Sebastian Schornack

A leaf mining #moth on a quaking Aspen, caterpillar apparently secretes cytokinins which suppress senescence in leaf sectors. Adaptive for the moth? #fallcolors

Job Advert - Russell R. Geiger Professorship of Crop Science @camplantsci.bsky.social @cropscicentre.bsky.social www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/russell...

The First of Us: Ophiocordyceps use a novel scramblase-binding peptide to manipulate zombie ants Parasite-adaptive manipulation of behavior is a widespread natural phenomenon. While Ophiocordyceps zombie fungi are well-known for hijacking ant behavior to increase their fitness, functionally chara...

Which fungal 🍄 molecules cause zombie 🧟‍♀️ ant 🐜 behaviors? @williamycete.bsky.social has begun to answer this question! He found a peptide that binds to scramblase and affects important odor-dependent behaviors in ants. Spoiler: worms 🪱 played a key role in this research 🧐 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Wow that’s exciting! Congrats and all the best!

The work from my MSc with @silviarestrepo in collaboration with @dromius.bsky.social is finally out. We used an integrative approach to follow Phytophthora betacei along while infecting tree tomato. This was in my back burner during my Ph.D, and it materialized thanks to @epiplantpath.bsky.social 🥳

AMF primes immune genes against Puccinia hordei (Brown rust) in Hordeum vulgare but does not reduce pathogen burden https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.16.676302v1

Microscopical and molecular characterization of the infection cycle of Phytophthora betacei during disease development on tree tomato (Solanum betaceum). https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.11.675658v1

We’re excited to welcome two new members 🌱🦠

Fernanda MN Aguad (Hort Assistant), originally from Chile, trained at UNIST in South Korea.

Karen Uchida (Predoc Intern), originally from Japan, recently completed her MPhil at Cambridge @slcuplants.bsky.social with @dromius.bsky.social.

Welcome!

Pleased to share our new article in Cell Host & Microbe, a collaboration with the group of Zhong Wei at NJAU

Common mycorrhizal networks facilitate plant disease resistance by altering rhizosphere microbiome assembly

Free share link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1lnTD6t8JE...

a sign that says open with red lights on it . ALT: a sign that says open with red lights on it .

Registration for #nonseedUK25 is officially open: www.jic.ac.uk/event/4th-ge.... If you wish to be considered for a talk, please submit your abstract by 30th October. Thanks to @philcarella.bsky.social for acting as local organizer this year 😃

Join us for the 4th annual NonSeed Plant Meeting in Norwich this year! @johninnescentre.bsky.social

Enjoying the excellent talks and posters at the #iMMM2025

#iMMM2025 I will mostly be posting on X for this one (same hashtag). Check @dromius there if you are interested.

#iMMM2025 is about to kick of in Munich, Bavaria (clearly), Germany - looking forward to 2.5 days filled with amazing molecular mycorrhiza research!

Saddened to hear about the passing of Steve Long. His work had a profound impact on plant science. A true loss to the scientific community. @ripeproject.bsky.social
emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/4...

First a pentamer, then a hexamer… now an octamer!

The riddle of the enigmatic CCG10-NLR immune receptor family cracked open 🔥

Congrats Guanghao @GuanghaoGuo He Zhang @mhz1989 Selva @M__Selvaraj et al.

#NLRbiology #plantsci #immunology

Plant cells at the organ surface use mechanical cues to activate a specific growth control programme During morphogenesis of multicellular organs, cells acquire distinct identities that meet specific functional requirements. Epidermal identity is widely considered essential for plant morphogenesis du...

