Michael Habig

Fucus algal meadow in the Baltic Sea

Doctoral position on genomic basis of Fucus (brown algal) local adaptation - join our exciting #Fubluc team! Fully funded for 3.5 years & we also consider candidates with strong molecular or bioinformatic skillls but no marine / algal experience, see www.geomar.de/en/karriere/...

05.08.2025 18:26 — 👍 29    🔁 36    💬 1    📌 2

AI-generated drawing of a woman looking through a microscope with DNA and fungi drawn in the background. The text contains the same content as the bsky post.

My group at is hiring a PhD student to explore how fungal pathogens that live in the environment will adapt their genomes, acquire new phenotypes, and perhaps even increased infectivity as a result of climate change. Please share!

More info and applications at @ jobs.uni-jena.de/vrbup

29.07.2025 15:41 — 👍 33    🔁 39    💬 1    📌 0

Starship giant transposons dominate plastic genomic regions in a fungal plant pathogen and drive virulence evolution Nature Communications - Giant transposons, known as ‘Starships’, mediate horizontal gene transfer between fungal genomes. Here, Sato et al. show that Starships occupy genome regions...

📣 Happy to see the journal publication 📄 of our work on Starships 🚀 in Verticillium fungi: terrific work led by @yukiyosato.bsky.social
rdcu.be/exBSp

24.07.2025 10:40 — 👍 103    🔁 56    💬 4    📌 1

Job opportunity Postdoctoral Researcher (m/w/div) in “Microbial Infection Strategies” at Leibniz HKI Jobportal Wissenschaft/Forschung in Jena

📣 I’m recruiting a #Postdoc to help us further our understanding on the infection strategies of our human fungal pathogen. If you’re enthusiastic about research, our interdisciplinary group @leibniz-hki.de will be a good fit for you! Please share!
jobs.hki-jena.de/jobs/Postdoc...

17.07.2025 05:41 — 👍 12    🔁 22    💬 0    📌 0

The July cover of Genome Biology and Evolution features the work of Dubin, @oliviaroth.bsky.social et al., who investigate sexual antagonism and sex determination in syngnathids with differences in how male pregnancy develops.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf103

📷 Olivia Roth

#genome #evolution

07.07.2025 08:38 — 👍 9    🔁 7    💬 0    📌 1

Distribution of haploid chromosomes into separate nuclei in two pathogenic fungi Nuclei define eukaryotes, enabling macromolecular compartmentalization and cellular regulation. Each nucleus is believed to contain one or more haploid sets of chromosomes (1N). However, we discovered...

Wow: check it out; these fungi distribute their chromosomes across different nuclei!

Normally each nucleus has a complete set of all chromosomes.

Distribution of haploid chromosomes into separate nuclei in two pathogenic fungi | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

16.05.2025 03:57 — 👍 55    🔁 23    💬 0    📌 5

Junior faculty job alert in Germany - Marine Evolutionary Genomics @geomarkiel.bsky.social / University of Kiel www.geomar.de/en/karriere/... Marine study system of your choice (no microbes, sorry…), excellent infrastructure and ship access, moderate teaching requirements, closing date 6 June

26.04.2025 15:10 — 👍 75    🔁 93    💬 1    📌 4

@guidopuccetti.bsky.social, Gabriel Scalliet and I are excited to share our latest work.

Resistance in agriculture emerges fast, but we fail to grasp how the myriad mutations in pathogen populations contribute to this.

Please check out and share our latest preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

25.03.2025 22:05 — 👍 29    🔁 16    💬 2    📌 0

📣Call for Abstracts for the Mycological Society of America 2025 Annual Meeting this summer in Madison, Wisconsin. Submit your abstract by March 17th! #MSAfungi25

msa.joynconference.com/v2/

17.02.2025 10:08 — 👍 6    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 2

Thank You!

11.02.2025 17:09 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Horizontal transfer of accessory chromosomes in fungi – a regulated process for exchange of genetic material? Heredity - Horizontal transfer of accessory chromosomes in fungi – a regulated process for exchange of genetic material?

Our perspective on the horizontal transfer of accessory chromosomes in fungi is now available in Heredity: rdcu.be/d9jOR. It may be a regulated process. Very proud of this collaborative effort with Henrik de Fine Licht (@henriklicht.bsky.social) and Remco Stam (@rstam.bsky.social)!

10.02.2025 20:03 — 👍 18    🔁 12    💬 0    📌 1

Germline-restricted chromosome of songbirds has different centromere compared to regular chromosomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.23.634594v1

26.01.2025 21:33 — 👍 3    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 1

Starship giant transposons dominate plastic genomic regions in a fungal plant pathogen and drive virulence evolution Starships form a recently discovered superfamily of giant transposons in Pezizomycotina fungi, implicated in mediating horizontal transfer of diverse cargo genes between fungal genomes. Their elusive nature has long obscured their significance, and their impact on genome evolution remains poorly understood. Here, we reveal a surprising abundance and diversity of Starships in the phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae. Remarkably, Starships dominate the plastic genomic compartments involved in host colonization, are enriched in virulence-associated genes, and exhibit genetic and epigenetic characteristics associated with adaptive genome evolution. We further uncover extensive horizontal transfer of Starships between Verticillium species and, strikingly, from distantly related Fusarium fungi. Finally, we demonstrate how Starship activity facilitated the de novo formation of a novel virulence gene. Our findings illuminate the profound influence of Starship dynamics on fungal genome evolution and the development of virulence. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

📣New year, new preprint @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social 🎉! A study led by the brilliant @yukiyosato.bsky.social showing that Starship giant transposons dominate plastic genomic regions in the fungal plant pathogen Verticillium dahliae and drive virulence evolution. 🧵[1/12] doi.org/10.1101/2025...

10.01.2025 14:23 — 👍 115    🔁 68    💬 3    📌 2

Reference-free identification and pangenome analysis of accessory chromosomes in a major fungal plant pathogen https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.12.627383v1

13.12.2024 11:33 — 👍 12    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 2

We're looking for a PhD student on disease mechanisms of the barley pathogen Ramularia collo cygni, supported by a (tax free) fellowship. Please RT.

09.12.2024 20:11 — 👍 7    🔁 13    💬 0    📌 0

Proud of our recent preprint on Horizontal Chromosome Transfer in Fungi with Remco Stam and Henrik de Fine Licht.

24.11.2024 15:17 — 👍 28    🔁 14    💬 0    📌 0