UCDavisPlants
LightNews LightNews
banner
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
UCDavisPlants
@ucdavisplants.bsky.social
1.7K followers 110 following 500 posts
🌱 Discussion of all plant-related research and concepts.
UC Davis supports academic and research programs in plant sciences, plant biology, plant pathology, viticulture and agricultural engineering.

https://instagram.com/ucdavisplants
Posts Replies Media Videos
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱 From Agronomy: Insights into pectin methylesterification show how cell wall chemistry and mechanics shape growth, stress tolerance, and crop quality, guiding targeted breeding strategies. (Isabel B. Ortega-Salazar, Barbara Blanco-Ulate)
▶️ www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/15...
#PlantScience #PlantBreeding
Figure 1. Regulation of homogalacturonan (HG) methylesterification in the plant cell wall (CW) in Arabidopsis. This schematic illustrates the multilayered regulation of HG methylesterification in the CW of the model plant Arabidopsis. The degree of methylesterification (DM) is modulated by numerous transcription factors (TFs) (LUH, BLH2, BLH4, ERF4, ETTIN, BLR, STK, and MYB52) that directly regulate pectin methylesterase (PME)/pectin methylesterase inhibitor (PMEI) expression, as well as by ubiquitin ligases (FLY1, FLY2, MUD1) that control PME recycling and stability. Hormones also modulate HG methylesterification. Ethylene and abscisic acid (ABA) promote HG demethylesterification, while gibberellic acid (GA) and brassinosteroids (BR) inhibit it. Auxin can either promote or inhibit HG demethylesterification, which might be determined by DM. In addition, apoplastic pH influences the enzymatic function of PME/PMEI through acidification driven by H+-ATPase, proton pump embedded in the plasma membrane (PM). Red arrows indicate positive regulation, blue arrow indicate negative regulation, and dashed indicated regulatory relationships that are not fully confirmed. The multiple layers described above-including TFs, post-transcriptional regulators, hormones, and apoplastic pH—are interwoven to form a complex network controlling HG methylesterification. Arrows indicate positive (red) or negative (blue) regulation. The red arrows with double heads refer to indirect positive regulation. Black dotted lines suggest interactions that are not fully characterized or confirmed.
January 9, 2026 at 4:59 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱 From Microbiology Letters: Desert-grown lettuce hosts distinct leaf and root microbiomes shaped by genotype and market class, with links to plant traits and micronutrient content. (Maria Truco, Dean Lavelle, Richard Michelmore)
▶️ academic.oup.com/femsle/artic...
#PlantScience #Genetics
Diversity of leaf- and root microbiomes among genotypes and market classes of desert-grown lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)
Analysis of endophytic bacterial and fungal communities in leaves and roots of field-grown lettuce in Arizona, USA.
academic.oup.com
January 8, 2026 at 5:09 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱 From Seed Science Research: Single-seed respiration in soybean correlates with spectral and morphological traits, showing imaging can noninvasively reveal seed physiological status. (Fushing Hsieh, Pedro Bello, Bárbara Blanco-Ulate)
▶️ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
#PlantScience #SeedScience
Data mechanics visualization of the significant (p-value < 0.05) differences in the two-way interaction of biometric features between soybean seeds displaying fast (O2 cluster 3) and intermediate (O2 cluster 7) respiration patterns. Red tiles in the heatmap indicate the presence (1) of a characteristic, while blue tiles represent its absence (0). The row-axis represents each soybean, colour-coded according to its respiration pattern (O2 cluster), as well as its round and batch. The column-axis represents each significant biometric characteristic, colour-coded based on its corresponding two-way interaction category. The presence or absence of the characteristic in the seed is colour-coded as red or blue, respectively. The row-axis dendrogram groups the oxygen consumption patterns based on similarities in biometric characteristics, while the column-axis dendrogram groups the features by type.
January 7, 2026 at 5:09 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱 From Plant Disease: A Fusarium stem rot is driving major tomato losses, mainly from F. noneumartii and F. martii. (Cassandra Swett, K. Zimmerman,E. Hellman,M. Gastelum,F. Rodriguez,A. Brackrog,J. Del Castillo Múnera,M. McCaghey,A. Hopkins, Justine Beaulieu)
▶️ apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Fusarium stem rot and decline caused by Fusarium noneumartii and F. martii: A widespread outbreak-associated disease in California processing tomatoes, distinguishable from F. falciforme-driven foot r...
