Gerardo del Toro

I’m thrilled to share my latest research with @claudiakohler11.bsky.social in @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social, now published in @natplants.nature.com ! In this work, we reveal that long-distance transported siRNAs from maternal sporophytic tissues are functional in pollen development and reproduction.

Registration is now open! The 4th edition of the Mendel Early Career Symposium will take place on 21-22 May at the GMI, part of the @viennabiocenter.bsky.social. This two-day event brings together researchers across career stages to discuss the latest research in all areas of plant science.

I am excited to offer a postdoctoral research position in my lab in Oxford studying the distribution of small RNAs during plant sexual reproduction. shorturl.at/7Goxt
Reposts appreciated!
Obligatory cat video to brighten your day. :-)

It’s a nightmare…

Muchas felicidades Julia! Very well deserved 🙌

🚀 Our new paper is out @natmethods.nature.com!

Kuffer & Marzilli engineered conditionally stable MS2 & PP7 coat proteins (dMCP & dPCP) that degrade unless bound to RNA, enabling ultra–low-background, single-mRNA imaging in live cells.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧬 www.addgene.org/John_Ngo/

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

Very important paper and resource. Bryophyte genomes expanded by one order of magnitude. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🌿 Women in Science Day :: organized by the Collaborative Research Center CRC1644 on Phenotypic Plant Plasticity 🌿

📅 21 November 2025
📍 University of Potsdam, Campus Golm

Welcoming participants of all gender identities.

📌 Register now 👉 www.uni-potsdam.de/en/ppp/news-...

Rapid origin and turnover of genomic imprinting by transposable elements Genomic imprinting, the preferential expression of alleles based on their parent-of-origin, is an epigenetic mechanism that plays a key role in endosp…

I am thrilled to share our review with @claudiakohler11.bsky.social in which we discuss on the latest research on the classical and emerging roles of transposable elements in shaping genomic imprinting in plants. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#imprinting #epigenetics #plantReproduction

Very happy to see this new preprint out from our lab, led by @gerardodeltoro.bsky.social. Congrats Gerardo and everyone involved! Check it out! 👇

Huge thanks to @claudiakohler11.bsky.social for her unwavering support of my work, and a special shout-out to Ushi, as well as to Varsha and Sofia—my fantastic former MSc students—for their invaluable contributions to this project! A dream team!

Our data support a model in which a primary siRNA trigger arises in the maternal integuments of the cer7 seed coat, reaches the embryo, and drives PTGS amplification, leading to seed abortion.

We also found that ectopic siRNAs in cer7 compete with key miRNAs for AGO1 loading, and together with PTGS of embryogenesis-related genes, lead to embryo arrest.

Consistent with a sporophytic maternal effect, expressing CER7 in the seed coat suppresses seed abortion, demonstrating a maternal control of embryo development via an RNA decay safeguard pathway in the sporophytic maternal plant.

Our genetic analysis further reveals that the PTGS trigger originates in the maternal sporophyte and is amplified in the fertilization products, ultimately causing seed abortion.

Embryo arrest in cer7 mutants is suppressed in rdr6 background, showing that the defect is linked to ectopic post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS).

We found that mutations on core subunit of the RNA-processing exosome RRP45B (CER7) induces early embryo arrest dependent on the sporophytic maternal plant genotype.

Maternal control of RNA decay safeguards embryo development As in mammals, the plant embryo is surrounded by maternal tissues that provide protection from the external environment. In angiosperms, a double fertilization process results in the formation of a di...

🚨 Preprint alert!!
Thrilled to share our new story where we report the discovery of a new sporophytic maternal-effect mutant in Arabidopsis. 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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...

The rest of Mendel's alleles characterized! So, out of 7 traits, 3 caused by TE insertions!!! (though apparently there are two different green alleles, one cause by a TE insertion, but another a promoter deletion allele)

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

Twitter
#Phd #PhDposition ▶️ We are hiring! *Please RT* and/or **Apply*
Interested in the molecular mechanisms that regulate chromatin dynamics for plant development?
Apply to our Doctoral School for a 3-year PhD position at the @IRIG, @LPCV in a beautiful university @UGA & city.

PhD student in Ecology and Evolution The Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP) is located in the Arrhenius Laboratories, situated at the University Campus at Frescati. Presently around 100 people, including 35 PhD

We have an open 4-year PhD position in the Slotte lab at Stockholm University, to investigate genomic signatures of selection associated with pollination mode shifts.
Full ad: su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
Apply by April 22, 2025 via the University application portal (link). Please repost! 🧪

#Argonautes2025 update ... it will happen this August (27-30) @imgprague.bsky.social. Our ITs are finishing and testing the website, the registration will open on March 1st. More info will be provided later (once all speakers reply to my e-mail, just saying, not pushing 😁). Poster announcement:

📢📢The International ICIPS symposium "Evolution of Plant Reproduction" organized by @icips.bsky.social will take place near the botanical garden of Berlin (Germany) from March 25-28, 2025.

🟠To register: dfg-icips.org/berlin2025/

🟠Deadline registration: 14.02.2025

Newton International Fellowships | Royal Society This fellowship is for non-UK scientists who are at an early stage of their research career and wish to conduct research in the UK.

If you're a non-UK scientist who wants to come to the UK for a postdoc, this year's Newton Fellowships are now open. You'll need a lab to host you (which could be me, but truly, could be any PI, so get in touch with someone you'd like to work with!)

royalsociety.org/grants/newto...

This picture shows the tropical palm house of the Berlin Botanical Garden with a pond in the front

Deadline extension for abstract submission (now until Jan 31) to the international meeting "Evolution of Plant Reproduction" organized by dfg-icips.org in Berlin (March 25-28, 2025) with a great line-up of speakers: dfg-icips.org/berlin2025/ and hurry up to register!
#PlantScience
#PlantEvodevo