Happy to finally see this out in a peer-reviewed form 🧬🌱 Congrats to everyone who contributed! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The dual trxG/PcG protein ULTRAPETALA1 modulates H3K27me3 and directly enhances POLYCOMB REPRESSIVE COMPLEX 2 activity for fine-tuned reproductive transitions - Nature Plants

This study reports a bivalent factor, ULTRAPETALA1, that can counteract as well as promote PRC2 activity at hundreds of developmental genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. The pro-PRC2 activity of ULTRAPETAL...

nature.com

We’re so excited to share our new paper, where we tackle the wealth of structural and functional diversity of anti-phage sensors across bacteria (1/6)

Nature@nature.com · last wk.

Nature research paper: Diverse bacterial pattern recognition receptors sense the core phage proteome go.nature.com/45fpXCZ

Very happy to attend the 10th International Association for Lichenology symposium in Trieste ! #IAL10 And very honoured to be presenting tomorrow our work on lichenization in Xanthoria parietina

Thoughts on the various Trump administration proposals to revamp US science funding - and what they all have in common:

The Assault On Science Funding Continues

science.org

This is very cool and a phenomenal amount of work! Great to see protein design shaping the future of disease resistance bioengineering. We now really have entered the era of truly bespoke resistance! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Programmable design of synthetic plant immune receptors for pathogen protein recognition

The limited diversity and recognition scope of natural plant immune receptors impede resistance breeding against rapidly evolving pathogens. Here we report programmable design of synthetic plant immun...

science.org

Join JIC at @latitudefestival.bsky.social 2026 🧪🎉 🗓️ Friday 24 July ⏰ 5:30 - 6:00 pm 📍 Satellite Stage Find Dr Neil Holmes talking about “Life in Soil” tomorrow evening, discussing our research into how microbes help plants grow and make a vast array of chemicals that we rely on as medicines 🌱

It's back live! Check out my week at TSL 🌱

Tatsuya Nobori@tatsuyanobori.bsky.social · 3w ago

A week as a pre-doc at TSL youtu.be/44DTxVhboTA?...

Excited to preprint this collaborative study led by @adamrbentham.bsky.social in which computationally-designed protein binders were generated that recognise pathogen effectors leading to a plant immune response when deployed within NLR immune receptors. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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...

biorxiv.org

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...

Awesome to see this bioRxiv out, after lots of great work from @yuxuan-xi.bsky.social to integrate de novo binders into a plant immune receptor! It's a very exciting time to be working on protein engineering in this field 🧬🌱

@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...

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

Computational design of de novo integrated domains enables rational control of pathogen effector recognition in plant NLR immune receptors. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.10.737686v1

We are excited to announce that @berasymbionts.bsky.social's group is fully operational at TSL, with their beetles now happy in the insectary! Aileen's research program focuses on the three-way molecular dialogue between fungi, insects and plants 🍄‍🟫🪲🌱 Full video here: buff.ly/PEk4PAJ

PhD project on Blast Fungus host pentration open in my #Proteomics group at @thesainsburylab.bsky.social for an October 2026 entry. Collaborative project with @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social. Deadline: 30th July. Open to Home Fee status applicants. biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/inv...

Investigating host penetration by the rice blast fungus (MENKE_S26DTP3) | Doctoral Training Partnership

MENKE_S26DTP3

biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk

‼️Job altert🚨📢 please spread the word: We're looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join our new department "Phytopathology and Plant Protection" at @unihalle.bsky.social. www.verwaltung.uni-halle.de/DEZERN3/AUSS...

New Publication: Engineering an Exo70 integrated domain of a barley NLR for improved blast resistance (2026) www.tsl.ac.uk/publications...

