Baptiste Castel

Humbly share our latest work led by @himanshuchhillar.bsky.social my phd student

And thanks to all collaborators Henk-jan @brunongou.bsky.social @jonathandgjones.bsky.social

merci Camille !

4\ We found a class of immune receptors enriched in ferns. According to the features you are looking at, they could be CC-NLRs, or potentially a new class of intracellular immune receptors. They remain to be characterized … (drop us a message if you are interested in doing that with us ⬇️) 4/4

3\ Ferns reproduce via alternance of gametophytes (💚 algae-looking tiny plants) and sporophyte (🌿dominant phase, the form we are most familiar with). For some pathogens, gametophytes are more resistant than their sporophyte. 3/4

2\ We tested many ferns with many filamentous microbes and report several pathosystems 2/4

Exploring fern pathosystems and immune receptors to bridge gaps in plant immunity - BMC Biology Land plants include angiosperms, gymnosperms, bryophytes, lycophytes, and ferns, each of which may deploy distinct strategies to resist pathogens. Here, we investigate fern-pathogen interactions by characterizing novel pathosystems and analyzing the diversity of fern immune receptors. A collection of fern species was inoculated with a diverse set of filamentous microbes, and disease symptoms were assessed. We further leveraged published genome mining tools to analyse the diversity of receptor-like kinases, receptor-like proteins (RLKs/RLPs) and nucleotide-binding and leucine-rich repeats (NLRs), along with key immune signalling components, in ferns. Our results reveal that ferns exhibit a range of responses to pathogens, including putative non-host resistance and more specific resistance mechanisms. Among ten ferns tested, Pteris vittata displays the broadest spectrum of pathogen compatibility. Genome mining indicates that ferns encode a diverse repertoire of putative immune receptors, antimicrobial peptides, and mediators of systemic acquired resistance. Ferns possess numerous RLKs/RLPs, resembling those required for cell-surface immunity in angiosperms. They also encode diverse NLRs, including sub-families lost in flowering plants. These findings provide insights into disease resistance evolution and open promising perspectives for crop protection strategies.

1\ bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
🌿🌿Our article on fern immunity has been peer-reviewed 🌿🌿
Thanks to @madeleinebaker.bsky.social @kellerjeanphd.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social and @jacquet-chris.bsky.social

a quick thread 🧵 1/4

A first dive in fern x pathogen interaction! More to come!

Congratulations @baptistebio.bsky.social @jacquet-chris.bsky.social et al.!

Various ferns species inoculated with S. sclerotiorum.

Want to see ferns under attack and how they respond to pathogens? Check out our latest paper!
doi.org/10.1186/s129...
Congrats on this huge team effort to @baptistebio.bsky.social @madeleinebaker.bsky.social @kellerjeanphd.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social

~12 years after we coined it EPP1 with @oswaldovaldesl.bsky.social one afternoon when we were postdoc with @jeanmichelane.bsky.social!

Congrats @melaniekrich.bsky.social @tatiana-vernie.bsky.social et al. for the hard work!

EPP1 is the fourth member of the Common Symbiosis Pathway 🍄🌱!

EPP1 is an ancestral component of the plant Common Symbiosis Pathway The success of plants on land has been enabled by mutualistic intracellular associations with microbes for 450 million years ([Delaux and Schornack 2021][1]). Because of their intracellular nature, th...

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

Two papers to tell us more about mysterious EPP1, a protein required for symbiosis. Well done @tatiana-vernie.bsky.social and all co-authors.

Resolving the stasis-dynamism paradox: Genome evolution in tree ferns Abstract. The paradox of evolutionary stasis and dynamism—how morphologically static lineages persist through deep geological periods despite environmental

...and three more fern genomes @molbioevol.bsky.social !

Not-so-static static lineages!

academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

VACANCY - Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions

We’re inviting applications from outstanding researchers who either hold, or wish to apply for, Independent Research Fellowships.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 10 November 2025

Click here to apply: jic.link/Fellows

Beyond mutualism: the nature of domesticator–domesticate interactions The literature on domestication commonly calls the association between human domesticators and their plant and animal domesticates mutualistic, yet this designation is rarely examined critically. Here...

www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
Fun read today: Did figs and chilli peppers 'domesticated' humans?

Page 11 of the Sunday Post. With story 'Fossil find is modern-day Jurassic spark'. The title image is of dinosaurs and below is an image of fossil wood, and a photograph of Anajú Sagasti and Sandy Hetherington

Our recent paper @newphyt.bsky.social @anajusagasti.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social is featured today in the Sunday Post!
Thanks Sally McDonald for your piece helping to promote and communicate Scotland’s rich fossil heritage
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Systematic discovery and engineering of synthetic immune receptors in plants Plants deploy a diverse array of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), which perceive microbe-associated molecular patterns to activate immune responses. Leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase subgr...

