Happy to share the first preprint out of the Nomburg lab! Many aspects of cellular immunity are shared across the tree of life. Here, we show that some of these conserved aspects of cellular immunity are mirrored by conserved effectors of immune antagonism. Thread below! 1/15

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 2w ago

Conserved folds enable immune antagonism across the tree of life https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.21.739742v1

Our work on pattern formation in fossil and extant liverworts is out! @dev-journal.bsky.social Check it out if you are interested in fossils, evo-devo, and how mathematical modeling can help us understand the evolution of developmental processes! 🌿🧪 Thread ⬇️

Lateral inhibition governs ancestral cellular patterning in fossil and extant liverworts

Highlighted Article: Comparative and mathematical analyses reveal that oil body cell patterning in fossil and extant liverworts is consistent with a local activation-lateral inhibition mechanism, poin...

journals.biologists.com

🚨 We're hiring! My new lab at EMBL Hamburg is looking for a Research Technician. I'm looking for someone excited by phages, metabolism, enzymes, structural biology and bacterial immunity—if you know the right person, please share this post!🧵⬇️ Apply here: embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

Research Technician (Osterman Group – Metabolism-driven immunity)

EMBL Hamburg / CSSB The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is Europe’s flagship life sciences organization, with more than 110 independent research groups across Heidelberg, Hamburg, Grenobl...

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com

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

Hormone-dependent receptor docking controls calcium channel activity in plants https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.10.737476v1

Excited to share that our Metis story is now published in Science! 🎉 Bacteria can sense phage-induced degradation of their genome and activate immunity. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this work. 📄 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... More details in my earlier thread 🧵⬇️

Bacteria sense virus-induced genome degradation via methylated mononucleotides

Phages often degrade the genome of their bacterial host to individual nucleotides. Here we describe Metis, a bacterial defense system that directly senses phage-mediated host genome degradation. Metis...

science.org

Osterman Ilya@ostermanilya.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Bacteria can sense when a virus starts shredding their genome — by detecting methylated mononucleotides. Here’s the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

It takes two: A Widespread Temperate Bacteriophage Contributes to Regulation of the Type III Secretion System in Pseudomonas syringae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.06.736757v1

The mycobiont of the lichen Xanthoria parietina produces the siderophore ferrichrome which enables iron acquisition and nutrient exchange with its algal photobiont. Great collaboration with my group & @metalichen.bsky.social led by Hubertus Haas 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“move from preprint to peer-reviewed publication leaves the central claims of most abstracts intact, indicating preprints are a reliable source…papers that were never posted as preprints were retracted at roughly twice the rate of those that were…” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Tracking claim changes from preprint to publication across 72,644 biomedical studies using large language models

Preprints now disseminate a large share of biomedical research before peer review. Because they have not yet passed peer review, some scientists regard preprint claims as unverified or potentially unr...

biorxiv.org

Surface immune signaling unlocks NLR activation through mRNA alternative splicing www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Surface immune signaling unlocks NLR activation through mRNA alternative splicing

Plants activate pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI) to combat pathogens. However, how these systems coordinate immune activation while preventing autoimmunity remain...

science.org

Experiment-guided AlphaFold3 resolves measurement-consistent protein ensembles - @istaresearch.bsky.social @alex-bronstein.bsky.social @paulschanda.bsky.social @sankethvedula.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Experiment-guided AlphaFold3 resolves measurement-consistent protein ensembles - Nature Biotechnology

A generative model using AlphaFold3 as prior infers protein conformational ensembles consistent with measured experimental data.

nature.com

I do not want our preprints being „ranked“ in the future by AI. We preprint to foster #openscience sharing it with our community and to make the research of early careers more visibile to help them for future positions etc. We do not need more competition bias and pressure.

QED Science@qedscience.bsky.social · last mo.

