Inlay

A centre of excellence for experimental plant research and forest biotechnology in Northern Sweden that belongs to Umea University and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Umeå Plant Science Centre

🧪Curious to learn more about Karin's path in science? 🌾 Read this interview: www.upsc.se/researchers/... And thank you to @ioannaantoniadi.bsky.social and @srobertgroup.bsky.social for organising the symposium.

Umeå Plant Science Centre

⏳ Application deadline approaching: 6 June 🧪🌾 A final reminder about this postdoctoral opportunity in Nathaniel Street's group, exploring how transposable elements contribute to genome evolution and regulatory innovation in plants.🧬 See the original post for details and application 👇

🧪🌾PAPER – How can we improve the efficiency of tree breeding?🧬 Harry Wu and colleagues improved genomic prediction of wood and growth traits in slash pine, providing a cost-effective strategy to accelerate tree breeding. Read more in BMC Plant Biology: doi.org/10.1186/s128...

🧪🌾PAPER – How to capture the full diversity of plant-associated microbes?🦠 Benedicte Albrectsen and colleagues show that combining different genetic markers reveals more microbial diversity associated with potato plants. Read more in Plant-Environment Interactions: doi.org/10.1002/pei3...

🧪🌾Today, colleagues, collaborators and former group members gathered to celebrate Karin Ljung and her many contributions to science and academia.🌱🎓 Wonderful to see so many former group members return to share their work and memories. Thank you, Karin, and all the best for the future!

Umeå Plant Science Centre

Last chance to apply to join IceLab Camp! Apply by midnight on the 10th of June to join us. #AcademicSky #PhDSky #PostdocSky

This study aimed to enhance the efficiency of genomic prediction for pulpwood-related traits in slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm. var. elliottii) by integrating genome-wide association study (GWAS) information with genomic selection (GS). We evaluated 12 traits related to growth, fiber, and wood chemical composition in a population of 340 individuals genotyped with 319,286 high-quality SNPs, comparing the performance of six GS models, including GBLUP and Bayesian methods, under varying training population sizes and marker densities. The results showed that while both GBLUP and Bayesian Lasso performed well, Bayesian Lasso slightly outperformed GBLUP for fiber traits. Predictive ability (PA) plateaued at approximately 100 K SNPs for fiber traits, 60 K for DBH, and 10 K for wood chemical composition traits in all models. Using 100 K random SNPs, PA ranged from 0.05 to 0.23, which expanded to 0.09–0.35 with GWAS-guided SNP preselection (maximum improvement of 16.26%) and further broadened to 0.01–0.38 by incorporating large-effect QTLs (greatest improvement of 23.54%). Overall, integrating GWAS information into GS frameworks significantly improved prediction accuracy as assessed by t-test, offering a cost-effective strategy to accelerate genetic improvement. These findings provide practical guidance for enhancing breeding efficiency in slash pine and other conifer breeding programs.

What a joy to celebrate Karin Ljung’s inspiring journey as a scientist, mentor, and role model! It was fantastic to welcome several generations of the Ljung crowd and share a memorable day together. @nowako76.bsky.social @ioannaantoniadi.bsky.social @umeaplantsciencecentre.se

⏰ 1 week to go... ⏰ There's still time to register for our next webinar 'all aabout' plant genome editing 🧬 📅 Tuesday 16th June Ft talks from 🌾Claudia Payacán Ortiz - NeoCrop Technologies 🌱Jillis Grubben @w-u-r.bsky.social Register for free! 👉 buff.ly/KrzQqFn #plantscience #CRISPR

Accurate profiling of plant-associated fungal and oomycete communities depends critically on the choice of ITS marker. Using Illumina sequencing for ITS1/ITS2 and PacBio HiFi sequencing for full-leng...

Umeå Plant Science Centre

🧪🌾VACANCY - Postdoc in Plant Genomics & Transposable Elements Interested in how transposable elements shape plant genomes?🧬 Join Nathaniel Street’s group and work with genomics and bioinformatics approaches to study genome evolution in conifers. 👉 Apply by June 6: www.umu.se/en/work-with...

🎉 🔚 That's a wrap on the 2026 IceLab Lunch Pitch season! Thank you to all the speakers for bringing your research, problems, opportunities, ideas and collaborative sparks. We hope you all found a new insight, and perhaps new connections.

Umeå Plant Science Centre

Association of Applied Biologists

🚨Help Shape the Future of ASPB! We are exploring the best ways to serve the plant biology community in the years ahead, and your input is essential.🌱 Complete this brief survey and share your thoughts👉 buff.ly/6raw9OA #PlantScience #PlantSci

American Society of Plant Biologists

Umeå Plant Science Centre

Join IceLab Camp! An international 2 ECTS course for early career researchers wanting to explore interdisciplinary science. The course is free & brings you to the forests of northern Sweden for creative thinking, teamwork and proposal writing. #PhDLife #PostdocLife #ECRchat #ComplexityScience