Ali Leverett
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alileverett.bsky.social
Ali Leverett
@alileverett.bsky.social
Plant physiologist
Reposted by Ali Leverett
Pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase (PPDK) as a putative key regulator of diurnal deacidification in CAM leaves across varying light intensities and photoperiods academic.oup.com/jxb/article-... @jxbotany.bsky.social
Pyruvate orthophosphate dikinase (PPDK) as a putative key regulator of diurnal deacidification in CAM leaves across varying light intensities and photoperiods
Abstract. Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) plants primarily fix atmospheric CO2 at night and store it as malic acid in their vacuoles. During daytime, va
academic.oup.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
New paper led by @bposch.bsky.social out in @newphyt.bsky.social . We reviewed evidence, mechanisms, and consequences of high temperature acclimation of leaf heat tolerance: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
High‐temperature acclimation of photosystem II in land plants
The effect of high temperature on plant performance and survival is a topic of great interest given the ongoing rise in global heatwave frequency, duration, and intensity. The temperature at which ph....
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
A novel single‐cell NAD‐ME C4 subtype integrated with #CAM and #bicarbonate use in an aquatic plant

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
by Sheng Jiang et al.

@WileyPlantSci #photosynthesis #Rubisco
October 23, 2025 at 4:19 AM
New paper - led by Isabella Østerlund

Rho-GTPase overexpression can impact the development of cell shape and airspace structure in Arabidopsis.

These genetic changes can also reduce photosynthesis, due to lower mesophyll conductance

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Rho GTPase overexpression impacts leaf internal architecture and mesophyll conductance in Arabidopsis
Leaves are built from multiple cell types and are structured to enable the conversion of carbon dioxide and water into sugars in the process of photosynthesis. Understanding how cell architecture im.....
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 13, 2025 at 9:49 AM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
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...
October 8, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
🎉🆕📰🎉: The winner takes it all: a single genotype of Kalanchoe × houghtonii is a global invader
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...
October 1, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
Since I’ve moved to England in 2020 we’ve lived through three of the hottest years on record. Unsurprisingly, this is impacting crop yields. Read more about the impact, and the work we do to mitigate this in this weekend’s times: www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...
Inside the Essex ‘drought room’ testing crops for climate change
After one of the driest springs on record, and with British harvests collapsing, urgent research is finding creative ways to help farmers adapt
www.thetimes.com
August 25, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
New Article: "Leaf venation network evolution across clades and scales" rdcu.be/epLNP

Evolution of leaf venation networks, from fewer, corrugated veins to high vein density and smoother loops. Herbivory as a potential driver of venation architectural changes.
June 6, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
Regulation of Crassulacean acid metabolism at the protein level in Kalanchoë laxiflora (Katharina Schiller , Saskia Janshoff , Sanja Zenker , Prisca Viehöver , James Hartwell , Jürgen Eirich , Iris Finkemeier , Andrea Bräutigam) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience
doi.org
May 13, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
please share - 2 postdoc positions available - molecular physiology of stomata and plant water use of efficiency
lab.igb.illinois.edu/leakey/post-... @ripeproject.bsky.social @aspbofficial.bsky.social
April 24, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
🌿 Excited to share our latest preprint!
We tracked how plasmodesmata numbers evolved across the path from C₃ → C₄ photosynthesis in Flaveria - and found a stepwise increase in cell-to-cell connectivity.
Thoughts or feedback are most welcome 😊
#PlantScience
Stepwise increase in plasmodesmata during C4 evolution in Flaveria https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.18.649591v1
April 22, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
♻️🆓: Elevated nocturnal respiratory rates in the mitochondria of CAM plants: current knowledge and unanswered questions
doi.org/10.1093/aob/...
April 16, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
Welcome to the Pallavi Singh Lab account! We explore how plants respond to water stress, investigate shoot-root interactions via monocot grafting & work on enhancing photosynthesis. Follow us for research updates, fieldwork adventures & behind the scenes lab moments!
#PlantScience #Photosynthesis
April 14, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
Have you ever wondered about NPQ in C4 plants? ☀️🪴 Check out the recent pre-print from Lucìa who used to be a PhD student/post-doc in our lab and now works for the @ripeproject.bsky.social in Illinois. She shows that C4 plants have faster NPQ than related C3 plants.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Faster relaxation of nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) in C4 than in C3 species
Acceleration of photoprotective non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) responses to changes in light intensity has been suggested as a strategy to enhance crop yield. Despite many key crops utilising C4 ph...
eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
April 11, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
Check out our postdoc Georgia's new paper on the role of hydrogen peroxide in coordinating photosynthesis with stomatal opening 🌱

