We found that TIR domains in animal immune proteins, including the human TLR4, are enzymes that cleave NAD+ to produce the signaling molecule cADPR Read our new preprint by talented Bohdana Hurieva: “Conserved catalytic activity of immune TIR domains in animals” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

1/ ✨ New preprint alert ✨ It is my pleasure to share: "Stepwise evolution of the developmental and symbiotic functions of DELLA in land plants" Here we investigated the role of the single GRAS transcription factor DELLA in #MyMarchantia doi.org/10.64898/202... #PlantScience A thread...

Research highlight by @natplants.nature.com on our study at @lrsv-toulouse.bsky.social : Fungi genes to fight fungi ! ⏬️

Nature Plants@natplants.nature.com · 6mo ago

Our editors write: - Plant–microbe interaction: Root engineering blocks methanogens rdcu.be/e4yJc - Marchantia immunity: Fungi genes to fight fungi rdcu.be/e4yJl

Congratulations to Sonomi Yamaguchi for her paper at @nature.com. Sonomi discovered Clover defense and explained how nucleotide signals control each step of viral sensing, immune regulation, and viral restriction – named for her beautiful "four-leaf" structures 🍀 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Benthamiana rhapsody 🎶 🌱 How benthi is the go-to system for cracking the activation mechanism of an Arabidopsis TIR-NLR immune receptor— that’s the rhapsody. Congrats He Zhao and Selvaraj for this wonderful collaboration 👇🏼 doi.org/10.64898/202...

CPK28 was already present in the first land plant, and presents a paradox: the Marchantia version can perfectly replace the Arabidopsis version for immunity, but does not seem to participate to immunity in Marchantia ... A lot more molecular data here => www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

1/9 Our latest paper on immunity mechanisms in Marchantia just out @pnas.org ! 🔽 Close collaboration between our former PhD students @karimaelm.bsky.social and @chloe-beaulieu.bsky.social ! and the old gard @jacquet-chris.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Congratulations Sylvain and @nemopeeters.bsky.social !

Nemo Peeters@nemopeeters.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🆕 version work @sylvain-vicente.bsky.social and collaborators #BIOSP #MathNum @inrae-dpt-spe.bsky.social. Re-evaluation of STAMP modelling, introducing time-resolution. Works also on Animal-bacterial infection models. #infection #Ralstonia #Pseudomonas #Klebsiella www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

📢 2 PhD Positions Available in Plant Immune Receptor Bioengineering at Imperial College London 🌱 Start: Oct 2026 📅 Deadline: 10 Feb 2026 🇬🇧 UK/settled status only 💰 Fully funded (48 months) ℹ️ Info: shorturl.at/po61I #PlantImmunity #PlantPathology #SyntheticBiology 🙏 Share with interested candidates!

VACANCY - We're looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the @philcarella.bsky.social Group, working in the field of Evo-MPMI (Evolutionary Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions). okt.to/yIlgTU Closing date - 10 February 2026 Salary - £37,500 - £45,350 Contract - Full-time, 3 years

New paper led by @hannasusi.bsky.social shows biodiversity responses to carbon farming are highly context-dependent—varying by management, index and taxa 🌱🪱🐞🐦. Abundance is the most sensitive early indicator for detecting biodiversity impacts! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We’re looking for a postdoc to investigate Pseudomonas viridiflava virulence across diverse plant lineages. The 3yr position will combine plant and microbial molecular biology to understand core processes of infection - email for more info & apply online @ www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

WE GOT FERNS, folks. I hope you like ferns. If you don’t, just listen and you will like ferns. 🌿🌿🌿 Dr. Li is hilarious and charming and you will love him. And ferns. In conclusion: ferns. www.alieward.com/ologies/pter...

Pteridology (FERNS) with Dr. Fay-Wei Li — alie ward

Fronds. Forest dwellers. Spores. Houseplants. Queer icons. We’ve got ferns. The charming and hilarious professor and author of “Ferns: Lessons in Survival from Earth’s Most Adaptable Plants,” Dr. Fay-...

alieward.com

A novel pathosystem between Aeschynomene evenia and Aphanomyces euteiches reveals new immune components in quantitative legume root-rot resistance. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.11.698850v1

I’m happy to share our new preprint! We uncovered the full diversity of bacterial TIR-based antiviral immune signaling, massively expanded the known diversity of Thoeris systems, and revealed conservation of TIR-derived immune signals across the tree of life. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Systematic discovery of TIR-based immune signaling systems in bacteria

Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domains are important for immune signaling across humans, plants and bacteria. These domains were recently found to produce immune signaling molecules in plant immuni...

biorxiv.org

New preprint from our group led by @metalichen.bsky.social on the discovery of a Starship giant transposable element in the genome of a lichen-forming fungus.

Gulnara Tagirdzhanova@metalichen.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New preprint: 🚀🧬 Starship in the genome of the lichen fungus Xanthoria. Discovery of giant transposons Starships challenged what we thought we knew about fungal genomes. But what about Starships in #lichen fungi? Let us present Tangerine! 🖥️ 🧪 🦠 🧫 #SymbioSky doi.org/10.1101/2025...

PhD opportunity in our lab - deadline passes on Dec 2nd - don’t miss out!

Phil Carella@philcarella.bsky.social · 10mo ago

New opportunity to undertake a PhD in my group ⁦‪at the John Innes Centre - if you’re interested in plant immunity and evolution check out the link!

