Bert De Rybel
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bertderybel.bsky.social
Bert De Rybel
@bertderybel.bsky.social
Plant developmental biologist with a key interest in vascular tissues and cell division orientation at VIB/UGent 🇧🇪🇪🇺🌱
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
Another great collaboration with @trevormnolan.bsky.social and @nvukas.bsky.social where we give our vision on how brassinosteroid research can pave the way to precision plant engineering www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Unlocking the potential of brassinosteroids: A path to precision plant engineering
Brassinosteroids are essential plant hormones that play a central role in regulating growth, development, and stress responses. Their impact on plant architecture and productivity makes them attractiv...
www.science.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
Our latest review, co-authored with @agustilab.bsky.social (@ibmcp.bsky.social), “Environmental regulation of plant vascular networks,” is now published in @cp-trendsplantsci.bsky.social! Read it here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 6, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Inspiring visit and exciting talk by @likeyoda1.bsky.social today in @psb-vib.bsky.social. Impressive progress after starting her lab only 2 years ago!
November 6, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
Interested to learn more about Plant Biotechnology? Enroll in our one-year Subsequent Master program and enjoy a training at Europe's largest Agro-biotech campus: masterplantbiotechnology.ugent.be
January 3, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
Final, edited version of the paper now available
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 25, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
🌱 3 plant biology institutes, 2 great days! 🌿

PhDs & postdocs from DBMV @unil.bsky.social, @psb-vib.bsky.social & @rdplab.bsky.social rocked the 2nd Trilateral Plant Bio Symposium in Lausanne!

👏 Big congrats to all ECRs, especially to @nathan-german.bsky.social for winning Best Presentation! 🏆💥
September 13, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
🌱 What happens when lateral root primordia (LRPs) fail to emerge?
Using our new lineage tracing tool LRTracker, Xin discovered that arrested LRPs don’t just disappear—they gradually switch fate and become part of the cambium, contributing to secondary growth.1/x
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Hormonal regulation of cell fate plasticity of xylem-pole-pericycle lineage in Arabidopsis roots
In Arabidopsis roots, xylem-pole-pericycle (XPP) cells exhibit dual cell fates by contributing to both lateral root (LR) and cambium formation. Despit…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 12, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Amazing work by the equally amazing @maitesaura.bsky.social in a large collaborative project with Tina Kyndt, Tom Beeckman and Carolina Escobar! So proud to share this with the community!
New preprint! 🐛 Root-knot nematodes hijack root cells, turning them into feeding sites and making plants very sick. Using a cross-species scRNA-seq approach we mapped this process and show how this knowledge can be used to engineer resistant crops.🌱 A summary🧵 :
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 10, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
We are happy to present the magnum opus of Sjoerd Woudenberg, at the close of his PhD – Transgenerational inheritance of the polarity axis in a fern embryo…a thread (1/17)

tinyurl.com/4y53xekv
Transgenerational polarity axis inheritance during Ceratopteris embryogenesis
For sexually reproducing organisms to pass on their genetic information, progeny must successfully establish. Various life history strategies have evolved, using either dispersal of large numbers of p...
tinyurl.com
September 1, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
Some Impressions of the FASEB Mechanism of Plant Development - 110 attendees, two keynotes, 46 Talks & 83 posters but one passion: understand plant development 🌱🧪🔬🧑‍💻 #PDevSRC
August 27, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
Excited to share that our latest research on plant stem cell awakening is now out in Nature Plants!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A cytokinin response maximum induces and activates bifacial stem cells for radial growth - Nature Plants
This study details how plants initiate radial growth, during which a transient cytokinin response maximum transforms dormant procambial cells into bifacial stem cells, offering a basis for post-embryo...
www.nature.com
August 5, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
Final Program announced for the Mech. of Plant Development FASEB (Aug 24-28 in Southbridge MA USA).: tinyurl.com/2cfa8keo
August 5, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
1/n
What triggers plants to start growing thicker (radial growth)?
We discovered that a transient cytokinin response maximum acts as a switch to initiate this process in roots.
So proud to share the work I started as an undergrad, now in Nature Plants! 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A cytokinin response maximum induces and activates bifacial stem cells for radial growth - Nature Plants
This study details how plants initiate radial growth, during which a transient cytokinin response maximum transforms dormant procambial cells into bifacial stem cells, offering a basis for post-embryo...
www.nature.com
August 4, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
Fresh from the press! For suberin lovers!
Work led by @, my former PhD student and now postdoc in the team, with help of @sarahorvath.bsky.social and in collaboration with @tonnigrubeandersen.bsky.social .
🔗 DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
1/4 #PlantScience
July 24, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
📅New #PlantSciEvents Event Added: 11th International Symposium on Root Development🌱