🎉 Meet The 1%. Out of 57,455 bioRxiv life science preprints, QED Science selected 574 exceptional manuscripts through blind evaluation. The 1%: the-one-percent.qedscience.com Good science deserves to be seen. @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social @openrxiv.bsky.social @richardsever.bsky.social

Out Now! Phages tame plant pathogens #MicroSky

Phages tame plant pathogens

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 23 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02395-3Predicting infection heterogeneity requires looking beyond the host. Phage–bacteria coevolution in tomato fields maintains diverse bacterial strategies and explains uneven disease occurrence across plant populations.

go.nature.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

Preprint: Plant pathogens cleave 2’cADPR to suppress TIR immune signaling Inspired by knowledge on how phages inhibit bacterial immunity, we now show that disease-causing bacteria inhibit plant immunity in a similar way. A 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Plant pathogens cleave 2'cADPR to suppress TIR immune signaling

Small molecules produced by TIR (Toll-interleukin-1 receptor) domains are essential for plant immune signaling. A central TIR-derived signal is 2'cADPR, a cyclic ADP-ribose (ADPR) molecule that is gen...

biorxiv.org

How do pathogens disarm plant immunity? We discovered a widespread strategy used by plant bacterial pathogens: they directly cleave a conserved immune signaling molecule produced by plant immune receptors. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

How do human cells defend against viruses? @sgfern.bsky.social discovers that human immune proteins named ISGs target ancient features of replication shared between animal and bacterial viruses – opening analysis of human immunity to the power of bacterial genetics www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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

Excited to see our work out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! We uncovered broad functional diversity within phage sponge families🧽. Huge thanks to all coauthors and brilliant collaborators @kranzuschlab.bsky.social @reneechang.bsky.social ! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Functional diversity of phage sponge proteins that sequester host immune signals - Nature Microbiology

A functional screen reveals phage sponge proteins that bind Pycsar, Thoeris and CBASS signalling molecules to inhibit bacterial immunity.

nature.com

Romi Hadary@romihadary.bsky.social · 12mo ago

📢 Preprint out! Together with @reneechang.bsky.social @kranzuschlab.bsky.social and the amazing @soreklab.bsky.social, we explored viral sponges to map their diversity and function. Discovered huge diversity, including sponges that inhibit Pycsar & Type IV Thoeris! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our aRES story is finally out 😀 Beyond what was reported in the preprint, we found that aRES is activated by direct binding of the phage DNA polymerase. Another NAD-degrading defense system — and multiple phage strategies to overcome it. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Bacterial defense via RES-mediated NAD+ depletion is countered by phage phosphatases

Many bacterial defense systems restrict phage infection by breaking down the molecule nicotinamide (Nam) adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) into adenosine di…

sciencedirect.com

Osterman Ilya@ostermanilya.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🧬 Metabolic arms race continues! We discovered a new NAD⁺-depleting bacterial immune system aRES and phage enzymes that overcome it. Our preprint is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚨After 4 fantastic years in the Sorek lab @soreklab.bsky.social, I’ll be starting my own group at EMBL @embl.org bl.org Hamburg. www.embl.org/groups/oster... Metabolism-driven immunity: phages, metabolites, and discovery of new enzymes, molecules, and pathways 🦠🧬

A nice piece at @science.org covers the exploding field of bacterial immunity, and how it led to the understanding that components of the human immune system evolved from bacterial defenses against phage www.science.org/content/arti...

Ancient wars between microbes gave us key immune defenses

A better understanding of battles between bacteria and viruses could inspire new medicines

science.org

A single-cell screening platform accelerates functional genetics in plants - @sattelylab.bsky.social go.nature.com/4n8wzLv

A single-cell screening platform accelerates functional genetics in plants - Nature Biotechnology

A pooled, cell-based, genetic screening platform in plants is used for the functional analysis of cytokinin signaling proteins.

go.nature.com

Inspired by bacterial and plant immunity, Bohdana set out to identify catalytic activities in animal TIR proteins. She shows that TIR domain of human TLR4 is an enzyme that produces the signaling molecule cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR). More in her thread and preprint, including on Viridiplantae TIRs.

Bohdana Hurieva🇺🇦@bhurieva.bsky.social · 3mo ago

🎉Excited to share our new preprint! TIR domains from diverse animals, including human TLR4, are catalytically active and produce cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR). This enzymatic activity is widespread in animals and conserved across the tree of life. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...