Peter van Dijk
@peter-van-dijk.bsky.social
Distinguished scientist at KeyGene. Interested in plant breeding systems and the early history of genetics
RIP James Watson (1928–2025). Co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, and a complicated legacy. Crick and Watson first shared the news at The Eagle pub in Cambridge, home of “DNA ale.”
November 9, 2025 at 10:42 AM
RIP James Watson (1928–2025). Co-discoverer of the DNA double helix, and a complicated legacy. Crick and Watson first shared the news at The Eagle pub in Cambridge, home of “DNA ale.”
A new bioRxiv preprint reports that a team from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has synthesised fully penetrant apomictic hybrid rice — a potential game changer for breeding.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#Apomixis #HybridRice #PlantBreeding #Agriculture
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#Apomixis #HybridRice #PlantBreeding #Agriculture
October 21, 2025 at 10:58 AM
A new bioRxiv preprint reports that a team from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has synthesised fully penetrant apomictic hybrid rice — a potential game changer for breeding.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#Apomixis #HybridRice #PlantBreeding #Agriculture
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
#Apomixis #HybridRice #PlantBreeding #Agriculture
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
🌱 Help secure the future of the Biodiversity Heritage Library! 🙏
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🔗 Donate: ancrywkv.donorsupport.co/page/BHLDona...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL
Your donation will keep biodiversity knowledge open, connected, and growing, and fund the dedicated staff who make it all possible. 📖 👩💻 🌱 🌏 🧪
🔗 Donate: ancrywkv.donorsupport.co/page/BHLDona...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL
October 18, 2025 at 1:05 AM
🌱 Help secure the future of the Biodiversity Heritage Library! 🙏
Your donation will keep biodiversity knowledge open, connected, and growing, and fund the dedicated staff who make it all possible. 📖 👩💻 🌱 🌏 🧪
🔗 Donate: ancrywkv.donorsupport.co/page/BHLDona...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL
Your donation will keep biodiversity knowledge open, connected, and growing, and fund the dedicated staff who make it all possible. 📖 👩💻 🌱 🌏 🧪
🔗 Donate: ancrywkv.donorsupport.co/page/BHLDona...
#BHLTransition #ILoveBHL
Just returned from the Apomixis Congress in Montpellier. #Apomixis, clonal seeds, allows one-step fixation of genetically complex traits, including heterosis. So exciting to see the progress. The next apomixis meeting will be in two years in Perugia. Curious to see where the science will be by then.
September 20, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Just returned from the Apomixis Congress in Montpellier. #Apomixis, clonal seeds, allows one-step fixation of genetically complex traits, including heterosis. So exciting to see the progress. The next apomixis meeting will be in two years in Perugia. Curious to see where the science will be by then.
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
Looking forward to discuss latest results on Apomixis at the 5th international Apomixis conference in Montpellier this week: www.alphavisa.com/apomixis/2025/
September 16, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Looking forward to discuss latest results on Apomixis at the 5th international Apomixis conference in Montpellier this week: www.alphavisa.com/apomixis/2025/
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
The Meselson and Stahl experiment demonstrated in 1958 that DNA replicated semi-conservatively.
Meaning, each of the two strands of DNA serves as a template for a new copy to made of the complementary strand.
Foundational finding, elegant experimental design.
Meaning, each of the two strands of DNA serves as a template for a new copy to made of the complementary strand.
Foundational finding, elegant experimental design.
July 8, 2025 at 1:49 AM
The Meselson and Stahl experiment demonstrated in 1958 that DNA replicated semi-conservatively.
Meaning, each of the two strands of DNA serves as a template for a new copy to made of the complementary strand.
Foundational finding, elegant experimental design.
Meaning, each of the two strands of DNA serves as a template for a new copy to made of the complementary strand.
Foundational finding, elegant experimental design.
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
@keygene.com is hiring, for its research team in the USA, an experienced and passionate PhD-level scientist who will support plant innovation research at the interface of plant breeding & molecular biology.
Working autonomously and in changing project teams.
www.keygene.com/career/phd-s...
Working autonomously and in changing project teams.
www.keygene.com/career/phd-s...
July 1, 2025 at 12:18 PM
@keygene.com is hiring, for its research team in the USA, an experienced and passionate PhD-level scientist who will support plant innovation research at the interface of plant breeding & molecular biology.
Working autonomously and in changing project teams.
www.keygene.com/career/phd-s...
Working autonomously and in changing project teams.
www.keygene.com/career/phd-s...
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
📢 The #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary is entering a bold new chapter – and we need your help! Today we release our official Call for Support. We’re seeking new hosts for BHL’s staff, infrastructure, and services. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL
June 11, 2025 at 5:05 PM
📢 The #BiodiversityHeritageLibrary is entering a bold new chapter – and we need your help! Today we release our official Call for Support. We’re seeking new hosts for BHL’s staff, infrastructure, and services. Learn more: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/06/tran... #BHLTransition #ILoveBHL
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
Researchers pinpoint the genes responsible for the final three pea traits studied by Gregor Mendel more than 160 years ago
https://go.nature.com/3EC3eqT
https://go.nature.com/3EC3eqT
Century-old genetics mystery of Mendel’s peas finally solved
Researchers pinpoint the genes responsible for the final three pea traits studied by the famed citizen scientist.
