Wangsheng Zhu
@wangshengzhu.bsky.social
Fusarium-maize interaction | Genetics of disease resistance in maize, CAU-Beijing. Former PostDoc in WeigelWorld, MPI_Bio
This summer, I led a student delegate to visit Uni of Hohenheim, Uni of Tuebingen, and MPI for Biology. Many thanks to @plantevolution.bsky.social @ChangLiu @EricKemen @RebeccaSchwab, @YanyanZhang @BenjaminNeuhäuser @LisaZhang @YihengHu @WanyanXi @ChunleiHua for support. Such a great journey~
Many thanks to Detlef's host @plantevolution.bsky.social. Our students from China Agricultural University had a great day 🎉🎉🎉 at MPI @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social.
PlantEvolution 🌱🌾@plantevolution.bsky.social · 2w agoVery happy to be able to host a student delegation from China Agricultural University led by my friend @wangshengzhu.bsky.social 🇩🇪🇨🇳 @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social
Extracellular Antagonists: Offense and Counter-Defense in the Apoplast - www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
LecRLKs Modulate Broad-spectrum Resistance to Pathogens #plantscience
LecRLKs Modulate Broad-spectrum Resistance to Pathogens
The resistance of crops against diseases is constrained by the number of resistance genes. Recent studies revealed that the lectin receptor-like kinases (LecRLKs) function as novel pattern recognition receptors or trigger chloroplast ROS burst. Some LecRLK alleles confer resistance to multiple fungal diseases, demonstrating LecRLKs are emerging as immune hubs.
dlvr.it
FERONIA orchestrates plasma membrane nanoclusters for plant thermotolerance | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
FERONIA orchestrates plasma membrane nanoclusters for plant thermotolerance
Climate warming poses increasing thermal challenges to plants, yet how plasma membrane biophysics contributes to heat adaptation remains poorly understood. In this work, we showed that the malectin-li...
science.org
1/11 🔥 New preprint alert 🔥 We wanted to know what plants in the wild really care about. So we asked them 🎤. Here is what we learned: “Biotic-response networks are an important organizer of the transcriptome in wild Arabidopsis thaliana populations” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
I wouldn’t put it this way for research, as science isn’t about winning. But I also returned last week from China with similar sentiments about Chinese prowess. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/o...
Opinion | I Just Returned From China. We Are Not Winning.
nytimes.com
Happy to share a cartoon-based illustration of our recent findings of disease resistance gene ZmRRS1/ZmMDH7 in maize (doi.org/10.1002/advs...). The pictures can tell the story, I hope.
1/2 What's best: a field-first or lab-first approach? No easy answers but differences between lab and field should not be seen as failure but motivate further inquiry and allow complementary discovery. Read our thoughts on this here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Lab to field: Challenges and opportunities for plant biology
Plant-microbe research offers many choices of model and strain and whether a field-first or lab-first approach is best. However, differences between l…
sciencedirect.com
Recommended 10/10! Thanvi is everything you’re looking for in an advisor!
Thanvi Srikant@thanvisrikant.bsky.social · 8mo ago✨Call open for a fully-funded PhD position✨ Looking for an enthusiastic student to join my upcoming Ambizione research group (🌱 Epigenome Diversity Lab 🌱, www.epidiversitylab.org) at ETH Zürich, starting August 2026! Apply here ↘️ jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP... Application deadline: January 31st, 2026
Out First Release in @science.org A pollen ligand, SIPS, binds to the female receptor, SRK. SIPS binds to a conserved region of SRK, for interspecific incompatibility, unlike the self-incompatibility factor, which binds to a different, variable region www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #PlantScience
Pan-family pollen signals control an interspecific stigma barrier across Brassicaceae species
Pre-zygotic interspecific incompatibility prevents hybridization between species limiting interbreeding strategies for crop improvement using wild relatives. The Brassica rapa female self-incompatibil...
