Conchi Manzano

An AINTEGUMENTA phosphoswitch controls bilateral stem cell activity during secondary growth | PNAS Plant stem cells have the remarkable ability to give rise to distinct tissues and organs throughout development. Two concentric cylinders of active...

It’s finally out! 🎉
Work led by former PhD student @wei-xiao-botany.bsky.social , in collaboration with @bayerlab.bsky.social and @bertderybel.bsky.social
AINTEGUMENTA phospho-switch regulates bilateral stem cell activity during secondary growth.

🔗 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

#PlantSciences

Fig. 2 (shortened, full legend in paper): Perturbations of SlMYB41, SlMYB92, and SlWRKY71 expression affect the suberization of tomato exodermis. (A) Percentage of cross-sections showing a non-suberized, an early suberized (suberin in <50% of exodermal cells), or a late suberized (suberin in >50% of exodermal cells) exodermis phenotype in hairy root cultures of the control (empty vector), CRISPR knockout lines [Slmyb41-ko, Slmyb92-ko, Slwrky71-ko(4), and Slwrky71-ko(5)], and overexpressing lines (SlMYB41-OX, SlMYB92-OX, and SlWRKY71-OX). The number above the bars represents the number (n) of individual roots examined in each genotype. Asterisks denotes statistically significant differences between each line in comparison with the empty vector control, whereas n.s. indicates no significant differences (P<0.05, χ2 test).

🧬 🍅 SPECIAL ISSUE RESEARCH 🍅 🧬

MYB and WRKY transcription factors collaboratively regulate suberin biosynthesis in the tomato root exodermis. Antagonistic interactions may fine-tune suberization or act as a brake on overaccumulation - Jo et al.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪

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...

CRISPR-Cas–mediated heritable chromosome fusions in Arabidopsis | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Very nice work from Holger Puchta & colleagues

Happy to see this paper from my time with @spicybotrytis.bsky.social out in @theplantcell.bsky.social!

Amanda, a fantastic PhD student with Dan, led this "phylo-functional" work & uncovered complex duplication & loss of a glucosinolate gene across the Brassicaceae affecting enantiomeric specificity

Please share & RSVP to join the November 25th webinar!
Hear from the 2025 Philip N. Benfey Arabidopsis Community Lifetime Achievement Awardees! bit.ly/naascawards
@plantevolution.bsky.social

Fresh from the press! For suberin lovers!
Work led by @, my former PhD student and now postdoc in the team, with help of @sarahorvath.bsky.social and in collaboration with @tonnigrubeandersen.bsky.social .
🔗 DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...
1/4 #PlantScience

Conservation and divergence of regulatory architecture in nitrate-responsive plant gene circuits Gene circuits that control transcriptional regulation of nitrate-responses have similarities and differences, despite the equivalent effects of nitrogen on

At long last, our paper on conservation and divergence of a nitrogen circuit upstream of NLP6/7 &NIR1 in Arabidopsis and tomato is published! It's an exciting combo of whole plant, in vitro, protoplast and systems bio approaches: tinyurl.com/nitrogencirc... @gozdedemirel.bsky.social

Conservation and divergence of regulatory architecture in nitrate-responsive plant gene circuits Gene circuits that control transcriptional regulation of nitrate-responses have similarities and differences, despite the equivalent effects of nitrogen on

Excited that our paper with @bradylabs.bsky.social on conservation and divergence in nitrogen regulatory networks is finally published. This was a fun & rewarding collaboration that will continue in new projects to engineer 🍅 N responses academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...

Plants monitor the integrity of their barrier by sensing gas diffusion - Nature A study using Arabidopsis shows that plants can monitor the integrity of their outer barriers by sensing gas diffusion, enabling them to initiate wound repair to prevent water loss and pathogen entry.

How plants sense injury in their barrier tissue, periderm? Painstakingly detailed and amazing work by post doc Hiroyuki Iida shows that wounding is sensed by the diffusion of two gases: ethylene and oxygen. @treebiocoe.bsky.social‬ @erc.europa.eu‬ 1/x 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Joaquín delivering a mental award lecture.

Terrific rallying cry of an @socdevbio.bsky.social award lecture from @mads100tist.bsky.social at #icdb2025! Our work and community are important, #DevBio matters, and it’s up to us to tell everyone why. Don’t give the enshittifiers an inch!

MYB68 regulates radial endodermal differentiation and suberin patterning In this study, Kraska et al. identify MYB68 as a novel regulator of endodermal suberization, linked to the formation of distinct identities in the xylem-pole-associated endodermis. The research uncove...

Time for another paper from our lab!
This time it’s about passage cells. This work originated from a collaboration with @lauraragni.bsky.social and was spearheaded by the super-talented @leoniekraska.bsky.social Below you will find a thread that explains our findings.
www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Our work on MYBs and WRKY regulating suberin in tomato exodermis is now out in @jxbotany.bsky.social!

🍅 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

👩‍🔬 @leonardojo.bsky.social @riannekluck.bsky.social @marianasartur.bsky.social Sara Buti, Alex Cantó-Pastor @bradylabs.bsky.social

🌱 #PlantScience

Thrilled to see our work now online @nature.com
This study reveals how individual root cells sense and respond to real, compacted soil environments.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

beautiful spatial transcritomics of rice root in gel & soil conditions and huge credit to Mingyuan and colleagues.

Spatial transcriptomic imaging of an intact organism using volumetric DNA microscopy - Nature Biotechnology Volumetric DNA microscopy captures spatial information of RNA within an intact organism.

Spatial transcriptomic imaging of an intact organism using volumetric DNA microscopy www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Yaaay!!! Congratulations!!!

Apoplastic barriers are essential for nodule formation and nitrogen fixation in Lotus japonicus Establishment of the apoplastic root barrier known as the Casparian strip occurs early in root development. In legumes, this area overlaps with nitrogen-fixing nodule formation, which raises the possi...

Finally!
Im so excited to present to culmination of many years of work from the fantastic Defeng Shen and some great collaborators. For details, I have made a digested thread below, but if you are more interested feel free to reach out (and read the paper of course).
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

TIR1-produced cAMP as a second messenger in transcriptional auxin signalling - Nature cAMP produced by the TIR1/AFB receptors of the main endogenous developmental plant hormone auxin acts as a true second messenger, revising the established paradigm of transcriptional auxin signalling.

and we thought auxin signalling was "kind of solved"..

TIR1-produced cAMP is essential for auxin response (in Arabidopsis thaliana) 🔽

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are hiring! Are you interested in lateral root development and the cellular processes that accommodate these newly formed organs? If yes, apply! We are recruiting a Post-doc (from May 2025) and a PhD student (from September 2025).
www.unine.ch/lbmc/jobs/

I am really proud to share our study on microbes, Striga and sorghum is now online in Cell Reports! doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... and the press release is here: biology.ucdavis.edu/news/soil-mi... This was an epic effort led by the incredible Dorota Kawa, +B. Thiombiano, H. Bouwmeester, J. Raiijmakers...

I am so excited to share Dr. C Manzano’s work: she demonstrates the developmental timeline, function and genetic regulation of the polar lignin cap in the tomato root. It functions as a distinct intercellular barrier from the Casparian strip and is repressed in inner layers. rdcu.be/d10Pd