Environmental Genomics Lab

@estukenbrock.bsky.social @thaisdalsasso.bsky.social

We’re excited to host the first MadFungi Research Unit workshop in Kiel, welcoming MSc and PhD students from across Germany! Over three days, this workshop will cover many aspects of RNA-seq analysis in plants 🌱 and fungi🍄‍🟫.

Great talk by @teamthomma.bsky.social who shows that effectors have antimicrobial activities that are ancesteral - other functions within the host have evolved later on to suppress immunity in plants #2025ISMPMI

To wrap up…!
Why keep an effector the plant can recognize?
Our postdoc Liz Florez shows Z. tritici’s effector AvrStb6 shapes the wheat microbiome, esp. Pseudomonas spp., in susceptible cultivars. A hidden microbial modulation role beyond host recognition?
🗓️ Poster P-166
🔗 doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

How does heat reshape plant immune responses?
Our PhD student Anica Schmauch shows higher temperatures boost ROS bursts in barley and potentially affect Z. passerinii growth, revealing abiotic-biotic cross-talk in disease resistance.
🗓️ Poster P-424
#2025ISMPMI

What makes wild wheat resistant to domestic Zymoseptoria?
Our PhD student Rune Hansen found wild wheat relatives that stop infection by domestic Zymoseptoria at the stomata, with a pool of candidate genes that could potentially boost resistance in domestic wheat.
🗓️ Poster P-015
#2025ISMPMI

From yesterday: #EnvGen Team dinner! Our PI @estukenbrock.bsky.social finally joined us ❤️ despite the inevitable Deutsche Bahn surprises! 🙃 #2025ISMPMI

Can fungal pathogens hijack host signaling peptides?
Our PhD student Maxim Faroux @molecularmax.bsky.social uncovers a Zymoseptoria KEX2-processed effector putatively mimicking the plant hormone peptide phytosulfokine (PSK) known to lower immunity against hemibiotrophs.
🗓️ Poster P-226
#2025ISMPMI

Can fungal pathogens manipulate the plant microbiome to aid infection?
PhD student Leonhard Pachinger shows Z. tritici expression of killer-like protein effectors KP-4 & KP-6 that inhibit apoplastic bacteria, suggesting a microbiome-targeting strategy during infection.
🗓️ Poster P-217
#2025ISMPMI

How does mowing and grazing shape the leaf and root microbiome of a wild grass?
Our PhD student Eva Tanneau tracked 3 years of Agrostis capillaris microbiomes and found striking shifts under different management regimes, including pathogen emergence in leaf networks.
🗓️ Poster P-303
#2025ISMPMI

🌿 Curious about microbiomes, effectors, resistance genes, and temperature stress?
Come meet our team at #2025ISMPMI
We’ll be presenting posters all week on Zymoseptoria–plant interactions, wild relatives, and immune manipulation!
🧵 Thread with posters & schedule ⬇️

Taking in some city sights before diving into the science at #2025ISMPMI

🌾🍄 The Environmental Genomics group (@estukenbrock.bsky.social lab) is excited to be at #2025ISMPMI! We’ll be sharing posters on plant resistance, host–microbe interactions, effector function and more! Stay tuned!