Sophia Zebell
@sophiazebell.bsky.social
Plant gene regulation and quantitative traits, Previously: RPCV Jamaica 🇯🇲 NIGMS K99 Postdoc in Lippman Lab at CSHL 🍅 Plant Phys AFE 🌱 PhD in Dong Lab at Duke 🌼 she/her
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
The 5th of 6 faculty positions in UNC Biology is posted. We're working with the @ncbg.bsky.social to fill a joint position as Director of the UNC Herbarium at @ncbg.bsky.social and as Associate Professor within the Department of Biology (BIOL). Please share 1/n
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/308...
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/308...
Associate Professor & Director of NCBG Herbarium
This is a research, teaching, and public service position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, serving jointly as Herbarium Director at the North Carolina Botanical Garden (NCBG) and as...
unc.peopleadmin.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:36 AM
The 5th of 6 faculty positions in UNC Biology is posted. We're working with the @ncbg.bsky.social to fill a joint position as Director of the UNC Herbarium at @ncbg.bsky.social and as Associate Professor within the Department of Biology (BIOL). Please share 1/n
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/308...
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/308...
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
1/2 This manifesto is the result of a collaborative effort started earlier this year at the Plant Biology Education conference in Lancaster, UK.
We are delighted to see it out and we are proud that our Comms team contributed to such an important resource for the community! 🌱
We are delighted to see it out and we are proud that our Comms team contributed to such an important resource for the community! 🌱
Very excited to announce that our collaborative manifesto for 🌱 #PlantScience #Education has now been published! Educators from >10 countries and 30 institutions have contributed to it and we are incredibly proud of the final output. Here is a short thread 🧵1/4 doi.org/10.1002/ppp3...
A manifesto for plant science education
Plants provide oxygen, food, shelter, medicines and environmental services, without which human society could not exist. Tackling pressing and global challenges requires well-trained plant scientists....
doi.org
October 29, 2025 at 3:53 PM
1/2 This manifesto is the result of a collaborative effort started earlier this year at the Plant Biology Education conference in Lancaster, UK.
We are delighted to see it out and we are proud that our Comms team contributed to such an important resource for the community! 🌱
We are delighted to see it out and we are proud that our Comms team contributed to such an important resource for the community! 🌱
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
"With 2 weeks left before the end of this fiscal year, USDA’s [NIFA] had awarded just 558 competitive grants ... 68% fewer than during the prior fiscal year—and $741 million less in competitively awarded research funds"
Don't forget #PlantSci and ag research, folks.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Don't forget #PlantSci and ag research, folks.
www.science.org/content/arti...
USDA funding delays under Trump compromise agricultural research
Sharp drop in grant awards leaves researchers frustrated
www.science.org
September 18, 2025 at 2:43 PM
"With 2 weeks left before the end of this fiscal year, USDA’s [NIFA] had awarded just 558 competitive grants ... 68% fewer than during the prior fiscal year—and $741 million less in competitively awarded research funds"
Don't forget #PlantSci and ag research, folks.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Don't forget #PlantSci and ag research, folks.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
A paper published in Nature Genetics presents a comprehensive pan-cistrome of maize leaves, revealing over 200,000 variants linked to transcription factor binding sites under both well-watered and drought conditions. go.nature.com/4785q5p 🧪🌾#plantscience
Genetic variation at transcription factor binding sites largely explains phenotypic heritability in maize - Nature Genetics
Pan-cistrome of the maize leaf under well-watered and drought conditions profiled by haplotype-specific MOA-seq highlights the relevance of transcription factor binding QTLs for understanding phenotypic diversity in maize.
go.nature.com
August 24, 2025 at 2:30 PM
A paper published in Nature Genetics presents a comprehensive pan-cistrome of maize leaves, revealing over 200,000 variants linked to transcription factor binding sites under both well-watered and drought conditions. go.nature.com/4785q5p 🧪🌾#plantscience
An enjoyable read, with clear simple experiments that show tomato conservation of a core developmental mechanism previously demonstrated in Arabidopsis.
The quantitative effect of seed production triggers the end of flowering in tomato (María Jesús López-Martín , Cristina Ferrándiz , Concepción Gómez-Mena) doi.org/10.1093/plph... #PlantScience
doi.org
May 24, 2025 at 7:47 PM
An enjoyable read, with clear simple experiments that show tomato conservation of a core developmental mechanism previously demonstrated in Arabidopsis.