A recent stem rot and canopy decline outbreak associated with the Fusarium solani species complex (FSSC) is causing major losses in California processing tomatoes. In a six-year survey, FSSC isolates ...
apsjournals.apsnet.org
January 6, 2026 at 5:44 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱 From Plant Physiology and Biochemistry: Short nighttime blue light boosts anthocyanins and antioxidants in lettuce without reducing yield, offering an efficient quality strategy for indoor farming. (Laura Cammarisano)
▶️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#PlantScience
Short-duration high blue light at night enhances phytochemicals and morphology without yield loss in three lettuce cultivars
Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) enables precise regulation of plant physiological processes through environmental control. Among these, the s…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 5, 2026 at 5:20 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌾 From The Plant Journal: Genetic analysis shows rice PISTILLATA genes control flowering time, female fertility, and parthenocarpy, revealing new targets shaping floral development. (Imtiyaz Khanday)
▶️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#PlantScience #Genetics
Functional genetics of rice PISTILLATA genes reveals new roles and target genes in flowering time, female fertility, and parthenocarpy
Rice lodicules are small fleshy floral petal homologs that enable floret opening and closing, for anthesis and seed maturation. We provide insights on OsMADS2 and OsMADS4, expanding their second and ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 30, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by UCDavisPlants
tombuckleylab.bsky.social
First PhD chapter from student Colleen Mills (not on Bluesky) just appeared in PCE:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Stomatal Response to Temperature Is Enhanced by High Evaporative Demand, Consistent With a Partially Hydraulic Mechanism
Leaf stomata respond to temperature even when the leaf-to-air vapor gradient is held constant, yet the mechanisms for this response are unknown, and may be mediated by increases in hydraulic conducta...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 29, 2025 at 6:35 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱 From The Plant Journal: Comparative gene network analysis reveals conserved and species-specific regulators of nitrogen uptake in maize and sorghum, guiding efforts to improve nutrient efficiency. (Anne-Maarit Bågman, Siobhan M. Brady)
▶️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#PlantBiology
Decoding nitrogen uptake efficiency in maize and sorghum: insights from comparative gene regulatory networks
To decipher the regulatory basis of nitrogen, use efficiency (NUE), we built maize- and sorghum-specific gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Cross-species analyses revealed conserved and species-specifi...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 29, 2025 at 5:07 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🖥️ From ASABE: A two stage machine learning pipeline accurately estimates and forecasts lettuce biomass from RGB images, enabling real time yield prediction in indoor vertical farming. (Shehran Syed, Md Shamim Ahamed, Saeed Karimzadeh, Ken Omwange)

▶️ elibrary.asabe.org/azdez.asp?JI...
#AgEngineering
The flowchart illustrates the proposed two-stage pipeline for real-time biomass prediction and forecasting, where RGB images are processed through a real-time biomass prediction model to generate hourly biomass estimates, which are then combined with the record.
December 26, 2025 at 5:56 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🖥️ From Plant, Cell & Environment: A new psychrometric correction removes humidity-driven bias in LI-600 porometer readings, aligning stomatal conductance estimates with IR gas analysis. (Kyle T. Rizzo, Brian N. Bailey)
▶️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#PlantScience
A Psychrometric Temperature Correction for the Positive Bias Observed in Stomatal Conductance Measured by the Open Flow‐Through LI‐600 Porometer
The study showed that the LI-COR LI-600 porometer systematically overestimates stomatal conductance relative to LI-6800 gas exchange measurements, with the bias increasing at high stomatal conductanc...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 23, 2025 at 5:17 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱From Journal of Heredity: A high-quality genome assembly for flannelbush provides a foundation for studying evolution and conservation. (William T McMahan, Reed Kenny, Mohan P A Marimuthu, Oanh Nguyen, Shannon M Still, Daniel Potter)
▶️ academic.oup.com/jhered/advan...
#PlantScience #PlantGenetics
An adult individual of F. californicum, exhibiting the characteristic upright, shrubby growth habit.
