How do plants control the genes needed for successful sexual reproduction? Our new work uncovers the DREAM complex as a crucial regulator of meiotic recombination in Arabidopsis. Without DREAM, plants are sterile—key recombination genes like MER3 are switched off...

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...

Happy lab reunion over Italian cross-over dinner with Chao Yang from Huazhong Agri Uni 🇨🇳—in town to share insights on meiotic recombination in rapeseed 🌱.

7 nations, 1 table. Science unites 🌍💬 #ScienceCommunity #LabLife

In WT plants, expansion microscopy with spindle immunolabeling showed microtubule connections between spindle poles and the apicobasal cortex.

The identification of the very conserved CTF18, SGO2 and SPF2 as suppressors of centromere-proximal crossovers highlights the importance of cohesin turnover in this process and opens up new possibilities for plant breeding. Much more in the paper : www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

After 12 years…

In 2014, a wild idea was born: to follow female meiosis in Arabidopsis in real time. After many trials (including experiments with quirky mutants where female organs developed inside out, and a few other unconventional ideas), we switched gears to image the male side.

Second: Some new findings about chromosome segregation in Arabidopsis!

We’ve characterized TITAN9 (TTN9), a distant Csm1-like protein in Arabidopsis. Proteomics revealed TTN9 associates with multiple kinetochore components, including DSN1.

First up: understanding how plants defend themselves against heat stress. Our recent Science Advances paper shows that the meiotic cyclin TAM localizes to stress granules—special biomolecular condensates—during meiosis.

We’ve been a bit quiet here due to the climate around social media in politics. But behind the scenes, we’ve made some exciting progress and are happy to share several new papers!

Happy lunar year!

Celebrating with our team the year of the...

Here, an open PhD position to study the structure and dynamics of bimolecular condensates in plant cells by Cryo-EM and super resolution microscopy.

Please spread the word.

www.uni-hamburg.de/stellenangeb...

#plantscience

Getting ready for the winter term - the calm before the storm...

Here, a job advert for junior group leader position in Molecular Biology of Plants, especially with focus on cell division, cell cycle, chromosomes and DNA repair.

Please spread the word.

stellen.uni-hamburg.de/jobposting/d...

To start with, and perhaps as a sign for a new beginning, some picts from yesterday’s polar light magic over Hamburg.

The Schnittger lab is located in Hamburg/Germany and represents an international team of cell biologists, molecular biologists, and biochemists investigating the cell cycle, meiosis and DNA damage in plants. Here, we will post the latest information from and about the lab.

The Schnittger lab is happy to join BlueSky. We just re-located from the former twitter platform that became unbearable for us to support due to the homophobic, unsocial and democracy-threatening behavior of its new owner.