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
2 papers in @science.org this week uncover wheat tandem kinase function. Working in parallel, the authors of each paper show that two different tandem kinases converge to activate the same NLR!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#PlantScience
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#PlantScience
A wheat tandem kinase activates an NLR to trigger immunity
The role of nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) receptors in plant immunity is well studied, but the function of a class of tandem kinases (TKs) that confer disease resistance in wheat and ba...
www.science.org
March 30, 2025 at 3:18 PM
2 papers in @science.org this week uncover wheat tandem kinase function. Working in parallel, the authors of each paper show that two different tandem kinases converge to activate the same NLR!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#PlantScience
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#PlantScience
This paper is a tour de force from many friends and collaborators across Solanum expertise! Check it out to learn about the behavior of paralogs in genomes plus the Solanum genus and it's incredible potential for new crops! #plantscienceresearch
🚨New paper published in @nature.com! Using pan-genetics across the Solanum genus🍅🥔🍆we reveal why gene duplications🧬are major contingencies in crop engineering. My postdoc work in the Lippman lab @CSHL, collab. with @katiejenike.bsky.social @mikeschatz.bsky.social chatz.bsky.social and many others!
Solanum pan-genetics reveals paralogues as contingencies in crop engineering - Nature
Gene duplication and subsequent paralogue diversification are major obstacles to genotype-to-phenotype predictability.
nature.com
March 5, 2025 at 9:46 PM
This paper is a tour de force from many friends and collaborators across Solanum expertise! Check it out to learn about the behavior of paralogs in genomes plus the Solanum genus and it's incredible potential for new crops! #plantscienceresearch
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
Thrilled to share our latest preprint, an interdisciplinary look at epistasis between variants in the coding and noncoding genome! #plantscienceresearch www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Cryptic variation fuels plant phenotypic change through hierarchical epistasis
Cryptic genetic variants exert minimal or no phenotypic effects alone but have long been hypothesized to form a vast, hidden reservoir of genetic diversity that drives trait evolvability through epist...
www.biorxiv.org
February 25, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Thrilled to share our latest preprint, an interdisciplinary look at epistasis between variants in the coding and noncoding genome! #plantscienceresearch www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Nice work on evolution of genetic interaction between cis-reg elements in floral development! This study really hammered home for me the vast aesthetic difference between having one fewer petal (hideous) and one extra petal (charming) in brassicas. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #plantscienceresearch
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
February 19, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Nice work on evolution of genetic interaction between cis-reg elements in floral development! This study really hammered home for me the vast aesthetic difference between having one fewer petal (hideous) and one extra petal (charming) in brassicas. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #plantscienceresearch
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
To My Fellow Lab Rats: A Letter From a Postdoc Who Survived the Bolsonaro Years
www.reddit.com
February 11, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Strong genetics and such a cool example of the consequences of altered TF-DNA binding in domestication!
Repairing a deleterious domestication variant in a floral regulator gene of tomato by base editing www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Repairing a deleterious domestication variant in a floral regulator gene of tomato by base editing - Nature Genetics
A deleterious mutation in the tomato transcription factor SSP2 was enriched during domestication. Repairing the deleterious mutation in cultivated tomato by base editing leads to compact growth and ea...
www.nature.com
January 3, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Strong genetics and such a cool example of the consequences of altered TF-DNA binding in domestication!
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
This remarkable new RNA-based adenine and cytosine #BaseEditing system achieves targeted and efficient A-to-G and C-to-T conversions in lettuce, with potential applications in #crop breeding and #PlantBiotechnology.
doi.org/10.1111/jipb...
#PlantScience
doi.org/10.1111/jipb...
#PlantScience
December 31, 2024 at 2:28 PM
This remarkable new RNA-based adenine and cytosine #BaseEditing system achieves targeted and efficient A-to-G and C-to-T conversions in lettuce, with potential applications in #crop breeding and #PlantBiotechnology.
doi.org/10.1111/jipb...
#PlantScience
doi.org/10.1111/jipb...
#PlantScience
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
Associate Professor / Professor of Evolutionary Genomics
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49389/
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49389/
Associate Professor / Professor of Evolutionary Genomics - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge
Associate Professor / Professor of Evolutionary Genomics in the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge.
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk
November 29, 2024 at 11:19 AM
Associate Professor / Professor of Evolutionary Genomics
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49389/
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/49389/
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
Calling all #genomics researchers! The small, diverse, friendly Dept of Biological Sciences at Lehigh has a #tenuretrack position: bit.ly/3CYRb5B. App review starts 12/2 (not a hard cutoff). Please join our awesome team!
Lehigh University, Department of Biological Sciences
Full service online faculty recruitment and application management system for academic institutions worldwide. We offer unique solutions tailored for academic communities.
bit.ly
November 27, 2024 at 10:20 PM
Calling all #genomics researchers! The small, diverse, friendly Dept of Biological Sciences at Lehigh has a #tenuretrack position: bit.ly/3CYRb5B. App review starts 12/2 (not a hard cutoff). Please join our awesome team!
