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benfield1.bsky.social
Ben Field 🌿
@benfield1.bsky.social
190 followers 180 following 31 posts
Marseillais Brittanique and 🌿plant biologist interested in chloroplasts. Also @Ben_Field@mas.to
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Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
emilydumortier.bsky.social
January 22, 2026 at 6:59 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
aabiologists.bsky.social
🍃🎤🍃 Speaker announcement 🍃🎤🍃

Join our incredible line-up of Keynotes & Plenary Speakers at Photosynthesis 2026 in Liverpool this July!

✍️ Register & submit an abstract now
👉 photosynthesis2026.com

#plantscience 🧪 #ICPR26 #photosynthesis
Announcement for photosynthesis 2026 Keynotes and Plenaries featuring black and white pictures of 12 scientists
January 21, 2026 at 3:13 PM
benfield1.bsky.social
Cool! 🤩A new biosynthetic gene cluster in Arabidopsis! 🌿
#PlantScience
www.nature.com/articles/s41477-025-02185-5
A biosynthetic gene cluster for three post-chorismate pathways in Arabidopsis - Nature Plants
Peng et al. identify a class of non-aromatic, chorismate-derived compounds, abundant in the roots of Arabidopsis thaliana. These compounds are made by a biosynthetic gene cluster comprising five adjac...
www.nature.com
January 5, 2026 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
yokoyama-ryo.bsky.social
A biosynthetic gene cluster for three post-chorismate pathways in Arabidopsis www.nature.com/articles/s41... @natplants.nature.com
A biosynthetic gene cluster for three post-chorismate pathways in Arabidopsis - Nature Plants
Peng et al. identify a class of non-aromatic, chorismate-derived compounds, abundant in the roots of Arabidopsis thaliana. These compounds are made by a biosynthetic gene cluster comprising five adjac...
www.nature.com
January 5, 2026 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
marischuster.bsky.social
Dear Plant ECRs, don't miss this wonderful opportunity!
saschalaubinger.bsky.social Sascha Laubinger @saschalaubinger.bsky.social · Dec 19
Are you an experienced PhD student or postdoc in plant science looking to connect, present your work, and discuss career paths?
Join us at the 3rd Early Career Plant Researchers Network Meeting, Halle (Saale), 20–21 April 2026
Deadline: 23 January 2026
plant-ecr-networking.eu
Poster announcing the 3rd Early Career Plant Researchers Network Meeting, held 20–21 April 2026 in Halle (Saale), Germany. The event targets experienced PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in plant science and features scientific talks, career development and grant-writing workshops, and networking. Travel and accommodation are covered, and participants are registered for the 11th Leibniz Plant Biochemistry Symposium (22–24 April 2026). Application deadline: 23 January 2026. Website: plant-ecr-networking.eu.
December 19, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
cnrs.fr
La médaille de l’innovation 2025 du CNRS est décernée à Alda Mari, Aziz Moqrich, Pascale Senellart et Alain Wagner. Ils illustrent la variété des recherches du CNRS et le rôle primordial que joue la recherche fondamentale dans le développement de technologies de rupture. 👏
December 17, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
krishnanyamuna.bsky.social
Organelles do NOT have a single uniform pH.
And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you.
A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n
December 17, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
newphyt.bsky.social
Engineering plant stress responses to combat climate change
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#Commentary by Jones highlighting the recent work by Bowerman et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Engineering of plant responses to environmental stimuli provides opportunities to create climate-resistant crops.
December 16, 2025 at 12:11 AM
benfield1.bsky.social
A synthetic molecule can trigger chloroplast de-differentiation via SAL1 inhibition and accumulation of PAP. Nice story! #PlantScience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Images of plants mock treated (left) or treated with molecule X57 (right). X57 treatment causes yellowing of the true leaves (upper row), and a reduction in photosynthetic capacity (lower row).
December 16, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
scientificdiscovery.dev
Big new blogpost!

My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more.

--> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...
screenshot of my post
December 9, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
plantepigenetics.ch
Finally! The European Union allows the use of genome editing! 🌱🌾🫛🇪🇺🧬

www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/v...
EU einigt sich auf Lockerungen für gentechnisch veränderte Lebensmittel
Für viele gentechnisch veränderte Lebensmittel soll es künftig keine Hinweispflicht mehr in Supermärkten geben. Darauf einigten sich Vertreter aus dem Europaparlament und dem Rat der EU-Länder.
www.tagesschau.de
December 4, 2025 at 4:17 AM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
katherinedenby.bsky.social
Very excited to advertise 15 plant engineering biology PhD projects @biologyatyork.bsky.social @camplantsci.bsky.social @slcuplants.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social & University of Bristol. 🪴 🥬 🔧 🧬 Come join this new Plant BioDesign community!