Thrilled to share our latest work: how plants control growth through activation of a surface-specific growth programme. Thanks @zoenv.bsky.social, @nathan-german.bsky.social and the other coauthors for all the hard work! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We learned a lot about plant cell wall mechanics by stretching the Arabidopsis epidermis. Now published in
‪@natcomms.nature.com‬ Fibrous network nature of plant cell walls enables tunable mechanics for development
doi.org/10.1038/s414...

receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase AeRLCK2 mediates Nod-independent rhizobial symbiosis in Aeschynomene legumes Many plants interact symbiotically with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to enhance inorganic phosphorus uptake, and legumes also develop a nodule symbiosis with rhizobia for nitrogen acquisition. The establishment and functioning of both symbioses rely on a common plant signaling pathway activated by structurally related Myc and Nod factors. Recently, a SPARK receptor-like kinase (RLK)/receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase (RLCK) complex was shown to be essential for arbuscular mycorrhiza formation in both monocot and dicot plants. Here, we show that in Aeschynomene legumes, the RLCK component of this receptor complex has undergone a gene duplication event and mediates a unique nodule symbiosis that is independent of rhizobial Nod factors. In Aeschynomene evenia, AeRLCK2 is crucial for nodule initiation but not for arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis. Additionally, AeRLCK2 physically interacts with and is phosphorylated by the cysteine-rich RLK, AeCRK, which is also required for nodulation. This finding uncovers an important molecular mechanism that controls the establishment of nodulation and is associated with Nod-independent symbiosis.

Outstanding paper ! -> receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase AeRLCK2 mediates Nod-independent rhizobial symbiosis in Aeschynomene legumes | The Plant Cell | Oxford Academic

This is an amazing opportunity to join the plant sciences faculty in the Oxford Department of Biology!

I am so impressed with the quality and collegiality of these colleagues. I’m not on the committee, but I’m happy to answer questions as I can.

Three #Master2 #internship topics are available in our team to study the #adaptations associated with #plant #terrestrialization 👇

Out after peer review, collaborative study from Nordborg & Weigel labs with help from many others. Not the largest collection of new Arabidopsis thaliana genomes, but we hopefully put forward some good ideas for how to think about pangenomes and their analysis!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sabine und ich neben einem Rehkadaver im Untersuchungprojekt

Makrofoto von Nicrophorus germanicus

Makrofoto von Nicrophorus germanicus, Kopf im Detail

CN: totes Tier.

Gestern habe ich Sabine Schwabe in Rheinhessen besucht. In ihrem Untersuchungsprojekt zu Aaskäfern untersucht sie u.A. den lange ausgestorben oder verschollen geglaubten Totengräber Nicrophorus germanicus. Mit 3 Zentimetern Körperlänge unser größter heimischer Kurzflügelkäfer.

Summer poster presentations today @cropscicentre.bsky.social with lots of students from @slcuplants.bsky.social @camplantsci.bsky.social and NIAB - from our team Dylan Rees, Victor Schroeder, Anna Flynn

Group leader (m/f/d) | Plant Development and Diversity The successful applicant will be expected to build an independent research group to study plant development and/or its natural variation.

Junior #GroupLeader position @mpipz.bsky.social
on Plant Development & Diversity ‼️ #plantsci www.mpipz.mpg.de/5697690/job_...

Ly et al. 2025 - Plants, fungi, and antifungals: A little less talk, a little more action @plos.org

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

A woman in a blue blazer and floral top smiles whilst standing in a Garden.

Two young girls dressed in bee costumes look at a model flower, whilst a smiling woman in a bee costume crouches near them.

🎙️ Tune in today 11–11:50am to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire as our Director, Professor Beverley Glover (@beverleycubg.bsky.social), chats to Chris Mann about her inspiring journey in botany, her passion for plants and their pollinators and the evolving role of Cambridge University Botanic Garden.

#2025ISMPMI Agnus Bucknell of the Talbot lab gives an exciting presentation to engineer fungal effectors recognizing immune sensors based on Pik1. Great and clear talk.

#2025ISMPMI - first new to nature chimeric NLR sensors being created, with integrated domains that do not have sequence or structure matches in the recorded life - raises questions on assessing biosafety & food safety aspects for these immune receptors for lab and field studies.

With over 800 posters at #2025ISMPMI it might be tricky to find me. But here’s a little helping video.

Come today (Wednesday) between 13:30 and 15:15 to Poster P-425 to hear about #Marchantia #Phytophthora interaction and a GRAS transcription factor!