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
hey everyone! i made a list of some useful starter packs (primarily biology/earth sciences with a few bonus things thrown in) to share with friends who have joined bsky in the last week and thought it may be useful for some people here too! 🌍🧪 #SciSky #BioSky docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Starter packs
BIOLOGY Ecology Macroecology https://go.bsky.app/GBn9pNZ Global ecology https://go.bsky.app/V6tN4cv Trait based ecology and evolution https://go.bsky.app/PThMXeX Invasion biology https://go.b...
docs.google.com
November 11, 2024 at 5:41 PM
hey everyone! i made a list of some useful starter packs (primarily biology/earth sciences with a few bonus things thrown in) to share with friends who have joined bsky in the last week and thought it may be useful for some people here too! 🌍🧪 #SciSky #BioSky docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Putting my postdoc hat back on for a moment to share this beautiful work by Amy Lanctot! She demonstrates both activation and repression within a tomato CRE and shows a different regulatory landscape in Arabidopsis, all with amazing flowering phenotypes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Antagonizing cis-regulatory elements of a conserved flowering gene mediate developmental robustness
Developmental transitions require precise temporal and spatial control of gene expression. In plants, such regulation is critical for flower formation, which involves the progressive differentiation o...
www.biorxiv.org
November 5, 2024 at 10:01 PM
Putting my postdoc hat back on for a moment to share this beautiful work by Amy Lanctot! She demonstrates both activation and repression within a tomato CRE and shows a different regulatory landscape in Arabidopsis, all with amazing flowering phenotypes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
Phenomenal study from the Lippman lab on convergent evolution: a single gene is responsible for the loss of an important defense trait in many species, from monocots to dicots!
#PlantScience
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#PlantScience
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Convergent evolution of plant prickles by repeated gene co-option over deep time
An enduring question in evolutionary biology concerns the degree to which episodes of convergent trait evolution depend on the same genetic programs, particularly over long timescales. In this work, w...
www.science.org
August 2, 2024 at 10:02 AM
Phenomenal study from the Lippman lab on convergent evolution: a single gene is responsible for the loss of an important defense trait in many species, from monocots to dicots!
#PlantScience
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#PlantScience
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
We're looking for two cohorts of Plant Physiology Assistant Features Editors to start in 2025 and 2026!
See the editorial. Advanced PhD students & postdocs.
I'd be delighted to tell you more in person, at #PlantBio2024, #ICAR2024SanDiego, or #BT2024DBG.
Or message me!
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
See the editorial. Advanced PhD students & postdocs.
I'd be delighted to tell you more in person, at #PlantBio2024, #ICAR2024SanDiego, or #BT2024DBG.
Or message me!
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
June 13, 2024 at 1:49 PM
We're looking for two cohorts of Plant Physiology Assistant Features Editors to start in 2025 and 2026!
See the editorial. Advanced PhD students & postdocs.
I'd be delighted to tell you more in person, at #PlantBio2024, #ICAR2024SanDiego, or #BT2024DBG.
Or message me!
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
See the editorial. Advanced PhD students & postdocs.
I'd be delighted to tell you more in person, at #PlantBio2024, #ICAR2024SanDiego, or #BT2024DBG.
Or message me!
doi.org/10.1093/plph...
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
Part of this manuscript actually used herbaria to examine evolution of prickles loss across the spiny Solanum... How cool is that!
Intrigued by the proliferation of prickly plants across lineages? Jack Satterlee and a triumph of collaborators have answers about convergent evolution of these sharp projections, and how to get rid of them! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
February 23, 2024 at 1:23 PM
Part of this manuscript actually used herbaria to examine evolution of prickles loss across the spiny Solanum... How cool is that!
Intrigued by the proliferation of prickly plants across lineages? Jack Satterlee and a triumph of collaborators have answers about convergent evolution of these sharp projections, and how to get rid of them! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
February 22, 2024 at 7:29 PM
Intrigued by the proliferation of prickly plants across lineages? Jack Satterlee and a triumph of collaborators have answers about convergent evolution of these sharp projections, and how to get rid of them! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Proud to have played a small role in Dani Ciren's PhD work, out last week on BioRxiv! Check it out to learn about regulatory sequence rearrangement during evolution! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Extreme restructuring of cis-regulatory regions controlling a deeply conserved plant stem cell regul...
bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution
www.biorxiv.org
January 2, 2024 at 6:47 PM
Proud to have played a small role in Dani Ciren's PhD work, out last week on BioRxiv! Check it out to learn about regulatory sequence rearrangement during evolution! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Sophia Zebell
Development has announced the next call for applications for the 'Pathway to Independence' programme - aimed at supporting postdocs going on the job market. Application deadline 31 January 2024.
Full details can be found at journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pi...
Full details can be found at journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pi...
December 12, 2023 at 3:57 PM
Development has announced the next call for applications for the 'Pathway to Independence' programme - aimed at supporting postdocs going on the job market. Application deadline 31 January 2024.
Full details can be found at journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pi...
Full details can be found at journals.biologists.com/dev/pages/pi...