A collection of perspectives on the opportunities and challenges in single-cell and spatial biology is now published in @ThePlantCell . academic.oup.com/plcell/advan... Happy to have contributed the chapter, “Spatial transcriptomics in plants: where next?”

Excited to share that our paper on Horizontal Gene Transfer is now out in its final form in @gigascience.bsky.social! 🥳 By analysing 163 high-quality ant genomes, we show that HGT from bacteria is widespread across the ants and likely has adaptive functions! doi.org/10.1093/giga... 🐜📸: Alex Wild

📣 New preprint! 🧵 Fantastic work led by @antonkraege.bsky.social Fact: Cerato-platanins are everywhere in fungi. Found across the fungal kingdom, implicated in everything from development to virulence to immune activation. But what do they *actually* do? We finally found the answer 👇

Super proud to see this preprint out! We found that a conserved fungal protein family has ancient antimicrobial activity 🍄‍🟫 I loved working on this evolutionary side of plant pathogenicity together with my coauthors. Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 👇 or see the 🧵 here

Team Thomma@teamthomma.bsky.social · last wk.

📣 New preprint! 🧵 Fantastic work led by @antonkraege.bsky.social Fact: Cerato-platanins are everywhere in fungi. Found across the fungal kingdom, implicated in everything from development to virulence to immune activation. But what do they *actually* do? We finally found the answer 👇

Hot off the press (so to speak)! Where we described new factors that inhibit meiotic crossovers near centromeres rdcu.be/fvHfe thread👇

The deSUMOylase SPF2 and the cohesin regulators SGO2 and CTF18 suppress crossovers near centromeres

Nature Plants - Gamboa et al. identified three proteins that restrict meiotic crossovers near centromeres. This finding suggests that cohesion regulation plays a role in this suppression and...

rdcu.be

We kick off the Keynote talks of our @thesainsburylab.bsky.social TSL Summer Conference with Alga Zuccaro @Team_Zuccaro and beneficial fungi www.tsl.ac.uk/tsl-summer-c...

How does gravity affect mitochondrial biology - and what are the implications for space travel? go.nature.com/4vDMeoK

Why do astronauts' bodies waste away? Space Station study points to mitochondria

Nature - Human cells cultured in microgravity produced fewer mitochondrial proteins.

go.nature.com

🦠 #Bacteria organise themselves to hitchhike across large distances @susiegriggo.bsky.social @flinders.university.bsky.social #chemotaxis #metagenomics #EnvironmentalMicrobiology

Bacteria organise themselves to hitchhike across large distances

Microbes rarely travel alone. In any given environment, millions of microbial species compete with each other for resources while locked in an endless state of warfare […]

dlvr.it

A tomato MIK2‐clade receptor is involved in the perception of a Fusarium‐derived elicitor - Maroschek - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A tomato <fc>MIK2</fc>‐clade receptor is involved in the perception of a <fi>Fusarium</fi>‐derived elicitor

Fusarium elicitor responsivness and MIK2-clade proteins are conserved across plant families.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

📣 Sunny ☀️ celebration 🎉🥳: Chen-Yu Kuan succesfully defended her PhD thesis entitled "Genome evolution in the plant-pathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae in the absence of apparent sexual reproduction" @unicologne.bsky.social 🥳

Excited to see our new preprint on bioRxiv! 🌱🤖 We used AI protein design (RFdiffusion + ProteinMPNN) to build brand-new sensor domains from scratch and installed them in a rice NLR immune receptor engineering recognition of a Fusarium effector FoSSP17

@yuxuan-xi.bsky.social · 4w ago

Our new preprint is out! Using AI-guided design (RFdiffusion + ProteinMPNN), we engineered a plant immune receptor to recognise non-cognate pathogen effectors. Huge thanks to our amazing co-authors for making this possible! doi.org/10.64898/202...

Another Fusarium oxysporum genome is out! 🚨 This time, together with @GemaPueblaPlanas we solved the genome of F. oxysporum MRL8996, a clinical strain isolated from a severe case of contact lens-associated keratitis. 👁️👇🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A near-complete genome assembly of the Fusarium oxysporum keratitis isolate MRL8996

Fusarium oxysporum MRL8996 is a fungal strain isolated from a severe case of contact lens-associated keratitis. Here we report a near-complete genome assembly of this isolate using a hybrid Nanopore a...

biorxiv.org

Our research in a nutshell 🧬🌱🦠🔬 Visit our lab website to learn more: noborilab.org

The Sainsbury Laboratory@thesainsburylab.bsky.social · 4w ago

What happens when plants are attacked by microbes, and how do they defend themselves without specialised or mobile immune cells? Watch the video to learn more about how the @tatsuyanobori.bsky.social group is decoding plant immunity, cell by cell: www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1wT...

Our new preprint is out! Using AI-guided design (RFdiffusion + ProteinMPNN), we engineered a plant immune receptor to recognise non-cognate pathogen effectors. Huge thanks to our amazing co-authors for making this possible! doi.org/10.64898/202...

Computational design of de novo integrated domains enables rational control of pathogen effector recognition in plant NLR immune receptors.

