Lambros Frantzeskakis

Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology University of California, Davis is hiring. Apply now!

My department at UC Davis is hiring a mycologist, broadly interpreted. Please repost, share, and consider applying. recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07339

Wow! What an awesome and super interesting finding!

#2025ISMPMI Xin Li shows the exiting finding that sclerotinia is haploid with two nuclei harboring different chromosome sets making together the full set of the genome.

Functional innovation through new genes as a general evolutionary process - Nature Genetics This Review discusses the various molecular mechanisms underlying the generation of new genes and highlights their important functions and phenotypes with an emphasis on the evolutionary forces underl...

Functional innovation through new genes as a general evolutionary process www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nvidia's Project Digits is a 'personal AI supercomputer' | TechCrunch At the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nvidia unveiled Project Digits, a device it's calling a 'personal AI supercomputer.'

Wow, this is super interesting: techcrunch.com/2025/01/06/n...
$3000 for a petaflop of compute in a consumer-grade box.
Their main aim is AI but think of all the ONT basecalling you could do with this - lots of opportunity for adaptive sampling at scale!

A portrait of Rudolf Freisleben (from https://gepris-historisch.dfg.de/person/5103240?) next to the title of the 1942 paper 'Über die Auffindung einer mehltauresistenten Mutante nach Röntgenbestrahlung einer anfälligen reinen Linie von Sommergerste' by Freisleben and Lein from Naturwissenschaften volume 30, page 608.

#PlantScienceClassics #17: The Mildew Resistance Locus O (MLO). 80 years ago Rudolf Freisleben & Alfred Lein created the first powdery mildew resistant #barley plant. 30yrs ago the gene was mapped,&25 yrs ago cloned - yet, it's mode of action remains a mystery. doi.org/10.1007/BF01... #PlantImmunity

I want this: Genome-edited Chardonnay grapes resistant or tolerant to mildew & powdery mildew!
Did you know that grapes are grown on only ~5% of European agricultural land, but account for ~2/3 of all fungicide sprayed in Europe?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
#plantscience

A microRNA is the effector gene of a classic evolutionary hotspot locus In Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the genomic region around the gene cortex is a “hotspot” locus, repeatedly implicated in generating intraspecific melanic wing color polymorphisms across 100 mi...

Our miRNA story is now in @science.org ! We found a microRNA, not a protein, that finally solved a long-standing evolutionary mystery of wing coloration in butterflies and moths. (1/n)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mapping river microbiomes across the U.S.:

GROWdb spans 90% of U.S. watersheds, uncovering the microbial communities driving nutrient cycles & breaking down pollutants. Achieved through a major crowdsourcing effort involving >100 sampling teams.

Paper (OA): www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excellent work, congratulations! Do you think that this approach can be used at scale? Also, does this work for finding matching effector and R gene pairs?

Really happy to be in a platform that stimulates scientific discussion. My interests have changed a bit, I am working a lot on microbial pathogens of insects. If you have any good ideas Bayer can work on for insect control, feel free to send me a message!

Italy tests first gene-edited vines for winemaking - Nature Biotechnology Europe’s first field trial of gene-edited vines began in northern Italy on 30 September 2024. Developed by EdiVite, a spinoff from the University of Verona, these Chardonnay vines have undergone gene ...

Along these lines, @naturebiotech.bsky.social
Europe’s first field trial of gene-edited vines has begun in Italy. Chardonnay vines have undergone gene inactivation to better defend themselves against downy mildew, an oomycete disease.
doi.org/10.1038/s415...