Ken Shirasu

Open rank faculty positions available at MSU Plant Resilience Institute. Apply online at: https://tinyurl.com/yy2kvt3n

Only 10 days left to apply to the MSU Plant Resilience Institute for a faculty position.We're looking for 1 junior and 1 senior faculty. Applications submitted after 10/15 cannot be considered. Join us! It's a very collaborative, fun, innovative group of plant biologists. Apply at: lnkd.in/eRyDv_Pi

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/...

NEW ARTICLE FROM THE LAB 🎉🍀🧫

Groundbreaking work performed by @hueihsuantsai.bsky.social and all!

Please, go have a read! Congrats to making it to the cover!!!

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

Wounding activates the HSFA1 transcription factors to promote cellular reprogramming in Arabidopsis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.29.679115v1

Amazing work by the Santiago lab @unil.bsky.social. The malectin-LRR receptor kinase IGP1 senses cello-oligomers to alert the plant immune system & enhance disease resistance. Very nice discovery & mechanism.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

(Part 2)

“From my first visit, I was struck by the energy and excitement...It feels like being a graduate student again, chasing curiosity wherever it leads."

@hhmi.org Investigator David Stern will join the Stowers Institute in Feb. 2026 from @hhmijanelia.bsky.social.

Read more: bit.ly/4np96Fb

(Part 1) Hear from @hhmi_news Investigator David Stern about his research program and what he's uncovering in the lab.

Stern will join the Institute in February 2026, bringing his lab and HHMI appointment to Kansas City. @hhmi.org

Read more: bit.ly/4np96Fb

It's official! We are moving to Stowers!
Very exciting opportunity to expand our studies of insect-plant interactions. We have many opportunities available in biochemistry, development, behavior, genetics, evolution, genomics, AI, and even pest control. Interested in any of these things? Reach out!

Discovery and engineering of synthetic RLKs | Plantae Receptor-like kinases (RLKs) are abundant genes that have diversified and expanded throughout plant evolution, with most plants having hundreds or more RLKs. In this exciting new paper, Ngou et al.

Plant Science Research Weekly -- Discovery and engineering of synthetic RLKs (Science) @shirasulab.bsky.social @brunongou.bsky.social @yasukadota.bsky.social @BrunoNgou (Summary by Mary Williams @PlantTeaching.bsky.social) buff.ly/JlJKjJE

#PlantaePSRW

We proudly present a new preprint by Leon Pierdzig et al: Wall teichoic acids, glycopolymers specific to Gram-positive bacteria, trigger defense and cell death in Arabidopsis. Cysteine-rich RLKs act as key components in their perception. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Meet #NASmember Kyoko Nozaki, a pioneer in homogeneous catalysis, polymerization, and CO₂ activation. Her work melds deep mechanism with bold synthesis for sustainable materials and precision chemistry. Read more in a @pubs.acs.org profile: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Neofunctionalized RGF pathways drive haustorial organogenesis in parasitic plants Plant peptide hormones regulate and induce the parasitic plant specialized organ for connecting to and feeding from the host.

Well done, Max! Neofunctionalized RGF pathways drive haustorial organogenesis in parasitic plants | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Happy to share this review on the diversity of resistance in Triticeae. I learned a lot writing it. Heavy lifting by Yinghui Li, Liubov Govta, and @yichangsung.bsky.social with our long-time collaborator Tzion Fahima.
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

And now it’s Saskia @SaskiaHogenhout on insect-vectored plant pathogens #SIPaV2025

Saskia is President-elect of the British Society for Plant Pathology @BS_PP

Well done, Alexandra!!!

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 👇

Diverse recognition specificity of SCOREs for CSP variants

#PlantScience Research Weekly Sept 12 plantae.org/plant-scienc.... How RLKs shape the microbiome; Engineering synthetic RLKs; Plastid-localized amino acid transporter; Tunable mechanics of development through cell walls (1/2)

Nick Talbot, Executive Director and senior group leader at TSL, is pictured in a glasshouse surrounded by rice plants.

We are pleased to announce that @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social has been awarded the RKS Wood Prize 2026 by the @bspp.bsky.social.

“I am humbled to have been awarded the RKS Wood Prize 2026. I’d like to thank my research group and my TSL colleagues for their inspiration and support.”

buff.ly/VvoR27Q

a yellow mascot says fan-tas-tic in front of a crowd of people Alt: a yellow mascot says fan-tas-tic in front of a crowd of people

I finally sat down to read this and WOW! Fantastic work, congratulations to you and the team.

I am very grateful to Michele & Marc, Takehiro & Dohmae-san, Markus, @yasukadota.bsky.social & @shirasulab.bsky.social for their support. Also big thanks to the reviewers and editors for improving our manuscript!

With this approach, we aim to characterize more PRRs against different pathogens & pests in the future.

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/...

Excited to announce that our latest paper has just been published in Science!

ttps://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adx2508

Game-changing biotech for engineering pathogen-resistant crops Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have identified an ancient protein, which they have named SCORE, that has the potential to help defend plants against t...

Game-changing biotech for engineering pathogen-resistant crops | EurekAlert! www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

Genetic design of soybean hosts and bradyrhizobial endosymbionts reduces N2O emissions from soybean rhizosphere Nature Communications - During plant cultivation, denitrification process can release greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) to atmosphere. Here, the authors develop a soybean–bradyrhizobial...

Beautiful work! Well done, Hanna, Haruko, Kiwamu and Co ! rdcu.be/eD6k4

During Brassicales evolution, plants changed their way to synthesize salicylic acid from PAL pathway to IC pathway.

The time of IC pathway evolution nicely matches our previous publication.

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The >1000 lipid species found in eukaryotic cells have vital functions. Using a combination of microscopy, spectroscopy and modelling, authors report @nature the first quantitative map of retrograde flux of individual lipids in cells.

📣 Massively proud of this ⬇️ great study, led by the brilliant @mesny.bsky.social surprisingly uncovering that many pathogen effectors stem from ancient antimicrobials 🤯 #EffectorWisdom #EvoMPMI

Linalool-triggered plant-soil feedback drives defense adaptation in dense maize plantings High planting density boosts crop yields but also heightens pest and pathogen risks. How plants adapt their defenses under these conditions remains unclear. In this study, we reveal that maize enhance...

Out in @science.org The crazy sequence of events from planting maize in dense fields. Density-dependent linalool release triggers release of compounds into the soil affecting microbes and plants.
Article: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Perspective: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
#PlantScience