Erin Sparks
Faculty @ Mizzou & Danforth Center. Loves brace roots & biomechanics.
- Reposted by Erin SparksWe are excited to announce the Plant Biomechanics Webinar Series 2025! 🗓 Webinar #1: Thursday, 25 September 2025 🕑 Time: 14.00 – 15.40 (UTC+7) 🎙 Speakers: Yamamoto M. Matsuo-Ueda R. Noviandi G.I. Hutabarat 📝 Registration: ugm.id/PBMweb1
- Reposted by Erin SparksWe learned a lot about plant cell wall mechanics by stretching the Arabidopsis epidermis. Now published in @natcomms.nature.com Fibrous network nature of plant cell walls enables tunable mechanics for development doi.org/10.1038/s414...
- Excited for today’s #STLPlantFam25 Plant Science Family Reunion hosted by @39northstl.bsky.social. The joy of connecting with the STL plant fam is indescribable.
- It was such an honor to coordinate this plenary! So much amazing science happening in Plant Biomechanics. Thanks to @radinbio.bsky.social, @geitmannlab.bsky.social, Naomi Nakayama, and Frank Telewski for sharing their work! #PlantBio2025
- Day 2 Biomechanics Plenary, Chaired by Erin Sparks @erinsparks.bsky.social, kicks off with "Evolution of Organellar Mechanosensing" by Ivan Radin @radinbio.bsky.social, showcasing his lab's testing how plant organelles perceive mechanical forces and adjust their morphology in response. #PlantScience
- Reposted by Erin SparksPCA Member Ivan Radin presented this morning at the 2025 ASPB Conference with his talk on "Evolution of Organellar Mechanosensing." #PlantBio2025 @radinbio.bsky.social
- Reposted by Erin SparksASPB Fellow Anja Geitmann presents "From microstructural features to macroscopic traits" exploring her lab's work to understand the hierarchical architectural concepts underpinning metabolic processes. @geitmannlab.bsky.social #plantscience #PlantBio2025
- Reposted by Erin SparksLoved Naomi Nakayama’s talk-truly original research! #PlantBio2025
- Reposted by Erin Sparks#PlantBio2025 I am excited for my awesome grad student, Olivia @ohazel.bsky.social from @science.ubc.ca @ubcbotany.bsky.social presenting today at ASPB meeting in the poster session (unnumbered section). Here is Olivia's 1st author preprint: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
- Reposted by Erin SparksWe @ohazel.bsky.social @jessicaa-orr.bsky.social arrived in Wisconsin to attend the ASPB meeting. We are off to a great start here and had a great time hanging out with Erin @erinsparks.bsky.social today. Thanks Erin for making the time.
- Reposted by Erin SparksI'm off to ASPB #PlantBio2025 tomorrow, with a poster and talk on using X-ray imaging in Plant Biology. New soybean imaging to share, like this fly-through animation of the meristematic region from an XRM scan. @danforthcenter.bsky.social @zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social
- Reposted by Erin SparksCongratulations @kcox-bioguy.bsky.social for your ASPB award. Well deserved! #PlantBio2025
- Reposted by Erin SparksThe lab used our mutagen of choice, Ethyl methanesulfonate, and sequencing of somatic sectors to do some forward genetics in sorghum. Additional alleles in one generation to find and validate the gene! Something old, something new... @genetics-gsa.bsky.social academic.oup.com/genetics/art...
- Reposted by Erin SparksNew data from the Bob Schmitz lab (Marand 2025) on cell type-specific cis-regulation in maize! This study, in @science.org, reveals how DNA changes impact expression and maize traits. Explore the 176 new tracks on the browser under Epigenetics and DNA binding. ➡️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Erin Sparks🚨It's here!🚨 The Underground Journal Launched Today! @lindzeamays.bsky.social is our first featured artist! Sign up to learn more about Lindsay's work as a science illustrator. We are already accepting submissions for the next issue! So excited to see what you all create! #sciart #scicomm
- Reposted by Erin SparksMake your own maize mutants! Raj Khangura, Norman Best and I contributed maize pollen and seed EMS mutagenesis protocols for the new maize handbook! Updated practices 1/n cshprotocols.cshlp.org/content/earl... cshprotocols.cshlp.org/content/earl... cshprotocols.cshlp.org/content/earl...
