Marion C. Müller
@marioncmueller.bsky.social
Junior Group Leader @ TU Munich working on fungal genetics & genomics, plant-pathogen interactions, powdery mildews & grasses https://www.mls.ls.tum.de/pp/forschungabteilungen/host-specificity-in-cereal-powdery-mildew-pathosystems/
#MicroscopyFriday Even fungi have attitude. 🖕🍄😅 Captured during last week's microscopy session: a powdery mildew (Blumeria hordei) haustorium inside a barley leaf cell. Stable fluorescence-expressing barley line, with the colors representing z-slice depth.
A tomato MIK2-clade receptor is involved in the perception of a Fusarium-derived elicitor Maroschek et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Tomato MIK2A and Arabidopsis MIK2 appear to sense the same elicitor activity from Fusarium oxysporum. Both share some ectodomain surface amino acids for elicitor sensitivity. Tomato MIK2A, however, does not sense SCOOPs or SCOOP like peptides. Evolution of the MIK2 receptor clade is discussed.
New Phytologist@newphyt.bsky.social · 4w agoA tomato MIK2-clade receptor is involved in the perception of a Fusarium-derived elicitor Maroschek et al. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Our latest work on immune receptor engineering for enhanced pathogen recognition is out in @theplantcell.bsky.social academic.oup.com/plcell/artic... #NLRs #Effectors #Exo70
Engineering an Exo70 integrated domain of a barley NLR for improved blast resistance
Engineering the barley NLR RGH2 enhances recognition of blast pathogen effectors from rice and wheat, leading to improved disease resistance.
academic.oup.com
New Preprint! We identified 20 new type II-secreted effectors from Xanthomonas euvesicatoria and show that they help bacteria feed and remodel plant cell walls during infection. Proud of my team at #ZMBP and collaborators for making this possible! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Defining the Xanthomonas euvesicatoria type II-secreted effector arsenal: core nutritional functions and effector diversity
The type II secretion (T2S) system is conserved across the Xanthomonas lineage, yet its contributions to pathogenicity and secreted protein repertoires are poorly defined. We demonstrate that T2S syst...
biorxiv.org
The new OrthoFinder paper is out now! In this new work, we introduce major advances in accuracy and scalability, allowing analysis on much larger datasets www.nature.com/articles/s41... github.com/OrthoFinder/...
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
I am very happy to see that finally out. Great applause to Henriette Leicher and Martin Stegmann, the two leaders of this journey and thanks and congrats to everbody else who helped. #TRR356
New Phytologist@newphyt.bsky.social · 2mo agoRALFs, likely combining cell wall and signalling functions, support powdery mildew infection of #Arabidopsis 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... by Leicher et al. @WileyPlantSci #PlantScience
New Preprint: Host specificity in cereal rust fungi is mediated by a conserved glycoside hydrolase family (2026) https://www.tsl.ac.uk/publications/167748
bioRxiv: Host specificity in cereal rust fungi is mediated by a conserved glycoside hydrolase family (2026)
Non-host resistance refers to the immunity of plant species to virtually all isolates of a potential pathogen and represents an underexplored avenue for breeding and engineering disease resistance. In domesticated and wild barley, cell surface-localized lectin receptor kinases (LecRKs) contribute to determining the host status to leaf rust fungi, which pose a major threat to global cereal production. Here, we identify a conserved family of leaf rust glycoside hydrolases as ligands for these barley LecRKs and show that direct ligand-receptor binding triggers immune responses. This mechanism of pathogen perception is conserved across multiple cereal species and can be functionally transferred between them. We also uncover previously uncharacterized recognition specificities among distinct LecRK variants, expanding the repertoire of LecRK-mediated rust pathogen detection. Our findings define a molecular mechanism underlying non-host resistance in cereals and provide a basis for harnessing non-host rust resistance across diverse crop-pathogen systems.
