On Sept 30–Oct 1, we held our 2026 Environmental Genomics retreat, bringing together our group for two days of reflection and discussion. We revisited our strengths, identified areas for improvement, and shared ideas for the year ahead. We're looking forward to putting ideas in action!

Thrilled to share the final version of our manuscript! 🎉 @estukenbrock.bsky.social and I investigated the secretome of the barley pathogen #Zymoseptoria passerinii and asked what its protein structures could tell us about #effector evolution. 🔗 link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🧶👇🏻

Conserved protein folds underpin the diversification of secreted proteins in a fungal pathogen - BMC Microbiology

Background During host colonization, fungal plant pathogens secrete effector-like proteins that alter host cell physiology and target plant-associated microbes. However, rapid evolution and low sequen...

link.springer.com

Thrilled to have the opportunity to investigate the role of membrane protein proteolysis in plant immunity through the ERC Starting Grant FRONTERA! A heartfelt thank you to my mentors, friends, and family whose support, encouragement, and guidance made this possible. #ERCStG @erc.europa.eu

European Research Council (ERC)@erc.europa.eu · last mo.

📣 Good news! 📣 Results of the ERC 2026 Starting Grant call are out! Funding worth a total of €705 million will go to 421 early-career researchers across Europe. Discover who, what and where 👉 link.europa.eu/9M3MmN 🧪 #ERCStG #FrontierResearch #HorizonEurope 🇪🇺 @scienceinnovation.ec.europa.eu

Thrilled to share that I recently got a position of an Assistant Professor/SciLifeLab Fellow at Stockholm University, where I will continue my work on #lichen symbiosis. The lab opens in April 2026, and if you are interested in joining please get in touch! #newPI

@metalichen.bsky.social Congratulations on your award, I can for sure agree that I have also been inspired by your work on lichens! 🥳

Congratulations to Prof. Eva Stukenbrock on her appointment to the Leopoldina. Her research on fungal pathogens helps us better understand evolution and protect crops. www.evolbio.mpg.de/3882989/eva-... #EvolutionaryBiology #Leopoldina

📣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...

#ISCLB2026 may not have made much noise on social media, but the science and discussions in person were outstanding. 🌾🧬 Grateful to everyone who shared their work on cereal disease & resistance, and for the opportunity to present mine. I’m leaving Banff with plenty of new ideas and inspiration. 😊

In Banff, Alberta 🇨🇦 for #ISCLB2026 😁 The program looks amazing. Looking forward to the next days! 🌾🧬

Johannes Debler from CCDM Perth delivered today a captivating talk on novel and mysterious nucleic acid elements identified in fungal plant pathogens. Cheers to one more "not-yet-known" 🧬🧬 @jwdebler.bsky.social @theccdm.bsky.social @curtinuniversity.bsky.social #GRDC #Transposon #Ascochyta

Cell surface receptors integrate plant immunity, stress adaptation, and nutrient acquisition #plantscience

Cell surface receptors integrate plant immunity, stress adaptation, and nutrient acquisition

Plants thrive in complex and often hostile environments by continuously sensing and responding to a wide array of biotic and abiotic challenges. Central to this surveillance system are cell surface receptors, including receptor kinases and receptor proteins. Recent advances have revealed how these receptors not only recognize pathogen- and damage-associated molecular patterns but also perceive endogenous peptides and environmental signals. Importantly, emerging evidence highlights extensive crosstalk between immune and abiotic stress signaling, with shared components and co-regulatory mechanisms shaping an integrated response. In this review, we synthesize recent discoveries on the diverse roles of cell surface receptors in detecting external and internal signals, coordinating defense and stress tolerance, and balancing these processes with nutrient acquisition.

dlvr.it

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. https://scim.ag/4tsDqRr

After USDA request, Indiana plant biologist locked out of lab by school

Move comes after Roger Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs

scim.ag

📢 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...

As an emerging leader in plant innate immunity, we're thrilled to present Mauricio Contreras with a 2027 Early Career Research Award! Alongside advocating for Open Science and preprint review, Mauricio's "activation-and-release" and "NLR resurrection" models are already referenced worldwide.

ECRs, one week to go! Please join us for an exciting event: The Sainsbury Laboratory Summer Conference in Plant-Microbe Interactions for Early Career Researchers 20th – 31st July 2026 Norwich, UK Application deadline: 12:00 BST (UTC +1) Monday 30th March 2026 www.tsl.ac.uk/tsl-summer-c...

