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Reposted by Jen McGaley

Paszkowski Lab @paszkowskilab.bsky.social · 5d

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/...

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 ...

doi.org

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Reposted by Jen McGaley

Cambridge University Botanic Garden @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social · 18d

Did you know that over 90% of fungi are still unknown to science? 🍄 Join us at Fungi Field Day 2025 to discover more fungi facts! 📅 Sat 4 Oct | 10am – 4pm
Talks, walks, crafts & more - free with normal Garden admission. To find out more: bit.ly/48ABVcS

A child in a pink jacket paints a colourful fungi-themed picture at a Fungi Field Day at Cambridge University Botanic Garden

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Reposted by Jen McGaley

Cambridge University Botanic Garden @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social · Sep 11

🍄 Fungi Field Day is almost here!
🍄 Save the date: Saturday 4 October
🍄 Come along from 10am to 4pm

Celebrate all things fungi with art, crafts, face painting, talks, forays and games - there's something for everyone!

We look forward to welcoming you! 🌿

#CUBG #FungiFieldDay #CambridgeEvents

Promotional poster for Fungi Field Day event on Saturday, 4 October from 10am to 4pm. Features illustrations of various types of mushrooms.

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Reposted by Jen McGaley

Paszkowski Lab @paszkowskilab.bsky.social · Sep 3

🍄 One month until Fungi Field Day 2025!! 🍄

Held on UK Fungus Day (4th October) @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social, this event celebrates the fungal kingdom, featuring science, games, walks, talks, face-painting and much more for all ages. Please spread the word!

www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/whats-on/fun...

Fungi Field Day - Cambridge University Botanic Garden

www.botanic.cam.ac.uk

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Reposted by Jen McGaley

Manjeet Dhull @manjeet786.bsky.social · Jul 1

Spent last week at the microscope 🔬✨, and seeing arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi up close for the first time—hyphae, arbuscules, vesicles—was absolutely mind-blowing. Small but mighty partners of plant roots 🌿. Sharing a few of my favourite shots.
#Mycorrhiza #fungi

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Reposted by Jen McGaley

Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) @spun.earth · Jul 23

Who lives underground?

Find out now in our new paper published in @nature.com.

Key finding: 90% of predicted mycorrhizal biodiversity hotspots lie outside protected areas.

Read here: buff.ly/WmDqAP3 🧵

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Jul 24

Beautiful microscopy of beautiful arbuscules

Takeshi Sentoku (千德毅) @cl93.bsky.social · Jul 24

The arum type arbuscules

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Reposted by Jen McGaley

New Phytologist @newphyt.bsky.social · Jul 17

What does colonisation tell us? Revisiting the functional outcomes of #root colonisation by arbuscular #mycorrhizal #fungi

A #Letter by @frewecologist.bsky.social 👇

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

#LatestIssue

Fig. 1 Figure showing plant responses to arbuscular mycorrhizal colonisation across four plant species.

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Reposted by Jen McGaley

Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · Jul 14

Uta Paszkowski expands on the arbuscular mycorrhizal theme with a cool spatial transcriptome method to better resolve dynamics during colonization of rice.

Can see key transporter transcripts accumulating in arbuscules.
#2025ISMPMI

A person giving a presentation on a conference stage with a PowerPoint slide showing plant cells with colors where fungi or certain transcripts are present

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Jul 10

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
From a primary school workshop: a mystery arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus in mystery plant. Sometimes fun to have no information about what you are looking at 🚸
#outreach #mycosky #fungi

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Jun 20

What else are people using for public engagement with mycorrhiza? Would be keen to hear other ideas 😁

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Jun 20

Third: microscopes, microscopes, microscopes. But if you can't access outreach-appropriate microscopes, we we made teaching materials for primary school kids that show the process from root sampling to final micrographs -->

cambridgecandi.org.uk/index.php/re...

What’s happening under our feet?

