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

📣 New preprint on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social: Bacteria rewire fungal antimicrobial gene expression in microbial arms races www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... This work, led by outstanding @jinyi-zhu.bsky.social, shows that bacteria suppress fungal antimicrobial protein expression to evade antagonism

With Eugene Koonin, we wrote a rather comprehensive review on the origin, evolution and organization of the #virosphere. We describe all 10 viral realms and the logic behind them, and so much more. Check it out! comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/biologies/ar...

📢 EffectorGeneP is finally here! Stop missing small, single-exon or orphan genes from your favourite pathogen genome. Current tools only annotate 15%-78% of effector genes, EffectorGeneP finds 95% - including the large AvrSr26 family in stem rust. #Bioinformatics 📖 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Very happy to share our recent preprint: “An Lsr2-like xenogeneic silencer confers immunity against AT-rich bacteriophage infection” www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-9... @fz-juelich.de; @hhu.de; @spp2330.bsky.social

New Preprint in collaboration with GoogleDeepMind: AI-guided discovery of atypical protein assemblies The @kamounlab.bsky.social discovered an 11-protomer complex thanks to the Structural Novelty Index , a new way to use AlphaFold to find protein assemblies that break the pattern.

Happy to share our finding on Lys-toxicity in #cyanobacteria @plantphys.bsky.social by talented PhD #AndreasEnkerlin A collaboration w/ @linkmetabolism.bsky.social @mfeldbruegge.bsky.social @dfg.de @sfb1381.bsky.social @cmfi.bsky.social @hhu.de @mibinet.bsky.social academic.oup.com/plphys/artic...

Final version of our NRG1 MS is out! We uncover a surprising mechanism: the helper NLR NRG1 targets organellar membranes to trigger immunity Great collaborations with @KamounLab, @JiorgosKourelis, @jonathandgjones, @AdamWu9527, and the @Phil_Carella labs! science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Delighted to see this work out in #ScienceAdvancesResearch @science.org where we uncover a surprising evolutionary origin of fungal effector proteins as ancient antimicrobials. Led by the super-star @mesny.bsky.social in the frame of @ceplas.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social & @madfungi.bsky.social

Where do plant pathogen effectors come from? @mesny.bsky.social shows how fungi turned shield 🛡️ into sword ⚔️ to end up with dual-function molecules to disrupt host immunity & protective host microbiota. @ceplas.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social @madfungi.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🎉 📰 Very happy to share the journal publication of our manuscript "Plant-associated fungi co-opt ancient antimicrobials for host manipulation"! #ScienceAdvancesResearch @science.org @teamthomma.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🧐Checkout our preprint revealing the stepwise firing💥 mechanism of a Contractile Injection System @xujwet.bsky.social&@chipericson.bsky.social trapped the complex by structure-guided engineering🧪 in multiple intermediate states and imaged them by multimodal #cryoEM❄️🔬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cell-internal autocrine receptor inactivation supports maintenance of mating-type identity in yeast | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I am so excited to share our new findings with you! We provide the structural evidence for a direct protein-to-DNA information pathway, showing how a bacterial enzyme 'reads' its own structure to 'write' DNA. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We just received funding for a 2yr postdoc position on cryoEM of fungal gpcrs. Official call will open soon. Contact me if you‘re interested!

Der Biologe Dr. Florian Altegoer vom Institut für Mikrobiologie der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf (HHU) erhält einen mit 210.000 Euro dotierten „Exploration Grant“ der Boehringer Ingelheim Stiftung (BIS).

Very proud to share our new paper led by Mathias Brands from my team at @UniCologne! With Markus Pauly team @HHU. Host-adapted enzymatic deconstruction of acetylated xylan limits immune activation and facilitates mutualistic colonization of monocot roots: Molecular Plant www.cell.com/molecular-pl...

Huge congrats to Dr. Eliza Loo! The associated MibiNet researcher has secured a "Klaus Tschira Boost Fund" grant to explore targeted programming of plant microbiomes. Fantastic news for @hhu.de and the MibiNet team! #MibiNet #HHU @elizaloopi.bsky.social www.hhu.de/en/detail-re...

1/ Excited to share our preprint! 🥳 Degradation of aromatic compounds, including BTEX pollutants, requires highly endergonic aromatic ring reduction. Using #cryoEM and in situ #cryoET, we show how BCRII couples electron bifurcation modules in one giant redox machine www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

📣 Check out this excellent #Postdoc opportunity @leibniz-hki.de which is part of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions #MSCA #COFUND. Consider applying to join my lab if you’re interested in opportunistic infections caused by #Fusarium (research area 5). Call ends 26 May 2026 www.fellows4fungi.eu

📣Huge preprint 🔔 Today we share something our group has been working toward for a long time, led by @lucasmoriniere.bsky.social We asked can we predict which receptor a phage targets from its genome sequence alone? For most phages, we couldn’t. So Lucas set out to do something I had only dreamed of.

