Publications – ERC SYNERGY Project HYDROSENSING

Publications

July 9, 2026

Coping with stress: Transcriptional regulators linking cell wall integrity maintenance with primary-wall metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana

Tichá, T., Zwartkruis, S., Engelsdorf, T., Bartosova, Z., Bacete, L., & Hamann, T. (2025). Coping with stress: Transcriptional regulators linking cell wall integrity maintenance with primary-wall metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana. bioRxiv, 2025-12. https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.12.693917

Hydrosensing

Image: Expression patterns of selected AGP genes. (a, b) Confocal microscopy of root tips (a) and hypocotyls (b) expressing transgenic transcriptional reporters (nuclear localized VENUS protein, green ﬂuorescence) with promoters of the indicated AGP genes in WT (Col-0) background (cells counterstained with propidium iodide, magenta ﬂuorescence). Note the general increase in expression as cells start to expand in roots. Credit: New Phytology

Publications

May 14, 2026

AGP and EXO-LIKE genes promote brassinosteroid-dependent anisotropic growth

Novikova, D., Rana, S., Li, K., Diaz-Ardila, H.N., Trozzi, N., Alonso Baez, L., Hamann, T., Majda, M. and Hardtke, C.S. (2026), AGP and EXO-LIKE genes promote brassinosteroid-dependent anisotropic growth. New Phytology, 250: 2384-2398. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.71063

Hydrosensing

Image: An amino acid sequence-based maximum-likelihood phylogeny of members of the Catharanthus roseus RECEPTOR-LIKE KINASE 1-LIKE (CrRLK1L) family in different species. Credit: The Plant Journal

Publications

May 4, 2026

The function of the Arabidopsis receptor kinase THESEUS1 in plant cell wall integrity maintenance: from evolutionary origin to future perspectives

Zwartkruis, S.T.W., Vandegehuchte, M.L. and Hamann, T. (2026), The function of the Arabidopsis receptor kinase THESEUS1 in plant cell wall integrity maintenance: from evolutionary origin to future perspectives. The Plant Journal, 125: e70701. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.70701

Hydrosensing

Image: Each panel represents a distinct redundancy scenario, with genotypes annotated as A/B, a/B, A/b, or a/b, where lowercase letters indicate mutated genes. Gray backgrounds highlight the corresponding plant phenotypes for each genotype. In the bottom panel (conditional redundancy), sun and thermometer icons denote specific conditions under which redundancy is revealed. Credit: Trends in Plant Science.

Publications

April 28, 2026

Navigating genetic redundancy in plant genomes: insights for research and breeding

Berman, A., Zylberberg, I., Mayrose, I., & Shani, E. (2026). Navigating genetic redundancy in plant genomes: insights for research and breeding. Trends in Plant Science.

Hydrosensing

Image: Gravitropic bending of the rbohc/f mutants and their relative apoplastic pH in the elongation zone. (A) Root gravitropic bending of WT, mca1, cngc14-2, and rbohc/f mutants. Right-expression of bending as linear regression slope after 1 h of bending. Letters denote statistical significance (ANCOVA test of equal slopes p

Publications

April 20, 2026

Calcium-triggered apoplastic ROS bursts balance gravity and mechanical signals for soil navigation

Kulich, I., Vladimirtsev, D., Randuch, M., Gao, S., Citterico, M., Konrad, K. R., ... & Friml, J. (2026). Calcium-triggered apoplastic ROS bursts balance gravity and mechanical signals for soil navigation. Science, 392(6795), 296-300.

Hydrosensing

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

March 17, 2026

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

Hydrosensing

Publications

March 12, 2026

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.

Hydrosensing

Publications

February 19, 2026

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

Hydrosensing

Publications

February 12, 2026

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

Hydrosensing

a, Semi-thin sections (2 µm thickness, 1 cm from root tip) of WT, arf1-1, OE-ARF1, cesa6 and arf1cesa6 lines. Scale bar=50 µm.

