Thank you! So lovely to hear — it was a big team effort, and I’m really glad it’s out now 🥳

Thank you very much 😃

A new study from our group, led by Iris Eisermann, of the septin interactome during appressorium development, revealing many new interactors and significantly widening the biological function of septins in fungal pathogenesis. 👇

@thesainsburylab.bsky.social

Really grateful to all co-authors who made this possible 🙏
Neha Sahu @mariselagarduno.bsky.social Paul Derbyshire @frankmenke.bsky.social Weibin Ma @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social

Happy to hear any thoughts or feedback! 🌱🍄

This rewiring is functionally important.

We identify septin-associated proteins linked to virulence, including Msi1 - a BAR-domain protein that localises at the appressorium base and is required for efficient infection.

Septins don’t just form structures - they reorganise over time.

Their interaction networks are dynamically rewired across infection stages, linking septins to diverse cellular processes not previously connected to septin function.

To address this, we built a time-resolved septin interactome across infection-related development using Co-IP/MS and Y2H.

→ >350 high-confidence interactors
→ strong stage-specific rewiring

Septins are classically seen as cytoskeletal scaffolds controlling polarity and morphogenesis.

But how they connect to broader cellular processes during infection, particularly at a systems level, has remained unclear.

New preprint out! 🚀
biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We mapped how septins organise infection in the rice blast fungus—and found they are far more dynamic than previously thought.

Thread 👇

#FungalPathogenesis #CellBiology #septins

bioRxiv: A stage-resolved map of dynamic septin interactions required for infection by the rice blast fungus (2026) Septin GTPases are essential cytoskeletal regulators that organize membranes and scaffold protein complexes to control cytokinesis, polarity, and morphogenesis. How septins execute these functions remains poorly understood, and comprehensive, stage-resolved interaction maps are lacking. Here, we define a quantitative, time-resolved septin interactome in the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae using immunoprecipitation coupled to mass spectrometry. We map more than 350 interactors of septins Sep3, Sep4, Sep5 and Sep6, revealing a dynamic network required for appressorium-mediated plant infection. Beyond canonical roles in cytoskeletal organisation and polarity, septins associate with proteins linked to membrane remodelling, metabolism, and virulence, deployed during host invasion. Integration with ultra-high-throughput yeast two-hybrid analysis defines a high-confidence septin interactome and identifies previously uncharacterised factors, including Msi1, a BAR domain protein required for invasive growth. Together, these findings establish septins as dynamic organisers of infection-related processes and provide a framework for understanding how cytoskeletal scaffolds coordinate fungal pathogenesis.

New Preprint: A stage-resolved map of dynamic septin interactions required for infection by the rice blast fungus (2026)

https://www.tsl.ac.uk/publications/166266