Cecilia Blikstad

This odd little plant could help turbocharge crop yields. An international team of researchers has uncovered a remarkable molecular trick used by a unique group of land plants called hornworts, one… ... This odd little plant could help turbocharge crop yields. An international team of researchers has uncovered a remarkable molecular trick used by a unique group of land plants called hornworts, one t...

www.linkedin.com/posts/this-o...

An unconventional Rubisco small subunit underpins the CO2-concentrating organelle in land plants In many algae, photosynthesis is boosted by biophysical CO2-concentrating mechanisms, which pack the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco into liquid-like organelles called pyrenoids. Engineering C3 crops with a...

Our work on #hornwort #pyrenoids is finally out in @science.org! 🎉 We uncovered how hornworts pack their Rubisco into pyrenoids and successfully recreated them in Arabidopsis. A key step toward engineering more efficient photosynthesis in crops @btiscience.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

[CO2] Alters Cyanobacterial Carboxysome Encapsulation and Redox State www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-4...

🍃🎤🍃 Speaker announcement 🍃🎤🍃

Its that time again... introducing our next set of Invited Speakers for Photosynthesis 2026 🌱

🌿 Join us in Liverpool this July 🌿
⏰️ Abstract submission for oral presentations closes 31st March

Find out more 👉 photosynthesis2026.com

#plantscience #ICPR26
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🍃 Invited Speakers 🍃 photosynthesis2026.com

Biophysical CO2-concentrating mechanisms
🌿 Martin Jonikas, Princeton University
🌿 Cecilia Blikstad, Uppsala University

@mjonikas.bsky.social @cblikstad.bsky.social
#ICPR26 #photosynthesis

[CO2] Alters Cyanobacterial Carboxysome Encapsulation and Redox State www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-4...

[CO2] Alters Cyanobacterial Carboxysome Encapsulation and Redox State

www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-4...

Come join us in Liverpool this summer!

🍃🎤🍃 Speaker announcement 🍃🎤🍃

Photosynthesis 2026 will feature 20+ concurrent sessions - today we're happy to introduce the first set of invited speakers!

🌿 Join them in Liverpool, 26- 30th July 🌿
Register now 👉 photosynthesis2026.com

#plantscience #ICPR26 #photosynthesis
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A little protein with a big role in building Earth's carbon fixing machinery An international team of scientists has discovered that a small, low-abundance protein plays a surprisingly big role in assembling carboxysomes—specialized bacterial microcompartments that enable efficient carbon fixation and underpin much of life on Earth.

A small, low-abundance protein has been identified as essential for assembling carboxysomes, key bacterial structures that enhance carbon fixation and underpin global photosynthetic efficiency. doi.org/hbn967

Congrats everyone! It looks great 🤩

Stages of biomolecular condensate formation in pro-β-carboxysome assembly - Nature Plants Carboxysomes are cyanobacterial CO2-concentrating compartments with a proteinaceous shell. The elucidation of the role of the shell adaptor protein ApN in stepwise β-carboxysome assembly will aid the ...

Stages of biomolecular condensate formation in pro-β-carboxysome assembly www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Stages of biomolecular condensate formation in pro-β-carboxysome assembly - Nature Plants Carboxysomes are cyanobacterial CO2-concentrating compartments with a proteinaceous shell. The elucidation of the role of the shell adaptor protein ApN in stepwise β-carboxysome assembly will aid the ...

The new publication "Stages of biomolecular condensate formation in pro-β-carboxysome assembly" from the Manajit Hayer-Hartl team is out at Nature Plants!

❕ Publication: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Rubisco #carboxysome #cyanobacteria

Great fun working with Manajit Hayer-Hartl and her amazing team at @mpibiochem.bsky.social bringing this work on the beta-carboxyome protein ApN (CcmN) together.

Functional characterisation of bicarbonate transporters from the cyanobacterial SbtA2 family and subsequent expression in tobacco Abstract. Cyanobacteria rely on bicarbonate (HCO3-) as the primary inorganic carbon (Ci) source for photosynthesis in aquatic environments. To use this Ci

Functional characterisation of bicarbonate transporters from the cyanobacterial SbtA2 family and subsequent expression in tobacco academic.oup.com/jxb/article/... @jxbotany.bsky.social

Announcement for photosynthesis 2026 Keynotes and Plenaries featuring black and white pictures of 12 scientists

🍃🎤🍃 Speaker announcement 🍃🎤🍃

Join our incredible line-up of Keynotes & Plenary Speakers at Photosynthesis 2026 in Liverpool this July!

✍️ Register & submit an abstract now
👉 photosynthesis2026.com

#plantscience 🧪 #ICPR26 #photosynthesis

We genetically disconnected starch from the matrix in the algal pyrenoid!

A saga1;saga2 double mutant lacks a starch sheath!

Our model: SAGA1 & SAGA2 locally initiate starch on the pyrenoid surface by enriching starch precursors.

🌞🦠🔬🔌👀

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How does molecular valency shape condensate assembly and function? We used the CO2-fixing organelle in algae—the pyrenoid—to find out… 🧵

Preprint here!:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

@cellarchlab.com @phaips.vd.st @biologyatyork.bsky.social
#Rubisco #PhaseSeparation #Condensates #Pyrenoid

Atomic resolution structure of spinach rubisco reveals protons and dynamics www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.22.696010v1 #cryoEM

Sticker number modulates pyrenoid condensate assembly to support algal fitness www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Pyrenoid Structure, Function, Evolution, and Characterization Across Diverse Lineages Pyrenoids are eukaryotic CO2-fixing organelles that are evolutionarily diverse, globally abundant, and critical to global carbon cycling. Despite being described over 200 years ago, the vast majority ...

Pyrenoid Structure, Function, Evolution, and Characterization Across Diverse Lineages.

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Very proud to be part of this project!
This not only is the (nominally) highest resolution non-ApoF cryoEM structure, but also for the first time resolved a ligand and structural hetetogeneity in that resolution range, giving new insights into the Rubisco enzyme mechanism. A nice start for Krios 5!

Thanks for a great collaboration Oliver! We are very fortunate that we got the opportunity to have you collect the data.

RE: https://fediscience.org/@Guillawme/111534984107819771

Something really cool happened to me this year!

@HRBridges re-processed a #cryoEM dataset from some previous work of mine and colleagues (publicly available as EMPIAR-10739; see quoted post below for a summary of this work). She […]

Feeding from the sun—Successes and prospects in bioengineering photosynthesis for food security

www.sciencedirect.com:5037/science/arti...

Great carboxysome review from @botbml.bsky.social and team!

Understanding carboxysomes to enhance carbon fixation in crops portlandpress.com/biochemsoctr...

The 11th International Symposium on Inorganic Carbon Utilization by Aquatic Photosynthetic Organisms (CCM11) Wed 20 Aug - Fri 22 [EDT]: 11th International Symposium on Inorganic Carbon Utilization by Aquatic Photosynthetic Organisms (CCM11) will take place at the University of York on August 20-22 later…

📅New #PlantSciEvents Event Added: The 11th International Symposium on Inorganic Carbon Utilization by Aquatic Photosynthetic Organisms (CCM11)

👉 buff.ly/jWqcD6B \

#PlantScience

Join us in Denmark for a great meeting!

#postdoc #biochemistry #co2fixation #cryoem