Link to postdoc position
werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Link to PhD position
werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

We are hiring‼️ Two cool projects in my group for a PhD student in plant immunity and for a Postdoc in plant microbiota research 🌿🧫🚀🚀

Fig. 5. Virulence assay with constructed designer transcription activator-like effectors (dTALEs) in sweet orange leaves: Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xcc) strains wild type (WT), XccpthA4::Tn5, XccpthA4::Tn5 dTALECsLOB1, and XccpthA4::Tn5 dTALEs for putative CsLOB1 target genes were infiltrated into fully expanded young leaves of Valencia sweet orange, which were evaluated for the symptoms at 14 and 21 days postinoculation (dpi). Representative results were chosen from three independent experiments. Inoculation of leaves with different strains was conducted as illustrated in Figure 3A.

Just Published: "The TALE PthA4 of Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri Indirectly Activates an Expansin Gene CsEXP2 and an Endoglucanase CsEG1 via CsLOB1 to Cause Citrus Canker Symptoms," by Rikky Rai and Nian Wang. Learn more: https://doi.org/10.1094/MPMI-03-25-0030-R

Benchmarking fungal species classification using Oxford nanopore technologies long-read ITS metabarcodes The gold standard for fungal classification has long been specimen or culture-based, however, many Fungi display simple morphological characteristics,…

Interested in Nanopore long-read ITS fungal metabarcode analysis? Our preprint is now out as journal article www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... There is more to do for improving long-read ITS analysis and we hope to advertise a PhD project around this soon.

What makes PhD students happy? Good supervision Supervisors who invest in positive mentoring relationships with their PhD candidates also reap the benefits for their own research.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Oomycetes manipulate plant innate immunity through galacturonide oxidases - Nature Communications The oomycete Phytophthora infestans is a damaging crop pathogen. Here, the authors show that a group of P. infestans secreted enzymes play roles in penetration and colonization of host plants by oxidi...

Novel insights into CAZY pathogenicity factor AA7 involved in plant immune-modulatory function: doi.org/10.1038/s414...

📣 I’m excited to share two open positions in my lab @leibniz-hki.de. For this interdisciplinary project with @luziagyr.bsky.social, I’m seeking (1) an enthusiastic PhD student interested in fungal natural product research and genetic engineering, as well as (2) a technical assistant 👇🏻

JOB ALERT! We are looking for a LAB MANAGER (7-year position!) to help us build the MOLECULAR BIODIVERSITY lab in our @terra-cluster.org at @unituebingen.bsky.social. Are you a NGS wet lab expert, and you like the idea of supporting research on natural biodiversity, then apply!

Please re-post!

Evolution of gut microbiota across honeybee species revealed by comparative metagenomics Nature Communications - Here, the authors perform metagenomic analysis of honeybee gut microbes, uncovering many previously unidentified species and host specific differences in composition and...

Happy to announce that our comparative metagenomic analysis of the gut microbiota of five honeybee species - spearheaded by @aiswarya.bsky.social - is finally published in a peer-reviewed journal! rdcu.be/eKMCs @fbm-unil.bsky.social @dmf-unil.bsky.social 🧵👇

🌱📢46th EPSO seminar for European Plant Scientists: 16/10/2025 at 15.00 CET discussing The impact of ERC funding for Plant Sciences. EPSO members register, suggest themes, senior and junior speakers for spring seminars 👉http://bit.ly/3WpPYuC. #PlantScience #SDG #HorizonEU

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)

Engineering the C-tail of the versatile Arabidopsis immune receptor RLP23 enhances pathogen resistance in rice and poplar!
Congrats to Andrea Gust and her group at #ZMBP 👏👏👏
#MPMI #EvoMPMI #plantsci

Kaputt gezüchtet: Von Tierqual bis Hungersnot Der Mensch züchtet Tiere und Pflanzen – das ist nicht immer gut. Mai spricht über tierisches Leid und schwindende genetische Vielfalt bei Pflanzen.

Domestikation, Grüne Revolution, Inzuchtdepression - #MaiThinkX beleuchtet Vor- aber vor allem auch Nachteile der Züchtung von Tieren und Pflanzen.
Dazu @maxbierhals.bsky.social endlich mal wieder in seiner Paraderolle! 🌽 Unbedingte Empfehlung!

Ein paar Anmerkungen habe ich aber noch: 🧵
1/

Professorship in plant genetics.
The Botanical Institute at Kiel University is advertising a W2 professorship. Great opportunity to do plant research in the north of Germany. See:
www.berufungen.uni-kiel.de/de/dateien/o...

Lost Science is a new NYT series of accounts from scientists who have lost their jobs or funding. You can send your story to the Times here www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/c...

A secreted citrus protease cleaves an outer membrane protein of the Huanglongbing pathogen Plants secrete a variety of proteases as a defense response during infection by microbial pathogens. However, the relationship between their catalytic activities and antimicrobial functions remains la...

