Some reflections on #Fungal26 This was a great meeting as always but set against some turbulent times of course, which meant many regular attendees were not present. This thread is mainly for them. However, the proportion of first-time attendees was very high and very international. #Fungal26 1/15

Yi-Chang Sung @yichangsung.bsky.social examines the role of TKP in plant immunity using a rice 🌾 🍚 model

#fungal26

It was a great honor to give a Chairs’ Choice Plenary Talk at the Fungal Genetics Conference #fungal26 !
I truly appreciated the opportunity to share our research on tandem kinases and the rice blast system for TKP studies.
Great science, great community, and beautiful Asilomar sunshine.

Happy to share my postdoc project at the UCD plant pathology seminar!

@yichangsung.bsky.social gave a great talk on tandem kinases for the UC Davis Plant Path seminar.

Charis Ramsing delivering a seminar and reminding the audience about xylem anatomy.

@charisramsing.bsky.social gave a great seminar on Clavibacter for UC Davis’ Plant Pathology Department today. New insights into tomato colonization and effector recognition. #MPMI

1st time being a plenary speaker! Thanks for the invitation from @plantpathpete.bsky.social and @williamsanu.bsky.social to the Stromolo Conference 2025, sharing my recent findings on plant tandem kinases! Good to visit Canberra again after my PhD!

Registrations for the Stromlo Plant Pathogen Conference #StromPath25 are rolling in fast and the program is now full!
Exciting lineup from Japan, Korea, USA, UK, NZ + strong local crew. Join us in Canberra — rego open until Nov 13.
Program available here tinyurl.com/3e3tx9j2

Our review on disease resistance gene diversity in Triticeae is finally online 🌾🌾! Gained so many insights writing it with Yinghui Li & Liubov Govta and from the guidance of gittacoaker.bsky.social & Tzion Fahima. Fascinated by plant resistance gene diversity—excited to share!

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

Submitted my first NIH grant proposal ! 🤞🤞🤞

Gene editing of the E3 ligase PIRE1 fine-tunes reactive oxygen species production for enhanced bacterial disease resistance in tomato An E3 ligase helps control plant immune responses and regulates reactive oxygen species production, offering a strategy to boost disease resistance in leav

Excited this MS is out! Here, we genome edited Pire in tomato, a conserved E3 ligase controlling NADPH oxidase accumulation in Arabidopsis. Edited lines exhibited enhanced resistance to foliar bacterial pathogens, but not two root colonizing pathogens. #PlantImmunity
academic.oup.com/plcell/artic...

Floral Stage Optimization and Immune Evasion Enhance Agrobacterium-Mediated Genome Editing in Arabidopsis Agrobacterium-mediated transformation via floral inoculation (AMT-FI) enables genetic engineering without tissue culture. It is widely used in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, yet its efficiency ...

👀 EFR-mediated PTI restricts transient transformation and genome editing, but not T-DNA integration.
This study combines floral stage targeting 🌷, immune evasion 🛡️, and Agrobacterium engineering 🔧 to boost plant genome editing efficiency.
#Agrobacterium
#GenomeEditing
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Gitta and Tianrun in the office

Paper submitted! One of the last in @jerrytli.bsky.social’s stellar PhD.

Phoebe Sinner and @yichangsung.bsky.social presented their work on vector borne effectors and Tandem Kinase Proteins @ucdavis.bsky.social host microbe interactions meeting. Great job by both!!

A plant dual-kinase protein traps a pathogen effector to trigger immunity - Nature Genetics Tandem kinase proteins (TKPs) are key regulators of plant immunity. We found that RWT4, a wheat TKP, confers resistance to the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae by directly recognizing the effector A...

Our Research Briefing on the tandem kinase proteins paper is online now!
Curious about the story behind our TKP paper?
📄 Research Briefing: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📄 Research article: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thank you Shahid

A plant dual-kinase protein traps a pathogen effector to trigger immunity - Nature Genetics Tandem kinase proteins (TKPs) are key regulators of plant immunity. We found that RWT4, a wheat TKP, confers resistance to the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae by directly recognizing the effector A...

Story behind our recent paper on tandem kinases is out! Written by @yichangsung.bsky.social. #MPMI #PlantBiology www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Can’t wait to see more TKP–effector pairs conferring resistance to different diseases

Our in planta and in vitro results show that RWT4 directly and specifically binds to AvrPWT4. This interaction requires RWT4’s N-terminal kinase duplication domain, which functions like an integrated domain (ID) seen in some NLR proteins. The binding is essential for RWT4 recognition.

We also showed that RWT4 is an active kinase, and its kinase activity is essential for triggering defense responses.

Wheat TKP RWT4 directly binds to the fungal effector AvrPWT4 to trigger immune responses against the devastating Magnaporthe oryzae. We developed a rice protoplast system to reconstitute RWT4–AvrPWT4 recognition in a monocot background—providing a useful model for future TKP studies.

Wheat tandem kinase RWT4 directly binds a fungal effector to activate defense - Nature Genetics This study shows that RWT4, a wheat tandem kinase, confers resistance to the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae by directly binding to the pathogen effector AvrPWT4 and activating host defense.

🌾 Excited to share our research on plant tandem kinase proteins (TKPs)! It’s been fascinating to explore how TKPs interplay effectors to activate plant immunity. Big thanks to my supervisor @gittacoaker.bsky.social, my undergrad student Suji Baik, and our collaborators—it's truly a team effort!

Can’t wait to see more TKP–effector pairs conferring resistance to different diseases!

Wheat tandem kinase RWT4 directly binds a fungal effector to activate defense - Nature Genetics This study shows that RWT4, a wheat tandem kinase, confers resistance to the fungal pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae by directly binding to the pathogen effector AvrPWT4 and activating host defense.

I'm very excited our most recent work on plant tandem kinases (TKPs) has finally been published! TKPs are a fascinating protein family conferring disease resistance to fungi. Originally in bioRxiv. Many thanks to @yichangsung.bsky.social for leading this work. 🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#standupforscience2025

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