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 👇

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 👇

📣 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 👇

📣 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 🥳

The last 5 years with @teamthomma.bsky.social have been an incredible journey. I learned incredibly much during my PhD and made many great friends 🤓 Now I'm moving to Tokyo 🇯🇵 to join the group of @keihiruma.bsky.social for my first postdoc. Excited for this new chapter and all that's ahead!

📣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/...

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...

1/ Happy to share our latest work, now on bioRxiv! 🌱🍄 We explore how Serendipita indica effectors target root plastids and modulate plastidial metabolism through prion-like domains. bioRxiv: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #plastids #plantmicrobe #chloroplasts #plants

📣 New preprint on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social: Bacteria rewire fungal antimicrobial gene expression in microbial arms races www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... This work, led by outstanding @jinyi-zhu.bsky.social, shows that bacteria suppress fungal antimicrobial protein expression to evade antagonism

Fungi deploy antimicrobial proteins (AMPs) to compete with microbes, including bacteria. But can bacteria fight back? We @teamthomma.bsky.social found that some AMP-sensitive bacteria can repress AMP deployment, suggesting an unrecognized bacterial–fungal arms race. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

📢 EffectorGeneP is finally here! Stop missing small, single-exon or orphan genes from your favourite pathogen genome. Current tools only annotate 15%-78% of effector genes, EffectorGeneP finds 95% - including the large AvrSr26 family in stem rust. #Bioinformatics 📖 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Where do plant pathogen effectors come from? @mesny.bsky.social shows how fungi turned shield 🛡️ into sword ⚔️ to end up with dual-function molecules to disrupt host immunity & protective host microbiota. @ceplas.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social @madfungi.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Plant-associated fungi co-opt ancient antimicrobials for host manipulation

Fungal effectors may have evolved from ancient antimicrobials, shaping plant microbiota and immunity during infection.

science.org

Delighted to see this work out in #ScienceAdvancesResearch @science.org where we uncover a surprising evolutionary origin of fungal effector proteins as ancient antimicrobials. Led by the super-star @mesny.bsky.social in the frame of @ceplas.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social & @madfungi.bsky.social

Universität zu Köln@unicologne.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🍂🌱 An international research team led by @teamthomma.bsky.social has discovered the surprising evolutionary origin of fungal effector proteins: molecules that pathogens use today to infect their hosts appear to have evolved from ancient antimicrobial proteins. More: ➡️ uni.koeln/UCMWQ #UniCologne

🎉 📰 Very happy to share the journal publication of our manuscript "Plant-associated fungi co-opt ancient antimicrobials for host manipulation"! #ScienceAdvancesResearch @science.org @teamthomma.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Plant-associated fungi co-opt ancient antimicrobials for host manipulation

Fungal effectors may have evolved from ancient antimicrobials, shaping plant microbiota and immunity during infection.

science.org

🥳 Happy that our manuscript, first published on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social has been accepted for publication in "Microbiome" and will be part of a collection on "Harnessing plant microbiomes to improve performance and mechanistic understanding" link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Differential contributions of an antimicrobial effector from Verticillium dahliae to virulence and tomato microbiota assembly across natural soils - Microbiome

Background Throughout their life cycle, plants associate with diverse and complex microbial communities collectively known as their microbiota. These microbiota contribute to plant performance and hea...

link.springer.com

Team Thomma@teamthomma.bsky.social · 10mo ago

📣 New @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social preprint, another joint-venture of @wolki95.bsky.social & @antonkraege.bsky.social, co-directed by @nicksnelders.bsky.social. Here’s a 🧵

🎉 Last week @antonkraege.bsky.social brilliantly defended his PhD thesis @unicologne.bsky.social entitled "Functional and Evolutionary Characterisation of Antimicrobial Effectors Secreted by Verticillium dahliae to Shape Host Microbiota" #proudPI #PhDone

PhD done! 🎓 Grateful to my examiners for the great discussion and to my amazing colleagues and friends for the support! ✨

Team Thomma@teamthomma.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🎉 Yesterday we enjoyed the glorious defence of @gabriellapetti.bsky.social of her @unicologne.bsky.social PhD thesis on "Homologous antimicrobial proteins in plants and fungi: conserved mechanisms shaping the plant microbiota" #proudPI #PhDone ..mind the crown modeled after the Ave1 NMR structure!😍

