Frederickson D. Entila, PhD

Pooled CRISPRi screening reveals fungal-specific vulnerabilities across environments and genetic backgrounds The rising rate of drug-resistant fungal infections and the emergence of fungal pathogens with intrinsic resistance phenotypes are a growing concern. The close evolutionary distance between mammals an...

a pre-print, alternative for mutant library generation for fungi (CRISPRi pools, first-of-its-kind)…

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A vaccine central in A(H5) influenza antigenic space confers broad immunity - Nature A high-resolution antigenic map of influenza A(H5) haemagglutinin (HA) enables the design of immunogenic and antigenically central vaccine HA antigens that elicit antibody responses broadly covering t...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... here they have developed a central vaccine that can elicit immune responses broadly covering many strains by mapping the antigenic and immunogenic space of a viral protein, in principle this can be applied to design plant receptors that can capture wider MAMP epitopes

Direct targeting and regulation of RNA polymerase II by cell signaling kinases Distinct phosphorylation marks are placed on the carboxyl-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) during different stages of gene transcription. These phospho-CTD marks function as a molec...

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

this is a paradigm shift if this happens also to plants, that the surface localized PRRs or parts of it mobilize to the nucleus and directly modulate RNA pol II function, a straight-forward evidence of "transcriptional reprogramming"…

A defined microbial community reproduces attributes of fine flavour chocolate fermentation - Nature Microbiology An in-depth microbiological and metagenomic analysis of Colombian farm and fermentation facilities resulted in the design of a defined microbial community that can reproduce the flavour of fine chocol...

the microbiota of cocoa fermentation is key to the desirable attributes of fine chocolate…

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

A diverse and distinct microbiome inside living trees - Nature Microbiome analyses of living trees show that a single tree can host approximately one trillion bacteria, with microbial communities distinctly partitioned between heartwood and sapwood and with minim...

functional overlap among organ microbiota doesn’t seem to apply for trees as what we usually see in other relatively smaller plants; the internal tissues of trees are so anoxic, nutritionally restrictive, and antimicrobial-rich analogous to mammalian stomach…

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

also cancer cells steal mitochondria from neurons to fuel its metastasis

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

I wonder how physiological responses of people working in hospital settings are impacted since seeing sick people is customary…

Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response - Nature Neuroscience Serino et al. show that seeing an infectious avatar approach the body in virtual reality triggers an immune response, indicating that the brain prepares the body to fight infections even for perceived...

even the sight of sick people elicits immune responses as an anticipation for a possible infection…

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

We present MetaFlowTrain, an easy-to-build, highly parallelized, and cost-effective fluidic system for studying microbial exometabolites and their roles in modulating microbe–microbe–host interactions. Kudos to @chesneau-g.bsky.social @mpipz.bsky.social
Give it a try: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Apoplastic barriers are essential for nodule formation and nitrogen fixation in Lotus japonicus Establishment of the apoplastic root barrier known as the Casparian strip occurs early in root development. In legumes, this area overlaps with nitrogen-fixing nodule formation, which raises the possi...

Finally!
Im so excited to present to culmination of many years of work from the fantastic Defeng Shen and some great collaborators. For details, I have made a digested thread below, but if you are more interested feel free to reach out (and read the paper of course).
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Perception of viral infections and initiation of antiviral defence in rice - Nature Viral coat proteins are perceived by the RING1–IBR–RING2-type ubiquitin ligase, initiating the first step of the natural antiviral response in rice.

viral coat protein is perceived by RBRL, enhancing its ligase activity to ubiquitinate NINJA3 for degradation leading to de-repression of JA signalling for antiviral defense in rice

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

Conserved immunomodulation and variation in host association by Xanthomonadales commensals in Arabidopsis root microbiota - Nature Plants The authors show that immunosuppression is highly conserved in the bacterial order Xanthomonadales. This feature, which preceded their specialization as host-adapted pathogens, probably contributes to...

immune-modulation of host plants is requisite for terrestrial predominance of Xanthomonodales strains

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

A travelling-wave strategy for plant–fungal trade - Nature Symbiotic fungi control network-level structure and flows to meet trade demands.

the mycorrhizal highways moves in waves with trade interests at the forefront flowing dynamically in both ways within hyphae.

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

The gut microbiota reprograms intestinal lipid metabolism through long noncoding RNA Snhg9 The intestinal microbiota promotes lipid absorption and storage by repressing the expression of the long noncoding RNA gene Snhg9.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
gut microbiota represses lncRNA Snhg9 expression in the intestine to reconfigure lipid metabolism abetting diet-induced obesity in mice.

Immune evasion through mitochondrial transfer in the tumour microenvironment - Nature Mitochondria with mutations in their DNA from cancer cells can be transferred to T cells in the tumour microenvironment, which leads to T cell dysfunction and impaired antitumour immunity.

cancer cells transfer ROS-resistant defective mitochondria to immune cells rendering it dysfunctional, senescent, and memory deficient to evade immunity…

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

Creating coveted bioluminescence colors for simultaneous multi-color bioimaging Twenty-color bioluminescent proteins have been developed for simultaneous imaging of multiple biological targets.

expanded bioluminescence spectrum for simultaneous imaging of cellular processes, even with just a smartphone

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

Streptomyces secretes a siderophore that sensitizes competitor bacteria to phage infection - Nature Microbiology A secondary metabolite sensitizes competitor Bacillus subtilis to a wide panel of lytic phages by sequestering iron and preventing the activation of Spo0A.

The siderophore coelichelin from Streptomyces sp. sensitizes the competitor Bacillus subtilis to phage predation via iron-sequestration resulting to inhibition of Spo0A activation.

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

Siderophore synthetase-receptor gene coevolution reveals habitat- and pathogen-specific bacterial iron interaction networks Coevolving siderophore genes shape bacterial iron networks, unveiling the complexity of cheating across habitats and lifestyles.

sequence-to-ecology study of Pseudomonas siderophores reveal microbial iron heist: non-pathogenic strains are iron altruists while pathogenic strains are selfish iron hoarders.

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

New year, new paper! Now published in @nature.com. We identified and characterised diverse immune cell states in plants under pathogen attack. My postdoc work in the Ecker lab at @salkinstitute.bsky.social. A thread (0/n)
#PlantScience
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Can I join too?

Taming of the microbial beasts: Plant immunity tethers potentially pathogenic microbiota members Plants are in intimate association with taxonomically defined microbiota. In here we review recent literature regarding the crucial role of plant immunity in controlling the potentially pathogenic me....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Here we review the mechanistic relevance of innate immunity in orchestrating plant-microbiota dialogues and discuss the pluses and perils of microbiota. Also, we highlighted the role of host immunity in regulating the potentially pathogenic microbiota members.