Matthias Benoit

🌱 EPIPLANT is live!

Registration is now open for the EPIPLANT 2026 conference (June 22–24).

We look forward to welcoming you to Nantes, France for an exciting conference on the epigenetics of photosynthetic organisms!

👉 Details & registration: epiplant-2026.sciencesconf.org

1/ ✨ New preprint alert ✨

It is my pleasure to share:
"Stepwise evolution of the developmental and symbiotic functions of DELLA in land plants"

Here we investigated the role of the single GRAS transcription factor DELLA in #MyMarchantia

doi.org/10.64898/202...

#PlantScience
A thread...

Check out this exciting postdoc opportunity at @johninnescentre.bsky.social to work with the amazing @hassansalem.bsky.social and @berasymbionts.bsky.social on the developmental and molecular basis of insect–microbe symbiosis.

I’m excited to be part of this collaborative project!

Searching for a PhD? 🧬🌾

A fully funded 3.5-year PhD is available at @latrobeuni.bsky.social (Melbourne) to work on engineering transcription factors for better nitrogen use in plants!

Reqd:
✅ Honours/Masters in Mol Bio, Biotech, or Plant Science
✅ Passion for sustainable ag

Contact me for details

Evolutionary dynamics of transposable elements in the genome ecosystem of eukaryotes at University of Sussex on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Evolutionary dynamics of transposable elements in the genome ecosystem of eukaryotes at University of Sussex, listed on FindAPhD.com

Come join our lab in Sussex, UK for a PhD on TEs, on centromeres, on the genome ecosystem! Exciting times for TE:genome dynamics given the rate of T2T sequencing. Please circulate!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

1/9 Our latest paper on immunity mechanisms in Marchantia just out @pnas.org ! 🔽

Close collaboration between our former PhD students @karimaelm.bsky.social and @chloe-beaulieu.bsky.social !

and the old gard @jacquet-chris.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Some of the ENOD team attending the SymbiPhyt conference 🌱
Inspiring presentations and great scientific discussions! @andreasniebel.bsky.social @melissa-simonnet.bsky.social @ibrahimkeita.bsky.social @fdecarvalhonie.bsky.social @anaisdelers.bsky.social

TULIP Summer School 2026
Applications are OPEN ✅

“Biological interactions from genes to ecosystems”
will take place from June 27 to July 3, in France 🏔️

Open to PhD, Masters students & Postdoc researchers in ecology, evolution and functional biology

www.labex-tulip.fr/eng/news/tul...

ECRs in plant–microbe interactions:

Join us in Norwich for an intensive, interactive 1.5-week Summer Conference at TSL (20–31 July). Lots of opportunities for networking and deep discussions.

(We also plan to offer hands-on practical sessions using our technologies 🔬🧬)

Postdoctoral Researcher (Carella Group) | John Innes Centre An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the Carella Group at the John Innes Centre, working on cutting-edge science in the field of Evo-MPMI (Evolutionary Molecular…

We have an open POSTDOC position to explore Marchantia immune receptor biology that is closing on the 18th of Jan. Apply using the link below, and/or email me for more details. www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

Have you ever heard that women have more chances than men of getting grants or positions in academia? Of course you have, and here are my personal views on this. With the shocking revelation that no, it is NOT TRUE ! (1/n)

Pre-meiotic H1.1 degradation is essential for Arabidopsis gametogenesis - The EMBO Journal Despite being evolutionary distant, plants and animals exhibit a shared phenomenon during the transition from somatic-to-reproductive cell fate marked by extensive structural and compositional changes...

Pre-meiotic H1.1 degradation is essential for Arabidopsis gametogenesis | The EMBO Journal share.google/XbbrdRP9nZce...

Photo of the interior of award-winning Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University building. Glass walls look into the research labs and naturally lit staircase and walkway with study boxes looking into the Botanic Garden

Launch your own independent research group!

2x David Sainsbury Career Development Fellowships at @slcuplants.bsky.social

📆 Apply by 30 Jan 2026

More info:
👉 www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/careers/grou...
Job details:
👉 www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/david-s...

Please share this post #PlantSciJobs #PlantSciJob

Poster announcing the 3rd Early Career Plant Researchers Network Meeting, held 20–21 April 2026 in Halle (Saale), Germany. The event targets experienced PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in plant science and features scientific talks, career development and grant-writing workshops, and networking. Travel and accommodation are covered, and participants are registered for the 11th Leibniz Plant Biochemistry Symposium (22–24 April 2026). Application deadline: 23 January 2026. Website: plant-ecr-networking.eu.

Are you an experienced PhD student or postdoc in plant science looking to connect, present your work, and discuss career paths?
Join us at the 3rd Early Career Plant Researchers Network Meeting, Halle (Saale), 20–21 April 2026
Deadline: 23 January 2026
plant-ecr-networking.eu

Quelle est votre 1ere réaction si je vous dis

Lors de la domestication de la tomate, la sélection a surtout privilégié des fruits plus gros et qui se conservent, ce qui a conduit à la perte de certains caractères liés au goût

Repost appréciés pour avoir une vision des avis la plus large possible

Blinded by the lights? Re-examining the adaptive role of transposable elements in plants with population genomics Transposable elements (TEs) are ubiquitous components of the genome whose mobility can be triggered by environmental stress and influenced by genotype…

Have we been overstating the role of transposable elements in adaptation to local or rapidly changing environmental conditions? Happy to share my (somewhat unpopular?) opinion paper on this matter: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Thanks to those who already shared the link!

