Paper on moss KNOX function out

My lab has a new paper out showing that the moss KNOX protein MKN2 promotes sporophyte axis extension by inducing the expression of a cytokinin biosynthesis gene, PpIPT3. IPTs are targets of Class I KNOX proteins in Arabidopsis, but the KNOX/IPT module promotes proliferation in the middle of moss stems rather than in the shoot tips, and the work suggests a change in the timing and location of KNOX activity during shoot evolution. Very proud of Yoan Coudert for sticking with the project he started when he first joined my lab as a post-doc, and our paper is online in Current Biology here. 

Mosses growing on a wall. Photo: Jeff Duckett and Silvia Pressel.

Fellowship and lectureship opportunities at Bristol

We are hiring new staff in plant and molecular sciences at Bristol to complement current strengths of the School of Biological Sciences.
The ad for fellowship support is here.
The lectureship ads are here and here.
I hope that some of you will apply and to talk to you about your exciting future research ideas.

Early bird FASEB registration closing

Early bird registration for the FASEB Mechanisms in Plant Development Meeting that Ken Birnbaum and I are organising closes next wednesday. We're really excited about meeting the great line up of speakers and attendees who have already registered, and looking forward to seeing you all. 

For those of you who haven't been before, the meeting will include about 150 researchers from around the world presenting cutting edge research on cellular specialization, signaling and crosstalk, developmental plasticity, tissue patterning and maintaining indeterminate growth. We have arranged the sessions by conceptual themes to enable us to showcase research from a wide range of plant species in parallel, and these will range from early land plants such as liverworts and mosses to flowering plants. We hope that this will stimulate reciprocal knowledge transfer about plant development across the plant kingdom. Developmental biology has of course played a huge role in crop domestication and yield, and the meeting will also include talks in this area.

Current Opinion in Plant Biology special issue out

The special issue that Adrienne Roeder and I have been editing together is now complete and our editorial overview is online here. Many thanks to all the authors and reviewers who have contributed to the issue, the papers look great! You can read all the papers here.

Bristol GARNet/NewPhyt/BCAI Gene editing meeting report

Geraint Parry and I wrote a meeting report on outcomes from the gene editing workshop that we co-organised and held in Bristol earlier in the year that you can read here.

Four new faculty posts @Bristol BioSci

The School of Biological Sciences seeks four new academics at lecturer or senior lecturer level. Successful applicants will be research leaders with proven international track records commensurate with experience. They will drive influential research programmes that span the long-standing research strengths of the School: behavioural ecology and sensory biology, ecology and environmental change, evolutionary biology and plant and agricultural science.

Successful applicants will have strong interdisciplinary research portfolios and evidence of academic leadership along with strong commitment and aptitude for teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level and roles across the spectrum of academic life. 

A good fit to existing University Research Institutes and the Faculty of Life Sciences would also be an advantage.

For informal enquiries please contact Prof Claire Grierson (headofschool-biology@bristol.ac.uk).

The closing date for applications is 11:59pm on Thursday 14^th February 2019.  It is anticipated that interviews will be held during week commencing 1^st April 2019.

Details listed here.

Fellowship opportunities in plant and agricultural science at Bristol

The Bristol Centre for Agricultural Innovation (BCAI) is offering an additional £50,000 to boost project funding for three individuals that are awarded mid-career independent research fellowships at Bristol (such as BBSRC David Phillips Fellowships, Royal Society University Research Fellowships or UKRI Future Leader Fellowships). Those applying for earlier-career, shorter-term fellowships are eligible for an additional £5,000 of research funding. Proposed research must fall within the remit of BCAI to be eligible for this additional funding.
To be considered for BCAI and departmental support, prospective fellowship candidates are required to submit an expression of interest to helen.harper@bristol.ac.uk by 10th January 2019. Your application should consist of your CV, a covering letter (indicating which fellowships you wish to apply for and confirmation that you are eligible) and a research plan (up to 2 pages). We will select and invite candidates with the potential to visit the department in March.
Please contact Dr Helen Harper for any informal enquiries. We look forward to hearing from you.