🌿 Postdoc opportunity in plant evolutionary ecology/genetics!
My lab in the Dept. of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher to start Fall 2026.
We study plant adaptation, using weeds as model systems.
#Postdoc #EcoEvo
Pls RT!
@thaisdalsasso.bsky.social is applying new tools to address the evolution and functional diversification of secreted proteins of fungal plant pathogen. Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Emerging fungal pathogens have detrimental impacts on crops, animals, and humans. This study demonstrates that the fungal transition from saprotroph to opportunistic human pathogen is likely facilitated by adaptive translation.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Wishing you all happy holidays. 🎄🎁
Greetings from the Environmental Genomics Group.
🇲🇽🇫🇷🇧🇷🇵🇹🇵🇪🇷🇸🇮🇷🇩🇰🇩🇪🤗
Great talk today from Luis Larrondo on the remarkable circadian clock control exhibited by fungi and the exquisite light-sensing behaviour that possess, which can be evidenced by image capture using their hyphae as a canvas @thesainsburylab.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social
There are no words to describe how excited and honored I am to take on the role. Already had such amazing support from the plant pathology community in Switz and cannot wait to grow the team further and see how far we can get in tackling our fungal foes. Look out for jobs starting in May 2026!
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
Excited this paper is finally published! We focused on the inner concave surface of LRR RKs to expand bacterial flagellin perception in plants. Selection indicates expanded perception is more common than previously thought. Experiments led by @jerrytli.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📣 Happy to see the journal publication 📄 of our work on Starships 🚀 in Verticillium fungi: terrific work led by @yukiyosato.bsky.social
rdcu.be/exBSp
Going to a conference and hope someone posts about your talk? Make it easy for the posters!!
Tips:
1. Include your handle at beginning and end
2. Make clear what is published/not
3. Have a conclusions slide with key message
4. Highlight new preprint or publication if relevant
#AcademicSky 🦠🧪🧬
«Nothing in plant-microbe interactions makes sense except in the light of microbe-microbe interactions » @teamthomma.bsky.social #2025ISMPMI
A man giving a talk at a lectern with the MPMI logo
@teamthomma.bsky.social shares the story of how a Verticillium effector that impacts plant growth, actually targets other microbes, not the plant host itself.
Antimicrobial effectors have since been observed in many systems. Can we predict effectors with antimicrobial properties? Yes!
#2025ISMPMI
in the light of evolution it makes so much sense that effectors from pathogens have „ancesteral“ functions and „evolved“ further functions once plants „appeared“ - it‘s a great new concept by @teamthomma.bsky.social and thought-provoking 🤓 #2025ISMPMI
Great talk by @teamthomma.bsky.social who shows that effectors have antimicrobial activities that are ancesteral - other functions within the host have evolved later on to suppress immunity in plants #2025ISMPMI
@teamthomma.bsky.social - a new antimicrobial effector prediction tool is available. This will be useful #2025ISMPMI
Corné M.J. Pieterse speaking for all of us! #2025ISMPMI
To wrap up…!
Why keep an effector the plant can recognize?
Our postdoc Liz Florez shows Z. tritici’s effector AvrStb6 shapes the wheat microbiome, esp. Pseudomonas spp., in susceptible cultivars. A hidden microbial modulation role beyond host recognition?
🗓️ Poster P-166
🔗 doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
How does heat reshape plant immune responses?
Our PhD student Anica Schmauch shows higher temperatures boost ROS bursts in barley and potentially affect Z. passerinii growth, revealing abiotic-biotic cross-talk in disease resistance.
🗓️ Poster P-424
#2025ISMPMI
Extremely honoured to be a #2025ISMPMI travel awardee this year, and to be able to present the results of my masters degree all the way from NZ! Come and see me at P-319 to learn about the bacterial microbiome of Actinidia (kiwifruit).
What makes wild wheat resistant to domestic Zymoseptoria?
Our PhD student Rune Hansen found wild wheat relatives that stop infection by domestic Zymoseptoria at the stomata, with a pool of candidate genes that could potentially boost resistance in domestic wheat.
🗓️ Poster P-015
#2025ISMPMI
#2025ISMPMI my poster is up! If you are interested in how a family of plant endogenous peptides can act as both signaling and antimicrobial peptides, pass by my poster P-222 on Thursday afternoon.
My poster is up at #2025ISMPMI. Come by P-372 Thursday afternoon if you are interested in fungal evolution, effectors and microbial competitions!
More research by @teamthomma.bsky.social at P-091, P-170, P-299, P-317, P-337 and P-388.
#2025ISMPMI 📣 In silico screening of PRR-epitope interactions is now possible!
Here, we developed mamp-ml to predict their immunogenic outcomes without structural context. Let's accelerate engineering plant receptors for robust resistance! 🚀🌱 Small 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Are chromatin remodelling complexes targets of bacterial effectors PopP2 & XopJ6 ? Check out our work at #2025ISMPMI ! P-163 presented Wednesday afternoon by my amazing PhD supervisors Laurent Deslandes & Valerie Pacquit. @lipme-toulouse.bsky.social @ismpmi.bsky.social
Would have been great to see you too! 🥹 but I’ll pass by your poster for sure 😊
🧪⚔️ When a fungal effector tries to coexist with plant apoplastic bacteria
My poster’s not up until Thursday, but you can already check it out on Zenodo 👀
📎 zenodo.org/records/1585...
🧾 Poster P-166, Thur 17th, 1:30 pm
#2025ISMPMI
Scientific presentation with a PowerPoint slide showing a global map with sample locations and ToxB genotype
@mcdonaldmeganc.bsky.social presents on the ToxB fungal effector. Pacbio long-read sequencing ~doubles detection of transposons compared to short-read. Helpful for finding where the multiple copies of ToxB -flanked by TEs- are throughout the genome. Sometimes in tandem copies! #2025ISMPMI
🌿 Curious about microbiomes, effectors, resistance genes, and temperature stress?
Come meet our team at #2025ISMPMI
We’ll be presenting posters all week on Zymoseptoria–plant interactions, wild relatives, and immune manipulation!
🧵 Thread with posters & schedule ⬇️
🌾🍄 The Environmental Genomics group (@estukenbrock.bsky.social lab) is excited to be at #2025ISMPMI! We’ll be sharing posters on plant resistance, host–microbe interactions, effector function and more! Stay tuned!
Just got my first request to review a manuscript 📄 from a decent journal (not one of the usual predatory ones). Turns out it’s never too late for new academic experiences! #DeepReadingMode #PostdocLife