Publications

February 2, 2026

Ethylene modulates cell wall mechanics for root responses to compaction

Zhang, J., Liu, Z., Farrar, E.J. et al. Ethylene modulates cell wall mechanics for root responses to compaction. Nature 649, 685–692 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09765-7

Hydrosensing

Publications

January 27, 2026

Developmental pathways in plants: Lessons from Arabidopsis for crop innovation

Malcolm J Bennett, Rahul Bhosale, Scott A Boden, Shu-Yan Chen, Tino Colombi, Toshiro Ito, Hong-Ju Li, Poonam Mehra, Lars Østergaard, Meng Li, Liu Liu, Nana Otsuka, Bipin K Pandey, Scott Poethig, Kalika Prasad, Yue Qu, Makoto Shirakawa, Ying Hua Su, Cao Xu, Wei-Cai Yang, Wen Jie Zhang, Xiaolan Zhang, Xian…

Hydrosensing

Image: Description and validation of pMDS plasmid system for dual analysis of transcription and translation in plants. (A) Organization of pMDS1 vector showing reporters for transcription [mTurquoise (mTurQ)], translation (C-terminal mVenus), and a 2A self-cleaving peptide. (B) Organization of pMDS2 vector showing reporters for transcription (mTurQ), translation (N-terminal mVenus), and a 2A self-cleaving peptide. (C) Confocal image of pMDS1_SHRpro:SHR:mVenus:mTurQ showing gene expression (mTurQ) in the stele region and protein (mVenus) translocating to endodermis in the root meristem. (D) Confocal image of pMDS2_VAM3pro:mVenus:VAM3:mTurQ showing subcellular expression (mTurQ) in the nucleus and protein (mVenus) moving to the vacuole in the root epidermis. Red channel shows mCherry expression. nu, nucleus; vac, vacuole; *, endodermis of root meristem. Scale bar, 10 μM. Credit: Science Advances

Publications

January 21, 2026

Elucidating tissue and subcellular specificity of the entire SUMO network reveals how stress responses are fine-tuned in a eukaryote

Jason Banda et al. Elucidating tissue and subcellular specificity of the entire SUMO network reveals how stress responses are fine-tuned in a eukaryote Science Advances 11,eadw9153(2025). DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adw9153

Hydrosensing

Fig. 1. Expression pattern of cell type-specific promoters used to drive multi-targeted amiRNA libraries. A) Shown are confocal or stereoscope images for pML1:H2B-GFP (shoot epidermis), pIQD22:GUS-mCitrine (palisade mesophyll), pSCR:YFP (endodermis and bundle sheath), pSUC2:YFP (phloem companion cells), pCORI3:GUS-mCitrine (spongy mesophyll), pKST1:GFP (guard cells), pS18:YFP (xylem), pPGP4:NLS-YFP (root epidermis and cortex), pCO2:YFP (cortex), pUBQ10:YFP (constitutive), pSIG6:GUS (shoot), and pARSK1:GUS (root). Red signal indicates cell wall dye propidium iodide. Blue signal in pIQD22 and pCORI3 indicates chlorophyll auto-fluorescence. pML1, pSCR, pSUC2, pKST1, pS18, pPGP4, pCO2, and pUBQ10 seedlings are 5 days old, pSIG6 and pARSK1 seedlings are 12 days old, and pIQD22 and pCORI3 are 17 days old. Scale bars = 50 µm for pML1, pIQD22, pSCR, pSUC2, pCORI3, pKST1, pS18, pPGP4, pCO2, and pUBQ10; scale bar = 1 mm for pARSK1; and scale bar = 2 mm for pSIG6. B) Illustrations of the cell type-specific expression patterns driven by promoters used in this study to drive multi-targeted amiRNA expression. Illustrations are of leaf tissue (upper left), root cross-section (lower left), root tip (center) and whole plant (right).

