KhongSam Chia

Nanodomain-localized formin gates symbiotic microbial entry in legume and solanaceous plants Colonization of plant roots by symbionts requires substantial morphodynamic reorganization. Examples are actin-scaffolded microcompartments called infection pockets formed during root nodule symbiosis...

Happy to share our latest work in collaboration with the lab of @pengbo10.bsky.social. Here, we describe that a formin protein mediates the polarity switch from root hair to infection thread growth during symbiotic interactions.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A molecular ‘gatekeeper’ in plants opens the door for beneficial microbes CIBSS researchers at the University of Freiburg are part of an international team that sheds light on a crucial step in the initiation of the symbiosis between plants and soil bacteria.

A molecular 'gatekeeper' in plants opens the door for beneficial microbes
Congratulations, @ottlab.bsky.social on a great paper in Science.
www.cibss.uni-freiburg.de/news/a-molec...

A molecular ‘gatekeeper’ in plants opens the door for beneficial microbes CIBSS researchers at the University of Freiburg are part of an international team that sheds light on a crucial step in the initiation of the symbiosis between plants and soil bacteria.

📢 #CIBSS research highlight!

Prof. Dr. Thomas Ott @ottlab.bsky.social helped identify SYFO2, a protein that lets legumes 🫛☘️“open the door” to nitrogen-fixing bacteria. 🦠 The team even activated it in tomato 🍅 — suggesting this symbiosis could be engineered in new crops. 🌱

🔗 kurzlinks.de/v7bi

a sign that says save the date in orange letters ALT: a sign that says save the date in orange letters

The #nonseedUK26 meeting will be held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on 15th December 2026. Please save the date. Further details will follow 😃

Role of molecular “gatekeeper” uncovered, allowing nitrogen-fixing bacteria to enter plant roots | ENSA A new publication from ENSA researchers and international collaborators has uncovered role of SYFO2 protein that helps plants initiate partnerships with beneficial soil microbes.

🔬 ENSA research uncovers SYFO2, a molecular gatekeeper that reorganizes actin in legume root hairs to allow rhizobial entry. The team showed that tomato can activate its own SYFO2 pathway, revealing deep evolutionary roots of symbiosis @science.org @ottlab.bsky.social @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social

Congrats @ottlab.bsky.social and @pengbo10.bsky.social for leading this work!

An unconventional Rubisco small subunit underpins the CO2-concentrating organelle in land plants In many algae, photosynthesis is boosted by biophysical CO2-concentrating mechanisms, which pack the CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco into liquid-like organelles called pyrenoids. Engineering C3 crops with a...

Our work on #hornwort #pyrenoids is finally out in @science.org! 🎉 We uncovered how hornworts pack their Rubisco into pyrenoids and successfully recreated them in Arabidopsis. A key step toward engineering more efficient photosynthesis in crops @btiscience.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

1/ ✨ New preprint alert ✨

It is my pleasure to share:
"Stepwise evolution of the developmental and symbiotic functions of DELLA in land plants"

Here we investigated the role of the single GRAS transcription factor DELLA in #MyMarchantia

doi.org/10.64898/202...

#PlantScience
A thread...

"From industrial Past to Green Future" written around an ancient industry tower typical for the region together with a plant changing colours from blue to green is the motto of the German Society for Plant Sciences international Conference, the Botanik-Tagung, 2026 in Bochum Germany, that brings together plant scientists from several scientific disciplines. The logo highlights the structural change of the Ruhr area, from coal mining + heavy industries to the increasingly important issues of climate protection, sustainability + preservation of biodiversity, with plant sciences at the forefront of this transformation.

#PlantSciConfi

Registration open for
International Conference of our German Society for Plant Sciences
Botanik-Tagung #BT2026
in #Bochum, Germany
6 – 10 September 2026
www.deutsche-botanische-gesellschaft.de/u/82bsBT2026

We are very excited to share a new resource from our team: spatial subcellular proteome maps in plants! We developed an MS-based method that registers localizations of about 8000 proteins in Arabidopsis roots in a single experiment.

(1/9)
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

There is a week left to apply for two available positions in my lab @ipbhalle.bsky.social

- PhD: ipb-halle.mhm.jobs/12-phd-posit...

- Postdoc: ipb-halle.mhm.jobs/13-postdocto...
Earliest start date: 01/05/2026.

We are interested in plant immune receptor biochemistry and evolution. Please share!

LIN oppositely affects Phytophthora infection in Medicago. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

We are really excited that Euro Evo Devo will take place here in Scotland from the 9th-12th June, at the University of Glasgow!

Deadline for Early Bird Registration and Abstract Submission are rapidly approaching in March so do register soon!

www.evodevoconference26.com/important-da...

Be part of OMGN! Open to all researchers with an interest in oomycetes, from molecular genetics & genomics to biology, population biology, and ecology, at either an experimental or a computational level. Investigators new to the field are always welcome oomycetes.com

Out in @NaturePlants. We discover that the fungal pathogen Fusarium graminearum secretes an apoplastic effector that disrupts the N-glycosylation of a maize immune receptor, thereby inducing its degradation via selective autophagy. Very proud of the team~ doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Really happy to see this one out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Alibek's drive & great coll w/ friends @gekaragoz.bsky.social & E. Hallacli resulted in a cool story that starts with our beloved #Marchantia and ends with iPSC-derived neurons 🤩🤪 A short 🧵

Fig. 1 Pik pairs as resources for determining optimal ‘chassis’ for engineering recognition.