I will probably be hiring either a PhD or a Postdoc in the near future. If you are interested in deep biochemical history or molecular mechanisms of evolution please get in touch.

A great team effort w/ @freecyano.bsky.social on c-di-NMP signaling via ComFB in #cyanobacteria ComFB sequesters TFs (CRP1/2) & keeps them inactive. High #c-di-GMP breaks the complexes & TFs become free to act on their targets @hhu.de @biologyunifreiburg.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Breakthrough article 😊 Joint effort of teams Zarnack & König & Feldbrügge clarifies how multiple RNA-binding domains cooperate to identify functional important binding sites in vivo doi.org/10.1093/nar/... @zarnack-group.bsky.social @könig-lab.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social #EMBOrnaLocalization

ROCKET 🚀 inference-time optimization of AlphaFold to fit structural data is published! rdcu.be/fa9YH Since our preprint, we’ve pushed it to regimes where other methods break: low resolution, weak signal, real experimental edge cases. Here’s what we learned: 1/15

Now out! We show that TEs can be horizontally transferred between fungal species via Starships. Once transferred, these TEs can become active, changing the genome organization and affecting the lifestyle of the recipient fungus. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @oggenfussursula.bsky.social #TEsky

#TansleyInsight: CLE peptides in plant-biotic interactions Nicolas Frei dit Frey & Thomas Spallek 👇 📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #LatestIssue #PlantScience

Some reflections on #Fungal26 This was a great meeting as always but set against some turbulent times of course, which meant many regular attendees were not present. This thread is mainly for them. However, the proportion of first-time attendees was very high and very international. #Fungal26 1/15

Starships in fungi are so intriguing & have clearly had enormous (& diverse) impacts on genome evolution. @mycomile.bsky.social So many questions- the catalytic mechanism of YR Captains, target-site selection, how they move between fungi? (anastomosis/ role for parasexuality?) Amazing #Fungal26

Orlando Arguello-Miranda is using amazing deep learning to read 🎞️ BETWEEN 🎞️ THE FRAMES 🎞️ of microscopy 🔬 videos #fungal26 #FungAI

Scale alone doesn’t determine success. Although most predictions come from eukaryotic proteomes, the highest fraction of high-confidence complexes is observed in bacteria and archaea. 2/

The final talk of the conference 😢 @evanowack.bsky.social on the transformation of endosymbiont into an organelle, touching on protein import systems and the host complementation of proteins lost by the symbiont. Read a recent review here febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #EESSymbiosis

Isheng Jason Tsai @ishengtsai.bsky.social explores the diversity of fungi in carnivorous plants 🥩🏵️ (who btw don't like cheese 🧀) Are the fungi and carnivorous plants working together? #fungal26

🥳 Happy that our manuscript, first published on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social has been accepted for publication in "Microbiome" and will be part of a collection on "Harnessing plant microbiomes to improve performance and mechanistic understanding" link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Welcome to our new colleague Johannes Rebelein, head of the Institut of Sustainable Biotechnology @hhu.de and our new colleague at the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences 1 @fz-juelich.de. Welcome to @mibinet.bsky.social! www.chemie.hhu.de/en/latest-ne...

We Are very happy that our Paper was published. Thank to everyone involved pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... @mibinet.bsky.social @mfeldbruegge.bsky.social @frunzkelab.bsky.social

Happy to announce that our review article on vesicle-coupled mRNA trafficking is now availalbe @mibinet.bsky.social #EMBOrnaLocalization link.springer.com/article/10.1...

⚡️Fully funded #PhD position in my lab at Stockholm University / SciLifeLab! If you’re interested in #lichens, #symbiosis, fungal biology, or meta-omics, please apply. Deadline Feb 1. Read more here: su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

One week left to apply for the PhD position in my group in Stockholm!

Great opportunity to join the lab of @patrick-pausch.bsky.social ! www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

New lab preprint - Delora Baptista tested AlphaFold 2 and 3 for the prediction of structures of host-pathogen interactions and then applied these to study convergence of binding and molecular mimicry in host-pathogen vs. host-host interactions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ancestral sequence reconstruction reveals CTP-dependent loading of the bacterial centromere-binding protein ParB as an ancient evolutionary feature Now published: tinyurl.com/4ddhwbb3 Thanks to the Hochberg and Bange labs for the great collaboration!

Thrilled to share our latest work @luptoncj.bsky.social @drellisdon.bsky.social @drmlhalls.bsky.social. Structure of the lysosomal KICSTOR-GATOR1-SAMTOR nutrient-sensing supercomplex. 🧪🔬#cryoEM Now online @cellpress.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

Dear Plant ECRs, don't miss this wonderful opportunity!

Very happy to See This Published!!!! Thanks for the collaboration link.springer.com/article/10.1...