Junli Zhang
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junlizhang.bsky.social
Junli Zhang
@junlizhang.bsky.social
70 followers 120 following 11 posts
Wheat genetics, genomics, breeding
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Reposted by Junli Zhang
jxbotany.bsky.social
🪲 REVIEW 🪲

This review uncovers the critical role of the plant cell wall in pest defence, integrating structural, molecular, and genetic insights to highlight its emerging significance in plant–pest interactions during herbivory - Perez-Alonso et al.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
Fig. 1.Schematic overview of pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) in plants upon pest infestation. Cell wall-degrading enzymes (CWDEs) secreted by herbivory disrupt cell wall integrity, releasing damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). The defence response is activated by the recognition of these DAMPs, as well as herbivore-associated molecular patterns (HAMPs), by pattern recognition receptor complexes (PRRs and co-PRRs). Elicitor binding to PRRs leads to a series of signalling events, such as membrane depolarization (Vm), activation of Ca2+ channels and influx of Ca2+ into the cytosol, burst of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via activation of RBOHD, membrane depolarization, and activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade. MAPK and Ca2+-dependent kinase (CDPK) cascades trigger transcriptional reprogramming, activating phytohormone (SA, JA, and ET) signalling, transcription regulatory factors, and synthesis of defensive compounds.
November 24, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
kseniakrasileva.bsky.social
🚀 New preprint!
We introduce K-PROB, a k-mer–based Bayesian framework that mines pangenomic promoter and expression diversity to predict cis-regulatory elements driving gene expression variation in crops 🌽🌱
🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.27.684862v1
#Genomics #GeneRegulation #Maize #Soybean
Natural variation in regulatory code revealed through Bayesian analysis of plant pan-genomes and pan-transcriptomes
Understanding the genetic code of cis-regulatory elements (CREs) is essential for engineering gene expression and modulating agronomic traits in crops. In plants, CREs underlying rapid evolution of ge...
biorxiv.org
October 29, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
jxbotany.bsky.social
🧂🌱 RESEARCH 🌱🧂

The transcription factor BRASSINOSTEROID-RELATED HOMEOBOX 1 acts as a hub in mediating crosstalk between salt stress and brassinosteroid signaling in Arabidopsis - Hasegawa et al.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪
Fig. 5 (shortened, full legend in paper): Brassinosteroid induces BHB1 expression in Arabidopsis. (A) Relative expression of endogenous BHB1 in Col-0 seedlings grown on medium for 10 d and then treated with either 100 nM brassinolide (BL) or 3 µM brassinazole (Brz). Samples were taken 3 h after treatment. EtOH and DMSO represent the mock control treatments. Expression was determined by qRT-PCR and is relative to that in the controls, the value of which was set as 1. Data are means (±SD), and the numbers of replicates are indicated. Significant differences compared with the WT were determined using Student’s t-test and are also indicated. (B) GFP fluorescence showing BHB1 expression in rosette leaves of plants transformed with pBHB1::GFP and treated with BL. Scale bars are 1 mm. Plants at 25-day-old were treated with either 100 nM BL (+BL) or mock solution (–BL) and the images were taken after 7 d l.
October 21, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
jxbotany.bsky.social
🪲🌿 REVIEW 🌿🪲

Beyond bitter: plant triterpenoids in the battle against herbivorous insects. Mathur et al. explore triterpenoids as key players in plant defence & crop protection 🪲

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪
Fig. 4.Illustration of the co-evolutionary arms race between plants and insects through triterpene-based defence versus insect counter-measures. Plants deploy diverse triterpene-based defence strategies, including antifeedancy, stunted growth, protease inhibition, cytotoxicity, and indirect defence to deter herbivores. In response, insects have evolved sophisticated adaptations such as behavioural avoidance, enzymatic detoxification, sequestration of toxic compounds, microbial symbiosis, and genetic modifications to bypass plant defences. This ongoing evolutionary battle shapes the dynamic interplay between plant immunity and insect survival strategies.
October 17, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
plantphys.bsky.social
NEWS & VIEWS: Jasmonic Acid Oxidase (JAO): Balancing growth and defense in rice (Marcella Alves Teixeira) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience @aspbofficial
Jasmonic Acid Oxidase (JAO): Balancing growth and defense in rice
Jasmonates play a central role in balancing plant growth and defense, being involved from germination and development to different stress responses (Campos
doi.org
October 17, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
newphyt.bsky.social
Insect salivary proteins alter the stability of plant splicing factors

Haoli Gao, et al.