December 22, 2025 at 5:37 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌲From Forest Ecology and Management: Fuel treatments cut fire severity during the Caldor Fire, tripling tree survival, but unmanaged fuel piles increased damage in some treated areas. (Hugh D. Safford, Saba Saberi)
▶️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#PlantScience #Ecology
Fuel treatment effects on fire severity during the Caldor Fire (2021), Lake Tahoe, California, USA
We investigated the effectiveness of forest fuel reduction treatments in mitigating fire severity and reducing tree mortality in wildland urban interf…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:35 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌾From BMC Plant Biology: Transcriptome profiling of Thai rice reveals key genes and pathways driving reproductive stage salt tolerance, offering new markers for breeding resilient varieties. (Isabelle M. Henry, Luca Comai)

▶️ link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#PlantScience #PlantBiology
Transcriptomic analysis of Thai rice varieties at the reproductive stage uncovers potential genetic determinants of salt tolerance - BMC Plant Biology
BMC Plant Biology - Soil salinity represents a major environmental constraint limiting crop productivity and threatening global food security. Previous evaluation of Thai rice varieties under...
link.springer.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:28 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🍇From Weed Technology: Grapevine tolerance to quinclorac varies by rainfall and soil properties, with higher injury risk in wetter sites and low clay or organic matter soils. (Bradley Hanson)
▶️ www.researchgate.net/publication/...
#PlantScience #WeedScience
Representative grapevine responses to quinclorac. Symptoms photographed in New York included (A) cupping and interveinal chlorosis on actively growing shoots, (B) leaflet distortion, and (C) strap-leaf formation. Canopy views from Oregon in 2022 show (D) nontreated vines and (E) vines treated three times in 2021 with quinclorac at 0.84 kg ha−1. In all cases, vines remained vigorous, yielded comparably, and displayed no lasting auxinic injury symptoms. Treatments consisted of either two applications (Timings A þ B: ~90 and ~60 d before harvest) or three applications (Timings A þ B þ C: two in-season plus one post-harvest before frost).
December 18, 2025 at 5:07 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱 From Rhizosphere: Noninvasive geophysical mapping links soil variability to grapevine root architecture and water status, supporting precision irrigation and rootstock selection. (Sam Dudley, Andrew J. McElrone, Megan Bartlett)
▶️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#PlantScience #SoilScience
Fig. 3. ERT profiles showing vertical and horizontal variation of electrical conductivity along Row 11 (a) and Row 12 (b) in the vineyard.
December 17, 2025 at 5:52 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱From NeoBiota: Common garden tests show invasive grasses do not consistently grow faster or reproduce more in new ranges, challenging simple trait based explanations of invasion success. (Jennifer L. Funk)
▶️ neobiota.pensoft.net/article/1628...
#PlantScience
Invasive grasses do not always exhibit superior and faster plant life-history traits in the introduced range than in the native range
Many invasive plants are larger, and produce more seeds in populations from the introduced range compared to those from their native range. Annual invasive plants might also benefit in their introduce...
neobiota.pensoft.net
December 16, 2025 at 7:03 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🧬 From Physiologia Plantarum: Overexpressing PgbHLH94-like boosts shikimate, tannins, and lignin in pomegranate roots, revealing a key regulator of gallic acid derived metabolites. (Li Tian)
▶️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#Genetics #PlantScience
Structures and levels of galloylglucose esters in pomegranate hairy roots overexpressing PgbHLH94-like (OE) and the empty vector (EV) control, as determined by LC–MS/MS (A–E). The structure of each galloylglucose ester was retrieved from the KEGG database. The corresponding KEGG compound IDs are provided below the molecule structure. The values represent normalized peak areas. The results are presented as mean ± SE of three biological repeats of transgenic lines, each with four technical replicates. Statistical significance was calculated using an unpaired Student's t-test (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001).
December 11, 2025 at 5:48 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱 From Crop Science: Reducing water and nitrogen inputs maintained high yields in common bean cultivars, showing that more efficient, sustainable management is achievable in central Chile. (Paul Gepts)
▶️ www.scielo.br/j/sa/a/kc3tV...
Photograph of the grain of the four cultivars evaluated in this study.