🛑Exciting update from our work with @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social team on the ericoid mycorrhizal symbiosis❗❗ 🔥New results support a conserved three-gene module and master regulator for nutrient-responsive intracellular accommodation of fungal symbionts🤯 Check the nice thread below👇🏼 #plantscience

Katharina Melkonian@katharinamel1.bsky.social · 9mo ago

1/ It is my pleasure to share the latest preprint of the team: "Symbiotic diversification relies on an ancestral gene network in plants" doi.org/10.1101/2025... Here, we identified and functionally validated a novel master regulator of intracellular symbioses! A thread ... #PlantScience

Sooo happy to see this preprint out 🍄☘️! Congratulations @leocastanedo.bsky.social @katharinamel1.bsky.social et al. ! It has been a long journey, from developing ericoid-mycorrhizae in the lab (Leo) to the genetics in Marchantia (Katharina), and many other details (#teamwork)

Katharina Melkonian@katharinamel1.bsky.social · 9mo ago

1/ It is my pleasure to share the latest preprint of the team: "Symbiotic diversification relies on an ancestral gene network in plants" doi.org/10.1101/2025... Here, we identified and functionally validated a novel master regulator of intracellular symbioses! A thread ... #PlantScience

Congratulations!

Katharina Melkonian@katharinamel1.bsky.social · 9mo ago

1/ It is my pleasure to share the latest preprint of the team: "Symbiotic diversification relies on an ancestral gene network in plants" doi.org/10.1101/2025... Here, we identified and functionally validated a novel master regulator of intracellular symbioses! A thread ... #PlantScience

Humbly share our latest work led by @himanshuchhillar.bsky.social my phd student And thanks to all collaborators Henk-jan @brunongou.bsky.social @jonathandgjones.bsky.social

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

Uncoupling hypersensitive cell death response and disease resistance activated by effector-triggered immunity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.22.683861v1

1\ bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... 🌿🌿Our article on fern immunity has been peer-reviewed 🌿🌿 Thanks to @madeleinebaker.bsky.social @kellerjeanphd.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social and @jacquet-chris.bsky.social a quick thread 🧵 1/4

Exploring fern pathosystems and immune receptors to bridge gaps in plant immunity - BMC Biology

Land plants include angiosperms, gymnosperms, bryophytes, lycophytes, and ferns, each of which may deploy distinct strategies to resist pathogens. Here, we investigate fern-pathogen interactions by characterizing novel pathosystems and analyzing the diversity of fern immune receptors. A collection of fern species was inoculated with a diverse set of filamentous microbes, and disease symptoms were assessed. We further leveraged published genome mining tools to analyse the diversity of receptor-like kinases, receptor-like proteins (RLKs/RLPs) and nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeats (NLRs), along with key immune signalling components, in ferns. Our results reveal that ferns exhibit a range of responses to pathogens, including putative non-host resistance and more specific resistance mechanisms. Among ten ferns tested, Pteris vittata displays the broadest spectrum of pathogen compatibility. Genome mining indicates that ferns encode a diverse repertoire of putative immune receptors, antimicrobial peptides, and mediators of systemic acquired resistance. Ferns possess numerous RLKs/RLPs, resembling those required for cell-surface immunity in angiosperms. They also encode diverse NLRs, including sub-families lost in flowering plants. These findings provide insights into disease resistance evolution and open promising perspectives for crop protection strategies.

bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com

A first dive in fern x pathogen interaction! More to come! Congratulations @baptistebio.bsky.social @jacquet-chris.bsky.social et al.!

Jacquet-chris@jacquet-chris.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Want to see ferns under attack and how they respond to pathogens? Check out our latest paper! doi.org/10.1186/s129... Congrats on this huge team effort to @baptistebio.bsky.social @madeleinebaker.bsky.social @kellerjeanphd.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social

Want to see ferns under attack and how they respond to pathogens? Check out our latest paper! doi.org/10.1186/s129... Congrats on this huge team effort to @baptistebio.bsky.social @madeleinebaker.bsky.social @kellerjeanphd.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social

~12 years after we coined it EPP1 with @oswaldovaldesl.bsky.social one afternoon when we were postdoc with @jeanmichelane.bsky.social! Congrats @melaniekrich.bsky.social @tatiana-vernie.bsky.social et al. for the hard work! EPP1 is the fourth member of the Common Symbiosis Pathway 🍄🌱!

Mélanie Rich 🌱🍄@melaniekrich.bsky.social · 10mo ago

So happy to see the latest preprint of the team out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... The continuation of a long standing project started by @oswaldovaldesl.bsky.social in @jeanmichelane.bsky.social‘s lab. 1/7 🧵

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... and www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Two papers to tell us more about mysterious EPP1, a protein required for symbiosis. Well done @tatiana-vernie.bsky.social and all co-authors.

EPP1 is an ancestral component of the plant Common Symbiosis Pathway

The success of plants on land has been enabled by mutualistic intracellular associations with microbes for 450 million years ([Delaux and Schornack 2021][1]). Because of their intracellular nature, th...

biorxiv.org

...and three more fern genomes @molbioevol.bsky.social ! Not-so-static static lineages! academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

Resolving the stasis-dynamism paradox: Genome evolution in tree ferns

Abstract. The paradox of evolutionary stasis and dynamism—how morphologically static lineages persist through deep geological periods despite environmental

academic.oup.com

VACANCY - Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions We’re inviting applications from outstanding researchers who either hold, or wish to apply for, Independent Research Fellowships. APPLICATION DEADLINE: 10 November 2025 Click here to apply: jic.link/Fellows

www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... Fun read today: Did figs and chilli peppers 'domesticated' humans?

Beyond mutualism: the nature of domesticator–domesticate interactions

The literature on domestication commonly calls the association between human domesticators and their plant and animal domesticates mutualistic, yet this designation is rarely examined critically. Here...

cell.com

Our recent paper @newphyt.bsky.social @anajusagasti.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social is featured today in the Sunday Post! Thanks Sally McDonald for your piece helping to promote and communicate Scotland’s rich fossil heritage nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...