1/5 🚨🚨 preprint alert! 🚨🚨 I wish to introduce CARDIB, not the singer, but the protein. CARDIB=CARD Inhibitory Binding protein. In our new work we discover this antiviral protein that is found in all Anthozoa (sea anemones and corals 🪸) but not in other animals. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

"I was (...) surprised to learn about the #childcare #grants available through EMBO. Not many other institutions provide these opportunities (...)” says Sheila Roitman, EMBO Postdoctoral Fellow at Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: https://www.embo.org/people/a-resilient-journey-through-science/#childcare🧪 #funding

New Article: "Pathogen-induced condensation of the guard cell RNA-binding protein SAIR1 fine-tunes translation for immunity" rdcu.be/eP4kN SAIR1 forms phosphorylation-regulated condensates in guard cells, which link PAMP–MPK3/6 signalling to stomatal immunity.

This week we welcomed @galofir.bsky.social from @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social at @kwsgroup.bsky.social for our #PlantScience R&D Lecture. It was a pleasure to finally meet, learn about his #PlantImmunity & #ImmunoGenomics work to uncover evolutionary conserved defense mechanisms, & talk plant science. 👍🤓

Our nuclease-protease story is out! We explored a fascinating case of coevolution and modularity in prokaryotic immune systems: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Thanks to wonderful coauthors/collaborators/friends, the whole @doudna-lab.bsky.social and everyone at @innovativegenomics.bsky.social

This is really cool!!

Agreed with Sophien, I think discoveries and solutions for real life problems such as emerging plant disease should be shared as quickly as possible

Asaf finishes on plasmids, prophages, and defense system being depleted in plant microbiota genomes ‼️ not only in genomes, but also in metagenome datasets similar trend observed See their Genome Biology paper genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... #PMS2025

Pumpkin carving contest 2025🎃 Creative pumpkins from labs across @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social Our lab's @plantevolution.bsky.social "Carveolution" evolved it's way to 1st place 🏆

I started my term as PhD rep for the doctoral students at @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social this month! Excited to be a representative voice for the around 80 students here ☺️

That merely being “under review” by a Nature family journal is offered as a quality proxy for a paper is a tragic illustration of the extent to which academia is addicted to brands and outsources evaluation

Wow, I can really relate to John's early life. RIP legend.

1/10 Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from? Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral RTs, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Membrane contact sites between chloroplasts and the pathogen interface underpin plant focal immune responses (Enoch Lok Him Yuen, Zachary Savage, Vojtěch Pražák, et al) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience

Our latest work is out! We set out to see if we could recreate soil-nurturing plant growth in vitro. The plants looked happy and we see microbiome-induced cell-type-specific responses! A modest step but a fun challenge 😁

Lost & found: Reconstituting PRR immune function through co-receptor transfer @isabelmonte.bsky.social highlights work revealing cross-species co-receptor transfer can overcome restricted taxonomic functionality in rice, pointing to strategies for crop protection www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

My favorite nucleus stain Also I just learned that the dye is from Höchst outside Frankfurt, not in fact Austria where this is. But the sign is blue!

Your regular reminder that plant genomes are messy. Good luck getting your shortbread data to recapitulate this:

Very nice work from @geminiteamlab.bsky.social showing that challenging old assumptions with new technologies can broad our understanding of viral infection strategies. Pervasive splicing increases the protein repertoire of a plant DNA virus www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Very excited to share that our paper "A RALF-brassinosteorid signaling circuit regulates Arabidopsis hypocotyl cell shape" is now published in @currentbiology.bsky.social ! Enjoy reading it!! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Here's 123 new bryophyte genomes for you! Apparently, bryophytes time and again include microbial genes in their genomic repertoire, and occupy a langer gene space than vascular plants. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Color changing flowers 🧬🎨- attempt #2 Older flowers (bottom) show dark red/ orange tints whereas young buds (top) display strong fuchsia color. Getting closer..

Thanks Farid and @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social for inviting us from @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social this year! I had a great time listening to the great talks from my peers at ZMBP and enjoyed the discussions and feedback about my work ☺️ see you again next year!