December 9, 2025 at 9:10 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
From ESS Open Archive: Genomic and multi-environment analyses show strong, stable predictive power for key rice traits, supporting more efficient breeding in the southern US.
(Mary-Francis LaPorte, Steven Knapp, Daniel Runcie, Christine Diepenbrock)
▶️ essopenarchive.org/users/957295...
#PlantScience
Multi-environment evaluation and genomic prediction of agronomic traits in the southern US rice genepool
The southern US is responsible for 80% of the country’s production of rice, approximately half of which is exported to other countries. Understanding genotypic and environmental factors impacting the ...
essopenarchive.org
December 8, 2025 at 5:17 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🍓From Plant Genome: WGS-BSA revealed a strawberry Fusarium wilt resistance gene, FW7, enabling more effective R-gene pyramiding. (Mishi V. Vachev, M. Bjornson, D. Pincot, R. Famula, H. Brukental, C. Lòpez, G. Cole, M. Feldmann, Steven J. Knapp)
▶️ acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Whole‐genome sequencing bulked segregant analysis uncovered FW7, a Fusarium wilt resistance gene masked by epistasis in octoploid strawberry
The resistance of the heirloom cultivar Earliglow to Fusarium wilt race 1 is conferred by a dominant gene on chromosome 2B (FW6) and a nearly additive gene on chromosome 2A (FW7). The effect of FW7 ...
acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:23 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌳 From Planta: Advances in tissue culture, genome editing, and AI are accelerating Persian walnut propagation, improving efficiency and expanding breeding potential. (Charles A. Leslie, Abhaya M. Dandekar)
▶️ link.springer.com/article/10.1...
#PlantScience
Advancements in Persian walnut tissue culture and genetic engineering: bridging traditional methods with modern biotechnology - Planta
Main conclusion This review summarizes major advances in Persian walnut biotechnology, emphasizing progress in propagation, somatic embryogenesis, genome editing, and computational tools while outlini...
link.springer.com
December 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱From npj sustainable agriculture: Crop diversification in rice systems can raise long-term profits, but only when paired with incentives that offset added costs, risk, and market barriers.
(Sara Rosenberg, Bruce Linquist, Cameron M. Pittelkow, Kassim Al-Khatib)
▶️ www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Addressing economic barriers to crop diversification in rice-based cropping systems - npj Sustainable Agriculture
npj Sustainable Agriculture - Addressing economic barriers to crop diversification in rice-based cropping systems
www.nature.com
December 3, 2025 at 6:12 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🍅From American Journal of Agricultural Economics: Heat during transit raises tomato damage, especially when paired with heavy traffic. High-resolution data show climate-driven postharvest losses remain small overall. (Timothy K. M. Beatty)

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

#AgEconomics
Cumulative distribution of truckload observations across observed temperatures (2011–2020) and projected temperatures at midcentury (2040–2049) and end of century (2090–2099) under SSP3-7.0. Each line shows the cumulative distribution function of temperature observations. The thick lines show the median distribution for a particular period (observed, midcentury, or end of century). The thin lines show the distribution for a particular year, and for projected temperatures, they show the distribution for a combination of a particular year and climate model—EC-Earth3, EC-Earth3-Veg, MIROC6, or TaiESM1.
December 2, 2025 at 8:03 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
From Journal of Chromatography Open: New HPLC-UV work shows a simple 60-min extraction can accurately quantify capsaicin in chili peppers, with dry peppers yielding far better recovery.
(J. Heinrich Lieth)
▶️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#PlantScience
Development of simplified method for the detection of Capsaicin using High Performance Liquid Chromatography
Peppers are widely used for their pungency, and Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) is often used to measure the pungency of the peppers caused by compounds call…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 1, 2025 at 10:21 PM
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🚜 From UC Davis: How UC Davis Research is Engineering Solutions for Harvest Automation and Safety (Stavros Vougioukas)
▶️ engineering.ucdavis.edu/news/stavros...
Stavros Vougioukas on the Future of Farm Robotics
As California's agricultural sector adopts automation to manage costs, labor shortages and production risks, researchers at UC Davis are partnering with them to develop solutions that can make a real ...
engineering.ucdavis.edu
November 26, 2025 at 9:25 PM