Spring showing off in every shade of yellow

Excited to share our new preprint on rhizobacterial biosensors mapping sucrose exudation 🌱

Work spanning my TomKat postdoc in @josedinneny.bsky.social's lab to my own lab at @universityofga.bsky.social; co-first with my PhD student Gretchen Brinkman: 🧵

biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

There is still time to register for the EMBO Workshop on Plant Calcium Signaling 2026!

Dive into cutting-edge research on Ca²⁺ signaling in plants 🌿

Primosten, Croatia | 20–24 Sept 2026

meetings.embo.org/event/26-cal...

Travel grants are available

embo.org/funding/lect...

@labcosta.bsky.social Out now in ScienceAdvances
our new work with @AndreaBassi78

MAcro Plant Projection Imaging (MAPPI): An open, scalable platform for whole-plant fluorescence real-time imaging | Science Advances science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Infection of maize by Ustilago maydis remodels the phyllosphere microbiome and requires the activity of antimicrobial effectors www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...

Host-adapted enzymatic deconstruction of acetylated xylan limits immune activation and facilitates mutualistic colonization of monocot roots This study identifies a monocot-specific enzymatic module in the beneficial root endophyte Serendipita indica, showing how ancestral saprotrophic enzymes have been repurposed into an immune-compatible...

Very proud to share our new paper led by Mathias Brands from my team at @UniCologne! With Markus Pauly team @HHU. Host-adapted enzymatic deconstruction of acetylated xylan limits immune activation and facilitates mutualistic colonization of monocot roots: Molecular Plant www.cell.com/molecular-pl...

Antimicrobial effectors of plant-associated fungi: multipurpose proteins with fast-evolving surfaces and structurally conserved cores Plants are exposed to a variety of devastating pathogens, causing significant yearly yield losses. In order to facilitate infections, plant pathogens …

So diverse and yet conserved. Check out opinion paper by Leonhard Pachinger @leopach.bsky.social on antimicrobial effectors produced by fungal pathogens: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Full article: Mycorrhizal specificity in orchids: a multidimensional filtering framework

Preprint alert 🚨 (1/10) 🧵

𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘨𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘹 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺:
It can promote resistance, susceptibility, or restrict cell death 🤯

So what is its actual role?

We show it acts as a spatial organizer of immunity across cell types 🌱🦠 #proteostasis

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Beautiful new review on how autophagy is hijacked by pathogens by Enoch & @tolgaboz.bsky.social

"𝘈𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘦-𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘨𝘺 𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘴?"

Yes, there are - watch this space :-)

royalsocietypublishing.org/rsob/article...

Hear from Mikayla Borton of Colorado State University on how our Large Scale call, through our Community Science Program, helped further her research and career. Submit an LOI by April 9 for our FY27 call!

Details: jointgeno.me/LargeScaleCSP

Domain gain or loss in a fungal chitinase enables specialization towards antagonism or immune suppression - Nature Communications Gain or loss of a particular domain contributes to functional specialization of a conserved chitinase in beneficial root endophyte towards microbial antagonism or host immune suppression.

Really proud of this work led by Ruben Eichfeld! We show how a CBM domain gain/loss can rewire fungal chitinases, turning them from antifungal enzymes into immune-suppressing effectors that support plant symbiosis.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The induction of systemic resistance to barley powdery mildew by rhizosphere bacterial communities does not disrupt the structure or function of native microbial communities.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Geothermal spring microbiome: pH and temperature are the primary deterministic drivers shaping both microbial species composition and functional potential, thereby segregating the communities into three distinct groups: acidic, hyperthermal, and thermal.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

What a great meeting on immunometabolism and microbial interactions across kingdoms! Many thanks to all speakers for the engaging talks and to everyone for the stimulating discussions @iHEAD Cologne.

Drought-driven microbiome shifts may arise from host physiology and intra-microbial competition, not just a plant “cry for help.”
Suppression of immunity and iron uptake enables Streptomyces enrichment, which doesn’t necessarily guarantee plant benefit.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

AM fungi challenge a core assumption of cell biology. They can lose a core DNA polymerase (Polɛ) and survive for 360 million years! This blew my mind this weekend!
Reductive evolution of the DNA replication machinery in endosymbiotic fungi | bioRxiv
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

You could argue that the true core of a university is the intellectual relationship between teacher and student, and the shared pursuit of new knowledge through research... Everything else is infrastructure.
When we forget that, we mistake administration for mission and metrics for meaning.

