Last month, we organized a workshop on FUNGAL PHYLOGENOMICS, with 16 participants from Czechia, Hungary, Italy, and Poland. I presented an open lecture about #Laboulbeniomycetes (of course 😊🍄🪲). The workshop was funded through our Visegrad Fund grant no. 22420237.

First article on the immune responses of poppy from the Department of Experimental Plant Biology and other collaborators. We described the response of four poppy cultivars after treatment with a peptide derived from bacterial flagellin: academic.oup.com/aobpla/artic...

🐦 Exciting news! Our new paper is out in PLOS Biology: “A large-scale study across the avian clade identifies ecological drivers of neophobia.” Led by the #ManyBirds Project - 129 researchers, 82 institutions, 24 countries 🌍 🔗 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... @themanybirds.bsky.social

Study by our PhD student, Thinles Chondol, explores how high Himalayan plants (4200–5300 m) sustain photochemical performance across the cold-arid Ladakh Range. Are they stressed or functionally adapted to extreme conditions and seasonal changes? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New Czech-German grant at the Department of Chemistry to study tick-borne viruses: prf.jcu.cz/cz/?id=2977

📣New paper alert📣 @michieldegroot.bsky.social ran laboratory experiments at the University of South Bohemia, which revealed that abiotic factors DO significantly affect parasitism of Harmonia axyridis by Hesperomyces harmoniae. Congratulations! Read more: doi.org/10.1111/een.... #TeamLaboul

Another paper on polyommatine blue butterflies just published in @genomebiolevol.bsky.social. Blues have high chromosome numbers associated with increased diversification and their karyotypes reveal strategies to maintain genomic integrity amidst profound karyotypic changes doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...

Faculty of Science, USB, České Budějovice, Czechia offers a two-year research-oriented Master's study in Ecology. prf.jcu.cz/ecology Application deadline: 31 October 2025. Tuition fee: EU citizens: 500 CZK per year (≈ 20 EUR) Non-EU: 12000 CZK per year (≈ 480 EUR)

Salicylic acid plays a key role in plant immunity. Researchers from FSc USB and IEB CAS revealed that its high concentration suppresses the production of anthocyanins – important secondary metabolites. They uncovered a previously unknown mechanism in plant defense strategies. doi.org/10.1016/j.jp...

Neoadjuvant MBTA immunotherapy prevents cancer recurrence and metastases. One of the authors of the article is our former student Ondřej Uher. Read more: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39809356/

The book Handbook of Trait-Based Ecology: From Theory to R Tools by Assoc. Prof. Francesco de Bello from the Department of Botany at the FSc USB, is now also being released in Japanese.

Parasites are expected to speciate by adapting to specific hosts, but examples of it are rare. New research reveals that it is happening in sympatry, when strong Darwinian selection overpowers gene exchange between populations of a fish parasite. doi.org/10.1093/molb...

Researching amber revealed two of the oldest undescribed species of fossil animal-pathogenic fungi. This study found that Ophiocordyceps fungi originated around 100-140 million years ago and offers a glimpse into early insect-fungal interactions! New paper: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

The review by Dr. Adam Bajgar and Dr. Gabriela Krejcova explores antiviral & antibacterial immune memory, highlights key open questions, and presents Drosophila melanogaster as a model for innate immune memory and potential insect vaccination. elifesciences.org/articles/105...

Immune cells don’t just fight infection—they manage the body’s energy too. A Trends in Biochemical Sciences spotlight on Nedbalova et al. shows they release adenosine, signaling other tissues to dial down energy use. sciencedirect.com/science/arti... elifesciences.org/articles/105...

Congratulations to our student Gabriela Krejčová for receiving a runner-up recognition for her phd thesis by the European Drosophila Society!

Recent study by the team of Tomáš Doležal @tomasdolezal.bsky.social on the role of adenosin molecule in immune response was highlighted by the Science journal (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...).

New global study of "dark diversity", to which our botanists contributed with a local Czech dataset, was published in Nature.

The retreat of glaciers and the creation of new coasts: a team led by a glaciologist from FSc USB published a groundbreaking study in Nature Climate Change doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Paper on the diversity of malaria in threatened passerines, by our phd student Dragomir Damnjanović, is featured on the cover page of the International Journal for Parasitology. sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Traditional grasslands face biodiversity loss from mismanagement. A 30-year experiment showed that fertilization had stronger negative effects than mowing abandonment, with slower community recovery post-fertilization suggesting that resilience depends on past land use.