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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer
@nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
1.7K followers 300 following 280 posts
Postdoc and level 5 Plant Programmer 🧬 Engineering new types of flowers for art and education 🌹 www.nickdesnoyer.com
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · Dec 12
In one year, I genetically engineered the boring Arabidopsis into a beautiful ornamental flower 🧬🌹

Here is how and why I gave this model organism a visual upgrade 🧵(1/7)
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 8h
Thanks for the support!

Boas is a level 99 plant programmer 🧬
bpucker.bsky.social
Boas Pucker @bpucker.bsky.social · 13h
Huge thanks to @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social for this stunning design! 🌸

Do not miss his incredible flower sculpting and painting project — a beautiful blend of art and science:
www.nickdesnoyer.com/plant-engine...

#SciArt #Design #Innovation
T-Shirt with beautiful flower pictures. Source: https://www.nickdesnoyer.com/plant-engineering
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 8h
Exactly, that’s the next step. Checking the flowers briefly last night it seems there are well defined sectors:
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Reposted by Nick Desnoyer
minyaaa.bsky.social
闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD @minyaaa.bsky.social · 1d
Ran into these AMAZING Stapelia grandiflora in our conservatory today. The patterns, colors, hairs, and the smell - carrion mimic to perfection. #Stapelia #plantjoy #iamabotanist
A close up of one flower showing red hairs and petal with yellow strips Another close up from a slightly diff angle How the plant looked like
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 1d
Hmm, my design is actually more complicated (see picture). It could rather be the transactivator VP16-LacI-GFP-NLS is the one diffusing. Thank you very much for the feedback.
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 1d
Hello, yes the betacyanin is in the cytosol and water soluble. Can I bring my plants over tomorrow 🙏? They have some weird things going on...
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 1d
Yeah, this is actually with your CRE-Lox plasmid. I sure hope it doesn’t diffuse! Based on the sectors you see in mirabilis Jalapa, I should be able to make strict sectors 🤞
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 1d
Heat-shock inducible CRE-LOX of RUBY making cool sectors in my primary transformants (though a bit leaky) 🌱🧬
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 5d
That sounds more likely, but in this case I don’t know. Fun to think about though :)
nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 5d
That would be a transposing jumping into a “color gene” or silencing it.
However, I’ve always wondered if these spots in petunia starry sky are really transposons which normally make striped sectors. These spots are more circular suggesting a mobile diffusable repressor of color… 🤔
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 5d
For more on petunia transposon patterns check out this paper or go follow
@atinygreencell.bsky.social
who designs petunia in his home lab!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 5d
Friday Flower 007: Petunia 💮✨

Petunias carry the active transposon dTph1, which powers mutant screens and paints stripey patterns as it jumps.

Their five petals are fused, with diverse color designs tracing the corolla’s fusion seam.
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 6d
Thermie really doing the most today
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 7d
Thanks so much and glad you could join!
nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 7d
This little Arabidopsis fighting to keep up with the big ones 🥺
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 9d
Fantastical flowers, synthetic biology, and storytelling.

Giving an accessible science talk tomorrow at 10:40 UK time... come join!

Register here for the link 👉 jic.link/NBIAST2025
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 11d
😂😂 never been to Spain, should look into a vacation!
nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 11d
This is amazing
laskotillean.bsky.social
Felix Martinez @laskotillean.bsky.social · 11d
Today there were two researchers proud of their @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social shirts around Madrid!

Kudos to Adri! We kind of look alike, right?

@cbgpmadrid.bsky.social
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 12d
And shoutout to @amberhall.bsky.social the marker artist behind all these flower designs!
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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 12d
For more on Aquilegia and it's cool hybrids check out this paper from @elenakramer.bsky.social and @science-irl.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...
Genetic architecture of floral traits in bee- and hummingbird-pollinated sister species of Aquilegia (columbine)
Abstract. Interactions with animal pollinators have helped shape the stunning diversity of flower morphologies across the angiosperms. A common evolutionar
academic.oup.com
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 12d
Friday Flower 006: Aquilegia 🌸🦋

Columbines vary in stamen number, making them a powerful model for how floral whorls expand.

Darwin marveled at their long nectar spurs, which co-evolve with hawkmoth tongues to reward pollinators that brush the stamens ✨
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 12d
Woo! Viel Glück und bin gespannt woran das Neues Team arbeitet… hoffentlich Blumen 🤘
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 13d
Wow that’s an amazing idea! Thanks for sharing the tip 🎄
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Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 14d
I find that so many biologists are also talented artists.

@hsuanpai.bsky.social is a skilled technician and apparently good at any artistic media she touches.. even LB.
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nickdesnoyer.bsky.social
Nick Desnoyer @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social · 15d
With the RUBY pants 🔥
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Reposted by Nick Desnoyer
gerrich.bsky.social
Gerrich @gerrich.bsky.social · 16d
I finally picked up my "Epi-Bouquet 2" by @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social

As a former plant scienctist I am loving it! It's a great shirt! 💐 🧪

You can find more on Nick at his website: www.nickdesnoyer.com/about
Me standing on a street with trees in autumn colors. I am standing with my back to the camera. The focus of the photo is the T-shirt I am wearing , designed by Nick Desnoyer. On the back of the shirt you can see a bouquet made from engineered colorful Arabidopsis thaliana flowers in a small reaction tube, 'SynBio' is written underneath.
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