Michael J. Holdsworth

In two recent papers we, in collaboration with others, show the importance of the plant #oxygensensing system for adaptation across scales, of geography @ScienceAdvances science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… and altitude @nature nature.com/articles/s4158…. Oxygen sensing is key to plant life!

In light of James Watson's death, I post this article which clarifies Rosalind Franklin's contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is richer than the conventional narrative. nature.com/articles/d4158…

Reconsider the potential suspension of Plant Biology Courses at UoN - Sign the Petition! c.org/p5jy2GXHcX via @UKChange

Paul Nurse describing the main job of a PI (From ‘The Thinking Game’, 2024)

✅✅ A reminder by Dr. Rahaf Ajaj: She wasn’t on the Stanford list… but she made it to the Nobel stage. 🏅 Mary E. Brunkow, one of this year’s Nobel Prize winners in Medicine, has only 34 published papers and an H-index of 21. She never appeared in Stanford’s ranking of the world’s top 2% of scientists. She didn’t chase citations, metrics, or the spotlight. Yet, she became part of a discovery that changed how humanity understands the immune system. Today, while many are busy chasing numbers, titles, and rankings — she reminds us what truly matters in science: the question. 🔹 She wasn’t running after the lists. 🔹 She was running after the truth. Because in the end, it’s not about how many papers you publish… It’s about how deeply your idea can reshape the world. Focus on your idea, not your ranking.

Saturday’s victory over Fleetwood sealed another proud achievement in the history of the world’s oldest professional club 🖤

Preprint alert! 🗞 We used SynBio to "simplify" the plant oxygen sensing pathway and implement it in yeast🍄. We can now control yeast growth through oxygen! But most importantly, Here's a very short recap of what we understood thanks to it: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Architecture of the UBR4 complex, a giant E4 ligase central to eukaryotic protein quality control | Science science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Structural basis for the recognition and ubiquitylation of type-2 N-degron substrate by PRT1 plant N-recognin nature.altmetric.com/details/180545…

Particularly pleased with this paper we've just published @PlantBiotechJ with @Lomonossoff_Lab @JohnInnesCentre about packaging custom RNA in virus-like particles of CPMV: doi.org/10.1111/pbi.70… @ISPMF

Our 'Spotlight' discussing an excellent recent paper by @LauraDalleC @N_end_rules & @Fra_LicO2si et al on the evolution of oxygen signalling in land plants is now online: Original paper: tinyurl.com/yw5yd4f8 Spotlight by @LinaZho63623415 & me: tinyurl.com/7ydn6p4a

Check out our new review metacaspases in Cell Death & Differentiation @springernature.com . It´s not all about cell death, but more about survival 👇nature.com/articles/s4141…

How exciting! The program for our ISPLORE #plantscience conference is now available and covers a wide range of speakers and topics 🌱🌊 Check it out! sites.google.com/view/isplore20…

Last chance to register for ISPLORE 2025 in Japan! Deadline is next week, July 31st, and we're almost at capacity. Don't miss out and hope to see you there. 🌱🌊

🎉 Thrilled to present DEGRADATOR — the first computer game 🎮 exploring protein degradation and PROTACs — at #FEBS2025! 📣 Swing by my poster and let’s talk science + games! #FEBSCongress2025

Good news, we have almost reached the maximum number of registrations for the ISPLORE conference in Nagoya, Japan, later this year. If you haven't registered yet, now is the last chance! #plantscience

🌿 Meet PlantChatbot — your AI companion (ChatGPT-like tool) for plant biology! Built on a knowledge graph from 200,000+ papers and powered by LLMs. Try it now: plantchatbot.connectome.tools 🌱 #PlantScience #AI #KnowledgeGraph #Chatbot 1/3

Happy to share that our recent paper, The Multifaceted Metabolic Role of Lactate Dehydrogenase in Submergence Tolerance published in PCE. Congrats to PhD student @jaganswain429 collaborators Alisdair Fernie and @Foyer their contribution @NIPGRsocial @DBTIndia @rajesh_gokhale

Dear Plant Flooding & Hypoxia enthusiasts 🌱 🌊 , Please join us for the ISPLORE 2025 meeting on plant flooding and hypoxia response in Nagoya, Japan, held from September 22-26, 2025. sites.google.com/view/isplore20…

ERFVIIs as transducers of oxygen-sensing in the evolution of land plant response to hypoxia #research #MolecularPlant cell.com/molecular-plan…

How did oxygen-sensing evolve in plants? In collaboration with @Fra_LicO2si Great work from @LauraDalleC et. al. #plantscience @LeverhulmeTrust “ERFVIIs as transducers of oxygen-sensing in the evolution of land plant response to hypoxia” cell.com/molecular-plan…