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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · 15h

Ok now THIS sounds like the perfect Friday night!

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · 1d

As for what's next? 👀 Keep an eye out for some exciting news in the coming weeks.

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · 1d

I did it! Officially a #PhD!

Yesterday, I successfully defended my dissertation "Dissecting Plant-Microbe Interactions: PAMP Recognition and Immune Evasion in Solanaceous Hosts"

Special thanks to my advisor Dr. Anjali Iyer-Pascuzzi, my committee, mentors/mentees, friends, & family who were there.

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · 11d

This is a really unfortunate time to have the keys falling off of my keyboard 😂 I guess that's how you know it's time to graduate.

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · 14d

I chose a rotational program bc it allowed me to find the right fit for research/mentorship. Students, like me, who applied to programs that allowed them to explore their options during the first semester(s) will no longer be able to prepare their application after a full rotation experience.

Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · 14d

The NSF-GRFP Solicitation (finally) went live today!

Unfortunately, second-year PhD students are unable to apply. This decision will have direct impacts on graduate students who choose rotational PhD programs. 🧪🌱
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

www.nsf.gov

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Reposted by Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl

Gitta Coaker @gittacoaker.bsky.social · 18d

Gram-positive bacterial MAMP sensed by a plant cysteine rich receptor kinase. I've been waiting for this preprint to drop. Nice story!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Cysteine-rich receptor-like kinases mediate Wall Teichoic Acid perception in Arabidopsis

Plants and animals detect microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) to initiate defense responses. Both lineages employ pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), yet plant mechanisms for sensing Gram-...

www.biorxiv.org

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · 23d

Friends and Family - If you're interested in attending my dissertation seminar via Zoom (Oct 8th), please comment below and I will send you the information!

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · 26d

New profile pic, thanks to the Boilermaker Station photo booth at #Purdue!

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Sep 10

Thanks so much!

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Sep 10

Not a lot of time to bead lately, but look at these customs I made for a Purdue fan!

shawishmarket.com/Collegiate-E...
#beadwork #choctaw ##brickstitich #IndigenousArt

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Sep 5

Thank you!! Glad you were able to be a part of it!

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Reposted by Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl

Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · Sep 5

Applications for the 2026 Pivot to Plants Fellows Program at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center are now open.

Location: St. Louis, MO
Application Deadline: October 15, 2025
Dates: Jan. 5, 2026 – Dec. 23, 2026
Estimated Stipend: $37,275

Learn more: www.danforthcenter.org/our-work/edu...

Pivot to Plants: Training Program for Plant and Data Science | Danforth Plant Science Center

The Pivot2Plants Fellows Program is a 1-year training program for people interested in pivoting to a career in plant science or data science but have limited research experience.

www.danforthcenter.org

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Sep 5

This work explores how PTI responses like ROS amplitude/attenuation & MAPK phosphorylation are PRR-specific in tomato roots! We also show that root PTI is primarily located in the developing tissues of tomato, providing experimental insights for below-ground PTI assays, including ROS, MAPK, & DEGs.

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Sep 5

🚨 New publication alert 🚨
Tomato Roots Exhibit Development-Specific Responses to Bacterial-Derived Peptides
🔗: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Authors: R Leuschen-Kohl, R Roberts, @danimstevens.bsky.social, N Zhang, S Buchanan, B Pilkey, @gittacoaker.bsky.social , and A Iyer-Pascuzzi.

Tomato Roots Exhibit Development‐Specific Responses to Bacterial‐Derived Peptides

Pattern-triggered immune responses in roots are concentrated in the early differentiating regions in wild and domesticated tomatoes (Solanum pimpinellifolium and S. lycopersicum). Signalling compon...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Sep 5

Updated link: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Tomato Roots Exhibit Development‐Specific Responses to Bacterial‐Derived Peptides

Pattern-triggered immune responses in roots are concentrated in the early differentiating regions in wild and domesticated tomatoes (Solanum pimpinellifolium and S. lycopersicum). Signalling compon...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Sep 5

This work explores how PTI responses like ROS amplitude/attenuation & MAPK phosphorylation are PRR-specific in tomato roots! We also show that root PTI is primarily located in the developing tissues of tomato, providing experimental insights for below-ground PTI assays, including ROS, MAPK, & DEGs.

Reposted by Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl

Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Jul 8

It's that time of year again!

If you or someone you know is thinking about applying to MS/PhD programs, I recommend checking out this website, structured from our fall-semester-only class AGR 490: Gateways to Graduate School!

#GradSchool #PhD #GradSchoolAdmissions #GatewaystoGradSchool

Gateways to Graduate School

sites.google.com

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Aug 12

Excited (and a little bit nervous!) to be speaking tomorrow for the #ASPB #PlantBiologyGlobal Fostering Inclusion in Plant Biology session! I'll be speaking on my experience as an Indigenous student at Purdue and the support systems (@Purdue, in the community, among peers) I've had during my PhD.

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Reposted by Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl

Denis Wirtz @deniswirtz.bsky.social · Aug 10

My team has updated our free database of POSTDOC fellowships.

This database contains 286 entries. For each entry, we provide a link, short description, deadline, amount, and eligibility criteria.

Download this updated and expanded database here: research.jhu.edu/rdt/funding-...

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Aug 11

Decolonize scientific institutions, don’t just diversify them

Indigenous scholars set out eight steps to stop marginalization in academia and to enable a shared Indigenous agenda in science.

www.nature.com

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Aug 8

Mentoring undergraduates is one of my favorite parts of the job 😍 I'm always so excited when I get to brag on their work. Congrats, Morgan!

Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Aug 8

Excited to share the latest microPublication from my mentee Morgan Murff (incoming PhD@UGA!) looking at root responses to bacterial MAMPs in pepper roots. Contrary to previous findings, Morgan showed that roots of some pepper varieties do respond to csp22(Rsol). 🌱
#plantpath #plantdisease #plantbio

Below-ground tissues of Capsicum annuum respond to conserved bacterial peptides with pattern-triggered immunity | microPublication

www.micropublication.org

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Jul 29

Congrats to all! Such cool findings - and so very relevant to the future of crop engineering!

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Rebecca (BeKa) Leuschen-Kohl @bleuschenkohl.bsky.social · Jul 17

And just like that, my time at #2025ISMPMI is over. I had such a great time catching up with fellow friends and researchers from across the globe! Here's to the next two years of scientific discovery before we meet again. Tschüss und bis bald!

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