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/3PX4GV...

#planthopper #PlantScience
Working model of SR45-interacting salivary protein (SISP) regulating plant immunity.
October 17, 2025 at 2:35 PM
junlizhang.bsky.social
Another gene that could cause multiovary in grasses. In barley, at least three multiovary loci (mov1, mov2 and mov5 (HvLFY)) have been reported doi.org/10.1101/2022...
October 15, 2025 at 4:02 AM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
davidlowry.bsky.social
Excited by this breakthrough work led by Dr. Lauren Stanley (now Assistant Professor at Central Michigan University). Lauren was able to develop for the first time floral dip/spray transformation methods in the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus). bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Just add water: A simple floral bud injection method for stable Agrobacterium‐mediated transformation in two ecotypes of Mimulus guttatus
Premise Stable transformation is the biggest barrier to studying gene function in plants. In most species, transformation requires tissue culture and regeneration methods that may be arduous and cau...
bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 13, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
dubcovskylab.bsky.social
Our Genome Biology paper on wheat spike development integrating single cell and spatial transcriptomics is now published! Check out the paper here: doi.org/10.1186/s130... and enjoy the beautiful pictures (including our 44 supplementary figures)! Be sure to check out some of our tools below!
October 13, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
wheatinitiative.bsky.social
Exciting news in wheat science!
A new study in @natcomms.nature.com shows the first wheat pan-transcriptome: uncovering hidden diversity across modern wheat lines 🌾
Congrats to @earlhaminst.bsky.social & @helmholtzmunich.bsky.social for this major advance!
➡️ buff.ly/XEQlCnT
#WheatConnect
De novo annotation reveals transcriptomic complexity across the hexaploid wheat pan-genome - Nature Communications
Available wheat genomes are annotated by projecting Chinese Spring gene models across the new assemblies. Here, the authors generate de novo gene annotations for the 9 wheat genomes, identify core…
buff.ly
October 6, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
gittacoaker.bsky.social
UNC Chapel Hill is hiring an Assistant Professor in Plant Molecular Biology. Per Jeff
Dangl MPMI candidates are also highly desired in the search. unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...
Assistant Professor
The Department of Biology at UNC Chapel Hill (https://bio.unc.edu/) is searching to hire a tenure track Assistant Professor to study critical questions in Plant Molecular Biology.We seek candidates wh...
unc.peopleadmin.com
October 6, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
newphyt.bsky.social
Unlocking #grass #leaf development: foundations for tunable #cereal design

📖 buff.ly/08NS8jV
#TansleyReview by McAllister et al.

@drannisr.bsky.social @hildenelissen.bsky.social @WileyPlantSci
#PlantSci #genetics

Figure credit BioRender: Hilde, Nelissen (2025) buff.ly/uhRFPbx.
Leaf development engineering challenges and opportunities.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 5, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
newphyt.bsky.social
TaGSK3 phosphorylates TaNLP7 to repress #nitrogen deficiency-induced leaf #senescence in #wheat

A #Letter by Yang et al. 👇

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#LatestIssue #PlantScience
TaNLP7 directly represses TaSGR and loss-of-function of TaSGR confers strong low-nitrogen tolerance in wheat.
October 2, 2025 at 10:17 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
chenxinli2.bsky.social
DNA mutagenesis driven by transcription factor competition with mismatch repair: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
DNA mutagenesis driven by transcription factor competition with mismatch repair
Competition between transcription factors and mismatch repair machinery drives localized hypermutation at regulatory elements, with implications for cancer and genome evolution.
www.cell.com
October 2, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
tatsuyanobori.bsky.social
Localized glutamine leakage drives the spatial structure of root microbial colonization
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Localized glutamine leakage drives the spatial structure of root microbial colonization
Plant roots release exudates to encourage microbiome assembly, which influences the function and stress resilience of plants. How specific exudates drive spatial colonization patterns remains largely ...
www.science.org
October 2, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
danvec.bsky.social
Engineered geminivirus replicons enable rapid in planta directed evolution

