George Shull 🇺🇸 introduced the term heterosis for the first time in a lecture at the University of Göttingen 🇩🇪 in 1914 only 3 weeks before the outbreak of WW I. He gave his lecture in German. In his 1948 paper he often cites German literature without translating it into English.

The word „Gen“ was coined by the Danish 🇩🇰 plant physiologist Wilhelm Johannsen in a German publication in 1909 and introduced by George Harrison Shull 🇺🇸 to the english language (below from -> Shull, 1948: What is heterosis?).

Congratulations to Danning Wang for successfully completing her PhD⁩. Danning has a remarkable background: before starting her PhD on maize 🌽 & its microbiome, she completed a BS in Electrical Engineering 🇨🇳, a MS in Automotive Engineering 🇨🇳 & a MSc in Autonomous Systems 🇩🇪.

RIP Lubert Stryer - his Biochemistry was my first college textbook, a gift from the lab where I had a summer job

Time to ditch BioRender? I had no idea they were claiming copyright to the figures we make with it, even after we pay for use of the service.

I am hiring a postdoc to work on evolutionary genomics projects with maize and its wild relatives. This is part of a broad collaborative project known as CERCA that aims to improve maize with adaptations from the wild. Please share or consider applying!

isu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/IowaStateJobs/…

In a new paper in Nature Plants we IDed a mechanism how the host plant genotype (🌽) contributes to the recruitment of its root microbiome. We identified a 🌽 gene that modulates lateral root density by regulating the abundance of specific bacteria under N-deficiency in soil. 1/2

Ein Forschungsteam unter Federführung der Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn Frank Hochholdinger hat an Maispflanzen nachgewiesen, dass das Erbgut der Wirtspflanze einen erheblichen Einfluss auf die Zusammensetzung der Wurzelmikroben hat.
DOI: 10.1038/s41477-024-01654-7

Foto: Volker Lannert/Uni Bonn

James Lucas Mitchell, South Dakota.
To see the Corn Palace.

'Contrasting cytosolic glutathione redox dynamics under abiotic and biotic stress in barley as revealed by the biosensor Grx1–roGFP2' - Finja Bohle et al. 🌾

bit.ly/4alVe7y

Stefanie Müller Ivan F. Acosta Andreas Meyer Frank Hochholdinger Plant Energy Biology Lab

Root Hairs: An under-explored target for sustainable cereal crop production.

osf.io/fh2u5/

Review article preprint from Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research PhD student Ian Tsang 🌾

Another piece of maize 🌽 art I saw last month The Metropolitan Museum of Art on the way to the maize meeting. „Still life with corn“ by American 🇺🇸 artist Charles Ethan Porter, painted ca. 1880.

Big thanks for all involved scientists from Germany, Spain, US and China for such great passion on maize and microbiome! We finally made this story out nature.com/articles/s4147… and now we are ready for new big challenge! Thanks for funding! DFG public | @[email protected] Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Maize 🌽 grown under very low P in Madagascar 🇲🇬 ⬇️

most dominating nutrient deficiency is that for phosphate - look at the maize plant barely developing while adopted rice varieties still do fine...

Internationales Forschungsteam findet heraus, wie Mikroben das Wurzelwachstum ankurbeln. Weiterführendes Interview mit Prof. Dr. Frank Hochholdinger und Informationen zur Studie: uni-bonn.de/de/neues/062-2…

Bakterien und Pilze im Boden helfen den Wurzeln von #Mais - und darauf haben die Gene der Pflanzen Einfluss. Das hat ein Team unter Leitung der Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn mit Beteiligung der #UniHohenheim entdeckt. Die Erkenntnisse könnten der Maiszüchtung zugute kommen. #Agrar #Landwirtschaft

New Nature Plants article co-authored by UNL PSI and Nebraska Agronomy and Horticulture researchers Jinliang Yang Jinliang Yang and Zhikai Yang Zhikai Liang. Way to go! Nebraska Research UNL Ag Research

Scientists from Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and Leibniz IPK discovered that besides the properties of the soil also the genetic make-up of the plant contribute to which microbes are to be found on maize roots. Results in Nature Plants.
➡️PM: tinyurl.com/5hynyxkn
➡️Paper: tinyurl.com/yc343fww

#Corn 🌽