Publications

January 20, 2026

mTACT: A cell type-specific transportome-scale amiRNA toolbox to overcome functional redundancy in Arabidopsis

Moran Anfang, Shir Ben Yaakov, Ning Su, Anat Shafir, Jenia Binenbaum, Reem Haj Yahya, Xikai Yu, Carl Procko, Hamtual Bar, Joanne Chory, Julian I Schroeder, Yosef Fichman, Itay Mayrose, Eilon Shani, Yuqin Zhang, mTACT: A cell type-specific transportome-scale amiRNA toolbox to overcome functional redundancy in Arabidopsis, Plant Physiology, 2025;, kiaf682, https://doi.org/10.1093/plphys/kiaf682

Hydrosensing

Image: Short-day Arabidopsis plants experiment for drought and ABA2 content. Credit: Barak Bitman, Tel Aviv University

Publications

November 3, 2025

In defense of funding foundational plant science

Joanna D Friesner, Cristiana T Argueso, Wolfgang Busch, Thorsten Hamann, Lucia Strader, Mary Williams, Shuang Wu, Adrienne H K Roeder, In defense of funding foundational plant science, The Plant Cell, Volume 37, Issue 5, May 2025, koaf106, https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koaf106

Hydrosensing

Image: Thermal imaging of tomato. Credit: Barak Bitman, Tel Aviv University

Publications

August 31, 2025

Arabidopsis research in 2030: Translating the computable plant

Brady, S., Auge, G., Ayalew, M., Balasubramanian, S., Hamann, T., Inze, D., ... & Provart, N. J. (2025). Arabidopsis research in 2030: Translating the computable plant. The Plant Journal, 121(5), e70047.

Hydrosensing

Publications

July 17, 2025

Consensus statement on Brillouin light scattering microscopy of biological materials

Bouvet, P., Bevilacqua, C., Ambekar, Y., Antonacci, G., Au, J., Caponi, S., ... & Elsayad, K. (2025). Consensus statement on Brillouin light scattering microscopy of biological materials. Nature Photonics, 19(7), 681-691. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01681-6

Hydrosensing

Publications

June 16, 2025

Redox-regulated Aux/IAA multimerization modulates auxin responses

Roy, D., Mehra, P., Clark, L., Mukkawar, V., Bellande, K., Martin-Arevalillo, R., ... & Sadanandom, A. (2025). Redox-regulated Aux/IAA multimerization modulates auxin responses. Science, eadu1470. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu1470

Hydrosensing

Publications

June 6, 2025

Future crop breeding needs to consider future soils

Raza, S., Pandey, B.K., Hawkesford, M.J. et al. Future crop breeding needs to consider future soils. Nature Plants 11, 939–941 (2025). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-025-01977-z

Hydrosensing

Schematic overview illustrating the library workflow, from design to screening. All coding genes were divided into phylogenetic trees, and trees were classified by function. sgRNAs were designed to target multiple genes located in close proximity to one another phylogenetically (indicated by colors). Each sgRNA was cloned into the Cas9 vector, creating a plasmid library. Transformed lines were screened with multi-targeted, large-scale, forward genetics for specific traits of interest, revealing hidden phenotypes. *Whole genome indicates all coding genes excluding transporters, transcription factors, and enzymes.

Publications

May 5, 2025

Construction of multi-targeted CRISPR libraries in tomato to overcome functional redundancy at genome-scale level

Berman, A., Su, N., Li, Z. et al. Construction of multi-targeted CRISPR libraries in tomato to overcome functional redundancy at genome-scale level. Nat Commun 16, 4111 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59280-6

Hydrosensing

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08941-z

Publications

May 2, 2025

Single-cell transcriptomics reveal how root tissues adapt to soil stress

Zhu, M., Hsu, C. W., Peralta Ogorek, L. L., Taylor, I. W., La Cavera, S., Oliveira, D. M., ... & Pandey, B. K. (2025). Single-cell transcriptomics reveal how root tissues adapt to soil stress. Nature, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08941-z

Hydrosensing