doi.org
Karrikin and strigolactone signalling affect pattern-triggered immunity and resistance to specific pathogens https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.05.722863v1
Born from the collaborative spirit of #TRR356, I’m excited to share my first first-author project! 🪴🦠 What started as a side project with @kbuhrman.bsky.social led us to discover that KAR/KL and SL signalling fine-tune the strength and timing of plant defense responses in a conserved manner!
bioRxiv Plant Bio@biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · 3mo agoKarrikin and strigolactone signalling affect pattern-triggered immunity and resistance to specific pathogens https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.05.722863v1
📢 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...
biorxiv.org
Congratulations to all of you. This is big. Together with earlier work around Pm3, this seems kind of a condensate of evolving ETS -ETI interaction all around one single R gene. Suppressors in action, two AVRs recognised by the same R-protein, and on top engineering new spcificity.
Marion C. Müller@marioncmueller.bsky.social · 3mo agoSuper excited to see our work on the Pm3e NLR that recognises two structurally diverse AVR effectors from powdery mildew out in @natcomms.nature.com Congratulations to @lukas-kunz.bsky.social, Beat Keller, and everyone involved! Check it out ➡️https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-72199-w
Super excited to see our work on the Pm3e NLR that recognises two structurally diverse AVR effectors from powdery mildew out in @natcomms.nature.com Congratulations to @lukas-kunz.bsky.social, Beat Keller, and everyone involved! Check it out ➡️https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-72199-w
Dual recognition of structurally unrelated mildew effectors underlies the broad-spectrum resistance of Pm3e in wheat - Nature Communications
The wheat NLR Pm3e provides broad-spectrum resistance against powdery mildew. Here, the authors show that Pm3e recognizes two structurally unrelated effector proteins and that its range can be further...
nature.com
And that’s a wrap for the #TRR356 “Plant-Microbe” PhD & PostDoc retreat at beautiful Frauenchiemsee 🌿 We enjoyed talks from within the TRR and from our fantastic invited speakers, along with an engaging poster session, workshop, and career development discussions. A truly great event!
💡 #KnowledgeHighlight | Genome annotation with Helixer - @galaxyproject.bsky.social tutorial 🔗 training.galaxyproject.org/training-mat... Explore open-access training materials in the ERGA #KnowledgeHub ➡️ knowledge.erga-biodiversity.eu #genome #annotation #helixer
Genome Annotation / Genome annotation with Helixer / Hands-on: Genome annotation with Helixer
Genome annotation is a multi-level process that includes prediction of protein-coding genes, as well as other functional genome units such as structural RNAs, tRNAs, small RNAs, pseudogenes, control…
training.galaxyproject.org
BRAKER4 is about to hatch. It now also covers functional annotation for protein sequences... #genomeannotation
One of those stories you can't help getting excited about every time you hear it presented. Great work from everyone involved ! #PlantScience
The Sainsbury Laboratory@thesainsburylab.bsky.social · 5mo agoNew Preprint: Plasma membrane nanoscale dynamics of Arabidopsis leucine-rich repeat receptor kinase complexes (2026) https://www.tsl.ac.uk/publications/164874
Registration for the 13th PhD School on Plant Development is open! 🌾 🔬 🌺 🧬 🌵 🧪 Deadline: June 30, 2026 Link to registration form forms.gle/tbmUxaw2vmEn... Cost: €350.- (incl. board, lodging and social event) For details re payment and abstracts see form or homepage raissiglab.org/plantdevosch...