👉 buff.ly/Y29T13z

#PlantScience
11th International Symposium on Root Development
(2026) Mon 4 May, 4:00 PM - Thu 7, 1:00 PM [EDT]: Rooting 2026 is the upcoming edition of a well-established symposium that brings together scientists from diverse fields, including plant…
buff.ly
July 23, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
We received 80 abstracts and have >100 registered participants for the Mech. of Plant Development FASEB (Aug 24-28 in Southbridge MA USA). Time for us to select ~20 talks from those 😱
It will be an exciting meeting!
FOMO? Still time to register! → tinyurl.com/24fsjq6a
July 17, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Very much looking forward to the #PVB2025 meeting in beautiful Osaka 🇯🇵
July 3, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
How plants sense injury in their barrier tissue, periderm? Painstakingly detailed and amazing work by post doc Hiroyuki Iida shows that wounding is sensed by the diffusion of two gases: ethylene and oxygen. @treebiocoe.bsky.social@erc.europa.eu‬ 1/x 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Plants monitor the integrity of their barrier by sensing gas diffusion - Nature
A study using Arabidopsis shows that plants can monitor the integrity of their outer barriers by sensing gas diffusion, enabling them to initiate wound repair to prevent water loss and pathogen entry.
www.nature.com
July 2, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Congrats to our @psb-vib.bsky.social 🌱 director @yvdp.bsky.social for becoming EMBO member!
embo.org EMBO @embo.org · Jul 1
Welcome and congratulations to the 60 new members and 9 associate members who have been elected to the EMBO Membership! This honour celebrates #research excellence and outstanding achievements in the #LifeSciences. 🧪

Learn more here:
www.embo.org/press-releas... #EMBOMembers2025
Outstanding life scientists elected to the EMBO Membership – Press releases – EMBO
Sixty-nine new members join the community of leading life scientists in Europe and beyond
www.embo.org
July 1, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
Open PhD position in plant regeneration 🌱
www.muni.cz/en/about-us/...
June 29, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
🚨 New preprint alert! 🚨

We used single-cell RNA-seq + GRN analysis to uncover novel morphogenic genes that boost #maize transformation frequency 🌽

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

Thanks to @vandepoelelab.bsky.social @bertderybel.bsky.social and all other co-authors!

#PlantScience
June 23, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
Our latest on cell death and our second on maize: Using single-nucleus RNAseq of maize endosperm, Nicolas Doll (now @rdplab.bsky.social‬) shows that KIL transcription factors promote endosperm cell death to facilitate embryo growth - with a genomic imprinting twist! academic.oup.com/plcell/advan...
June 23, 2025 at 5:13 AM
Reposted by Bert De Rybel
And just like that #ICAR2025 is over! With our prize winners, a special appearance from the legendary Marc Van Montagu & a thank you to our hosts Tom Beeckman & @moritznowack.bsky.social, we can now hand over the baton to Singapore for #ICAR2026! See you all there for more excellent #plantscience!
June 20, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Mini @dolfweijers.bsky.social Lab and Alumni reunion at #ICAR2025
June 19, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Congrats to Linh and Juan for winning the poster and presentation awards at the Vascular Development satellite event to #ICAR2025!
June 15, 2025 at 10:16 PM