🎉 Yesterday we enjoyed the glorious defence of @gabriellapetti.bsky.social of her @unicologne.bsky.social PhD thesis on "Homologous antimicrobial proteins in plants and fungi: conserved mechanisms shaping the plant microbiota" #proudPI #PhDone ..mind the crown modeled after the Ave1 NMR structure!😍

📣 Major milestone achieved! First @teamthomma.bsky.social @unicologne.bsky.social PhD student graduated 🎉! Congratulations to @wolki95.bsky.social for a stellar defence of a thesis on antimicrobial effectors of Verticillium dahliae that drive niche adaptation #proudPI #PhDone

Undermining the cry for help: the phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae secretes an antimicrobial effector protein to undermine host recruitment of antagonistic Pseudomonas bacteria Kraege et al. @teamthomma.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I’m very happy to see my fist article now officially published 🥳 great work by my partner in crime @wolki95.bsky.social and the rest of @teamthomma.bsky.social! Find it here: doi.org/10.1111/nph.... or have a look at the 🧵⬇️

Undermining the cry for help: the phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae secretes an antimicrobial effector protein to undermine host recruitment of antagonistic Pseudomonas bacteria

During pathogen attack, plants recruit beneficial microbes in a ‘cry for help’ to mitigate disease development. Simultaneously, pathogens secrete effectors to promote host colonisation through vario...

doi.org

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

Last week, our latest @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint was released, a joint-venture of @antonkraege.bsky.social & @wolki95.bsky.social and co-directed by @nicksnelders.bsky.social a 🧵

📣 Now announcing the journal publication 📄 of our work in @newphyt.bsky.social on how Verticillium undermines the plant's 🌱 "cry for help": terrific work by @antonkraege.bsky.social & @wolki95.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/nph....

Undermining the cry for help: the phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae secretes an antimicrobial effector protein to undermine host recruitment of antagonistic Pseudomonas bacteria

During pathogen attack, plants recruit beneficial microbes in a ‘cry for help’ to mitigate disease development. Simultaneously, pathogens secrete effectors to promote host colonisation through vario...

doi.org

📣 New @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social preprint, another joint-venture of @wolki95.bsky.social & @antonkraege.bsky.social, co-directed by @nicksnelders.bsky.social. Here’s a 🧵

bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Differential contributions of an antimicrobial effector from Verticillium dahliae to virulence and tomato microbiota assembly across natural soils https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679524v1

Differential contributions of an antimicrobial effector from Verticillium dahliae to virulence and tomato microbiota assembly across natural soils https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679524v1

📣 Massively proud of this ⬇️ great study, led by the brilliant @mesny.bsky.social surprisingly uncovering that many pathogen effectors stem from ancient antimicrobials 🤯 #EffectorWisdom #EvoMPMI

Fantin Mesny@mesny.bsky.social · 12mo ago

📣 NEW PREPRINT 📝 We identified evolutionary origins of many fungal effectors! We show that fungi secrete lots of antimicrobial proteins, and that some of them were repurposed by plant pathogens for host immune suppression. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... cc @teamthomma.bsky.social

📣 NEW PREPRINT 📝 We identified evolutionary origins of many fungal effectors! We show that fungi secrete lots of antimicrobial proteins, and that some of them were repurposed by plant pathogens for host immune suppression. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... cc @teamthomma.bsky.social

Plant-associated fungi co-opt ancient antimicrobials for host manipulation

Evolutionary histories of effector proteins secreted by fungal pathogens to mediate plant colonization remain largely elusive. While most functionally characterized effectors modulate plant immunity, ...

biorxiv.org

My poster is up at #2025ISMPMI. Come by P-372 Thursday afternoon if you are interested in fungal evolution, effectors and microbial competitions! More research by @teamthomma.bsky.social at P-091, P-170, P-299, P-317, P-337 and P-388.

Last week, our latest @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint was released, a joint-venture of @antonkraege.bsky.social & @wolki95.bsky.social and co-directed by @nicksnelders.bsky.social a 🧵

bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · last yr.

Undermining the cry for help: The phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae secretes an antimicrobial effector protein to undermine host recruitment of antagonistic Pseudomonas bacteria https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.09.658588v1

Undermining the cry for help: The phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae secretes an antimicrobial effector protein to undermine host recruitment of antagonistic Pseudomonas bacteria https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.09.658588v1