Engineering an Exo70 integrated domain of a barley NLR for improved…

Intracellular immune receptors protect plants from microbial invasion by detecting and responding to pathogen-derived effector molecules, often triggering cell death responses. However, pathogen…

tsl.ac.uk

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

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

📄 Delighted to share that the preprint of my main PhD work is out now! 👏 A huge thank you to everyone involved, @tommclean.bsky.social, Govind Chandra, Ngat Tran (both not on BlueSky) and especially my PhD supervisor @tunglejic.bsky.social 👏 🧵 below! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Stable inheritance of the Streptomyces linear plasmid SCP1 by dual ParABS partition systems

Low-copy-number plasmids often rely on dedicated maintenance mechanisms, such as partitioning systems, to ensure stable inheritance across generations. These partition systems actively segregate siste...

biorxiv.org

When caterpillars attack, the common bean plant relies on a receptor in its leaves to sound a chemical rallying cry that recruits predatory wasps, a new #ScienceAdvances study finds. https://scim.ag/434rXN5

A plant immune receptor mediates tritrophic interactions by linking caterpillar detection to predator recruitment

A plant receptor detects caterpillar attack and triggers emission of chemical cues to attract predatory wasps.

scim.ag

So proud to see this story finally out!🎉 We added new data since our previous preprint—transgenic barley plants with an engineered immune receptor that fights off two fungal pathogens at once. Short 🧵 and link to the original preprint thread on X👇 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

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

Strengthening Predictive Models for Wheat Stem Rust Infection Risk in a Changing Climate: Gaps and Opportunities - Morier‐Gxoyiya - 2026 - Plant Pathology - Wiley Online Library bsppjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Strengthening Predictive Models for Wheat Stem Rust Infection Risk in a Changing Climate: Gaps and Opportunities

Here we review environmental data underpinning epidemiological models for wheat stem rust, highlighting gaps that, once addressed, would significantly enhance the predictive power of these tools.

bsppjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

One question that stuck with me early in my PhD was whether the experimental data underpinning wheat stem rust epidemiological models were still fit for purpose. Our new review digs into the evidence, how it’s used in models, and where the biggest gaps remain.

Césarée Morier-Gxoyiya@cesaree-mg.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Strengthening Predictive Models for Wheat Stem Rust Infection Risk in a Changing Climate: Gaps and Opportunities - Morier‐Gxoyiya - 2026 - Plant Pathology - Wiley Online Library bsppjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

📢 PDRA Position - Plant Immune Receptor Bioengineering at Imperial College London 🌱 Start: Aug 2026 (flexible) 🧪 Wet lab + bioinformatics 📅 Up to 3 years (ERC-funded) 📍 South Kensington, on site ℹ️ shorturl.at/VIITk 🔗 kourelislab.com #PlantImmunity #PlantPathology 🙏 Share with interested candidates!

Description

Please note that job descriptions are not exhaustive, and you may be asked to take on additional duties that align with the key responsibilities ment...

shorturl.at

Yesterday my first PhD student @himanshuchhillar.bsky.social @unileiden.bsky.social successfully defended his thesis with excellent performance Wish you all the best, Dr Chhillar! 🇮🇳 #proudPI #ECR

The demonstration of a single origin for nodule evolution, with nodule engineering in a non-nodulating species https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.31.728964v1

Excited to share this paper from @yiechanglin.bsky.social showing how lipids can move between bacterial membranes along the bridge like protein TamB. Also happy to be able to post the cool movie. 🎥🌟 #MDsimulations #StructuralBiology doi.org/10.1016/j.bp...

Excited to share that I will start my lab this summer as an ECL Unit Leader at RIKEN CSRS! We will study perception by cell-surface receptors across diverse plant species. I’ll be recruiting soon, so please reach out if you’re interested!

@talbotlabtsl.bsky.social and I reviewed what we know about our favourite cereal killer and compared it to human-infecting relatives. Check it out! 👇 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Pathogenicity and virulence of the blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae

The blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is the causal agent of the most serious disease of cultivated rice and an emerging threat to wheat production. Controlling blast diseases is therefore critical t...

tandfonline.com