TSL Summer Conference getting a shoutout during Ren Ujimatsu’s @rujimatsu.bsky.social presentation at the JSPP Annual Meeting (Ren was a 2024 participant). @thesainsburylab.bsky.social

🌿 Postdoc opportunity in plant evolutionary ecology/genetics! My lab in the Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to start Fall 2026. We study plant adaptation, using weeds as model systems. #Postdoc #EcoEvo Pls RT!

@thaisdalsasso.bsky.social is applying new tools to address the evolution and functional diversification of secreted proteins of fungal plant pathogen. Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Emerging fungal pathogens have detrimental impacts on crops, animals, and humans. This study demonstrates that the fungal transition from saprotroph to opportunistic human pathogen is likely facilitated by adaptive translation. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Genomic and physiological signatures of adaptation in pathogenic fungi - Nature Communications

Emerging fungal pathogens have detrimental impacts on crops, animals, and humans, however little is known about their transition to a pathogenic lifestyle. This study demonstrates that the transition ...

nature.com

Wishing you all happy holidays. 🎄🎁 Greetings from the Environmental Genomics Group. 🇲🇽🇫🇷🇧🇷🇵🇹🇵🇪🇷🇸🇮🇷🇩🇰🇩🇪🤗

Great talk today from Luis Larrondo on the remarkable circadian clock control exhibited by fungi and the exquisite light-sensing behaviour that possess, which can be evidenced by image capture using their hyphae as a canvas @thesainsburylab.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social

There are no words to describe how excited and honored I am to take on the role. Already had such amazing support from the plant pathology community in Switz and cannot wait to grow the team further and see how far we can get in tackling our fungal foes. Look out for jobs starting in May 2026!

Departement Umweltsystemwissenschaften (D-USYS), ETH Zürich@usyseth.bsky.social · last yr.

We warmly welcome Dr. Megan McDonald as Associate Professor of Plant Disease Dynamics. Her research on fungal diseases in crops will strengthen our expertise and collaborations across plant sciences. 🌱

Registrations are rolling in for the 2025 Stromlo Plant Pathology meeting in Canberra (Nov 27–28)! Secure your spot! Speakers: @yasukadota.bsky.social, Cecille Segonzac, @thamlab.bsky.social, @yichangsung.bsky.social, Tek Tay & @danielsyu.bsky.social. Register at tinyurl.com/3e3tx9j2 #strompath25

Excited this paper is finally published! We focused on the inner concave surface of LRR RKs to expand bacterial flagellin perception in plants. Selection indicates expanded perception is more common than previously thought. Experiments led by @jerrytli.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Unlocking expanded flagellin perception through rational receptor engineering - Nature Plants

Receptor kinase FLS2 detects the flg22 epitope of bacterial flagellin. Here the authors identify key residues on FLS2’s concave surface that enable expanded perception of flg22 variants, allowing the ...

nature.com

📣 Happy to see the journal publication 📄 of our work on Starships 🚀 in Verticillium fungi: terrific work led by @yukiyosato.bsky.social rdcu.be/exBSp

Starship giant transposons dominate plastic genomic regions in a fungal plant pathogen and drive virulence evolution

Nature Communications - Giant transposons, known as ‘Starships’, mediate horizontal gene transfer between fungal genomes. Here, Sato et al. show that Starships occupy genome regions...

rdcu.be

Going to a conference and hope someone posts about your talk? Make it easy for the posters!! Tips: 1. Include your handle at beginning and end 2. Make clear what is published/not 3. Have a conclusions slide with key message 4. Highlight new preprint or publication if relevant #AcademicSky 🦠🧪🧬

«Nothing in plant-microbe interactions makes sense except in the light of microbe-microbe interactions » @teamthomma.bsky.social #2025ISMPMI

@teamthomma.bsky.social shares the story of how a Verticillium effector that impacts plant growth, actually targets other microbes, not the plant host itself. Antimicrobial effectors have since been observed in many systems. Can we predict effectors with antimicrobial properties? Yes! #2025ISMPMI

in the light of evolution it makes so much sense that effectors from pathogens have „ancesteral“ functions and „evolved“ further functions once plants „appeared“ - it‘s a great new concept by @teamthomma.bsky.social and thought-provoking 🤓 #2025ISMPMI

Great talk by @teamthomma.bsky.social who shows that effectors have antimicrobial activities that are ancesteral - other functions within the host have evolved later on to suppress immunity in plants #2025ISMPMI