In it she shows that chloroplast-derived hydrogen peroxide coordinates stomatal conductance and that this signal predominantly arises from the guard cells.
March 28, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
WE’RE HIRING!

Funded 3-year postdoc looking at the impact of chilling on maize 🌽

The project will be looking at chilling responses in roots and shoots 🌱❄️ including the role of ABA and photoinhibition.

Applications close 28th March. More details below www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50591/
Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term) - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge
Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term) in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge.
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk
March 14, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
I just signed (this one is for British citizens only)
This petition to stop Musk donating insane amounts of money to UK political parties just hit 70,000 signatures - up from 30k a day ago. Can we make it hit the 100k mark tomorrow and trigger a parliamentary debate??

bsky.app/profile/guys...
Stop Musk from funding far-right politics in the UK!

I just signed this petition 'Tighten the rules on political donations' - it's nearly at 30,000 signatures - can you add your name too? -

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...
January 28, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
I need help finding a pdf of a paper that seems to be impossible for me to find - can anyone help?

“Physiological conditions in cucumber houses” (1917) F.G. Gregory
December 13, 2024 at 6:32 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
Over 3 pandemic summers @kmeacham-hensold.bsky.social led a fabulous team characterizing a photorespiratory bypass in field-grown potato, giving us more evidence that manipulating PR can enhance crop thermotolerance!

Out today : onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/oidcS...

@globalchangebio.bsky.social
Shortcutting Photorespiration Protects Potato Photosynthesis and Tuber Yield Against Heatwave Stress
Over two growing seasons, a chloroplast localized synthetic glycolate metabolic pathway expressed in potato, enhanced tuber biomass. We confirmed that this yield benefit did not come at the cost of t...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 4, 2024 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
Election day distraction: new preprint!
November 5, 2024 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
Leaf cooling during extreme heat 🌡️🍃
Leaf thermal thresholds breached 🥵
Tradeoffs between thermal and hydraulic safety 🤝

Read about all this and more in our new paper in PNAS!
#Botany #PlantScience 🌾🧪

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Intensive leaf cooling promotes tree survival during a record heatwave | PNAS
Increasing heatwaves are threatening forest ecosystems globally. Leaf thermal regulation and tolerance are important for plant survival during heat...
www.pnas.org
October 15, 2024 at 6:54 PM
New paper out - led by Milad Rahimi-Majd

This study uses non-linear models to explore the relationships between anatomy and leaf mesophyll conductance

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴🪴
Nonlinear models based on leaf architecture traits explain the variability of mesophyll conductance across plant species
We demonstrated that systematic training and testing of random forest regression models using a comprehensive data set, covering different plant functional types, can pinpoint leaf structural and ana....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
August 29, 2024 at 4:52 PM
🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

New review paper out:

We outline the uncertainties/ambiguities that are present when estimating mesophyll conductance (gm).

We also explore whether genetically engineering higher gm will lead to greater crop yields.

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
The long and tortuous path towards improving photosynthesis by engineering elevated mesophyll conductance
Plant, Cell & Environment is an ecology journal analysing the ways plants respond to their environment including biological, physiological and ecological factors.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
May 28, 2024 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Ali Leverett
Many thanks to alileverett@bsky.social for his excellent presentation today on Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) and succulence in the genus 'Clusia' - part of Cambridge's Plant Sciences seminar series.

Photo: 'Clusia pratensis' plant in Panama taken by Ali during field research.
May 9, 2024 at 1:22 PM