Happy to be part of this collaborative work from the Zuccaro lab 🌱 Prion-like fungal PEPSI effectors target plastids and modulate host metabolism during root symbiosis, including the PEPSI6–DXR interaction. PEPSI6 also connects to phytocytokine biology through possible CAP/CAPE-like processing.

Science Shared: May 16 www.botany.one/science-shar... This week: hybrids everywhere, plasmodesmata in many places, and more. #Botany #PlantScience

An immune signal can hide inside a precursor protein. 🌱 Phytocytokines are cut free by proteases - from proteins with related, unrelated, or unclear functions. The challenge: predicting which protease acts where, when, and at which site. Read more in our review: doi.org/10.1111/tpj....

One highlight from our review: peptide signals can be copied or rerouted to redirect plant responses. 🌱 Bacteria, fungi and nematodes tap into phytocytokine pathways via mimics or altered release - steering infection, colonization and symbiosis. Read more about it here: doi.org/10.1111/tpj....

Plants use immunogenic peptides to coordinate immunity. Pathogens can mimic them to hijack defense. 🌱 We compare phytocytokines with animal cytokines and ask how these signals are made, released, mimicked, and controlled in space and time. doi.org/10.1111/tpj....

Thank you to @izzysaurlab.bsky.social, @teamthomma.bsky.social, and their teams for hosting our next two MadFungi workshops, "Expression in Barley Protoplasts" and "Expression of Antimicrobial Proteins," at @unicologne.bsky.social. It was a great week with all of our MadFungi PhD candidates! 🍄

Spatial organization of plant defense at the infection front https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.01.715938v1

Metabolic Engineering Boosts Strigolactone Production in Nicotiana benthamiana and Uncovers a Novel P450 Function https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.02.716082v1

Plant-parasitic nematodes produce functional mimics of plant PSK peptides to facilitate parasitism https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.04.713059v1

Have you ever wondered how phytocytokines are transported to the extracellular space and which factors regulate this process? We elucidated this mechanism for the maize-specific phytocytokine Zip1. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Here, we dissect the processing and release mechanism of the maize phytocytokine Zip1. Our results reveal a two-step mechanism of phytocytokine processing, translocation, activation and clearance. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Processing and release of the maize phytocytokine Zip1 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.11.659102v1

Happy to share our last preprint where we discovered a two step mechanism for the release of the maize signaling peptide Zip1. A “two - factor authentication”. Enjoy the reading! 👇

Non-invasive imaging of salicylic and jasmonic acid activities in planta https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.17.636591v1

Today we celebrate a wide diversity in plant sciences at the Symposium of our institute at @unicologne.bsky.social with support from @ceplas.bsky.social & @trr341.bsky.social #PlantScience

The MadFungi🍄 research unit funded by @dfg.de kicked off this week with our meeting in Cologne @unicologne.bsky.social. We're excited to see what great science we'll achieve over the next four years.