science.org
We (Nordborg & Weigel labs) need input on the next generation of genome browsers & data download modes for the #Arabidopsis #1001GenomesPlus project. We have now a curated collection of over 500 long read genomes. Please help us by filling out this questionnaire: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Next generation of 1001 Genomes Plus browser and data download
Please indicate all features you would like to see in a browser that displays features of completely sequenced Arabidopsis thaliana genomes
docs.google.com
We established a simple protocol for reliable, high-throughput infection with R. solani in the field. This helps us identify maize malate dehydrogenase as a new resistance gene by enhancing mtROS accumulation. Newly published in @AdvancedScience : doi.org/10.1002/advs....
Allelic Variation in Maize Malate Dehydrogenase 7 Shapes Promoter Methylation and Banded Leaf and Sheath Blight Resistance
In this study maize chloroplastic malate dehydrogenase7 (ZmMDH7), is identified as a Rhizoctonia solani resistance gene in maize. ZmMDH7 is regulated by transcription factor ZmWRKY44 via pathogens ch...
doi.org
Thanvi has great enthusiasm and motivation for Science. Congratulations, Thanvi~
Thanvi Srikant@thanvisrikant.bsky.social · 11mo agoExcited to share that I’ve been awarded an @snsf.ch Ambizione grant to begin my independent research, starting summer 2026 at the Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zürich! I will use (epi)genomics to study altitude adaptation in Arabis alpina - stay tuned for more updates & PhD opportunities!
Now with a Research Briefing: "Glycosylation disruption is a new virulence strategy for a plant fungal pathogen" rdcu.be/eHeag Fusarium secretes an apoplastic effector that disrupts N-glycosylation of the immune receptor ZmLecRK1, leading to its degradation.
New Letter: "An apoplastic fungal effector disrupts N-glycosylation of ZmLecRK1, inducing its degradation to suppress disease resistance in maize" rdcu.be/eGD4E A fungal effector promotes a cell-surface receptor autophagy-mediated degradation to dampen plant immunity.
Research Briefing in @natplants.nature.com "Glycosylation disruption is a new virulence strategy for a plant fungal pathogen": highlight of our recent findings published in Nature Plants doi.org/10.1038/s414....
Glycosylation disruption is a new virulence strategy for a plant fungal pathogen - Nature Plants
We found that the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum secretes an apoplastic effector that disrupts N-glycosylation of the maize immune receptor ZmLecRK1, leading to its degradation by selective auto...
nature.com
Out in @NaturePlants. We discover that the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum secretes an apoplastic effector that disrupts the N-glycosylation of a maize immune receptor, thereby inducing its degradation via selective autophagy. Very proud of the team~ doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Out after peer review, collaborative study from Nordborg & Weigel labs with help from many others. Not the largest collection of new Arabidopsis thaliana genomes, but we hopefully put forward some good ideas for how to think about pangenomes and their analysis! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This work started nearly 10 years ago and was once my main postdoctoral project at @plantevolution.bsky.social before I slowed work on it to a trickle because it became confusing. But it always remained extremely interesting. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
A major trade-off between growth and defense in Arabidopsis thaliana can vanish in field conditions
In controlled greenhouse conditions, Arabidopsis thaliana plants with a hyperactive allele of the ACD6 gene have stronger pathogen defenses but are smaller and make fewer seeds, in a classic fitness t...
journals.plos.org
Super excited to share our new preprint! 🎉 This project has been an incredible learning experience, thanks to the amazing lab and wonderful people I get to work with. Huge thanks to my supervisor! @plantevolution.bsky.social
PlantEvolution 🌱🌾@plantevolution.bsky.social · last yr.1/3 New preprint led by Shanshan Wang, in collaboration with the Timmermans lab. Several groups have presented sc/snRNA-seq analyses of Arabidopsis leaves after bacterial infection before. Is there anything left to discover? Turns out: Yes. #plantscience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