www.findaphd.com/phds/?Keywor...
November 27, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
yokoyama-ryo.bsky.social
A non-canonical MPK3-ACTPK1-RbcS signalling module fine-tunes photosynthesis in rice www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A non-canonical MPK3-ACTPK1-RbcS signalling module fine-tunes photosynthesis in rice
Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades orchestrate diverse physiological processes, yet their role in photosynthetic regulation has remained largely unexplored. Here, we uncovers a non-canon...
www.biorxiv.org
November 25, 2025 at 7:07 PM
benfield1.bsky.social
Interesting things are happening in the dark! Salicylic acid and ROS signaling modulate hypocotyl elongation in darkness via NPR1 and EX1" www-science-org.insb.bib.cnrs.fr/doi/full/10....
November 17, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
biorxivpreprint.bsky.social
Disequilibrium between chloroplast proton motive force and ATP levels in Arabidopsis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.12.687978v1
November 12, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
kunzlab.bsky.social
Hi EU 🌱 scientists, if you want to get Catch&Release 🎣vectors doi.org/10.1111/tpj.... hassle-free & pay only a small handling fee, please visits the so far little known great community resource to order DNA plasmids www.plasmids.eu kindly hosted by @dkfz.bsky.social & @telemanlab.bsky.social . Thx
doi.org
November 15, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
theplantcell.bsky.social
A triose phosphate/phosphate translocator triggers antimicrobial immunity by exporting glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate from chloroplasts (Deng-Pan Zuo, Bin Wang, Yu-Zi Liu, Zheng-Song Chen, et al) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience @aspbofficial
A triose phosphate/phosphate translocator triggers antimicrobial immunity by exporting glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate from chloroplasts
The chloroplast transporter AtTPT exports glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate to activate plant immune responses and confer resistance against diverse pathogens, re
doi.org
November 12, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
apaterlini.bsky.social
Few Plant science programmes are left in the UK and they are critical to train the next generation.
This move by @uniofnottingham.bsky.social goes against recommendations made in the recent PS Education manifesto. Big mistake! Sign the petition! nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
November 9, 2025 at 9:30 AM
benfield1.bsky.social
Our preprint is finally out 🌿
“𝒑𝒑𝑮𝒑𝒑 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒈𝒉-𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑨𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒅𝒐𝒑𝒔𝒊𝒔”
Its been a journey- first spotted by Matteo Sugliani over ten years ago, carried forward by Shanna Romand, and brought to the finish line with help from many collaborators. #PlantScience tinyurl.com/wpf3bp25
Guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp) signalling promotes high-light tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Guanosine tetraphosphate (ppGpp) is a hyperphosphorylated nucleotide originally discovered in prokaryotes and found in the chloroplasts of plants and algae. In plants, ppGpp signalling plays a role as...
www.biorxiv.org
November 10, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
plantgenomics.bsky.social
The Spirogyra genome: signatures of shared and divergent division and differentiation
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
The Spirogyra genome: signatures of shared and divergent division and differentiation
Zygnematophytes came as unexpected closest algal relatives to land plants because of their simple body plans, raising questions about the morphogenetic toolkit that was present in the last common ance...
doi.org
October 12, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
biorxiv-plants.bsky.social
Chloroplast- and Mitochondrion-Specific Random C-to-T Mutagenesis for Forward Genetics of Organelle Genomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.01.685978v1
November 3, 2025 at 10:06 PM
benfield1.bsky.social
A nice study showing the role of the chloroplast cysteine-synthase-complex as a hub that promotes ABA-induced stomatal closure and drought resistance. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #PlantScience
The plastid cysteine synthase complex regulates ABA biosynthesis and stomatal closure in Arabidopsis - Nature Communications
Cysteine supply is crucial for ABA biosynthesis in plants. Here, the authors report that chloroplast cysteine synthase complex regulates stomatal closure by integrating different stress signals via dy...
www.nature.com
October 15, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
djgibbs.bsky.social
We are advertising a PhD project investigating a cellular mechanism that ensures protein quality control during mRNA translation in plants. Please get in touch on here or via email if you are interested and I can provide further details!

Lab website: sites.google.com/site/danielg...
Daniel Gibbs Lab
Welcome to the lab website of Professor Daniel Gibbs @ University of Birmingham
sites.google.com
October 14, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
biorxiv-plants.bsky.social
The first photosynthetic mutant in diatoms targets the subunit γ of plastidial ATP synthase and reveals a key role of thylakoid electrochemical proton gradient in photosynthesis regulation and heterotrophic metabolism. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.10.681070v1
October 12, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Ben Field 🌿
jxbotany.bsky.social
🌱 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.
October 10, 2025 at 11:37 AM