Mike Haydon 🌱 🌾 🧬 ⏰

A cellular basis for the mammalian nocturnal-diurnal switch Early mammals were nocturnal while dinosaurs dominated the daytime. Mammalian transition to daytime activity accelerated after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, but the underlying mechanisms remain...

Since I moved to @mrclmb.bsky.social I’ve been trying to answer this: Why are some mammals active at night and others in the day? Today our answer is out @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/....
If you’re interested in circadian biology, evolution or how timing shapes physiology, take a look

Announcing a Transformation Lead role (level B) at the Adelaide University node of Plant Synthetic Biology Australia (international applicants welcome)!

For more information on PSBA, see plantsynbio.au

More details on the position: lnkd.in/g3GZSRT8

Congrats @benpwilliams.bsky.social !

Congrats, Francis. Well done!

Redox-controlled dimerisation regulates ethylene biosynthesis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.04.692314v1

A new preprint from the lab by @cbuckley.bsky.social in collab with @adaevo.bsky.social #plantsci #circadian 🌱 ⏰

This is an excellent opportunity. It was a fun and informative experience for me a few years ago.

What about the Jan Anderson Award?

A circadian transcriptional subnetwork and EARLY FLOWERING 3 control timing of senescence and grain nutrition in bread wheat Circadian clocks control daily and seasonal timing of physiology and development. Because of their influence on photoperiodic flowering, variants in circadian clock genes have been selected for ph...

I’m very pleased to share our latest work, led by the talented @cbuckley.bsky.social as part of his PhD. It’s our first attempt at studying #circadian rhythms in wheat with the help of some great collaborators @jesshyles.bsky.social @adaevo.bsky.social et al. #plantsci 🌾⏰ 1/7
doi.org/10.1111/nph....

Chronoculture, harnessing the circadian clock to improve crop yield and sustainability Sunlight drives agriculture, and plant circadian rhythms tune the plant's response to daily light-dark cycles. Steed et al. discuss how agricultural productivity might be improved by consideration of ...

The ELF3-D1 delation is an early maturing genotype in elite wheat cultivars, so there are important implications for growers and breeders. Through #chronoculture, there is an opportunity for fundamental circadian biology to boost agriculture in future climates. 7/7
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Grain protein content is lower in NILs carrying an ELF3-D1 deletion variant

The phenotypes of the MLGs and the GRN from the transcriptomes prompted us to examine these traits in NILs of an ELF3-D1 deletion mutant. We found that the deletion lines had earlier senescence and lower grain protein content. 6/7

Time to leaf senescence of 25 Australian wheat cultivars representing six different circadian multilocus genotypes

With help from collaborators at CSIRO, we looked at patterns of genetic variation in circadian clock genes in >200 Australian wheat cultivar genomes to cluster circadian multilocus genotypes (MLGs) and then phenotyped representative cultivars for circadian period and timing of senescence. 5/7

a gene regulatory network associated with leaf senescence contains circadian clock genes and phytohormone regulators

We then compared the circadian transcriptomes of mature and senescent wheat leaves. This indicated an overall quickening of the clock, but also a reshaping of the circadian network, and surprisingly to us, an increased number of rhythmic transcripts in senescent leaves. 4/7

A significant positive correlation between time to senescence and circadian period in 15 Australian wheat cultivars

We found significant variation in circadian period which correlated with timing of leaf senescence. Wheat cultivars with faster clocks senesced earlier. 3/7

A mature and senescent flag leaf of wheat

We were interested to know the extent of circadian rhythm variation in Australian wheat cultivars, and what impact it might have on agricultural traits. The trait we chose was timing of leaf senescence, because it affects grain nutrient content. 2/7

A circadian transcriptional subnetwork and EARLY FLOWERING 3 control timing of senescence and grain nutrition in bread wheat Circadian clocks control daily and seasonal timing of physiology and development. Because of their influence on photoperiodic flowering, variants in circadian clock genes have been selected for ph...

I’m very pleased to share our latest work, led by the talented @cbuckley.bsky.social as part of his PhD. It’s our first attempt at studying #circadian rhythms in wheat with the help of some great collaborators @jesshyles.bsky.social @adaevo.bsky.social et al. #plantsci 🌾⏰ 1/7
doi.org/10.1111/nph....

Thanks, Geoff. Once we know the loci, it should be straightforward. We already know a couple, but we’re now looking for more…

The time is ripe for chronoculture A better understanding of circadian rhythms in crop plants can help improve agricultural production, say University of Melbourne experts

@cbuckley.bsky.social and I wrote this Pursuit article about our wheat research #chronoculture #circadian #plantsci

pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the...

#chronoculture #circadian

🍷 ASPS Conference Dinner at National Wine Centre next to Adelaide Botanic Gardens!
First come, first served. After our memorable Hobart dinner, this promises to be another evening to remember.

Register: bit.ly/4p25OJ0

#ASPS2025 #ConferenceDinner

Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality.

My HPLC was definitely overlooked

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Fig. 1 Circadian period of wheat cultivars is associated with senescence and grain nutrition.

✨ Paper spotlight ✨

(🧵 1/7) A circadian transcriptional subnetwork and EARLY FLOWERING 3 control timing of senescence and grain nutrition in bread wheat
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Hello 👋

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Follow us for news, updates and information about UniMelb. For now, enjoy the blue skies over our Parkville campus 💙

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This would be amazing for collaboration with Europe. But ‘started exploratory talks for possible association’ does not instil confidence 😶

Well done to @franciskuang.bsky.social on delivering his PhD Completion Seminar today. A fantastic talk on a great project spanning biochemistry 🧪 and plant science 🌱

Machine learning models highlight environmental and genetic factors associated with the Arabidopsis circadian clock - Nature Communications The authors introduce ChronoGauge as a machine learning model which can estimate a plant’s internal circadian time using gene expression. This can be used to compare the circadian clock across differe...

It's great to see you PHD takeoff and what a way to fly, read @c-reynoldsuk.bsky.social first paper from his PHD www.nature.com/articles/s41... It is also a nice collaboration with Ant Dodd at the JIC @antdodd.bsky.social @nrpdtp.bsky.social @earlhaminst.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social

Front page of the NYT announcing Hillary Clinton accepting the nomination of the Democratic Party for President

Nine years ago today...

The only possible answer is yes

5. Then you get other people saying (in fact this theme now dominates discussions):
"Look at my regenerative farming model. It's conserving soil and killing less wildlife."
Great.
But your yields have fallen by 75%.
So either someone else must intensify or more land must be used to grow food.