Facultative heterochromatin mediated by core and accessory chromosome-encoded H3K27-specific methyltransferases controls virulence in a fungal phytopathogen Abstract. In many fungal phytopathogens, infection is regulated by accessory genomic regions enriched in facultative heterochromatin, but the precise role

Beyond excited to see this work finally out in @narjournal.bsky.social! We show that epigenetic modifiers on fungal accessory chromosomes can contribute to the overall epigenetic profile. Many thanks to @gomezlucia93.bsky.social and our other amazing collaborators 👏🏻

academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

🧵 Just out in Cell after more than 10 years in the making!

🎓 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Plants and animals evolve radically different body plans.

Do they also operate under fundamentally different molecular evolutionary constraints during organ formation?

@cellpress.bsky.social

An early Christmas present from our team for all of the tomato 🍅 & recombination fans:

Chromosome-scale Solanum pennellii and Solanum cheesmaniae genome assemblies reveal structural variants, repeat content and recombination barriers of the tomato clade

biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

Happy to share our latest paper: The symbiosome space needs to be continuously cleared from demethylated pectins to keep rhizobia happy. Former PostDoc Chao Su took this story with him when moving back to China and finished it off.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#PlantScience; @uni-freiburg.de

📣 VACANCY: Predoctoral Intern in the Nobori group @tatsuyanobori.bsky.social

Join the team to work on plant immunity research at single-cell and spatial resolution 🌱

Apply online, deadline 26 Jan 2026

www.tsl.ac.uk/working-at-t...

#PlantSciJobs #PlantScience #STEMJobs

Graphic with Arabidopsis thaliana plant. It says in the text: We're hiring: 5 PhD positions, apply by 10 January, 2026. Over the caption, there are keywords: Plant Physiology, Epigenetics, Biotechnology, Cell Biology, Bioinformatics. At the bottom there are logos of IMPRS, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, University of Potsdam and the Max Planck Society.

Looking for a #PhDposition in #PlantScience ?
Our #IMPRS @mpi-mp-potsdam.bsky.social and @unipotsdam.bsky.social is #hiring !

📅 Apply by 10 January 2026

More info:
👉 www.mpimp-golm.mpg.de/IMPRS-PhD

Please share this post to plant it in the right feed 🌱 #PlantSciJobs

Research Associate: Horizontal Gene Transfer at University of Sheffield Searching for an academic job? Explore this Research Associate: Horizontal Gene Transfer opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.

Come work with us!! 2.5 year postdoc on HGT in plants.

Please share and get in touch if interested

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPQ418/r...

AI RNA Design for Developing Antiviral Solutions in Sugar Beet (Plant BioDesign JIC project) at University of York on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - AI RNA Design for Developing Antiviral Solutions in Sugar Beet (Plant BioDesign JIC project) at University of York, listed on FindAPhD.com

New PhD opportunity available in my lab, in collaboration with Betty Chung (Cambridge), focusing on plant RNA viruses and AI-driven design. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

EASTBIO - How plants breathe in a warming world: unravelling temperature control of stomata development at University of Dundee on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - EASTBIO - How plants breathe in a warming world: unravelling temperature control of stomata development at University of Dundee, listed on FindAPhD.com

I'm offering a PhD project together with Sarah McKim on temperature-controlled stomata formation within EASTBIO DTP www.findaphd.com/phds/project... #plantscience #plantscijobs Deadline 15 Feb. Please share/RP

Symbiotic diversification relies on an ancestral gene network in plants | bioRxiv Symbioses have been fundamental to colonization of terrestrial ecosystems by plants and their evolution. Emergence of the ancient arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis was followed by the diversification of alternative intracellular symbioses, such as the ericoid mycorrhizae (ErM). We aimed at understanding how these diversifications occurred. We sequenced the genomes of ErM-forming liverworts, and reconstituted symbiosis under laboratory conditions. We demonstrated the existence of a nutrient-regulated symbiotic state that enables ErM and underlies intracellular colonization of plant tissues. Comparative transcriptomic analyses identified an ancestral gene module associated with intracellular symbiosis beyond ErM. Genetic manipulations in the liverwort Marchantia paleacea, phylogenetics and transactivation assays demonstrated its essential function for intracellular symbiosis. We conclude that plant have maintained, and convergently recruited, an ancestral gene module for intracellular symbioses.

Outstanding preprint from @leocastanedo.bsky.social, @katharinamel1.bsky.social, @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social and coll. on an evolutionary conserved module for intracellular symbiosis. - > Symbiotic diversification relies on an ancestral gene network in plants | bioRxiv

It's time to apply for the New Phytologist #TansleyMedal for excellence in #PlantScience.

Open to early career researchers with 3 to 5 years experience post-PhD.

Applications close on 1 November. Don't miss out!

www.newphytologist.org/grants-award...

#ecrchat #phdchat

Well done Léo 👏👏

Big thanks to @newphyt.bsky.social and jury members for the prize, and to the organisers and participants for making #iMMM2025 such a nice event. Congrats to all the winners!

Here's the poster if you'd like to check out some of our recent work: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...