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...

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)

New Article: "Imputation integrates single-cell and spatial gene expression data to resolve transcriptional networks in barley shoot meristem development" rdcu.be/eYiMF

With Research Briefing rdcu.be/eYiM7

This position is still open. The Weisberg lab is recruiting a postdoc or Ph.D. student to study horizontal gene transfer in plant-associated microbial communities. Please see the job ad for more information and feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

Effector biology and immunometabolic (re)programming: microbial strategies for compatibility Root immunometabolism: balancing defense and accommodationPlant health depends on balanced immune defense and microbial accommodation. As constant contact zones, roots must exclude pathogens while fos...

Now online: Effector biology and immunometabolic (re)programming: microbial strategies for compatibility: Molecular Plant www.cell.com/molecular-pl...

Latest preprint from the lab!

A beautiful and comprehensive schematic representation of fungal cell wall structures and biosynthetic proteins:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Happy to share our latest paper: The symbiosome space needs to be continuously cleared from demethylated pectins to keep rhizobia happy. Former PostDoc Chao Su took this story with him when moving back to China and finished it off.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#PlantScience; @uni-freiburg.de

Tenure Track Professorship (W1 with Tenure Track to W3) in “Molecular Biology" (f/m/d) - Heidelberg job with Universität Heidelberg | 12850668 The Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH) and the Faculty of Biosciences invite applications for a   Tenure Track Professors...

Please RT‼️ #TenureTrack position @zmbh.uni-heidelberg.de one of the best #proteostasis research centres in the world. www.nature.com/naturecareer...

‼️Please RT: The CEPLAS Graduate School call for 2026 is now open! Detailed info on our website: bit.ly/4q19JWk
@hhu.de @unicologne.bsky.social @mpipz.bsky.social @fz-juelich.de @leibnizipk.bsky.social @plantsciencedbg.bsky.social

Network Inference Reveals Distinct Transcriptional Regulation in Barley against Drought and Fusarium Head Blight We analyzed transcriptional networks in barley under single and combined Fusarium head blight (FHB) and drought stress. We applied complementary Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis (WGCNA) to identify stress-associated gene co-expression modules and GENIE3 to infer gene regulatory networks (GRNs). Integration of these frameworks revealed strong overlaps between co-expression modules and GRN clusters, highlighting robust regulatory patterns. Key transcription factors (TFs) were identified based on their weighted node degrees, reflecting their connectivity within the network. Independent analysis of paired transcription factor binding sites in promoter regions further supported predicted regulatory interactions. Notably, WRKY TFs emerged as central regulators of FHB response, consistent with their known roles in defense and secondary metabolite biosynthesis, but did not appear in drought-associated contexts. For bHLH or NAC TFs, individual family members steered FHB or drought responses but not both. Our findings demonstrate the power of combining network inference and motif enrichment to identify candidate TFs controlling stress responses, providing a solid foundation for targeted functional validation. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Congratulations 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...

A Banner that shows the open call for the international PhD program on interdisciplinary Plant Biology in Cologne Germany between University of Cologne and Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research. A button reads "apply now!".

We are #hiring!
This IMPRS PhD project @algazuccaro.bsky.social group @unicologne.bsky.social explores plant–microbiome interactions.
🗓️ Deadline: Jan 5, 2025
✏️ Apply via: gradschool.mpipz.mpg.de
ℹ️ IMPRS: mpipz.mpg.de/imprs
🔗 Group: ag-zuccaro.botanik.uni-koeln.de

A fungal root endophyte functionally complements host immunity and mitigates natural immune variation in Arabidopsis Beneficial root-associated microbes can enhance plant resilience by complementing aspects of host immunity. The fungal root endophyte Serendipita indica (Si) is known to promote plant growth and confe...

A fungal root endophyte functionally complements host immunity and mitigates natural immune variation in Arabidopsis

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...