Charissa de Bekker PhD (she/her)

Obviously my favorite ant genus. And not only when dead and fungified by the way.

Vanishing Virulence: Investigating pathogenicity loss in a plant pathogenic fungus (TALBOT_T26DTP) | Doctoral Training Partnership What makes a plant killer lose its edge? This project will investigate why fungal pathogens lose virulence when they are grown in laboratory culture away from their host plant. Use cutting-edge…

New PhD opportunity in my group @thesainsburylab.bsky.social through the BBSRC NRP DTP Programme - see details of host to apply below

biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/van...

Bram van Dijk @bramvandijk.bsky.social (@utrechtuniversity.bsky.social): How mobile genes reshape the microbial arms race
#NIME2025

Aileen Berasategui @berasymbionts.bsky.social (VU) on Origin and evolution of a defensive symbiosis in tortoise beetle

Chelymorpha alternans beetle => today, focusing on pupation

see their @currentbiology.bsky.social paper (with @hassansalem.bsky.social)
www.cell.com/current-biol...

#NIME2025

🎤 Meet the speakers of 𝗦𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟯: Fungal Crosstalk with Hosts & Predatory Interactions at #IFBC2025! 🍄🌱🪱🧬

⏳ The registration & abstract submission deadline is fast approaching! 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀: 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝟮𝟱

📍 Chania, Greece | 📅 Sept 27–30

🔗 ifbc2025.maich.gr

#fungalbiology #Conference #Greece

Great sessions at #IFBC25 on fungal manipulation of ant behaviour (Charissa de Bekker) and nematode behaviour (@fungi_worms and Reinhard Fischer) -highlighting the complex cellular eukaryotic processes that fungal effectors can perturb -remarkable insights from effector biology

On my way back from the International Fungal Biology 🍄🍄‍🟫Conference in Chania, Crete. I’m exhausted. But what an amazing 4 days of science, friends, and Greek hospitality it was. And in such a beautiful conference venue too! Wish all conferences could be in Crete 🤩☀️🌴🐈🐈‍⬛

That’s the plan! Would be so lovely to catch up. How long has it been? 4 years at least? Can’t wait to hear what you’ve been up to, and to meet your students

You can leave that to @williamycete.bsky.social

The First of Us: Ophiocordyceps use a novel scramblase-binding peptide to manipulate zombie ants Parasite-adaptive manipulation of behavior is a widespread natural phenomenon. While Ophiocordyceps zombie fungi are well-known for hijacking ant behavior to increase their fitness, functionally chara...

Which fungal 🍄 molecules cause zombie 🧟‍♀️ ant 🐜 behaviors? @williamycete.bsky.social has begun to answer this question! He found a peptide that binds to scramblase and affects important odor-dependent behaviors in ants. Spoiler: worms 🪱 played a key role in this research 🧐 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

The wind has been crazy today!

Goodbye #eseb2025 @eseb2025.bsky.social see you next time!

Perhaps what stuck most was powerful talk on resilience and survival by Palestinian researcher, play director, and ESEB EUEA awardee May Shehady. Let's not forget, let's not look away. 🇵🇸

Thanks so much for including my talk in your wonderful art!!

❤️❤️❤️

Phew! What a rush presenting for the big, scientifically diverse #ESEB2025 crowd this morning. Thankful for this amazing opportunity to show off the interdisciplinary work my research team and our collaborators have been doing to better understand parasite manipulation of behavior. #zombieants 🧟‍♀️ 🐜 🍄

Brilliant plenary today from Carrisa de Bekker @zombieantdoc.bsky.social at @eseb.bsky.social conference. On her work funded by @erc.europa.eu CoG. Great example of inter-disciplinary collaboration to solve a mystery..

Fantastic keynote by @zombieantdoc.bsky.social at #ESEB2025 taking us on a journey through zombie-making strategies of Ophiocordyceps fungi to hijack ant behaviour, with lots of amazing new data, behaviour, functional genetic essays..
@ebablab.bsky.social @alealisousa.bsky.social @r3rt0.bsky.social

How do fungi manipulate ant behaviour? A beautiful story unfolding through multiple elegant approaches from @zombieantdoc.bsky.social in today’s plenary #eseb2025

#ESEB2025 Excellent Keynote by @zombieantdoc.bsky.social on how parasites affect host behavior using fungus- 🐜 as a model. Nice combination of multi-omic approaches with functional genetic assays and quantitative behavioral assays to pinpoint host pathways that are affected during fungal infection

@zombieantdoc.bsky.social spreading the biology of zombie ant fungus in the ESEB plenary. Showing mechanisms of how fungi hijack ant behaviour to help their own dispersal.

Such interesting results!

This is amazing! ❤️

Nice! Will save this for on the plane back home!

Thanks for taking the time to make these and for adding me @flodebarre.bsky.social

Folks going to #ESEB2025 : To help people connect on Bluesky, I've started making starter packs. Here is a first one with the names that were available when I started.

Ping me if you want to be included in the next one!

Insect circadian plasticity as a proposed target for the expression of parasite extended phenotypes npj Biological Timing and Sleep - Insect circadian plasticity as a proposed target for the expression of parasite extended phenotypes

Parasites 🦠🪱🍄‍🟫 that hijack insects 🐜🪰🐛and induce “zombie behaviors” 🧟‍♀️🧟‍♂️ often affect the host’s daily rhythms. But how do they do it? In this npj bts publication @joanadopp.bsky.social and I propose that they co-opt host circadian plasticity 🧠⌚️

We hope you’ll enjoy the read!

rdcu.be/eyPz0

Excited to have joined the Editorial Board of @plosbiology.org a few months ago, the #PLOS flagship journal in the Life Sciences.

As an editor, I aim to contribute to their support of equitable #OpenScience and reaching global audiences to help advance science faster.

Only a couple of weeks till the @eseb2025.bsky.social conference!

I’m so honored to be one of the keynote speakers, and incredibly excited about the amazing scientific program and the opportunity to meet up with old friends and make new ones!

#eseb2025

Willkommen im Reich der Pilze.

My old work place!