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Engineered geminivirus replicons enable rapid in planta directed evolution
Directed evolution can rapidly generate genetic variants with new and enhanced properties, yet efficient platforms for performing such evolution directly in plant cells have been lacking. We developed...
www.science.org
October 2, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
piotraz.bsky.social
Breaking genetics news‼️🌱🌽 A natural DNA trick triples recombination in maize. What we first saw in Arabidopsis (@hendersi lab) a decade ago is now confirmed in crops—opening new doors for plant breeding. Published today in Nature Plants! More details 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Enhancing local meiotic crossovers in Arabidopsis and maize through juxtaposition of heterozygous and homozygous regions - Nature Plants
This study discovered that locally confined DNA differences boost crossover rates in both Arabidopsis and maize, revealing a conserved mechanism that can accelerate plant breeding and trait introgress...
www.nature.com
September 2, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
tommytang.bsky.social
One of the best free stats books for life science with R
web.stanford.edu/class/bios2...
August 29, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
dubcovskylab.bsky.social
An update to our spatial transcriptomics study of the wheat spike is now available in bioRxiv! The updated version includes functional validation of the roles associated with the specific expression patterns of LFY in intercalary meristems, SPL14 in inflorescence meristems, and FZP in glume axillae.
Spatial and single-cell expression analyses reveal complex expression domains in early wheat spike development
Wheat is important for global food security and understanding the molecular mechanisms driving spike and spikelet development can inform the development of more productive varieties. In this study, we...
www.biorxiv.org
August 13, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
stephenturner.us
UseR 2025: Experimenting with LLM Applications in R www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ_8... #Rstats
Experimenting with LLM Applications in R - Nic Crane
Large language models (LLMs) are surprisingly easy to use and at their core, they're just an API call away. But how do you go from calling a model to actually building something useful? In this…
www.youtube.com
August 1, 2025 at 11:25 AM
junlizhang.bsky.social
I am thrilled to announce that I will start as a small grains genetist at Texas A&M AgriLife Research, located in Amarillo, TX, on September 1st. I will update my contact information later. Looking forward to collaborating with everyone working on small grains!
August 1, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
plantteaching.bsky.social
3) Teaching Tools in Plant Biology
academic.oup.com/plcell/pages...
General interest topics include
academic.oup.com/plcell/pages...
How To Be a *Plant (*Photosynthetic, Multicellular, Terrestrial)
Medicinal Plants: Past, Present and Future
Plants, food and human health: You are what you eat?
Etc.
Teaching Tools in Plant Biology
Teaching Tools in Plant Biology, published by the American Society of Plant Biologists, combines up-to-date peer-reviewed research-based content with flexible p
academic.oup.com
July 30, 2025 at 11:53 AM
junlizhang.bsky.social
A tenure track position for small grains genetic improvement in Cornell!
Cornell University, School of Integrative Plant Science
Job #AJO29858, WDR-00054014 Genome and Phenome Engineering for Small Grains Improvement, School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US
academicjobsonline.org
July 29, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
tommytang.bsky.social
1/ Bash quirks will mess up your genomics pipeline silently.
Missing files. Broken loops. Truncated samples.
Here’s how to stop them:
🧵
July 29, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Junli Zhang
delfidorussen.bsky.social
I’m very happy to share the published version of our paper on the role of MET1 in wheat 🌾 🧬

It’s been really exciting to discover more about DNA methylation in wheat and it’s huge polyploid genome

doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
Partial redundancy buffers deleterious effects of mutating DNA methyltransferase 1-1 (MET1-1) in polyploid wheat
Varying gene dosage through mutating DNA methyltransferase 1-1 (MET1-1 ) in polyploid wheat generates quantitative changes to CG methylation without the le
doi.org
April 8, 2025 at 7:36 AM