- Reposted by Erin SparksReason number 4,517 (yes I'm counting) why @maizegdb.bsky.social is so awesome and we're so lucky as a community to have these folks. Also a great example of maize community sharing. UNPUBLISHED data already up on the community database showing conservation scores across the maize genome.
- We're excited to share PlantCAD browser tracks: a new, unpublished dataset integrating AI techniques for plant genome analysis. Explore it here: github.com/andorfc/Plan... We welcome the community's feedback and innovative use cases for this data!
- Reposted by Erin SparksThrilled that @10xgenomics.bsky.social is sponsoring the 6th Interdisciplinary #Plant Group Root (IPG) #Biology Symposium at Mizzou! May 20-23, 2025 IPG is a community of researchers at at MU who are pursuing novel ideas in the field of plant biology! link below! ipg.missouri.edu/symposium/in...
- Reposted by Erin Sparks📣 #PlantBio2025 Plenary: Biomechanics.🌱 Learn more and register now! buff.ly/eAQJjVe 👉Advanced rates end June 10! Hurry and register soon for the best savings on the event you don’t want to miss. buff.ly/dtqtnUX #PlantScience
- Reposted by Erin Sparks(1/15) We are happy to share the recent preprint from the lab, in a collaboration with Erin Sparks @erinsparks.bsky.social and Norman Best. This story is focused on cell division and auxin in presence of one of the toxic metals, lead (Pb). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Lead, a toxic metal, alters auxin-mediated root growth and gravitropic responses in maize and Arabidopsis biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Erin Sparks👀
- 📜 CarboTag: a modular approach for live and functional imaging of plant cell walls 🧑🔬 Maarten Besten, Joris Sprakel, et al. 📔 @naturemethods.bsky.social 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #️⃣ #PlantScience #PlantCellWalls #PlantTools #PlantMicroscopy #PlantImaging #PlantMethods
- Reposted by Erin Sparks🌱🦠👩🏾🔬 Check out Shanice and her awesome work!
- Plant health is essential to food security, yet pathogens continue to threaten crops worldwide. To better understand how disease takes hold—& how to stop them—HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow @shanice-webster.bsky.social is exploring the dynamic relationships among plants, microbes, & disease-causing agents.
- Reposted by Erin SparksPlant Science Research Weekly -- Firmly grounded: root system stiffness and plant mechanics (Journal of Experimental Botany) (Summary by Irene I. Ikiriko) buff.ly/HBp5OK5 #PlantaePSRW
- Reposted by Erin Sparks(1/17) We are excited to share the Ashraf and Gallagher labs collaboration on cell cycle regulation during environmental stress recovery in Arabidopsis, Brachypodium, and ryegrass.
- Cell cycle follows pause and play mechanism in environment stress recovery in diverse plant species biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- Reposted by Erin SparksLatest paper from @philcarella.bsky.social lab! Pseudomonas viridiflava as a naturally occurring pathogens of Marchantia. ▶️ T3SS matters ▶️ conserved effectors for infection in angio and Marchantia www.cell.com/current-biol...
- Reposted by Erin SparksThe 2025 maize genetics meeting is over. Looking forward to having the 2026 maize meeting from Feb 26 to March 1 in Cologne (Köln), Germany 🇩🇪. Please already mark your calendars. #MGM2025 > #MGM2026.
- Excited that this paper from my group is now out! 🥳 congrats to all the authors.
- TECHNICAL INNOVATION: 'A tool to measure maize root system stiffness that enables a comprehensive understanding of plant mechanics and lodging' - Hostetler et al, doi.org/10.1093/jxb/... #plantscience 🧪
- Reposted by Erin SparksWe’re proud to announce a new podcast, Leaf it to Us, hosted by Nora Spurling and Aly Baumgartner! As a special preview, the pilot episode and its accompanying bonus episode are both now out on the Common Descent podcast feed! Take a listen and let us know what you think!
- Thank you Katie! I’m beyond honored to receive this award from a community that has welcomed me with open arms and endless seed supplies. 🥰🌽
- A huge congrats to Erin for winning the Maize Genetics Early Career Award! We are lucky to have the Erin joining @danforthcenter.bsky.social this summer as a joint faculty member.
