International MibiNet Symposium 2026 Microbial Networking Event Website: www.sfb1535.hhu.de/en/internati... Registration Deadline: July 15, 2026 Abstract Submission Deadline: July 30, 2026 #MibiNet2026

Excited to share my paper! 🥳 Today in #Nature we reveal an 8 MDa Hdr electron bifurcating super-assembly in class I methanogens that couples the first and last steps of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. A lineage-specific adaptation to anaerobic niches. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We often talk about complex protein folds but what does that really mean? Turns out we don't have a good metric for it. So we made a game to make one! Head over to our website to vote on which fold you think is more complex and why! pacesalab.com/foldcomplexi...

The mycobiont of the lichen Xanthoria parietina produces the siderophore ferrichrome which enables iron acquisition and nutrient exchange with its algal photobiont. Great collaboration with my group & @metalichen.bsky.social led by Hubertus Haas 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“move from preprint to peer-reviewed publication leaves the central claims of most abstracts intact, indicating preprints are a reliable source…papers that were never posted as preprints were retracted at roughly twice the rate of those that were…” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Exciting preprint from @hessofarhan.bsky.social! Mechanical stress has a new sensor! IRE1 detects ER membrane tension and drives protein synthesis independently of its canonical UPR role, reshaping cell and organelle mechanobiology. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1...

First 👀 on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social, now online in @natureportfolio.nature.com Nature Communications: A structurally unique effector shared between vascular wilt fungi drives cotton and olive defoliation #Verticillium #Fusarium @lfaino.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Plz spread the words: We have 2 opens for Full (W3) and Associate (W2) professorships @hhu.de Düsseldorf on Experimental Biophysics Come and join us to shape both physics & biology departments and let's make some great science together! berufungsportal.hhu.de

1/ In 2014, we published the genome of the stress resilient wild tomato Solanum pennellii. It showed many new transposable elements – non randomly inserted. Now, a new chapter begins (and more is yet to come) with Willem Rengs and @charlieunderwood.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What is the impact of phage biocontrol on plant immune responses and bacterial virulence? Very happy that this is out @cp-cellreports.bsky.social! @mibinet.bsky.social, @dfg.de, @fz-juelich.de, @hhu.de, @spp2330.bsky.social

‼️Job altert🚨📢 please spread the word: We're looking for a postdoctoral researcher to join our new department "Phytopathology and Plant Protection" at @unihalle.bsky.social. www.verwaltung.uni-halle.de/DEZERN3/AUSS...

We have an opening for a motivated & skilled Doctoral researcher in the group (Düsseldorf, Germany). Candidates with strong background in Biophysics/Biochemistry/Structural biology are welcome to apply. Applications are possible exclusively via the University portal: karriere.hhu.de/index.php?ac...

I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...

Excited to share our latest publication!🚀🙏🏼🤩 We present ATPLyzer, an advanced ratiometric biosensor that is a clear step forward in sensor-related ATP-research, opening new perspectives for future applications. 📄 advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Microbes that have the greatest genomic potential for secondary metabolism tend to be multicellular. Here, we show that signatures of ancestral BGC expansions within 3 bacterial phyla and 2 fungal lineages coincide with origins of complex multicellularity [1/12] 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are on air! Congratulations to everyone behind the story ❤️‍🔥 and thanks to @embojournal.org for providing the stage! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

🍄 New study on #fungal #isocyanide synthases (#ICSs)! With @grantnickles.bsky.social @kellerlab.bsky.social (Uni. Wisconsin-Madison) @currentbiology.bsky.social @unipd.bsky.social Thanks all for the great teamwork! doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.…#Lichensns#SecondaryMetabolisms#biosyntheticGenese#fungigi

1/8 What if the genomic features we associate with fungal pathogens were also used by mutualists? We assembled 41 scale lichen genomes across 11 Peltigera species with 30 chromosome scale and 5 T2T revealing an unexpected genomic toolkit behind lichen symbiosis. doi.org/10.64898/202... #lichen

A chromosome-scale super-pangenome of the lichen genus Peltigera reveals genome architecture and expanded interaction repertoires shared across pathogenic and mutualistic fungi https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.16.732702v1

Our latest work on immune receptor engineering for enhanced pathogen recognition is out in @theplantcell.bsky.social academic.oup.com/plcell/artic... #NLRs #Effectors #Exo70

1/7 New preprint: we found that Chlamydomonas carries a giant and unexpectedly elaborate chloroplast RNA polymerase with 12 previously unknown subunits, overturning the idea that the complexity of this organellar enzyme emerged during plant terrestrialization! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Gloves are off! TODAY WE RELEASE THE 1% A list of the year’s very best papers 👇 (see thread)

📣 We are hiring! In the collaborative research center 'Plant Ecological Genetics' @teamthomma.bsky.social searches a PhD candidate to study the role of plant-associated microbiota in plant density responses and inter-plant competition. See project A07: sl1nk.com/b7z0doc Deadline July 10!

