Lukas Kunz

Discovery of functional NLRs using expression level, high-throughput transformation and large-scale phenotyping Nature Plants - Rapid discovery of functional resistance genes is enabled by a high-expression signature and high-throughput transformation. This approach identified 31 new resistance genes for...

Super excited to see our work on the NLRseek program finally published 🥳 Here we identify new NLRs against major wheat pathogens and present a pipeline for NLR identification. Huge thank you to all of the co-authors for bringing this work together! @matthewmoscou.bsky.social rdcu.be/eIGvv

The Annotated Blueprint: Integrated Functional Genomic Resources for a Model Tetraploid Wheat Triticum turgidum cv. Kronos Triticum turgidum cv. Kronos is a tetraploid wheat cultivar that underpins one of the richest community platforms for functional genomics. Over the past decade, about 3,000 exome- and promoter-capture...

New: ‘Kronos’ #wheat genome preprint
• PacBio+Hi-C; 99.9% BUSCO
• 2.3k curated NLR loci (1,089 high conf)
• 3k EMS datasets re-mapped; 📈 new mutations
• Curated smallRNA atlas
🔗 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
zenodo.org/records/1021...
#genomics #openscience
team effort led by Dr Kyungyong Seong 💫

Check out our new pre-print! ✨
We cloned AvrWTK4, the first wheat powdery mildew effector recognised by a tandem kinase protein, and show that an HMA-like integrated domain in WTK4 acts as pathogen decoy. Discover the whole story on bioRxiv ⬇️

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

Virulence on Pm4 kinase-based resistance is determined by two divergent wheat powdery mildew effectors The wheat resistance gene Pm4 encodes a kinase fusion protein and has gained particular attention as it confers race-specific resistance against two major wheat pathogens: powdery mildew and blast. He...

Check out our work on virulence on Pm4 controlled not by one, but two effectors! Avirulence vs. Suppression, a beautiful case of the arms race between wheat and mildew. Work led by @zoebernasconi.bsky.social , Aline Herger, Pilar Caro, and @lukas-kunz.bsky.social 😍🌱🦠!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Molecular investigation of Rlm3 from rapeseed as a broad-spectrum resistance gene against fungal pathogens producing structurally conserved effectors https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.03.635517v1

Sexual recombination in cereal rust fungi: Knowns and unknowns of pathogen evolution and adaptation

Fungal 'sex' is so cool and def gender bending ;). Go check out our @plos.org pathogen perl "Sexual recombination in cereal rust fungi: Knowns and unknowns of pathogen evolution and adaptation" journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Molecular Insights into Fungal Innate Immunity Using the Neurospora crassa - Pseudomonas syringae Model Recent comparative genomics and mechanistic analyses support the existence of a fungal immune system. Fungi encode genes with features similar to non-self recognition systems in plants, animals, and b...

Latest from the lab 📰 🍄 🦠 - Molecular Insights into Fungal Innate Immunity using genetically tractable model systems, Neurospora crassa and Pseudomonas syringae. When fungi and bacteria meet, they really grow on each other! Led by a PhD student Grace Stark
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fungal phylogeny highlighting genome size changes

Summary of genome size variation among groups

@tbadet.bsky.social and I have a preprint out on transposon silencing in fungi!

Genome size evolution is fascinating and showcases the dynamic nature of transposon activation.

What we understand less are the dynamics of transposon defense systems encoded by the genomes.

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Elemental cryo-imaging reveals SOS1-dependent vacuolar sodium accumulation - Nature This study demonstrates that cryo nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (CryoNanoSIMS) enables direct multi-elemental imaging at subcellular resolution of macro- and micronutrients or trace elemen...

This is a truly awesome story by @priyaramakrishna.bsky.social & @nikogeldner.bsky.social et al. #CryoSEM imaging of elements!!! They just opened the floodgates for many many cool discoveries!!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Obligate biotrophic fungi cause some of the most devastating diseases on cereals.
They are also highly difficult to study….
It is truely remarkable how well described the barley and what powdery mildews are.
Here you find an overview on the current knowledge and summary of great resources. Enjoy!

"A study of federally funded research projects in the United States estimated that principal investigators spend on average about 45% of their time on administrative activities related to applying for and managing projects rather than conducting active research"

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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

Horizontal transfers between fungal Fusarium species contributed to successive outbreaks of coffee wilt disease Outbreaks of coffee wilt disease, caused by the fungus Fusarium xylarioides, have severely impacted coffee production. By sequencing and comparing 13 historical strains spanning 60 years and multiple ...

Cool read in @plosbiology.bsky.social showing that horizontal transfers between fungal Fusarium species contributed to successive outbreaks of coffee wilt disease, and suggesting a key role for Starship transposons journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Pan-genome bridges wheat structural variations with habitat and breeding - Nature The pan-genome of 17 wheat cultivars grown in China is explored, providing insights into the breeding history of wheat in East Asia.

Pan-genome bridges wheat structural variations with habitat and breeding

«  We investigated the copy number changes of NLR genes across genomes from different periods (1950–1960s, 1980-1990s and post-2000s) » www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New carefully conducted study from
@michela-audisio.bsky.social finds little evidence for previous, spectacular claims of massive carbon transfer between roots of trees (but support for plant-fungus carbon transfer).

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

Rhizobium rhizogenes A4-derived strains mediate hyper-efficient transient gene expression in Nicotiana benthamiana and other solanaceous plants Agroinfiltration, a method utilizing agrobacteria to transfer DNA into plant cells, is widely used for transient gene expression in plants. Besides the commonly used Agrobacterium strains, Rhizobium r...

Rhizobium rhizogenes A4-derived strains mediate hyper-efficient transient gene expression in Nicotiana benthamiana and other solanaceous plants www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Conserved effector families render Phytophthora species vulnerable to recognition by NLR receptors in nonhost plants Nature Communications - Genus Phytophthora threat various plant species including fruit, vegetable, and flower crops. The authors report that some NLRs recognize conserved effector families of...

Conserved effector families render Phytophthora species vulnerable to recognition by NLR receptors in nonhost plants
Soohyun Oh et al. 2024 rdcu.be/d1f33

Pangenome graph analysis reveals extensive effector copy-number variation in spinach downy mildew Author summary Plant pathogens are known to evolve rapidly and overcome disease resistance of newly introduced crop varieties. This swift adaptation is visible in the genomes of these pathogens, which...

Struggling to interpret or depict extensive copy-number variations of pathogen effectors? This paper by the group of @mfseidl.bsky.social might hold some inspiration:
doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Diversification of molecular pattern recognition in bacterial NLR-like proteins - Nature Communications Avs proteins are bacterial anti-phage pattern recognition receptors evolutionarily related to eukaryotic NLRs. Here, Béchon et al show that a single bacterial Avs can recognize different phage protein...

Happy to see our paper out @ Nat Comm

We discovered a bacterial NLR-like pattern recognition receptor that can sense 3 different viral proteins as a signature for infection. This explains its broad defense against different phage families

Congrats Nathalie Béchon!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...