Very happy to share our latest work “Systematic discovery and engineering of synthetic immune receptors in plants” out in @science.org !

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

receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase AeRLCK2 mediates Nod-independent rhizobial symbiosis in Aeschynomene legumes Many plants interact symbiotically with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to enhance inorganic phosphorus uptake, and legumes also develop a nodule symbiosis with rhizobia for nitrogen acquisition. The establishment and functioning of both symbioses rely on a common plant signaling pathway activated by structurally related Myc and Nod factors. Recently, a SPARK receptor-like kinase (RLK)/receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase (RLCK) complex was shown to be essential for arbuscular mycorrhiza formation in both monocot and dicot plants. Here, we show that in Aeschynomene legumes, the RLCK component of this receptor complex has undergone a gene duplication event and mediates a unique nodule symbiosis that is independent of rhizobial Nod factors. In Aeschynomene evenia, AeRLCK2 is crucial for nodule initiation but not for arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis. Additionally, AeRLCK2 physically interacts with and is phosphorylated by the cysteine-rich RLK, AeCRK, which is also required for nodulation. This finding uncovers an important molecular mechanism that controls the establishment of nodulation and is associated with Nod-independent symbiosis.

Outstanding paper ! -> receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase AeRLCK2 mediates Nod-independent rhizobial symbiosis in Aeschynomene legumes | The Plant Cell | Oxford Academic

congratulations Shanshan

Super excited to share our new preprint! 🎉 This project has been an incredible learning experience, thanks to the amazing lab and wonderful people I get to work with. Huge thanks to my supervisor! @plantevolution.bsky.social

1/3 New preprint led by Shanshan Wang, in collaboration with the Timmermans lab.

Several groups have presented sc/snRNA-seq analyses of Arabidopsis leaves after bacterial infection before. Is there anything left to discover? Turns out: Yes.

#plantscience
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Stories of Salicylic Acid: A Plant Defense Hormone Salicylic acid (SA) is a key plant hormone required for establishing resistance to many pathogens. SA biosynthesis involves two main metabolic pathways with multiple steps: the isochorismate and the p...

For those who are not familiar with SA research history, we humbly introduce a review we wrote years ago: www.cell.com/trends/plant... @cp-trendsplantsci.bsky.social

🦠🧍‍♀️From bacterial to human immunity.

We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity.
Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social

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

First Ma lab #GMI paper is now online! It‘s a mini-review on insect-induced plant #galls —their coolness and research potential! Plant galls induced by insects: Coordinated developmental reprogramming and defence manipulation www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Are chromatin remodelling complexes targets of bacterial effectors PopP2 & XopJ6 ? Check out our work at #2025ISMPMI ! P-163 presented Wednesday afternoon by my amazing PhD supervisors Laurent Deslandes & Valerie Pacquit. @lipme-toulouse.bsky.social @ismpmi.bsky.social

Extracellular niche establishment by plant pathogens - Nature Reviews Microbiology In this Review, Roussin-Léveillée, Mackey and colleagues examine microorganism interaction with and manipulation of the plant apoplast. Effector-driven extracellular niche establishment is conceptuali...

@charlesrleveillee.bsky.social is introducing the concept of „EDEN“ in his talk in the concurrent session „local and inter-organ signaling“ #2025ISMPMI

see also his great review: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

mamp-ml: A deep learning approach to epitope immunogenicity in plants Eukaryotes detect biomolecules through surface-localized receptors, key signaling components. A subset of receptors survey for pathogens, induce immunity, and restrict pathogen growth. Comparative gen...

#2025ISMPMI 📣 In silico screening of PRR-epitope interactions is now possible!

Here, we developed mamp-ml to predict their immunogenic outcomes without structural context. Let's accelerate engineering plant receptors for robust resistance! 🚀🌱 Small 🧵

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

@federicalocci.bsky.social presents the fonction of non canonical TIR immune receptors #2025ismpmi

Full room for @keehoonsohn.bsky.social presentation #2025ismpmi

Fantastic plenary talk by Nuria Coll @bactodeath.bsky.social on how to use metabolic engineering to make plants resistant to vascular pathogens #2025ISMPMI

Poster at #ISMPMI2025 from collaborations with @sainburylab.bsky.social #Proteomics group: P011 ( @isabelmonte.bsky.social ), P073 ( @HeeKungAng group), P086 & P034 (Zipfel group) P101 ( @tolgaboz.bsky.social ) and P130 ( @jonathandgjones.bsky.social and XiaoLin)

@geminiteamlab.bsky.social reminds us the importance of virology in plant immunity research #2025ismpmi