Björn Usadel
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usadellab.bsky.social
Björn Usadel
@usadellab.bsky.social
800 followers 600 following 93 posts
Plant Omics, Machine Learning, Genomics, Tools, Data Managment
Labs in Forschungszentrum Jülich and HHU Düsseldorf Uni
https://www.fz-juelich.de/en/ibg/ibg-4
https://www.biological-data-science.hhu.de/en/biological-data-science
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Björn Usadel
charlieunderwood.bsky.social
For some years we have been working on wild relatives of cultivated tomato including the green-fruited Solanum pennellii and orange-fruited Solanum cheesmaniae. These species, and other wild tomatoes, are genetically diverse and used in breeding to improve the cultivated tomato.
December 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
ipbhalle.bsky.social
3rd Early Career Plant Researcher Network Meeting

Calling experienced PhD students & postdocs with a passion for plant research. Present your work, connect with peers and discuss the key steps toward building an independent research career.

Apply by 23 Jan 2026
Details: www.plant-ecr-networking.eu
December 19, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
marischuster.bsky.social
Dear Plant ECRs, don't miss this wonderful opportunity!
saschalaubinger.bsky.social Sascha Laubinger @saschalaubinger.bsky.social · 10d
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 Björn Usadel
plantteaching.bsky.social
Lichen and moss are brilliant 👇💚
dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 11d
A THREAD, which I am calling 'Some Of The Many Reasons Lichen And Moss Are Fucking Brilliant'.

1. They make public seating super comfy.

bsky.app/profile/dj-a...
dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · Nov 19
There are over 18,000 types of lichen in existence. My personal favourite is ‘village bench lichen’, which devotes its entire existence selflessly to gradually making communal public seating more furry and comfortable.
December 19, 2025 at 9:49 AM
usadellab.bsky.social
Are you interested in @ceplas.bsky.social single cell data and spatial transcriptomic data analysis and inference? Then apply for this PhD position in our graduate school HDS-LEE in my group co-supervised by Prof Assent. www.fz-juelich.de/en/careers/j.... For questions don't hesitate to contact me.
PhD position - Co-regulation structures for large-scale single-cell transcriptomics - within the HDS-LEE graduate school
The Bioinformatics Division of the Institute of Biological and Geosciences (IBG-4) processes and develops methods and algorithms to achieve a fundamental understanding of high-dimensional data and pro...
www.fz-juelich.de
December 19, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
yvonnestahl.bsky.social
🚨JOB ALERT!
We’re hiring a Head of the new Imaging Facility at Goethe University Frankfurt. You’ll support researchers across disciplines, train users, and help enable cutting-edge science with high-end microscopy platforms.
tinygu.de/TknxZ
If facility-building + imaging is your thing, please apply!
December 19, 2025 at 7:26 AM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
fz-juelich.de
Sie ist lila, manchmal weiß, manchmal stachelig: die Aubergine.
Erstmals haben Forschende eine Übersicht über Gene und wichtige Eigenschaften erstellt – basierend auf 3.400 Sorten. 🧬 Das ebnet den Weg für robustere Sorten und hilft, Erträge zu sichern. 🌾🌡️
👉 www.fz-juelich.de/de/aktuelles...
December 17, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
thevirusmc.bsky.social
We are looking far and wide for this position! So if you are motivated, interested in academia, and want to explore the world of plant-virus interaction, we are ALSO happy to host you for a PhD! More detail below🔽☘️🦠
December 16, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
ottlab.bsky.social
Happy to share our latest paper: The symbiosome space needs to be continuously cleared from demethylated pectins to keep rhizobia happy. Former PostDoc Chao Su took this story with him when moving back to China and finished it off.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#PlantScience; @uni-freiburg.de
Symbiosome functionality in Medicago truncatula nodules requires continuous clearing of pectins from the symbiosome space - Nature Communications
Here a mechanism for nitrogen fixation maintenance is identified in Medicago truncatula where two polygalacturoneases are expressed in nodules and secreted into the symbiosome space for clearing of ex...
www.nature.com
December 14, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
reskilab.bsky.social
Professorship Plant Physiology. Kaiserslautern, Germany.
#PlantSciJobs #plantscijob
www.academics.de/jobs/w2-prof...
W2-Professur für Pflanzenphysiologie (m/w/d) - Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU)
Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU) bietet Stelle als W2-Professur für Pflanzenphysiologie (m/w/d) in Kaiserslautern - jetzt bewerben!
www.academics.de
December 11, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
reskilab.bsky.social
Professorship Stress resilience of plants. Aachen, Germany.
#PlantSciJobs #plantscijob
www.academics.de/jobs/w3-univ...
W3-Universitätsprofessur Stressresilienz von Pflanzen - RWTH Aachen University
RWTH Aachen University bietet Stelle als W3-Universitätsprofessur Stressresilienz von Pflanzen in Aachen - jetzt bewerben!
www.academics.de
December 11, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
reskilab.bsky.social
Professorship for Functional and 3D Modeling of Plants. Bonn, Germany.
#PlantSciJobs #plantscijob
www.academics.de/jobs/w3-prof...
W3 Professorship for Functional and 3D Modeling of Plants - Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn - Landwirtschaftliche Fakultät
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn - Landwirtschaftliche Fakultät bietet Stelle als W3 Professorship for Functional and 3D Modeling of Plants in Bonn - jetzt bewerben!
www.academics.de
December 11, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
kamounlab.bsky.social
Congrats Agnieszka Golics, New @WageningenUR Chair in Plant Breeding:

