Aileen Berasategui
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berasymbionts.bsky.social
Aileen Berasategui
@berasymbionts.bsky.social
Assistant Professor at A-LIFE VU Amsterdam | Chemical ecology of insect-microbe interactions 🪲🍄 🧬🇪🇸🇪🇺| PI of @ERC_Research: SymPathy
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
There’ll be several opportunities to join the group, starting w/ a PhD studentship via the BBSRC-NRP Doctoral Training Partnership.

Team up w/ us, @saskiahogenhout.bsky.social & @berasymbionts.bsky.social to answer how microbes shape insect behavior:
biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/mic...
Microbial determinants of behaviour in herbivorous beetles (SALEM_J26DTP) | Doctoral Training Partnership
Many animals rely on beneficial microbes for nutrition, defence, or reproduction. In this project, the student will explore an exciting new dimension of these relationships:
biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk
November 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
PRESS RELEASE – Dr Hassan Salem to lead independent research group on plant-insect interactions

Following an international search, we are delighted to announce that Dr Hassan Salem @hassansalem.bsky.social will be joining us in early 2026: www.jic.ac.uk/press-releas...
November 24, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
Some news 🎉
After five incredible years in Tübingen, it’s time to say goodbye.

Starting February, the Mutualisms Lab will relocate to the John Innes Centre, right next door to @berasymbionts.bsky.social and her group at The Sainsbury Laboratory 🪲🦠
November 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Super excited to be joining @thesainsburylab.bsky.social and to begin this new chapter in Norwich!!
And thrilled to be neighbours with the Mutualisms Research Group at @hassansalem.bsky.social and the wider community at @johninnescentre.bsky.social. Can’t wait to get started! 😁
November 24, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
Had a fantastic visit to the ‪Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen @maxplanckcampus.bsky.social Super thanks to @hassansalem.bsky.social and @berasymbionts.bsky.social for hosting me and showing me the town! Fun to talk symbiosis science with such superstars 🤩
October 21, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
It was such a treat to see you again @CorrieMoreau.bsky.social!! We’re still buzzing after a stellar seminar 🌟 turtle ants are amazing!
Had a fantastic visit to the ‪Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen @maxplanckcampus.bsky.social Super thanks to @hassansalem.bsky.social and @berasymbionts.bsky.social for hosting me and showing me the town! Fun to talk symbiosis science with such superstars 🤩
October 21, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
New pre-print from our group showing remarkable synchrony of proliferative growth and regulated cell death during plant infection- each conidial cell has a different fate - by the rice blast fungus. Led by Alice Eseola with @osesmir.bsky.social Lauren Ryder @danmaclean.bsky.social and Martin Egan
Synchronous spatio-temporal control of autophagy and organelle trafficking is necessary for appressorium-mediated plant infection by Magnaporthe oryzae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.680644v1
October 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
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
October 7, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
🪸🧪 We’re hiring! Join our ERC-funded group at the @hifmb.de in Oldenburg, Germany to explore the cellular origins of photosymbiosis:⁣

𝟏 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐝𝐨𝐜 + 𝟐 𝐏𝐡𝐃𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬.⁣
Deadlines: Oct 29 & Nov 5. Links below. ⁣

Questions: [email protected]
#Photosymbiosis #HIFMB #ERC #AcademicJobs
October 6, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
Dear all, registration for the upcoming EMBO/EMBL Symposium on "the cellular mechanics of symbiosis" is now OPEN 🤩 ! Feel free to register ! www.embl.org/about/info/c...
#EESSymbiosis #ProtistsOnSky #SymbioSky
@hassansalem.bsky.social @berasymbionts.bsky.social @embl.org
The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe
www.embl.org
September 29, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
✨🚀 #EESSymbiosis is now open for registration!

Submit your abstract by 25 November 2025 and join us as we explore the evolution of intimate species-species interactions 👉 https://s.embl.org/ees26-03-bl

🗓️ 17 – 20 March 2026
📍 EMBL Heidelberg and Virtual
September 30, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
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 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...
doi.org
September 23, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
Such a delight to share our work on the evolution of a cheese rind fungus in @currentbiology.bsky.social.

This is the fantastic PhD work of @nicolasleonlouw.bsky.social and resulted from amazing collaborations, a wedding proposal(!), an undergrad course, & more!

🧵

www.cell.com/current-biol...
Long-term monitoring of a North American cheese cave reveals mechanisms and consequences of fungal adaptation
Using a unique longitudinal sampling approach, Louw et al. demonstrate how a cheese-associated Penicillium population has adapted in an artisan cheese production facility in Vermont, USA. Adaptation i...
www.cell.com
September 16, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
📣New paper alert📣
@michieldegroot.bsky.social ran laboratory experiments at the University of South Bohemia, which revealed that abiotic factors DO significantly affect parasitism of Harmonia axyridis by Hesperomyces harmoniae. Congratulations! Read more: doi.org/10.1111/een.... #TeamLaboul
September 17, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

A host organelle (in sea slugs) integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis
A host organelle integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis
Sea slugs steal foreign chloroplasts and store them in specialized organelles that facilitate photosynthesis and eventual digestion to mediate starvation resistance.
www.cell.com
September 17, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
A study uncovers genes behind an extreme symbiosis: Pygmy seahorses perfectly mimic the gorgonian coral they live within, are resistant to the coral's venom, and are protected from infection by the coral’s antimicrobial compounds. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
September 17, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
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
September 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
How do light and noise pollution impact selection on sexual signals?

We tested mate attraction and bat predation on túngara frogs in the field.

Full text: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

#evolutionarybiology
#animalbehavior
@eseb.bsky.social
@jevbio.bsky.social

Photo: Grant Maslowski
September 8, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
Delighted that our work on the Sanctuary Starship #transposon is now published! A big thanks to all co-authors, especially to the ever-amazing @mcdonaldmeganc.bsky.social for her mentorship!

doi.org/10.1128/mbio...
Sanctuary: a Starship transposon facilitating the movement of the virulence factor ToxA in fungal wheat pathogens | mBio
The work presented here expands our understanding of a novel group of mobile genetic elements called Starships that facilitate the horizontal exchange of numerous genes between fungal pathogens. Our a...
doi.org
September 6, 2025 at 1:11 PM
🚨 Save the date! Thrilled to be co-organizing the next iteration of the @embl.org Symposium on the Cellular Mechanics of Symbiosis (📅 March 17-20), w/ @floravincent.bsky.social, @hassansalem.bsky.social & Tom Richards.
www.embl.org/about/info/c...
#EESSymbiosis #Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky 🦠
The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe
www.embl.org
September 8, 2025 at 10:24 AM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
August 22, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
@berasymbionts.bsky.social speaking about socially transferred materials and her amazing beetles and fungal symbiont transfer opening the @socialtransfernet.bsky.social symposium at #ESEB2025
August 21, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
Good morning #eseb2025! Come join us at 10:30 in room 131+132 to hear invited speakers @jennyperry.bsky.social and @berasymbionts.bsky.social plus many excellent contributed talks on #socialtransfers

@socialtransfernet.bsky.social
@joriskoene.bsky.social
@adriatica.bsky.social
August 21, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐃𝐍𝐀-𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐢 𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫! 👇

The Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute will host a specialized training on DNA-based Identification of Fungi:

📆 October 9–10, 2025 (2 days)
🔗 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐝𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬: https://f.mtr.cool/wrirtjfrww
August 19, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by Aileen Berasategui
The Tübingen & Amsterdam crews have landed in Barcelona for #ESEB2025! Cooling off with helados before the science (and festivities) begin🍦
August 17, 2025 at 3:49 PM