Our paper on the evolution of cellular miniaturization is now out in PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... A short recap 🧵

New Experimental Google Colab Notebook now integrates AlphaFold3 with OpenFold3 and py2Dmol: colab.research.google.com/github/sokry... (1/3)

We have openings at the University of Cologne, come and join our consortium in Plant Ecological Genetics TRR341!Applications open soon for 10 PhD position. Description here: trr341.uni-koeln.de/join-us #TRR341 #PlantEcologicalGenetics

Our review on structural mechanisms of #CO2 fixation machinery by #cyanobacteria @theplantjournal.bsky.social is out🎉🎉 When #CO2 is limiting, #cyano concentrate it. Discover how they thrive? @hhu.de @ceplas.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social @sfb1381.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New Preprint alert! Excited to share our latest work on the #MAPKinases from stellar PhD student Jill von Velsen. First structures of the MAP2K MEK1 activating its substrate MAPK between 2.9 and 3.6A - amazing resolutions for such a small and mobile complex! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Disentangling the sucrose metabolism of the corn smut Ustilago maydis reveals unexpected complexity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.11.731450v1

Interested in how #fungi came about on this planet? If so, take a look at my new article that just came out in @annualreviews.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1146/annu...

Our paper "Gene ancestries reveal diverse microbial associations during eukaryogenesis.” is finally out in Nature. Eukaryogenesis was likely a gradual process shaped by multiple microbial partners and virus-mediated gene transfer, rather than a single binary symbiosis. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

🦠 How did our cells originate? A study by #IRBBarcelona & @bsc-cns.bsky.social by @gabaldonlab.bsky.social, suggests cellular complexity arose through long-term microbial alliances rather than a single evolutionary event. @nature.com ➡️ https://shorturl.at/kCij7 📌 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-10639-9

As promised: We have an open 2-year postdoc position in my lab at HHU Düsseldorf, starting September 2026. Come join us and help pioneering structural biology of fungal GPCRs! More about the lab: altegoerlab.de Apply here: karriere.hhu.de/index.php?ac... Please share with interested candidates!

Membrane binding controls the ATPase cycle and localization of MinD in Bacillus subtilis doi.org/10.7554/eLif... - The final version of a long story! Biochemical analysis of MinD in vitro and in vivo (with SMLM). Credit goes to @drhelgon.bsky.social!

‼️Job alert📢🚨 We are recruiting a Junior Group Leader (f) in Protein Science at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, jointly hosted by the Institute of Biochemistry and Biotechnology and our Collaborative Research Centre CRC 1664 "Plant Proteoform Diversity – SNP2Prot."

Folddisco is now published @natbiotech.nature.com. It’s a fast motif search for similar 3D DISCOntinuous residues like catalytic sites or zinc fingers across the entire protein universe. 📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 💾 folddisco.foldseek.com​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ 🌐 https://search.foldseek.com/folddisco

Effector recognition by molecular mimicry of its target by an NLR - enabling multiple disease resistance specificities to be generated- first seen on @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social - great work led by @dianagdlc.bsky.social and Matt Moscou www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Now out in @pnas.org 🥳 "DNA-intercalating antiphage molecules trigger abortive infection through mutual destruction and synergize with bacterial immunity" --> bad timing can kill you, even as a virus. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @spp2330.bsky.social, @mibinet.bsky.social, @dfg.de

Please RT: Registration is ongoing for our International Symposium "Microbial Networking - from organelles to cross-kingdom communities" organized as highlight of the first funding period of CRC 1535 @mibinet.bsky.social www.sfb1535.hhu.de/internationa... @dfg.de, @hhu.de, @fz-juelich.de

Everything you wanted to know about the protein chemistry behind how amino-acid changes affect the cellular abundance of proteins from @tkschulze.bsky.social Effects of residue substitutions on the cellular abundance of proteins doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

That celebration has waited for a long time... One year ago we uploaded the preprint and started the endeavor through the peer-reviewing. Lots of emotions on the way 🎭, lots of work, and quite some learning on "friend or foe"... Probably, deserves another post 🤫 But now - the paper is accepted!

📣Last week another @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social dropped: "A fungal pathogen effector that shapes host plant microbiota kills bacteria through lipoteichoic acid binding and membrane disruption" a joint effort by @nicksnelders.bsky.social & @gabriellapetti.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This is an interesting analysis of AlphaFold3. I don't claim to understand all of the technicalities, but the conclusion matches our own anecdotal experience that evolutionary depth is important for the most confident AlphaFold predictions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to share our latest study with @nicksnelders.bsky.social and @teamthomma.bsky.social! We uncover the mode of action of the V. dahliae antimicrobial effector Ave1 and show that it binds LTA and disrupts bacterial membranes 🦠 www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Excited to share my review in Nature Reviews Microbiology on soil fungal ecology. Fungal diversity, ecology and functions in soil ecosystems Hope people will find it useful! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii forms mutualistic interactions with Verticillium fungi https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.20.726472v1

1/6 🧪 Big news for structural biology and AI: PDBe is now AI-native. We’ve built MCP Servers that connect the Protein Data Bank in Europe and the Alphafold Protein Structure Database directly to Claude and other MCP-compatible AI systems. Here’s what that unlocks 👇

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....

Thrilled to see this finally out!! Our new work suggests #Starships helped #Colletotrichum acquire the genes needed to infect lupin. A glimpse into how fungal pathogens emerge through horizontal transfer and genome reshaping. biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #Fungi #Genomics #Pathogenicity #evolution