Mario Emilio Ernesto Franco

Undermining the cry for help: the phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae secretes an antimicrobial effector protein to undermine host recruitment of antagonistic Pseudomonas bacteria During pathogen attack, plants recruit beneficial microbes in a ‘cry for help’ to mitigate disease development. Simultaneously, pathogens secrete effectors to promote host colonisation through vario...

📣 Now announcing the journal publication 📄 of our work in @newphyt.bsky.social on how Verticillium undermines the plant's 🌱 "cry for help": terrific work by @antonkraege.bsky.social & @wolki95.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/nph....

30.10.2025 08:47 — 👍 50    🔁 26    💬 2    📌 1

Zoomed-in photograph of fungus growing on solid media

I'm super excited that our photo of Xylaria was selected for the cover of the August issue of #mSystems! journals.asm.org/toc/msystems...

This complements our recent article on the secondary metabolism of xylarialean fungi (Franco et al., 2025 vol. 10, e00468-25). @ernestofranco.bsky.social

20.08.2025 05:15 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Hyperdiverse, bioactive, and interaction-specific metabolites produced only in co-culture suggest diverse competitors may fuel secondary metabolism of xylarialean fungi | mSystems Saprotrophic and endophytic xylarialean fungi are among the most prolific producers of bioactive secondary metabolites, with numerous industrial uses as antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, and insecticidal ...

Excited to have our paper out in #mSystems. Pairwise co-cultures of only 7 xylarialean strains yielded >6k unique metabolites vs. 2k from monocultures. High richness reflects an abundance of interaction-specific metabolites. Work led by @ernestofranco.bsky.social
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

09.06.2025 21:20 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0

Genomic and metagenomic survey of microbial carbonic anhydrase genes reveals novel clades, high diversity, and biome-specificity Carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzymes catalyze the interconversion of carbon dioxide and bicarbonate with an efficiency exceeded only by superoxide dismutase. CA enzymes have convergently evolved multiple t...

Our new preprint is out! A genomic and metagenomic dive into the diversity of microbial carbonic anhydrases. Huge thanks to the amazing team who made this possible!
@you-wren.bsky.social @laurameredith.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

14.01.2025 12:47 — 👍 2    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

A phylogenetic approach to comparative genomics Nature Reviews Genetics - Controlling for phylogeny is essential in comparative genomics studies, because species, genomes and genes are not independent data points within statistical tests. The...

Our review is out in Nature Reviews Genetics! rdcu.be/d5AY2

We show how phylogeny-based methods can resolve the problem of non-independence in genomic datasets.

These methods must be considered an essential part of the comparative genomics toolkit.

@lauriebelch.bsky.social @stuwest.bsky.social

08.01.2025 13:19 — 👍 193    🔁 94    💬 5    📌 4

Competitor identity and ecology have a considerable impact on secondary metabolite production, highlighting the key role of competition in shaping metabolic diversity.

07.01.2025 06:20 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

The immense abundance of unidentified features evidences the vast chemical diversity within Xylariaceae yet to be characterized.

07.01.2025 06:20 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

The co-culture of seven ecologically and genetically diverse Xylarialean strains in all 21 pairwise combinations generated over 9k features, with co-cultures producing substantially more compounds than monocultures.

07.01.2025 06:20 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Ecological generalism drives hyperdiversity of secondary metabolite gene clusters in xylarialean endophytes Although secondary metabolites are typically associated with competitive or pathogenic interactions, the high bioactivity of endophytic fungi in the Xylariales, coupled with their abundance and br...

Building on our previous comparative genomics research (doi.org/10.1111/nph....), we used untargeted metabolomics to test the hypothesis that ecological interactions drive secondary metabolism in Xylarialean fungi.

07.01.2025 06:20 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Hyperdiverse, bioactive, and interaction-specific metabolites produced only in co-culture suggest diverse competitors may fuel secondary metabolism of xylarialean fungi Xylariales is one of the largest and most ecologically diverse fungal orders. Xylarialean fungi are well-known for their chemical diversity, reflecting a hyperdiversity of biosynthetic gene clusters (...

Excited to share our latest preprint! 'Hyperdiverse, bioactive, and interaction-specific metabolites produced only in co-culture suggest diverse competitors may fuel secondary metabolism of xylarialean fungi'. Deeply grateful to the U'Ren Lab @you-wren.bsky.social and JGI team.
tinyurl.com/u32xdpx9

07.01.2025 06:20 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

The co-culture of seven ecologically and genetically diverse Xylarialean strains in all 21 pairwise combinations generated over 9k features, with co-cultures producing substantially more compounds than monocultures.

06.01.2025 17:27 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Ecological generalism drives hyperdiversity of secondary metabolite gene clusters in xylarialean endophytes Although secondary metabolites are typically associated with competitive or pathogenic interactions, the high bioactivity of endophytic fungi in the Xylariales, coupled with their abundance and br...

Building on our previous comparative genomics research (doi.org/10.1111/nph....), we used untargeted metabolomics to test the hypothesis that ecological interactions drive secondary metabolism in Xylarialean fungi.

06.01.2025 17:27 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0