“Accelerated Haustoria Segmentation Enables Rapid Gene Function Analysis in Cereal–Powdery Mildew Pathosystems,” by Stefanie Lück et al. Learn more: https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-06-25-0067-TA
Downregulation is the dominant effect of new regulatory mutations in a fungal pathogen https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.06.710201v1
✨ Paper spotlight ✨ (🧵1/6) The annotated blueprint: Integrated functional genomic resources for a model tetraploid wheat Triticum turgidum cv. Kronos nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #PlantScience
🌾 We have an open postdoc position in Plant Genomics in our group at HHU Düsseldorf! If you enjoy computational biology, asking big questions, and the satisfaction of code working on the first try, check out schneebergerlab.org/career/ Apply by Mar. 31 | 3-year postdoc | German skills required
Career – Schneeberger Lab
schneebergerlab.org
📢 Job alert! @delaconcepcionjc.bsky.social, junior group leader at #ZMBP, has 2 open positions (PhD and postdoc) to investigate appressoria formation in plant pathogenic #fungi using #cryoEM and #cryoET #EmmyNoether #MPMI #plantscijob More info 👇
Juan Carlos De la Concepcion@delaconcepcionjc.bsky.social · 6mo agoPlease share! My group at @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social is offering a post-doctoral position (4 years). We look for a structural biologist with experience in Cryo-EM/Cryo-ET to investigate the mechanisms of host invasion by pathogenic fungi. Deadline February 28th! uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...
Thank you to @marioncmueller.bsky.social and @huckelhovenr.bsky.social for involving me. I had fun working on the figure and learned lots as well. Congratulations to everyone 🥂
Ralph Hückelhoven@huckelhovenr.bsky.social · 7mo agoThank you @marioncmueller.bsky.social, @binebrumm.bsky.social, Eric Kemen, Yiheng Hu and Thomas Lahaye for this nice common effort on effector diversity. Diversify and conquer: How effector diversity is shaped by host–microbe co-evolution doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Thank you @marioncmueller.bsky.social, @binebrumm.bsky.social, Eric Kemen, Yiheng Hu and Thomas Lahaye for this nice common effort on effector diversity. Diversify and conquer: How effector diversity is shaped by host–microbe co-evolution doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Diversify and conquer: How effector diversity is shaped by host–microbe co-evolution
doi.org
Our new article is now online on @natplants.nature.com! ✨ We identified and characterised AvrPm4 and SvrPm4, a pair of powdery mildew effectors controlling avirulence on the wheat kinase fusion resistance protein Pm4 🌾 check it out ➡️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
With the new year, is my time to say bye to @gmivienna.bsky.social as I move to @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social in Tuebingen. I will start my solo Group Leader career as a Emmy Norther fellow. Thanks to everyone that helped on the way. I will be advertising PhD and Postdoc positions soon, stay tuned!
Wei Shi @wshisky.bsky.social & Merle‘s work is online. Wei really pushed this work from scratch and Merle linked it to MLA diversification…3rd (co-)first author paper in her PhD. Very proud PI! And only possible through collaboration with G. Döhlemann, @grandpahiro.bsky.social &, Matt Platre. (1/x)
Targeting of the barley cell-surface receptor SRF3 by the Blumeria hordei effector AVRA13 overlaps with AVRA13 recognition by MLA and the induction of NLR-mediated cell death.
Pathogens secrete effector proteins to promote virulence. Despite their recognition by barley Mla resistance genes, the structurally-related Blumeria hordei ( Bh ) AVRA effectors are maintained in the...
doi.org
Have we been overstating the role of transposable elements in adaptation to local or rapidly changing environmental conditions? Happy to share my (somewhat unpopular?) opinion paper on this matter: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Thanks to those who already shared the link!
Blinded by the lights? Re-examining the adaptive role of transposable elements in plants with population genomics
Transposable elements (TEs) are ubiquitous components of the genome whose mobility can be triggered by environmental stress and influenced by genotype…
sciencedirect.com
Congratulations @steidele.bsky.social 🥳 check out Tina’s new preprint for key transcription factors being involved in barley Fusarium head blight and/or drought responses.
Ralph Hückelhoven@huckelhovenr.bsky.social · 8mo agoCongratulations to @steidele.bsky.social who unscrambled complex transcriptional networks in barley double stress responses. Thanks to @itisalist.bsky.social and @daisybio.de for the support: doi: doi.org/10.64898/202...