There’s a leak - and a conceptual artist - at the Max Planck 👌

Genomes of brown algae with different sex determination systems show that U/V sex chromosomes evolved 450–224 million years ago and show remarkable conservation of genes within the sex-determining region, despite independent expansions of the sex locus in each lineage www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thrilled to have our spatial single-cell atlas of the Arabidopsis lifecycle in @NaturePlants. Turns out that its easy to make nice images when spatial expression of 1,000 genes is available! 1/n @natanellae.bsky.social @tatsuyanobori.bsky.social @joeecker.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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

Fascinating thread! You might enjoy my recent Science piece on AI "gaslighting": www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Super happy to share that I’ve passed my PhD defense! 🍾 It’s been an amazing journey doing my PhD in the Weigel World. Huge thanks to my supervisor, Detlef @plantevolution.bsky.social , even with your crazy schedule, you always made time to guide me. Couldn’t have done it without all your support!!!

1/3 New preprint led by Shanshan Wang, in collaboration with the Timmermans lab. Several groups have presented sc/snRNA-seq analyses of Arabidopsis leaves after bacterial infection before. Is there anything left to discover? Turns out: Yes. #plantscience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Paper led by @movillome.bsky.social on unbiased detection of (somatic) #TE insertions in #Arabidopsis with @pacbio.bsky.social long reads out after peer review. Thanks to academic editor Leandro Quadrana for shepherding it through the review process. #plantscience link.springer.com/article/10.1...?

🦠🧍‍♀️From bacterial to human immunity. We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity. Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Seen a number of groups working on this, but impressive work to produce transgene free heritable genome editing that avoids tissue culture in monocots. Importantly has potential for a range of species www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A new preprint led by Sonomi Yamaguchi in our lab describes a bacterial anti-phage defense system named Clover that uses nucleotide signals to both activate and inhibit host immunity. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cajal bodies are membraneless structures with fundamental roles across eukaryotes—but which proteins actually make them up? Using FAPS, Zhou et al. isolated 34 million plant Cajal bodies and profiled their proteome via LC-MS/MS. Curious? Check out our latest preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Nature lovers at the #2025ISMPMI will be pleased to learn that earlier today, the Confex Hall Butterfly (apparently an Aglais io) was safely captured by me and released to the flowerbeds outside. Pictured here, feasting on my honeyed tea dregs before flying away.

In poster hall not very far away - check out today how the resistance prevents or supports tao opposing factions in their constant pursuit for nutrients. SCAR Wars! - P070 #2025ISMPMI

Excellent talk by So-Yon Park, Cuscuta is transformable! Through the RUBY marker they also show that cuscuta exchanges proteins, mRNA and siRNAs with the host plant! Great to see developments in this field, I loved working with cuscuta in the past. Little green(& red?) snakes⚕️ #2025ISMPMI

If you're interested in ancient conserved immune systems and plant-virus interactions, come chat today at my poster P-227! #2025ISMPMI #🧪 #🌾

Structural motif search across the protein-universe with Folddisco www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Code: github.com/steineggerla... Web app: search.foldseek.com/folddisco

Have you ever wondered why virus-infected plants twist, curl, yellow, and/or stop growing? We did—you can read what we found in our latest review: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... @gmvalora.bsky.social @annualreviews.bsky.social

Scihub stopped uploading new articles. SciDB is a continuing effort which has the entire scihub collection AND new papers. annas-archive.org/scidb

Just like the 2006 paper by Burch-Smith et al., TRV-VIGS in Arabidopsis is very uniform when infecting in the first 2 true leaves 😊 Hoping it works with my genes of interest!

Yay, vigs does in fact work in Arabidopsis! #plantscience #🌾 #🧪

Detlef Weigel- Max Planck Inst- Tubingen- honored for his lifetime of excellence in research, mentorship, and support of the Arabidopsis community #ICAR2025

Causes and consequences of experimental variation in Nicotiana benthamiana transient expression https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.12.659391v1

@galofir.bsky.social ancient and novel immune systems in plants 🌱 🧫 #TCTeAC

🏳️‍🌈HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!!❤️ LOVE IS LOVE.💙

How do plant viruses cause symptoms? Are these developmental alterations functionally relevant? Man Gao, Enmanuel, et al. found that TYLCV does so through a host-mimicking domain in its C4 protein, co-opting a plant protein family - to attract the insect vector! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...