Shanice Webster

How some people get drunk from their own gut bacteria

People with autobrewery syndrome had increased levels of the ethanol-producing bacteria Escherichia coli, according to a new study.

Learn more: https://scim.ag/3LJGLeY

A bacterial nutrition strategy for plant disease control Xanthomonas spp. cause serious diseases in more than 400 plant species. The conserved AvrBs2 family effectors are among the most important virulence factors in xanthomonads, but how AvrBs2 promotes in...

A bacterial nutrition strategy for plant disease control

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A confocal microscopy image shows root-colonizing bacteria clustering around an emerging lateral root, where localized glutamine leakage induces spatially confined reporter activity.

Using precise spatial and temporal analysis, researchers in Science provide insight into how bacteria around the root interact both with the plant and with each other.

Learn more in this week's issue: https://scim.ag/3WgNajk

🎉Congratulations to @maribyndloss.bsky.social @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social and Kim Orth—three HHMI scientists recently honored by The American Society for Microbiology @asm.org
asm.org/press-releas...

Yayy!! Congrats Kevin!!!

Thanks for capturing this Morgan!!

A presenter next to a poster titled "Aureobasidium pullulans as a genetic model for phyllosphere commensalism and enhancing crop resilience"

Poster is up! If you're interested in Aureobasidium, phyllosphere commensalism, or biocontrol, come learn more tomorrow afternoon! (P-308) #2025ISMPMI

A woman giving a talk at a lectern with an MPMI logo

@shanice-webster.bsky.social looks at iron status in plant-microbiome interactions. Proteobacteria and firmicutes are typically balanced in the microbiota, but iron starvation can really mess with that, going to dysbiosis. Used “mfec” Arabidopsis quadruple mutant.
#2025ISMPMI

Want to learn about the role of nitrogen in microbiota-mediated plant immunity? Come check my poster out now (P-345)
#2025ISMPMI

Excited to share that the Zhu Lab will officially open at Texas A&M University on August 1st, 2025!

We’re a multidisciplinary group, exploring how plant roots adapt their growth to environmental stresses across scales. Actively recruiting!

Postdoc Advertisement: drive.google.com/file/d/1Gpvn...

Check out this prize-winning essay by postdoc @djenetbousbaine.bsky.social on her work with @mfgrp.bsky.social @stanford-chemh.bsky.social 👏

IN BRIEF: From the archives: Nitrogen matters in crop domestication, rice nitrogen nutrition, and symbiotic nitrogen fixation (Shanice S Webster) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience

Infrared imaging shows heat levels in sun-exposed leaves of Alstonia scholaris from the Australian Wet Tropics.

As the world warms, plants in natural ecosystems and agricultural settings find ways to respond to the heat.

In a new special issue of Science, researchers examine how heat affects plants at multiple scales, from the molecular level to the biosphere. (THREAD 🧵) scim.ag/44cSw3Z

Thanks George!

My former PhD student, a current postdoc at Duke, was one of the speakers at the MIT Catalyst Symposium yesterday. I heard it was a great talk!
biology.mit.edu/about/2025-m...

Shanice Webster standing confidently in front of tall grasses with a greenhouse in the background.

Plant health is essential to food security, yet pathogens continue to threaten crops worldwide. To better understand how disease takes hold—& how to stop them—HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow @shanice-webster.bsky.social is exploring the dynamic relationships among plants, microbes, & disease-causing agents.

#CIDDSeminar This Thursday, April 24, 2025, Shanice Webster, Postdoctoral Associate and Hanna Gray Fellow at Duke University will present on metabolites and nutrients as key modulators of microbiota selection and plant health.

ExPOSE: a comprehensive toolkit to perform expansion microscopy in plant protoplast systems This method provides a robust approach for performing expansion microscopy in plant protoplasts for imaging single-cell and subcellular compartments at greatly enhanced resolution.

Some of my postdoc work has been "exposed" today in @theplantjournal.bsky.social! 😁🎉🔬 We developed ExPOSE - a method to perform expansion microscopy in plant protoplast systems. Here's a quick🧵of the details: @meter76.bsky.social @lily-oconnor.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A widespread plant defense compound disarms bacterial type III injectisome assembly Numerous gram-negative bacterial pathogens employ the type III secretion system (T3SS), a multiprotein injectisome, to deliver virulence proteins into host cells and cause diseases. We uncover erucami...

Tomato phytoalexin disrupts bacterial type III secretion system.

A widespread plant defense compound disarms bacterial type III injectisome assembly | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Francis Collins, the NIH Director for 12 years, led the Human Genome Project and other NIH efforts for 32 years, resigned today. Key words from his resignation letter
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/u...

IS-MPMI 2025 abstract submission is open! You can now submit your fascinating science to the "Local and Inter-organ Signaling in Immunity and Mutualistic Interactions" 🌱🦠 Due date : MARCH 11th, 2025. See you in Cologne 🌈🧪

Our latest @pnas.org! Preventing inappropriate signals pre- and post-ligand perception by a toggle switch mechanism of the plant receptor kinase ERECTA.

Its unique C-terminal alpha-helix domain inhibits the receptor active state. Congrats, all!🌱🥰
www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....

#PhageSky
wow, what a sneaky mechanism

A big congratulations to the new cohort of HGF!!!

Tatsuya Nobori, Ph.D. Nobori Lab @TSL

My lab at @thesainsburylab.bsky.social studies the function, regulation, and communication of diverse immune cell states, including PRIMER and bystander cells. Interested in exploring cell state biology? Check out our website and contact me—we’d love to hear your ideas! (13/13) www.tatsuyanobori.com

Go Cagney!

Thanks for creating this Flora! Please add me! :)

Spatially restricted immune and microbiota-driven adaptation of the gut - Nature Intestinal regionalization is characterized by robust and resilient structural cell states and the intestine can adapt to environmental stress in a spatially controlled manner through crosstalk betwee...

Spatially restricted immune and microbiota-driven adaptation of the gut www.nature.com/articles/s41...