Mismatch screening in Nicotiana benthamiana to explore Pik-1/Pik-2 paired NLR platforms for receptor engineering

A #Letter by Xi & Banfield
👇

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

#LatestIssue

Come and join us for this week's exciting DSSS talk to be held by Prof. Dr. Claude Becker from the LMU Biocenter in Munich:

▶️Title and abstract: tinyurl.com/3xwvjabe
📆: Thursday 26th Feb at 11am
📍: Max Planck House lecture hall, Max-Planck-Ring 6
#DSSS

bioRxiv: A specialized ARGONAUTE enables trans-species RNA interference in plant immunity (2026) Trans-species RNA interference (tsRNAi), in which plants produce small RNAs (sRNAs) to silence target genes in pathogens, has emerged as a promising strategy for disease control. However, whether tsRNAi constitutes an endogenous, regulated immune response remains unclear. Here, we show that ARGONAUTE10 (AGO10) plays a critical role in pathogen-induced tsRNAi. Loss of AGO10 in Arabidopsis abolished pathogen gene silencing during infection, leading to hypersusceptibility to oomycete and fungal pathogens. Importantly, AGO10 rapidly responds to pathogen infection through increased protein accumulation and re-location into discrete cytoplasmic condensates, thus promoting the production of trans-species sRNAs at the pathogen infection sites. This immune responsiveness relies on the N terminal intrinsically disordered region (IDR) of AGO10, which is responsible for sensing and responding to immune activation. Specific features in the IDR partitions AGO10 into two deeply diverged subgroups, AGO10a and AGO10b, with the immune responsiveness and defense function evolutionarily conserved in AGO10a but not AGO10b. Together, these findings establish tsRNAi as a bona fide, evolutionarily conserved immune response and position AGO10 as a signal-responsive hub linking pathogen perception to tsRNAi-based defense.

New Preprint: A specialized ARGONAUTE enables trans-species RNA interference in plant immunity (2026)

https://www.tsl.ac.uk/publications/164506

Announcing the publication of TAIR12: Consult the fully reannotated genome on the European Nucleotide Archive - Phoenix Bioinformatics TAIR (The Arabidopsis Information Resource), together with our nonprofit host Phoenix Bioinformatics, is pleased to announce the public release of TAIR12

🎉📣 #TAIR12, the latest reannotation of the Arabidopsis thaliana genome, is now available under accession number PRJEB100887 on ENA and NCBI!

Thank you all the volunteer researchers whose hard work has made this possible!

#plantscience #plantbiology 🧪

bit.ly/3ZHtneT

Eva-Sophie Wallner and Marion Clavel standing together on a snowy campus, smiling at the camera. Behind them are a modern office building and a greenhouse, with bright winter sunshine illuminating the scene.

Shoutout to yesterday’s guest @eswallner.bsky.social, who visited us from @gmivienna.bsky.social for her talk “Lessons from sporeling development: How to form plant organs and meristems de novo?” - fascinating perspective on plant development!🌱
Thanks as well to @thevirusmc.bsky.social for hosting 🙏

Summary of the Plant Bioinformatics course. AI-generated image (ChatGPT) showing some of the central elements. Details: https://github.com/bpucker/PlantBioinformatics

Getting ready for “Plant Bioinformatics” 🌱

Big data, command line, cloud computing & reproducible research — plus replicating published studies.

Materials: github.com/bpucker/Plan...

Study in Bonn: www.biologie.uni-bonn.de/de/studium/b...

#Bioinformatics #OpenEducation @puckerlab.bsky.social

Wishing everyone a propitious start into a prosperous, successful and happy year of the horse!

Pls RT‼️ @hanhtkvu.bsky.social lab @embl.org & we @cosheidelberg.bsky.social are looking for a #postdoc to study #regeneration x #autophagy across kingdoms of life.
www.health-life-sciences.de/opportunitie... Pls spread the word & get in touch if you are interested.

Marchantia might seem an unlikely biotech crop, but it’s worth trying. In Aurore’s thesis, we pushed this concept by engineering the auronidins with MpMYB14 and using the pigments to dye cotton. It ended up giving a very unique and beautiful product. #PlantScience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

“Every calorie we consume has passed through the phloem." @lkalmbach.bsky.social, now at the University of Neuchâtel, returned to share how pectate lyases and callose synthases and remorins shape sieve pore formation in developing sieve elements in the phloem.

📅 Feb 13 #PlantScience

@hanhtkvu.bsky.social @embl.org & we are looking for a #postdoc to study #regeneration x #autophagy across kingdoms of life. Pls spread the word & get in touch if you are interested www.health-life-sciences.de/opportunitie...

Happy to share our preprint on how responses to closely related peptides are shaped by SERKs

@maxplanck.de on its strategy for collaboration with #Africa: “This is about a genuine partnership with Africa”

www.mpg.de/26109563/afr...

📣 Our latest story just dropped on bioRxiv:: A structurally unique effector shared between Verticillium dahliae and Fusarium oxysporum is involved in cotton defoliation and virulence on other hosts www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