- Sparks Lab at the Maize Meeting 2025!
- Reposted by Erin SparksNearing 400 members on our Zeavolution slack! Want to interact with other members of the maize genetics community? We have a weekly webinar on maize diversity/evolution as well. DM me and I'll share a link to join the slack.
- Reposted by Erin SparksSome of my postdoc work has been "exposed" today in @theplantjournal.bsky.social! 😁🎉🔬 We developed ExPOSE - a method to perform expansion microscopy in plant protoplast systems. Here's a quick🧵of the details: @meter76.bsky.social @lily-oconnor.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
- Reposted by Erin SparksWe are hiring! Are you interested in lateral root development and the cellular processes that accommodate these newly formed organs? If yes, apply! We are recruiting a Post-doc (from May 2025) and a PhD student (from September 2025). www.unine.ch/lbmc/jobs/
- Reposted by Erin Sparksthis website shows you how many jobs NIH funding creates for your state along with the overall economic activity generated www.unitedformedicalresearch.org/nih-in-your-...
- Reposted by Erin SparksThreats to government support for scientific research cause ripple effects in the scientific community. Read more: www.danforthcenter.org/news/st-loui...
- Reposted by Erin Sparksjust stumbled on a real jaw-dropper of a line in an essay -- “The corollary of being interested in a great range of things is to have sympathy with a great range of outlooks” -- and that, my friends, is why reading is so important.
- Reposted by Erin SparksMy occasional reminder to folks on tenure and promotion committees that there will be a cohort of people whose early careers were defined entirely by the pandemic and *waves vaguely* this nonsense, and it *will* impact their productivity. It can't not.
- Reposted by Erin SparksWe hope you join us for the 2025 NAPPN Annual Conference taking place Feb. 25th to 27th, 2025! This year, the meeting looks a little different in structure, with NAPPN hosting a virtual conference and several regional Hubs hosting additional in-person events www.plantphenotyping.org/conference-h...
- Very excited for this session! Join us in Milwaukee next July!
- #PlantBio2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (July 26-30), hosted by @aspbofficial.bsky.social features a plenary on #plantbiomechanics chaired by @erinsparks.bsky.social plantbiology.aspb.org/plenary-symp... Speakers: @geitmannlab.bsky.social, Naomi Nakayama, @radinbio.bsky.social, Frank W. Telewski
- Reposted by Erin Sparks[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Erin SparksDelighted to announce the 18th #FASEB Mechanisms of Plants Development will take place Aug 24-28th. ‼️ Register before June 29th → tinyurl.com/24fsjq6a 🌱 🎁 Vote for the conference image by Jan 31st → tinyurl.com/2872w6vm The poster & speakers lineup will be announced in early Feb. Spread the word!
- Ditto but due to the sheer number of review requests I get in December! Submit by November or wait until next year!
- Reposted by Erin Sparks📜 Update on the Structure and Regulated Biosynthesis of the Apoplastic Polymers Cutin and Suberin 🧑🔬 Dylan K Kosma, José Graca, Isabel Molina 📙 @plantphys.bsky.social 🔗 academic.oup.com/plphys/advan... #️⃣ #PlantScience #Suberin #Cutin #PlantPhysiology
- Reposted by Erin SparksFriends don't let friends make bad graphs repo has been updated! Friends don't let friends use histogram for small sample sizes. Bin numbers affect the appearance of histograms, thus not robust to small (and modest sample sizes). They stabilize w/ large sample sizes. github.com/cxli233/Frie...
- Reposted by Erin SparksThe second Plant Cell Identity webinar by PCA is coming next Tuesday (10th December)! It will be my pleasure the moderate the exciting talks from @rachelmshahan.bsky.social and Geoff Schiebinger. If you haven't signed up for the series yet, you can do so here: bit.ly/PCAPCI_Webinar
- Reposted by Erin SparksProud to share our new @plantphys.bsky.social review exploring the anatomical and molecular basis for root adaptations to the environment. Prashanth Ramachandran and Andrea Ramirez detail cell types and pathways that help plants stay resilient in a changing world. academic.oup.com/plphys/advan...
