AM fungi have been associated with land plants for a long time, but it’s fair to say their lineage had an equally long evolutionary prehistory. So mysterious!
doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Two studies place the split between AM fungi and other fungi between ~800 million and 1 billion years ago, far earlier than the oldest fossil evidence of AM symbiosis (~400-450 Mya), and the first land plants (~475 Mya).
Every year or so, the position of AM fungi in the Fungal Tree of Life seems to shift. It happened again in 2025-2026: AM fungi were reported as sister to Mucoromycotina, then as sister to Dikarya + Entorrhizomycota. One consistent takeaway, though, is the timing...
Wow! Here's some solid evidence that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi use small RNAs to regulate plant gene expression. Congratulations to the teams of @carogutj.bsky.social and Arne Weiberg
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Hron, @dalibormiklik.bsky.social @hpaces.bsky.social et al. demonstrate that avian dot microchromosomes harbor widespread gene attrition; retained dot chromosomes genes exhibit a new form of dynamic genetic instability - sequence stuttering.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evag038
#genome #evolution #birds
PhD position in our lab - 4-year funded by BBSRC and @nrpdtp.bsky.social in collaboration with @earlhaminst.bsky.social and Inspiralis Ltd. Open to UK fee qualifying students - UK citizens and citizens of Ireland (residency requirement), etc biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/how...
1/ ✨ New preprint alert ✨
It is my pleasure to share:
"Stepwise evolution of the developmental and symbiotic functions of DELLA in land plants"
Here we investigated the role of the single GRAS transcription factor DELLA in #MyMarchantia
doi.org/10.64898/202...
#PlantScience
A thread...
A sedge. It may look unassuming but its genome has several unusual features.
Why do the chromosomes of cyperids (sedges & rushes) split and fuse so regularly on evolutionary timescales?
Is it because they have so many centromeres?
Our new preprint, the first major paper of my PhD, addresses this question. 🧵⬇️ 1/12
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Out in @science.org this week, two fungal enzymes synthesise DHHA, which controls cell wall porosity and turgor in plant pathogenic fungi www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#mycology
#plantscience
When humans create an artificial island, how do fungi colonize this new habitat?
Using the Danish island Peberholm as an experimental system, a recent Fungal Ecology article examines arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal succession on new land. doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...
📷 Wikipedia
Rereading these two papers:
Holes in the hologenome: why host-microbe symbioses are not holobionts.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
The Hologenome Concept: Helpful or Hollow?
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
And I still find myself in general agreement with most of the points in them
Interesting kind of genomic compartmentalisation in wheat: transposable elements are enriched around genomic regions that were under selection during domestication 🧬
What the hell? No recombination no problem? "These findings challenge the boundary between sex and clonality, revealing a unique evolutionary strategy linking genome architecture, recombination loss, and transmission bias." www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
A new AMF genome is out, and it is a beauty! Congrats for putting together the monstrously big Gigaspora margarita 🙌
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
It's easier to tear down than build up, and in science we have a bad case of that. So: how to lead a journal club that actually finds value in what you read. scientistseessquirre... 🧪
👾 Congrats to @bbuchfink.bsky.social and @hajkdrost.bsky.social for DIAMOND dominating the annotation of fungal metagenomics data! And to authors for reporting the use of computational tools 🙌
doi.org/10.1111/nph....
Microbial eukaryotes keep challenging assumptions about eukaryotic cell and genome biology.
Our upcoming workshop explores the frontier of protist genomics and how it shapes cell biology, ecology and evolution.
Please save the date! Talks, posters and ECR events
Websites and details coming soon
Hi friends—consider this 👇
Let’s work together to bring amazing mycologists together in South Korea in 2027!
gofund.me/5cc978d4d
"The only kind of thinking that matters in science is structured thinking. The only way to give structure and substance to your thoughts is to write them down. Writing. Is. Thinking."
Thinking about this in the context of AI tools....
Call for Letters of Intent - HFSP Research Grants 2027
Attention scientists from all over the world🙃
The Call for Letters of Intent for #HFSPResearchGrants 2027 is now open! 🧪
Get your international & interdisciplinary team. It's time to put your bold research idea into practice!
🔗https://bit.ly/48VsGCG
📅 15 Dec 2025–26 Mar 2026
#sts #LifeSciences
🌱 Why mutate when you can epimutate? A nice perspective on plants by @thanvisrikant.bsky.social & @hajkdrost.bsky.social
Absolutely gorgeous microscopy and time-lapse imaging on this plant-mutualist-pathogen system! Insane in the membrane 🎶 Well done @alexguyon.bsky.social @dromius.bsky.social and colleagues!
In applying AI to material science, biology, etc, capitalism is trying to shed science.
The point is to substitute the engineering of a machine that can generate what science has hitherto done, but without having people know things. Knowledge ultimately residing in private property is the dream.
A phase oscillator model of cell cycles reveals nuclear density control in a branched fungal network
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Dated gene duplications elucidate the evolutionary assembly of eukaryotes www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
Congratulations Nick!! 🎉
It’s French from 400 years ago heh 🤷♀️😊
Plant Science Research Weekly -- How parasitic plants avoid being parasitized (Science) @shirasulab.bsky.social (Summary by Mary Williams @PlantTeaching.bsky.social) buff.ly/KEgzFe5
#PlantaePSRW
New light on old stones: a fossil #fungus in #symbiosis with one of the oldest known land plants
@chistinesd.bsky.social, et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@dromius.bsky.social @ffercoq.bsky.social #PlantScience
Summary also available in French and Spanish.
🔥 At conferences, who asks the questions shapes who gets seen. Across 24 ID&CM meetings, women were 55% of delegates but asked 36% of questions.
💬 When women moderate or speak first, others follow.
Let’s change the pattern
bit.ly/47VL0eH
🙏 @maudsalmona.bsky.social & MicroID EmpowHERment consortium