The rapid evolution of plant pathogens poses a persistent threat to global agricultural sustainability, often outpacing the discovery and deployment of natural disease resistance genes. While bioengin...

doi.org

Out Now! Mobile genetic elements shape microbial diversity and functions in thawing permafrost soils #MicroSky

Mobile genetic elements shape microbial diversity and functions in thawing permafrost soils

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 29 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02391-7An 8-year soil meta-omic time series shows how mobile genetic elements shape permafrost microbial diversity and impact a range of functions, including carbon and nutrient cycling.

go.nature.com

Thrilled to see this work finally out in Nature Communications! @natcomms.nature.com. Thanks again to all the people involved, to @lfaino.bsky.social and @teamthomma.bsky.social .

Team Thomma@teamthomma.bsky.social · last mo.

First 👀 on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, now online in @natureportfolio.nature.com Nature Communications: A structurally unique effector shared between vascular wilt fungi drives cotton and olive defoliation #Verticillium #Fusarium @lfaino.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

OrthoFinder v3: a tool for phylogenetic orthology inference with boosted accuracy and scalability for massive datasets. @lauriebelch.bsky.social @stevenkelly.bsky.social @jonathancholmes.bsky.social @yiliu88.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

OrthoFinder: improved phylogenetic orthology inference with enhanced accuracy and scalability - Nature Methods

The updated OrthoFinder v3 software boosts accuracy and scalability in phylogenetic orthology inference with massive and diverse datasets.

nature.com

🌱🧬Pathogens manipulate the apoplast by controlling pH, water & nutrients. Plants fight back with oxidative bursts, toxins & hydrolases. Adapted pathogens disarm these defenses & hide from detection Molecular arms race outside the cell @annualreviews.bsky.social www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Extracellular Antagonists: Offense and Counter-Defense in the Apoplast

Extracellular interactions are pivotal in the plant–pathogen arms race. Fungal, bacterial, and oomycete pathogens manipulate the apoplast to control pH, water soaking, sugar levels, and nutrient avail...

annualreviews.org

Our paper "Gene ancestries reveal diverse microbial associations during eukaryogenesis.” is finally out in Nature. Eukaryogenesis was likely a gradual process shaped by multiple microbial partners and virus-mediated gene transfer, rather than a single binary symbiosis. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

As seen on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social: our story on how the dreaded late blight pathogen hijacks a helper NLR pathway is now out in its final form! 🎉 Meet AVRcap1b: the two-faced effector 🧵👇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A potato late blight pathogen effector interacts with ENTH-domain protein TOL9a and an activated helper NLR to suppress immunity

A plant pathogen effector suppresses an activated helper NLR via a host ENTH domain–containing protein, NbTOL9a.

science.org

TIRs are key regulators of plant immunity, but the role of conserved TIR-only proteins has remained unclear. Here, we compare TIR-only proteins from Arabidopsis and barley and show that they share a conserved role in plant immunity. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Conserved TIR-only proteins drive transcriptional defense and basal immunity in dicot and monocot plants

Toll/interleukin-1/resistance (TIR) domain NADase enzymes signal in plant immunity by producing ribosylated nucleotide second messengers which activate EDS1 dimer-helper NLR pathways to restrict patho...

biorxiv.org

New paper from @hennilaessle.bsky.social & Jane @parkergroup.bsky.social at the @mpipz.bsky.social in Cologne. They show that TIR-only proteins, conserved between Arabidopsis & Barley, function by triggering PTI defenses independently of NLRs/ETI. #PlantScience #PlantImmunity #EvoMPMI

bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Conserved TIR-only proteins drive transcriptional defense and basal immunity in dicot and monocot plants https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.07.730676v1

Effector recognition by molecular mimicry of its target by an NLR - enabling multiple disease resistance specificities to be generated- first seen on @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social - great work led by @dianagdlc.bsky.social and Matt Moscou www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Molecular mimicry of a pathogen virulence target by a plant immune receptor

Plants and animals respond to pathogen attack by mounting innate immune responses that require intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins. These immune receptors detect pathog...

science.org

📣Last week another @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social dropped: "A fungal pathogen effector that shapes host plant microbiota kills bacteria through lipoteichoic acid binding and membrane disruption" a joint effort by @nicksnelders.bsky.social & @gabriellapetti.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to share our latest study with @nicksnelders.bsky.social and @teamthomma.bsky.social! We uncover the mode of action of the V. dahliae antimicrobial effector Ave1 and show that it binds LTA and disrupts bacterial membranes 🦠 www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Here we show that low intra-microbiota antagonism underlies stable, protective barley root microbiota. Microbiota function cannot be predicted from beneficial traits of individual strains alone, but depends on compatibility among community members. #Microbiome #Plant www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to share my review in Nature Reviews Microbiology on soil fungal ecology. Fungal diversity, ecology and functions in soil ecosystems Hope people will find it useful! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Fungal diversity, ecology and functions in soil ecosystems - Nature Reviews Microbiology

In this Review, Rillig explores the diversity of fungi in the soil ecosystem, their ecological interactions and diverse ecological roles in terrestrial ecosystems as well as anthropogenic factors that...

nature.com

Very happy to share results from the first year of my PhD: we found that the model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii engages in a mutualistic interaction with Verticillium fungi. With @hroevenich.bsky.social and Urs. Graphical abstract: 🟢 + 🍄= 💚 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii forms mutualistic interactions with Verticillium fungi https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.20.726472v1

Check out our latest work! AlphaFold 3 revealed a transient immune receptor complex that eluded biochemical studies for almost a decade 🤯 We describe a conserved structural logic underlying sensor–helper communication in an NLR immune receptor network 🧵👇

bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 3mo ago

A conserved structural logic underlies sensor-helper NLR communication in the NRC immune receptor network https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.18.725810v1