- Reposted by Erin SparksI am so excited to share Dr. C Manzano’s work: she demonstrates the developmental timeline, function and genetic regulation of the polar lignin cap in the tomato root. It functions as a distinct intercellular barrier from the Casparian strip and is repressed in inner layers. rdcu.be/d10Pd
- Reposted by Erin SparksShout out to the faculty fighting for their lives this week as they try to navigate the last week of classes, annual reports, and a flood of emails you have to navigate through (which will inevitably be increased 10-fold once final grades post). May the odds be ever in our favor. #AcademicSky
- Reposted by Erin SparksDr Amelia Henry of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines was the 10th Dundee #Root Medal recipient. Her medal lecture was entitled “Integrated root phenotypes under seedling stage drought in direct-seeded rice” 🧪 #PlantScience www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e_s...
- Reposted by Erin Sparks🌽 "Kernel of Insight" 🌽 A starter pack of maize researchers to follow on Bluesky! Stay connected, share ideas, and grow your network in Zea mays science. 🌟 Suggestions welcome—let's build this community together! #MaizeResearch #ZeaMays #KernelOfInsight go.bsky.app/RPeENJzat://did:plc:yov5vurir6xeopvphrhzxvyf/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lbcrw3lm2e2n
- Reposted by Erin SparksThe announcement for the 67th Annual Maize Genetics Meeting (#MGM2025) is here! 📅 Join us March 6-9, 2025, at Union Station, St. Louis, MO, USA. 🌽 View the PDF announcement: documents.maizegdb.org/maizemeeting...
- Reposted by Erin SparksIn our latest work, we provide molecular insights into the age-dependent morphological changes occurring in the root meristem during phase change. Perseverance over many years by BaoJun Yang and Yanbiao Sun. Generous funding by ERC, FWO, VIB and UGent #plantscience www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- ahhh love love love all the defectors coming to Bluesky!!! 😍
- The University of Missouri is searching for an Assistant Professor in Root Biology! Please share! erecruit.umsystem.edu/psp/tamext/C...
- And just like that our 2024 field season is up and running! Hard to believe this is the #SparksLab 8th field season!
- Reposted by Erin SparksI 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/IowaStateJob...
- Reposted by Erin SparksI've got a postdoc position open in my lab. Do you work on moss, single cell transcriptomics or plant developmental genomics? Consider applying for this position - more here: recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF06360
- Its Maize Genetics Meeting week!!!!! 🌽🥳
- We had a fantastic Sparks Lab Research Day today - an annual tradition where we share prior year accomplishments and set strategic plans for the year ahead. 2024 has been deemed the "Year of the Publication" as in - OMG we have so much data we need to get out in the world. 😱
- This was hands down the BEST bystander training I've been involved in. It's online, but completely engaging. I did this last Fall and I had just left the field after 5h+ baking in the sun and had low expectations of my ability to learn/engage. I was wrong - it was that good. Sign up for real.
- ROOT & SHOOT is offering free bystander intervention trainings for plant biologists. Learn how to respond when you observe harmful interactions. Free, very useful training (1 or 3 hours). Feb 12 or 15, again in May. #PlantScience For more info and to sign up see rootandshoot.org/2024-bystand...
- This is awesome!
- The Company of Biologists & its journals Development, Journal of Cell Science, Journal of Experimental Biology & Biology Open offer Travelling Fellowships of up to £3,000 to #PhD students & #postdocs to make collaborative visits to other labs. Deadline: 2 Feb '24 www.biologists.com/grants/trave...
- Reposted by Erin SparksFun announcement this morning. A testament to all the fantastic talented folks I've had the privilege of working with over the last 15 years! www.nasonline.org/programs/awa...
- Grateful beyond words for amazing friends/colleagues who act as accountability partners, sounding boards, peer mentors, and have helped me get (mentally) back in the game this weekend!
- Reposted by Erin Sparks📜 A pilot oral history of plant synthetic biology 🧑🔬 Jaya Joshi, Andrew D. Hanson 📔 Plant Physiology 🔗 academic.oup.com/plphys/advan... #️⃣ (Feeds) #PlantScience #PlantSynBio #SyntheticBiology #PlantDevelopment #PlantGMOs
- Reposted by Erin SparksA suberized exodermis is required for tomato drought tolerance. Exciting, impactful work from the Brady lab and I’m delighted to have contributed to it! doi.org/10.1038/s414...
