Over many years, and a pandemic, we have worked with an international team of researchers to answer the question through genomics. We believe the origin is recent (in the last few decades, in line with previous research) and spatially from Western Europe

TEs aren’t just genomic parasites, they’re also engines of genomic novelty. Our new study with ~2,000 Z. tritici genomes shows repeated TE mobilization waves during global expansion. With @danielcroll.bsky.social & @guidopuccetti.bsky.social 🧬 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #TEworldwide

Genomic and phenotypic insights into the expanding phylogenetic landscape of the Cryptococcus genus journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

Lifestyles shape genome size and gene content in fungal pathogens. buff.ly/tec1Tds

Still using 16S/ITS profiling? You might want to reconsider👀 Our new paper presents pangenome-informed amplicons that provide up to 10× higher phylogenetic resolution than full-length ribosomal markers- while remaining cost effective and scalable! microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

WHY USE #YEAST AS A TOOL WHEN YOU'VE GOT STAGO?😁 Out now on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, our collab @theccdm.bsky.social led by @labkatz.bsky.social and Fran Lopez-Ruiz developed Parastagonospora nodorum as a tool to study #fungicideresistance genes. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fungal #GenomeSize variation is largely driven by TEs & lineage-specific genome defenses. @tbadet.bsky.social & @danielcroll.bsky.social show that presence/absence of RIP mutation systems influences #genome architecture, identifying a likely novel defense mechanism @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4hcC5tx

New preprint reveals bacteria can't just collect all resistance genes like Pokemon cards. We found mutually exclusive evolutionary pathways to multidrug resistance in E. coli & P. aeruginosa - some resistance mechanisms actively prevent others from coexisting www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I thought the Aspergillus fumigatus pan-genome was pretty wild when we started this project. Aspergillus flavus said, "hold my beer..." Not only does it have a strong population structure with differences between environmental and clinical strains, only 58%of genes are conserved across the species!

🚨 Fungi + viruses + mammalian lungs? Buckle up! Our new paper in @natmicrobiol.nature.com uncovers the story of a deadly fungus and its gnarly viral hitchhiker — and how this duo may change how we diagnose & treat fungal disease 🍄🫁🚨 doi.org/10.1038/s415... ⬇️

A little holiday news: Evolution of antifungal resistance in the environment www.nature.com/articles/s41... This started out as a little thought way back in early 2024 between @normanvanrhijn.bsky.social and I, and turned into a full on review! We hope it proves useful to the community.

A pangenomics-enabled platform for the high-throughput discovery of antifungal resistance factors in crop pathogens https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.18.665620v1

We dive into the dynamics of #starships 🚀 in a fungal pathogen to ask: how might these giant #transposons impact human health? We find they drive genome-wide variation, encode clinically-relevant traits and even transpose within the same strain! 🍄🧪 out today in mBio #goteam doi.org/10.1128/mbio...

Super happy to see it out with all the hard work of everyone ! Such a nice story ! 🔥

It's been so many months that I have been postponing the publication of my poster's comics since I wanted to translate it (which I did not officially...), so why not doing it on the Labour Day ? 😅 It is now on Zenodo (French): doi.org/10.5281/zeno... 🧪🐡🎨 (1/2)

Very excited with @tobybarilbio.bsky.social to share this preprint about his latest work on TEs! We knew that TEs were very pretty active in this global fungal pathogen of wheat. Now with nearly 2000 Illumina genomes available, we could finally ask questions about historic TE activation waves.

🔥 Exciting news! The first Symposium on Repeat-Induced Point mutations is happening June 30 – July 1 at the University of Neuchâtel🇨🇭! 🔹 Want to join? Register here > forms.gle/XWTd4gJAXZSx... 🚨 Limited spots available! So first come, first served! 🔹 More info > crolllab.github.io/ripm2025/

@guidopuccetti.bsky.social, Gabriel Scalliet and I are excited to share our latest work. Resistance in agriculture emerges fast, but we fail to grasp how the myriad mutations in pathogen populations contribute to this. Please check out and share our latest preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

From @guidopuccetti.bsky.social @danielcroll.bsky.social

Our paper on the evolution of fungicide resistance in wheat powdery mildew is now published! Congrats to all coauthors! doi.org/10.1111/mpp....

We did it! We caught Starship #transposons moving between #fungal species in the lab, including between species separated by ~100my. We think Starships are a mediator of HGT in fungi, akin to conjugative elements in bacteria. Check out the preprint. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@tbadet.bsky.social and I have a preprint out on transposon silencing in fungi! Genome size evolution is fascinating and showcases the dynamic nature of transposon activation. What we understand less are the dynamics of transposon defense systems encoded by the genomes. doi.org/10.1101/2025...