‘The tech revolution is boosting crop improvement’

www.wur.nl/en/news/new-...
New WUR Chair in Plant Breeding: ‘The tech revolution is boosting crop improvement’
Professor Agnieszka Golics will join Wageningen University & Research (WUR) on 1 March 2026 as Professor and new Chair of the Plant Breeding group. With her background in cutting-edge plant breeding t...
www.wur.nl
December 9, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
denbi.bsky.social
🚀 Big news in genome annotation! The latest Nature Methods paper presents Helixer. Developed as part of the @denbi.bsky.social infrastructure, Helixer makes high-quality genome annotations more accessible and efficient for the community.
🔗 nature.com/articles/s41592-025-02939-1
Helixer: ab initio prediction of primary eukaryotic gene models combining deep learning and a hidden Markov model - Nature Methods
By leveraging both deep learning and hidden Markov models, Helixer achieves broad taxonomic coverage for ab initio gene annotation of eukaryotic genomes from fungi, plants, vertebrates and invertebrat...
www.nature.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
maddyseale.bsky.social
Out in @science.org this week:
PME5 is sequestered in the nucleus and released during cytokinesis allowing its activity to be timed with cell division.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#PlantScience
#PlantSci
Cell wall patterning regulates plant stem cell dynamics
The plant cell wall regulates development through spatiotemporal modulation of its chemical and mechanical properties. Pectin methylesterification is recognized as a rheological switch controlling wal...
www.science.org
December 5, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
natmethods.nature.com
Helixer: a tool for ab initio gene annotation with broad taxonomic coverage. @usadellab.bsky.social @apmweber.bsky.social @weberlab.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Helixer: ab initio prediction of primary eukaryotic gene models combining deep learning and a hidden Markov model - Nature Methods
By leveraging both deep learning and hidden Markov models, Helixer achieves broad taxonomic coverage for ab initio gene annotation of eukaryotic genomes from fungi, plants, vertebrates and invertebrat...
www.nature.com
December 3, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
jxbotany.bsky.social
🧬🍅 SPECIAL ISSUE REVIEW 🍅🧬

Recent breakthroughs in genome sequencing have transformed tomato research, unlocking key wild germplasm traits 🌍
Rose et al. outline how these well-characterized genetic resources can be used to improve tomato research 🔬

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...
#PlantScience 🧪
Fig. 1.Current stage of tomato and wild relative genome sequencing.
December 3, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
somssich.bsky.social
We are looking for a Head of Cell Biology here at @kwsgroup.bsky.social Vegetables.

