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Hydrosensing Project

Discovering How Plants Sense Water Stress

The Hydrosensing Project Team is on a mission to transform our understandingof how plants sense and respond to water availability. We aim to uncover the mechanisms plants use to perceive water stress, a key factor in their survival and productivity.

HYDROSENSING

a Synergy Project

By combining cutting-edge genomics, structural biology, biophysics and imaging approaches, we strive to revolutionize crop resilience and pave the way for climate-proof agriculture.

Join us as we explore new frontiers in plant science, working towards a future where crops are better equipped to withstand the challenges of a changing climate.

Publications

Journal articles and preprints by the Hydrosensing project

Image: Mixed crystalloid-ER and whorl morphology. Central slice through a STEM tomogram showing a patch of crystalloid-ER (dark blue) located in close proximity to a putative ER whorl (light blue) in its intracellular environment. Closer inspection of the reconstructed tomogram reveals a direct connection between the two ER morphotypes (I), as well as the presence of multiple vesicles (not present in the central tomogram section), located near the nucleus (orange) and contacting the crystalloid ER (II). Arrowheads indicate the viewing direction in Figure 6. Scale bar = 500 nm. Credit: Journal of Microscopy
Publications

Application of STEM tomography to investigate smooth ER morphology under stress conditions

Heinz, V., Rachel, R., & Ziegler, C. (2025). Application of STEM tomography to investigate smooth ER morphology under stress conditions. Journal of Microscopy, 299(3), 228-241. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmi.70020
Publications

Targeting redundant gene families: A multiplexed,tissue-specific CRISPR toolbox for Arabidopsisgenetic screens

Anfang M, Yahya RH, Caldararu O, Ben Yaakov S, Landau U, Berman A, Hu Y, Belew ZM, Crocoll C, Xu D, Nour-Eldin HH, Mayrose I, Shani E. Targeting redundant gene families: A multiplexed, tissue-specific CRISPR toolbox for Arabidopsis genetic screens. Cell Rep. 2026 Mar 9;45(3):117055. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2026.117055.
Publications

The mechanical properties of Arabidopsis thaliana roots adapt dynamically during development and to stress

Luis Alonso Baez et al., The mechanical properties of Arabidopsis thaliana roots adapt dynamically during development and to stress. Sci. Adv. 12,eaeb0032(2026).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.aeb0032
Ceratopteris_cornuta_in_aquarium_alone
Publications

Transgenerational polarity axis inheritance during Ceratopterisembryogenesis

Woudenberg, S., Plackett, A. R., Hao, Z., Suzuki, H., Baez, L. A., Borassi, C., ... & Weijers, D. (2025). Transgenerational polarity axis inheritance during Ceratopteris embryogenesis. bioRxiv, 2025-08 https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.29.673061