? I would love to speak about my postdoc work on the genomics of variable facultative CAM photosynthesis in a hybrid Yucca species! Possible workshop topics include: hybrid genomics, abiotic stress, non-model species. Please DM me if you're interested!

7 13

Ben Long @botbml.bsky.social · 5d

Straight to Nature

Karolina Heyduk @kheyduk.bsky.social · 5d

This is super cool!!

Jessica C. Huss @j2huss.bsky.social · 6d

One day in the lab, we accidentally discovered that the spines of a cactus 🌵 straighten when exposed to fog. I was intrigued and so were my collaborators. How does this work and what can be gained from it? Here are some of the answers in our new preprint:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

1 1

Reposted by Ben Long

eLife @elife.bsky.social · 6d

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

7 17

Reposted by Ben Long

Extreme Temperatures Around the World @extremetemps.bsky.social · 7d

EAST ASIA HISTORIC HEAT
MINIMUMS
25.2 Jeju,25.1 Sogwipo
HOTTEST OCTOBER NIGHT IN KOREAS

Record High max:30.5 Wando

In CHINA Absolute madness
October Record High Minimums:
27.0 Shanghai
27.8 Hangzhou
28.9 Jinhua
28.5 Nanchang
27.2 Fuzhou
Shaoxing, Jiaxing,Ningde...

1 24 49

Reposted by Ben Long

Khaled_Selim Lab @selimlab.bsky.social · 6d

Plz re-post

A wonderful place to be...
Come and join us a group leader position in „Phage Biology & Biotechnology“.

www.fz-juelich.de/de/karriere/...
Get in touch with @frunzkelab.bsky.social for more information

1 1

Reposted by Ben Long

WA Orchids @wa-orchids.bsky.social · 6d

After examining 10,494 herbarium specimens of the orchid genus Caladenia, new Australian research suggests there’s been a >60% decline in orchid pollination since 1977 with sexually deceptive orchid species more impacted

#orchids #ozflora #wildoz #pollination

www.abc.net.au/news/science...

One hundred years of Australian flower data reveals pollination drop

Researchers behind a new study examining thousands of flower specimens collected over the past century say temperature increases could be behind a pollination decline in native orchids.

www.abc.net.au

13 31

Reposted by Ben Long

Khaled_Selim Lab @selimlab.bsky.social · 7d

A bit late 🙃 but happy to share our recent findings on #cdiAMP signaling in controlling #cyanobacteria #diurnal rhythm in @cp-iscience.bsky.social

www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

#cdiAMP is involved in almost all cellular processes, explaining it's essentiality in #cyano
@hhu.de
@mibinet.bsky.social

Diurnal rhythm causes metabolic crises in the cyanobacterial mutants of c-di-AMP signaling cascade

Biological sciences; Biochemistry; Microbiology; PII-like protein SbtB; c-di-AMP signaling; Cyanobacteria; Carbon/Nitrogen metabolism; Redox imbalance; Photosynthesis; Reactive oxygen species (ROS); C...

www.cell.com

1 8 17

Reposted by Ben Long

Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 7d

📖 SPECIAL ISSUE REVIEW 📖

In this review, Wang et al. describe the protease, chaperone-like, and substrate processing working modes of plant FtsH, and summarize the role of FtsH in organelle protein homeostasis 🔄 🌱

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪

Box 1. Key developments in understanding FtsH functions for organelle protein homeostasis in Arabidopsis The schematic illustration shows the primary and 3D structure of FtsH (A–C) and highlights recent advances in understanding the roles of plant FtsHs localized in chloroplasts (D, E, and H) and mitochondria (F and G).
See paper for full description of Box 1.

1 5 13

Reposted by Ben Long

Femke de Jong @plantenzo.bsky.social · 7d

Plants grow better if they receive more CO2, aren’t they? IBut if that is good news for everyone, that is something that remains to be seen.
A new study dives into this for oaks, read more about it on my blog plantenzo.net/2025/10/07/t...

open.substack.com/pub/plantenz...

🧪 #PlantScience

The influence of CO2 on acorns

Plants grow better if they receive more CO2, aren’t they? In first instance this appears to be the case. Plants get bigger and are also producing more and bigger seeds. But if that is good news for…

plantenzo.net

1 4 5