1/13 Thankfully, both you and your plants have a lot of sophisticated ways to fight off invading pathogens.
In our new preprint, we describe a new way in which animals and plants share a common strategy to ward off harmful bacteria.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Poster with QR code linking to the position

I'm very excited to announce that UNC Biology has 6 faculty positions open this year! The first is for an Asst Professor who studies organismal resilience using an integrative approach 1/n
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...

🎉 Enhorabuena a todos los estudiantes que han conseguido una beca #JAEIntro del @csic.es 👏.
🚨 Ahora que llega el momento de elegir grupo, recordad que el IHSM La Mayora ofrece 11 proyectos diferentes para realizar estas prácticas 🌱🧬🦠

📚 Consulta los planes formativos que ofertamos 👇

A vinyl box with six colored vinyl LPs sticking out of its right side. The Title "Guns in Rosettes" is on top, with the subtitle "The Arabidopsis chemical weapons arsenal" just below. Then there is an Arabidopsis plant with machine guns sticking out. Below is the statement "6-LP LIMITED EDITION COLORED VINYL BOX SET"

The back cover of the vinyl box set showing the tracklist: 1. Methionine-derived compounds Aliphatic GSLs 2. Tryptophan-derived compounds (trptonites) Indolic GSLs Camalexin Hycanite (4-OH-ICN) 3. Phenylalanine-derived compounds (phenylpropanoids) Benzenic GSLs Coumarins Hydroxycinnamates Flavonoids 4. Terpenoids (E)-β-caryophyllene α- and β-pinene Thalianin, arabidin, and DMNT And the statement "Recorded live in front of an audience in 2025"

Our article "Guns in Rosettes: The Arabidopsis chemical weapons arsenal" is finally published @plantphys.bsky.social!
You can download the #OpenAccess PDF here:

doi.org/10.1093/plph...

But real connoisseurs of #AntimicrobialCompounds will want to get the vinyl boxset: #PlantScience #PlantImmunity

Please RT:
We have an opening for a junior group leader position in „Phage Biology & Biotechnology“.
www.fz-juelich.de/de/karriere/...

Interested candidates are encouraged to contact me via email for further details.

@spp2330.bsky.social; @mibinet.bsky.social

Division of labor in the nodule: Plant GluTRs fuel heme biosynthesis for symbiosis Legume nodules are specialized, pink symbiotic organs where root cells and nitrogen-fixing rhizobia collaborate to support plant growth without synthetic f

IN BRIEF: Division of labor in the nodule: Plant GluTRs fuel heme biosynthesis for symbiosis (Min-Yao Jhu, Raphael Ledermann) doi.org/10.1093/plce... #PlantScience

Resistance mutation supply modulates the benefit of CRISPR immunity against virulent phages Only a fraction of bacterial genomes encode CRISPR-Cas systems but the selective causes of this variation are unexplained. How naturally virulent bacteriophages (phages) select for CRISPR immunity has...

New preprint!

Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠

Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare!

An epic effort by Rosanna Wright

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How to live a good life in difficult times: Yuval Noah Harari, Rory Stewart and Maria Ressa in conversation From superintelligent AI to the climate and democracy, three leading thinkers discuss how to navigate the future

How to live a good life in difficult times??? www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...

Pervasive splicing in a plant DNA virus Viruses maximize their limited coding space through strategies that increase transcript and protein diversity. In mammalian viruses, splicing is a well-established mechanism for proteome expansion, ye...

How do geminiviruses maximize their limited coding capacity? Our recent preprint uncovers splicing of viral transcripts as one more strategy used by this viral family. We show that RNA splicing is prevalent in the geminivirus TYLCV — and required for infectivity! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

NEW: Extraordinary scenes in Amsterdam this afternoon (Sunday, Oct 5).

An estimated 250,000 bring the city to a standstill; people all wearing red to show solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸

(🎥 Ahmed Zantac)

Engineered geminivirus replicons enable rapid in planta directed evolution Directed evolution can rapidly generate genetic variants with new and enhanced properties, yet efficient platforms for performing such evolution directly in plant cells have been lacking. We developed...

Engineered geminivirus replicons enable rapid in planta directed evolution

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Localized glutamine leakage drives the spatial structure of root microbial colonization Plant roots release exudates to encourage microbiome assembly, which influences the function and stress resilience of plants. How specific exudates drive spatial colonization patterns remains largely ...

Localized glutamine leakage drives the spatial structure of root microbial colonization
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thanks for the invitation! I had two fantastic days at the institute

Amazing work by the Santiago lab @unil.bsky.social. The malectin-LRR receptor kinase IGP1 senses cello-oligomers to alert the plant immune system & enhance disease resistance. Very nice discovery & mechanism.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...