go.nature.com
April 23, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Researchers pinpoint the genes responsible for the final three pea traits studied by Gregor Mendel more than 160 years ago
https://go.nature.com/3EC3eqT
https://go.nature.com/3EC3eqT
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
New genomic & genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes, including previously uncharacterised alleles
159 years after Mendel published his work, this is a real delight (especially for a geneticist)
🧪
@nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
159 years after Mendel published his work, this is a real delight (especially for a geneticist)
🧪
@nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genomic and genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes - Nature
Characterization of the genetic architecture underlying the 7 pairs of contrasting traits studied by Mendel and the over 70 additional agronomic traits in pea (Pisum sativum) reveals their m...
www.nature.com
April 24, 2025 at 5:38 AM
New genomic & genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes, including previously uncharacterised alleles
159 years after Mendel published his work, this is a real delight (especially for a geneticist)
🧪
@nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
159 years after Mendel published his work, this is a real delight (especially for a geneticist)
🧪
@nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Bringing together the three giants of 19th-century biology with ChatGPT: Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and Louis Pasteur. Of them, Mendel remains the most enigmatic. Noel Ellis and I are writing a new book exploring his legacy: Mendel’s Genetics: Heredity, Hybrids and History. Expected early 2026.
April 11, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Bringing together the three giants of 19th-century biology with ChatGPT: Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, and Louis Pasteur. Of them, Mendel remains the most enigmatic. Noel Ellis and I are writing a new book exploring his legacy: Mendel’s Genetics: Heredity, Hybrids and History. Expected early 2026.
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
🧪 I know it sounds like a cliché but I am TRULY AND UTTERLY THRILLED that this work from my postdoc at #unimi is out. SPL/NZZ is a very important gene (it initiates sporogenesis) but a very mysterious one. 🧵
1/8
1/8
SPOROCYTELESS/NOZZLE acts together with MADS-domain transcription factors to regulate an auxin-dependent network controlling the Megaspore Mother Cell development https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.11.641985v1
March 14, 2025 at 8:05 AM
🧪 I know it sounds like a cliché but I am TRULY AND UTTERLY THRILLED that this work from my postdoc at #unimi is out. SPL/NZZ is a very important gene (it initiates sporogenesis) but a very mysterious one. 🧵
1/8
1/8
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
USDA scientists terminated from Cereal Disease Lab in St. Paul www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...
Experts foresee negative ripple effects in termination of USDA scientists in St. Paul lab
A team at the U.S Department of Agriculture’s Cereal Disease Lab in St. Paul got notice last week that some of their jobs were getting cut. Experts warn that cutting jobs in this area will harm resear...
www.mprnews.org
February 23, 2025 at 12:07 PM
USDA scientists terminated from Cereal Disease Lab in St. Paul www.mprnews.org/story/2025/0...
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
Dr. Justine Beaulieu is an excellent Agricultural Scientist who was serving our country evaluating risk for importing plant material into the US.
She was illegally fired in Musk's purge just days before giving birth.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/vid...
She was illegally fired in Musk's purge just days before giving birth.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/vid...
Video Former USDA employee terminated days before her due date
Justine Beaulieu was impacted by the Trump layoffs days before she was due to give birth, losing her maternity leave and her health insurance in limbo.
abcnews.go.com
February 23, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Dr. Justine Beaulieu is an excellent Agricultural Scientist who was serving our country evaluating risk for importing plant material into the US.
She was illegally fired in Musk's purge just days before giving birth.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/vid...
She was illegally fired in Musk's purge just days before giving birth.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/vid...
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
Our new review article “To infinity and beyond: recent progress, bottlenecks, and potential of clonal seeds by apomixis” is now published open access in @theplantjournal.bsky.social
dx.doi.org/10.1111/tpj.... @ribesresearch.bsky.social
dx.doi.org/10.1111/tpj.... @ribesresearch.bsky.social
February 21, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Our new review article “To infinity and beyond: recent progress, bottlenecks, and potential of clonal seeds by apomixis” is now published open access in @theplantjournal.bsky.social
dx.doi.org/10.1111/tpj.... @ribesresearch.bsky.social
dx.doi.org/10.1111/tpj.... @ribesresearch.bsky.social
Reposted by Peter van Dijk
I’m an NSF panel reviewer that was scheduled to meet today. Just got notice that all NSF panels were canceled today. I reviewed some innovative proposals in support of students. Devastating if these scholars don’t get to do this work. For the love of science & students I hope this is just a delay.💔
January 27, 2025 at 2:45 PM
I’m an NSF panel reviewer that was scheduled to meet today. Just got notice that all NSF panels were canceled today. I reviewed some innovative proposals in support of students. Devastating if these scholars don’t get to do this work. For the love of science & students I hope this is just a delay.💔
Today, Noel Ellis and I submitted the manuscript for our 2025 book Mendel’s Genetics: Hybrids, Heredity, and History to the publisher. Biological insights and new historical sources deepen our understanding of Gregor Mendel in his time.
November 25, 2024 at 11:08 AM
Today, Noel Ellis and I submitted the manuscript for our 2025 book Mendel’s Genetics: Hybrids, Heredity, and History to the publisher. Biological insights and new historical sources deepen our understanding of Gregor Mendel in his time.