This is a permanent, full-time position located in Wageningen, Netherlands.

jobs.kws.com/job/Wagening...

#PlantScience #PlantSciJobs #PlantScienceJobs #PlantCellBiology #PlantBreeding #PlantSciJob #PlantScienceJob
Head of Cell Biology KWS Vegetables
Head of Cell Biology KWS Vegetables
jobs.kws.com
December 1, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
jxbotany.bsky.social
📝 SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORIAL 📝

🍅 Tomato 🍅

🔎 Guest editors Gibon, Beckles, Osorio & Ezura dive into the reviews, technical innovations and original research articles in this special issue that address the major challenges facing the tomato industry 🍅

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪
Ripe tomato fruit on its truss (credit: Marine Honoré).
December 1, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
reskilab.bsky.social
Junior Professorship Plastid Homeostasis. Kaiserslautern, Germany.
#plantscijobs #plantscijob
www.academics.de/jobs/w1-juni...
W1-Juniorprofessur für Plastidäre Homöostase (m/w/d) - Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU)
Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU) bietet Stelle als W1-Juniorprofessur für Plastidäre Homöostase (m/w/d) in Kaiserslautern - jetzt bewerben!
www.academics.de
November 27, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
reskilab.bsky.social
Professorship Plant Physiology. Kaiserslautern, Germany
#plantscijobs #plantscijob
www.academics.de/jobs/w2-prof...
W2-Professur für Pflanzenphysiologie (m/w/d) - Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU)
Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU) bietet Stelle als W2-Professur für Pflanzenphysiologie (m/w/d) in Kaiserslautern - jetzt bewerben!
www.academics.de
November 27, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
apmweber.bsky.social
AI model Helixer predicts eukaryotic genes ab initio, directly from a plain text FASTA file.

No RNA-seq.
No protein homology.
No repeats, hints, or curated evidence.

Raw genome → accurate gene models.
Deep learning + HMM, published in @natmethods.nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Helixer: ab initio prediction of primary eukaryotic gene models combining deep learning and a hidden Markov model - Nature Methods
By leveraging both deep learning and hidden Markov models, Helixer achieves broad taxonomic coverage for ab initio gene annotation of eukaryotic genomes from fungi, plants, vertebrates and invertebrat...
www.nature.com
November 26, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
apmweber.bsky.social
Performance approaches data-supported references across plants, fungi, vertebrates, and invertebrates.

Inference is fast: human genome in <9 h on a single GPU.

@alisandra-denton.bsky.social
@usadellab.bsky.social
@sebtriesch.bsky.social
@weberlab.bsky.social
November 26, 2025 at 6:05 AM
Reposted by Björn Usadel
maddyseale.bsky.social
And now we have Arabidopsis plants with 8 chromosomes instead of 10 and no obvious phenotypic differences, this week in @science.org
#PlantScience
Paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Perspective here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
CRISPR-Cas–mediated heritable chromosome fusions in Arabidopsis
The genome of Arabidopsis thaliana consists of 10 chromosomes. By inducing CRISPR-Cas–mediated breaks at subcentromeric and subtelomeric sequences, we fused entire chromosome arms, obtaining two eight...
www.science.org
November 21, 2025 at 10:20 AM
usadellab.bsky.social
Tomorrow Luciana Gaccione from Lorenzo Barchi's lab will explain on our @nanoporetech.com day at HHU Düsseldorf, how to turn what we sequenced with 9.41 technology (!) into a high quality pangenome. If you can't make it, read all about it here as well: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Graph-based pangenomes and pan-phenome provide a cornerstone for eggplant biology and breeding - Nature Communications
Eggplants are important vegetables worldwide. Here, the authors report 40 genome assemblies of Solanum melongena, its progenitor S. insanum and the allied species S. incanum to construct two pangenome...
www.nature.com
November 18, 2025 at 11:23 AM