Paszkowski Lab

Lots of hard work from Gabriel Ferreras Garrucho, Chai Hao Chiu and Tania Chancellor @cropscicentre.bsky.social @camplantsci.bsky.social .
Let us know what you think!

Defining the pre-symbiotic transcriptional landscape of rice roots Plants interact with a plethora of organisms in the rhizosphere, with outcomes that range from detrimental to beneficial. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is the most ubiquitous beneficial plant ...

It's been a busy time in the Paszkowski lab!

First, a pre-print on how rice distinguishes friend (AM fungi)🍄 from foe (pathogens)👾: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

And second, a review on single-cell omic approaches to understand the spatially and temporally complex AM symbiosis 🔬: doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

Promotional poster for Fungi Field Day event on Saturday, 4 October from 10am to 4pm. Features illustrations of various types of mushrooms.

🍄 Fungi Field Day is almost here!
🍄 Save the date: Saturday 4 October
🍄 Come along from 10am to 4pm

Celebrate all things fungi with art, crafts, face painting, talks, forays and games - there's something for everyone!

We look forward to welcoming you! 🌿

#CUBG #FungiFieldDay #CambridgeEvents

Reductive evolution of the DNA replication machinery in endosymbiotic fungi The molecular machinery for replicating and repairing DNA accurately is critically important for life and highly conserved across the Tree of Life. Here we show that two major lineages of fungi, Glome...

I’m super happy to present the first discoveries of the RIKEN-Cambridge Joint Crop Symbiosis Research Team, based in Japan 🇯🇵

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

A thread 👇

I'll be presenting Wed 17th 11:30 at IMMM2025 in Munich in our labs work on the role of the D14L-SMAX1 module in the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis, and why we think it operates in two distinct roles (regulating the common symbiosis pathway and independent of it in the cortex).
#immm2025

Events | UK Fungus Day Home

You can find fungi events near you on the UK Fungus Day website: www.ukfungusday.co.uk/whatson

🍄 One month until Fungi Field Day 2025!! 🍄

Held on UK Fungus Day (4th October) @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social, this event celebrates the fungal kingdom, featuring science, games, walks, talks, face-painting and much more for all ages. Please spread the word!

www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/whats-on/fun...

The arum type arbuscules

Beautiful microscopy of beautiful arbuscules

Global hotspots of mycorrhizal fungal richness are poorly protected - Nature Machine-learning algorithms trained on 25,000 geolocated soil samples are used to create high-resolution global maps of mycorrhizal fungi, revealing that less than 10% of their biodiversity hotspots a...

Excited to share our new @nature.com paper mapping global mycorrhizal richness and rarity, led by Michael Van Nuland. Over 90% of richness hotspots lie outside protected areas: a critical gap in conservation. Proud to contribute as part of the @spun.earth consortium! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The AMSlide for noninvasive time‐lapse imaging of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis In most soils across the globe, you will find arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. AM fungi act like an extended root system, foraging in the soil for nutrients and delivering them back to their plant-....

She also plugged this innovation:

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... The AMSlide for noninvasive time‐lapse imaging of arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis - McGaley - 2025 - Journal of Microscopy - Wiley Online Library

A person giving a presentation on a conference stage with a PowerPoint slide showing plant cells with colors where fungi or certain transcripts are present

Uta Paszkowski expands on the arbuscular mycorrhizal theme with a cool spatial transcriptome method to better resolve dynamics during colonization of rice.

Can see key transporter transcripts accumulating in arbuscules.
#2025ISMPMI

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
From a primary school workshop: a mystery arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus in mystery plant. Sometimes fun to have no information about what you are looking at 🚸
#outreach #mycosky #fungi

I'll be at @ipgsa2025.bsky.social in 10 days time - come find me at poster 102 to discuss what we've learned in rice about the role of KL & its negative regulator SMAX1 in root development, mycorrhizal symbiosis and germination, as well as our efforts to take chemical control of this pathway.

A thread of our go-to outreach activities from @jenmcgaley.bsky.social. Worth a look if you have an event coming up!

Particular favourite: the online game, 'The Adventures of a Friendly Fungus' 👇🕹️

🧪🧬Should we reignite genetic manipulation attempts on #arbuscular #mycorrhizal #fungi? Our review in @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social suggests the time is ripe.

With: Midge Woodward @paszkowskilab.bsky.social @alexdallaire.bsky.social

Open access🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.ti...

#scicomm

Thanks to the brilliant team of @endosymb.bsky.social, @jenmcgaley.bsky.social, Martina, Ellen, Doris, Shichao + Nora from @cropscicentre.bsky.social @camplantsci.bsky.social 🙌

Festival of Plants 2025: great atmosphere, lots of visitors, and so much enthusiasm for mycorrhiza!

Next in the outreach calendar: the Fungi Field Day, 4th October, Cambridge University Botanic Gardens. Save the date! 🍄🍄🍄

Our favourite fungus in our favourite plant 😍

Celebrating Deni's Masters Viva, and the birthday of our acting Director Prof Uta Paszkowski 🎉🎂👏

A whole special issue dedicated to FUNGI!!! Well worth a look 😍

Nearly time for the Festival of Plants 2025!!! We'll be in the Pop-up Plant Science tent with microscopes, crafts, games and much more mycorrhizal fun🔬🖍️🎨🧩

@paszkowskilab.bsky.social @camplantsci.bsky.social @cropscicentre.bsky.social #mycosci #fungi #plants

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
Been looking at the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Gigaspora margarita this week. Not only does it form ENORMOUS spores, but also bunches of knobbly 'auxiliary cells'.
Can't find a description of auxiliary cell function anywhere...does anyone know what they do?
#mycosci #fungi

Sharing some of my own #mycorrhiza #microscopy from @paszkowskilab.bsky.social

Rhizophagus irregularis inside a rice lateral root (plant & fungal CWs stained with calcofluor white, 400x mag)

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
Some chunky hyphae and arbuscules of the mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis, running along the length of a rice root. Coloured by depth in the root.
#mycosky #fungi #microscopy

Professor Uta Paszkowski, Acting Head of the Crop Science Centre and Head of the Cereal Symbiosis research group at the University of Cambridge

Congratulations to Uta Paszkowski from @cropscicentre.bsky.social - elected to the National Academy of Sciences, USA in recognition of her significant contributions to understanding symbiotic relationships between plants & fungi.

@cambridgebiosci.bsky.social
@paszkowskilab.bsky.social

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
Roots are busy places... here's a rice root packed with mycorrhizal fungal arbuscules 🔬

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
No rice this week: instead a beautiful arbuscule formed by native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (identity unknown) within a Plantago root. This animation takes you through a z-stack 🔬

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
Neighbouring arbuscules formed by the mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis. Makes the rice root look like an apartment block full of fungal inhabitants 🌃🌇

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
Some chunky hyphae of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis forming fungal pipelines inside a rice root. Coloured by depth in the root 🔬