Finally made it.... congratulations all.

📢 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 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/...

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!

1/8 🔥 New preprint dropped: Dynamic co-existence of bacteriophages and their hosts 🦠 in the Arabidopsis thaliana 🌱 phyllosphere Work led by the indomitable @sheilaroitman.bsky.social‬ #plantscience #microbiome #holobiont www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Thrilled to share our paper now out in Nature Plants 🎉 We developed a genome-host association (GHA) approach to study pathogen adaptation directly from field metadata by using the originating host cultivar as phenotype. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check out our paper on the diversity of crop wild relatives in Zimbabwe! #CropWildRelatives #PlantScience #Biodiversity #Conservation #ClimateResilience #Zimbabwe www.linkedin.com/posts/dr-pat...

So diverse and yet conserved. Check out opinion paper by Leonhard Pachinger @leopach.bsky.social on antimicrobial effectors produced by fungal pathogens: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Now that it's official i've got some news! Our group has moved from @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social to @unihalle.bsky.social where I am now leading the department for phytopathology and plant protection 🍄🌾🧬

It’s time to say farewell to ERC Research Group Leader Thorsten Langner after nearly 3 years at the institute. He reflects on his time here, key milestones, and what’s next: tinyurl.com/2vce2d6k Congratulations on your new position—we wish you and your team all the best for the future!

Check out our new review on exciting advances in molecular tools for studying DNA and RNA biology of fungal pathogens! w/ Matthew Blango @femsjournals.bsky.social @trr124-funginet.bsky.social @leibniz-hki.de academic.oup.com/microlife/ar...

Need to annotate transposons in fungal genomes? 🧬 Good news #MycoMobilome is now live! Check it out here: doi.org/10.1093/narg... Access the sequences through our Zenodo community (you can also contribute seqs with credit), and synchronisation with @dfam.bsky.social! w/ @danielcroll.bsky.social

There is a week left to apply for two available positions in my lab @ipbhalle.bsky.social - PhD: ipb-halle.mhm.jobs/12-phd-posit... - Postdoc: ipb-halle.mhm.jobs/13-postdocto... Earliest start date: 01/05/2026. We are interested in plant immune receptor biochemistry and evolution. Please share!

@thaisdalsasso.bsky.social is applying new tools to address the evolution and functional diversification of secreted proteins of fungal plant pathogen. Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Honored and over the moon to add another Chronobiology talk to the TEDx universe at Aberystwyth next week! 🌓🦟 There are still some tickets left! tedxaberystwyth.com @aberuni.bsky.social @mpi-evolbio.bsky.social @clocksevolution.bsky.social @bioclocksuk.bsky.social

📣 Our latest story just dropped on bioRxiv:: A structurally unique effector shared between Verticillium dahliae and Fusarium oxysporum is involved in cotton defoliation and virulence on other hosts www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵

Today is the #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience ✨ To celebrate, we’re opening registration for our workshop "Women in Evolutionary Biology II" — keynotes, research, networking, and discussions on equality & inclusion in science. 📍 Plön (Germany) | 🔗 workshops.evolbio.mpg.de/event/144/ov...

Please share! We are looking for a PhD student (4 years) starting from 01/05/2026 at @ipbhalle.bsky.social! If you are interested in plant immunity, receptor biochemistry and evolution, consider applying! Deadline 09/03/2026. Application portal: ipb-halle.mhm.jobs/10-phd-posit...

Please share! We are looking for a postdoctoral scientist (2 years, extension possible) starting from 01/05/2026 at @ipbhalle.bsky.social! The project focuses on plant immune receptor biochemistry and structural biology. Deadline 09/03/2026. Apply at: ipb-halle.mhm.jobs/11-postdocto...

Join the Women in Evolutionary Biology II workshop from June 1-3, 2026, at the Max Planck Institute in Plön, Germany. Open to all genders. More info: https://workshops.evolbio.mpg.de/event/144/overview. Registration closes on Feb 20, 2026. #workshop

Please share! My group at @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social is offering a post-doctoral position (4 years). We look for a structural biologist with experience in Cryo-EM/Cryo-ET to investigate the mechanisms of host invasion by pathogenic fungi. Deadline February 28th! uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...

Congrats @marco-guerreiro.bsky.social. @estukenbrock.bsky.social and colleagues on this exciting study linking codon optimization and adaptive translation to lifestyle transitions in a group of fungi.

Expressions of interest: Director at MPI EvolBio (f/m/d) — We invite expressions of interest from distinguished scientists in evolutionary biology with a bold, long-term research vision that complements our Institute. More information: www.evolbio.mpg.de/3856225/Dire...

