Anton Kraege

PhD done! 🎓
Grateful to my examiners for the great discussion and to my amazing colleagues and friends for the support! ✨

🎉 Yesterday we enjoyed the glorious defence of @gabriellapetti.bsky.social of her @unicologne.bsky.social PhD thesis on "Homologous antimicrobial proteins in plants and fungi: conserved mechanisms shaping the plant microbiota" #proudPI #PhDone ..mind the crown modeled after the Ave1 NMR structure!😍

📣 Major milestone achieved! First @teamthomma.bsky.social @unicologne.bsky.social PhD student graduated 🎉! Congratulations to @wolki95.bsky.social for a stellar defence of a thesis on antimicrobial effectors of Verticillium dahliae that drive niche adaptation #proudPI #PhDone

Av2 is used by Verticillium dahliae for direct growth inhibition of antagonistic Pseudomonas spp.

Undermining the cry for help: the phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae secretes an antimicrobial effector protein to undermine host recruitment of antagonistic Pseudomonas bacteria

Kraege et al. @teamthomma.bsky.social

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I’m very happy to see my fist article now officially published 🥳 great work by my partner in crime @wolki95.bsky.social and the rest of @teamthomma.bsky.social! Find it here: doi.org/10.1111/nph.... or have a look at the 🧵⬇️

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....

📣 New @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social preprint, another joint-venture of @wolki95.bsky.social & @antonkraege.bsky.social, co-directed by @nicksnelders.bsky.social. Here’s a 🧵

Differential contributions of an antimicrobial effector from Verticillium dahliae to virulence and tomato microbiota assembly across natural soils https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679524v1

📣 Massively proud of this ⬇️ great study, led by the brilliant @mesny.bsky.social surprisingly uncovering that many pathogen effectors stem from ancient antimicrobials 🤯 #EffectorWisdom #EvoMPMI

Plant-associated fungi co-opt ancient antimicrobials for host manipulation Evolutionary histories of effector proteins secreted by fungal pathogens to mediate plant colonization remain largely elusive. While most functionally characterized effectors modulate plant immunity, ...

📣 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

My poster is up at #2025ISMPMI. Come by P-372 Thursday afternoon if you are interested in fungal evolution, effectors and microbial competitions!

More research by @teamthomma.bsky.social at P-091, P-170, P-299, P-317, P-337 and P-388.

Last week, our latest @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint was released, a joint-venture of @antonkraege.bsky.social & @wolki95.bsky.social and co-directed by @nicksnelders.bsky.social a 🧵

Undermining the cry for help: The phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae secretes an antimicrobial effector protein to undermine host recruitment of antagonistic Pseudomonas bacteria https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.09.658588v1

A gnotobiotic system reveals multifunctional effector roles in plant-fungal pathogen dynamics Plants host diverse microbiota that influence physiological processes and can enhance resilience against invading pathogens that, in turn, evolved effector proteins to manipulate host microbiota in th...

Last week, our newest @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social‬ preprint saw the light, led by @wolki95.bsky.social and co-directed by Kathrin Wippel (SILS, Amsterdam): A gnotobiotic system reveals multifunctional effector roles in plant-fungal pathogen dynamics www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Ergosterol‐induced immune response in barley involves phosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol phosphate metabolic enzymes and activation of diterpene biosynthesis Lipids play crucial roles in plant–microbe interactions, functioning as structural components, signaling molecules, and microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs). However, the mechanisms underly...

Latest story from Pia Saake: Plant Lipids Mediate Immune Responses to Fungal Lipids in Barley!

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Time to move on!

Heading to Zürich🇨🇭 where I will join the group of @mvanderheijden.bsky.social for my second post-doc.

I am very thankful for my time with @teamthomma.bsky.social at the University of Cologne. I learned a lot and cannot wait to share more of our findings soon.

So long Köln…

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...

Ginkgo leaves are blanketing NYC in yellow. Little known #cilia fact: the sperm of Ginkgo trees are large cells with ~1000 cilia arranged in a spiral that have to swim a short distance to fertilize the egg. 1/2