Beyond excited to see this work finally out in @narjournal.bsky.social! We show that epigenetic modifiers on fungal accessory chromosomes can contribute to the overall epigenetic profile. Many thanks to @gomezlucia93.bsky.social and our other amazing collaborators 👏🏻 academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

#TEsky #TEworldwide #Transposons #Bioinformatics #Bioconda #GenomeAnnotation #TransposableElements #Genomics #ComparativeGenomics

Just a few days left to apply to the PhD position in our group. It focuses on selfish genes in #fungi and how they might affect the spread of giant #TEs called Starships.

Great news for new plant breeding technologies in Europe! 🥳 EU reaches preliminary deal on gene editing! www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/...

Congratulations to the organizing committee for putting together an excellent first postdoc retreat for MPI-Bio and FML postdocs! Great to see such inspiring talks, strong community building, and clear dedication behind the scenes. Well done to everyone involved🎊 www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Finally out! A large European diversity panel reveals complex azole fungicide resistance gains of a major wheat pathogen journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... A big thanks to @danielcroll.bsky.social & @GabrielScalliet #azole #DMI #GWAS #fungicide #resistance #zymoseptoria #Europe

Responses to Temperature Shocks in Zymoseptoria tritici Reveal Specific Transcriptional Reprogramming and Novel Candidate Genes for Thermal Adaptation | Phytopathology® apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/full/10....

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

Postdoc position available at Max Planck Institute, Germany, focusing on the genetic basis of polygenic traits in Drosophila. Applications due by Dec 22, 2025. More info: [email protected]. #postdoc

Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp.... genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.

1/ Ever needed to annotate TEs in a fungal genome, but didn't know where to start? We have released #MycoMobilome, a community-focused non-redundant database of transposable element consensus sequences for the fungal kingdom, constructed from >4,000 fungal genomes! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

📣 I’m excited to share two open positions in my lab @leibniz-hki.de. For this interdisciplinary project with @luziagyr.bsky.social, I’m seeking (1) an enthusiastic PhD student interested in fungal natural product research and genetic engineering, as well as (2) a technical assistant 👇🏻

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

Tracking the evolutionary trajectory of a young hybrid plant pathogen. New preprint on how triticale powdery mildew evolved in the ~25 years since its emergence. Congrats to @jigisha1.bsky.social and all coauthors! doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Professorship in plant genetics. The Botanical Institute at Kiel University is advertising a W2 professorship. Great opportunity to do plant research in the north of Germany. See: www.berufungen.uni-kiel.de/de/dateien/o...

So happy to see my first first-author paper published! 🎈 A short thread on how Ectocarpus and its TE secrets have kept me busy lately: rdcu.be/eITQH

I’m super happy to present the first discoveries of the RIKEN-Cambridge Joint Crop Symbiosis Research Team, based in Japan 🇯🇵 doi.org/10.1101/2025... A thread 👇

Delighted that our work on the Sanctuary Starship #transposon is now published! A big thanks to all co-authors, especially to the ever-amazing @mcdonaldmeganc.bsky.social for her mentorship! doi.org/10.1128/mbio...

How diverse are the individual strains within your species? How broad is their Pangenome? How will you choose representatives from the whole collection? Look no further! PanGene-O-Meter is here for you! From @haimashkenazy.bsky.social @plantevolution.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The #MaxPlanckPostdocProgram offers a guaranteed contract of at least 3 years, targeted mentoring, and career workshops. The call for applications is open now! 🚀 Take advantage of this opportunity and browse the job vacancies. www.mpg.de/en/max-planc...

Joint #CallForProposals! Within the scope of their Cooperation Agreement, the Brazilian @cnpq-oficial.bsky.social and the DFG are pleased to announce a joint call for German-Brazilian research projects in the fields of agricultural sciences, forestry and veterinary medicine. Details: fcld.ly/ifdw69

Really happy this is out in preprint - Congratulations to @graemekettles.bsky.social @zymohaider.bsky.social, and everyone involved for their hard work completing this study! It examines a Z. tritici effector that is a molecular mimic of plant LRRs, and suppresses PTI www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Transposable elements in brown algae? 🌊 Yes, they’re full of surprises ✨ Come meet Ectocarpus at #ESEB2025! 📍Room 113 - S28.03 🗓️ Thursday, 2:30pm

📣 NEW PREPRINT 📝 We identified evolutionary origins of many fungal effectors! We show that fungi secrete lots of antimicrobial proteins, and that some of them were repurposed by plant pathogens for host immune suppression. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... cc @teamthomma.bsky.social

Happy to be able to finally share our NLR pangenome paper, out now in CHM. "Pangenomic context reveals the extent of intraspecific plant NLR evolution" www.cell.com/cell-host-mi... #plantscience #plantimmunity #pangenomes #science #nlr

We’re excited to share our latest work on plant pathogen effector protein evolution @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social. With @kamounlab.bsky.social and Abbas Maqbool. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

1/ Excited to share our latest opinion piece published today in Trends in Microbiology (@cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social): Hypermutator fungal pathogens: from threat to meltdown Here, we argue that the origin of hypermutation follows defined principles, rather than...