A beautifully illustrated case study and associated teaching powerpoints from a collaborative project with the Crop Science Centre. We creatively explored the intersection of art and science through i...

cambridgecandi.org.uk

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Jun 20

Second: our online game, the Adventures of a Friendly Fungus! Play your way through the challenging life of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus. Better for slightly older kids, often a hit with adults too 😅

scratch.mit.edu/projects/501...

Your browser has Javascript disabled. Please go to your browser preferences and enable Javascript in order to use Scratch.

scratch.mit.edu

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Jun 20

Firstly: the Mycorrhiza Relay Race 🌻🍄
A two-player game, fungus and plant partners alternate turns, navigating a maze to find nutrients or growing leaves to catch sunshines, respectively. Fastest team wins!

Photo: Festival of Plants 2025, after 4hrs of relay races...

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Jun 20

How to teach kids (+ parents) the concept of mycorrhizal symbiosis? Here's a thread of things that we use @paszkowskilab.bsky.social 🧵
#outreach #fungi #plant #science

Paszkowski Lab @paszkowskilab.bsky.social · Jun 19

Festival of Plants 2025: great atmosphere, lots of visitors, and so much enthusiasm for mycorrhiza!

Next in the outreach calendar: the Fungi Field Day, 4th October, Cambridge University Botanic Gardens. Save the date! 🍄🍄🍄

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Jun 13

Yes, I believe that is the case! And very understandable as it certainly resembles a very major fungal infection.

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Jun 12

A great letter from @frewecologist.bsky.social- very important and timely. And spot on that live imaging + the AMSlide is providing plenty of insights into this! More soon...🔬

Adam Frew @frewecologist.bsky.social · Jun 4

We often measure AM fungal colonisation assuming it tells us something about function. But… what does it tell us?

A short Letter where I ask what root colonisation really means for plant growth, P uptake, and defence.
#Mycorrhiza #fungi #plantmicrobiome
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

What does colonisation tell us? Revisiting the functional outcomes of root colonisation by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Click on the article title to read more.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Jun 12

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
Just a particularly pretty arbuscule in a rice root cell colonised by the mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis, with a cool view down an intercellular hypha. Stained with WGA-Alexafluor488, imaged by CLSM, false-coloured by depth in root 🔥

#microscopy #mycosci #fungi

Thick fungal hyphae around a cells with an arbuscule inside the cell, false-coloured with 'fire' colours to depict 3D structure.

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Jun 5

Nearly time for the Festival of Plants 2025!!! We'll be in the Pop-up Plant Science tent with microscopes, crafts, games and much more mycorrhizal fun🔬🖍️🎨🧩

@paszkowskilab.bsky.social @camplantsci.bsky.social @cropscicentre.bsky.social #mycosci #fungi #plants

Cambridge University Botanic Garden @cubotanicgarden.bsky.social · Jun 3

🌿Festival of Plants 2025 - have you got your ticket yet?🌿Saturday 14 June 10am - 5pm. Join us for a day celebrating the fascinating world of plants. Free tours, interactive science, family fun, Ask the Gardener, food trucks & entertainment. Book now: bit.ly/3FbGEFU

Members of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden Horticulture Team answering questions from members of the public at the Ask a Gardener stall at the Festival of Plants

Looking through lavender to a group of people enjoying a tour at Cambridge University Botanic Garden

Two children looking at each other and laughing while waving plant wands that they have made at Cambridge University Botanic Garden

The poster for Festival of Plants at Cambridge University Botanic Garden on Saturday 14 June 10am to 5pm

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Reposted by Jen McGaley

Ido Rog @idorog.bsky.social · May 22

New paper! The Increased Environmental Niche of Dual‐Mycorrhizal Woody Species. Ecology Letters: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Dual-host woody species occupy a broader geographical range and environmental niche space compared to those associating exclusively with either AM or EM.

The Increased Environmental Niche of Dual‐Mycorrhizal Woody Species

Abiotic factors influence the global distribution of mycorrhizal host plants (ectomycorrhizal fungi and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi), raising the possibility that dual associations with both mycorrh...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · May 22

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
Been looking at the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Gigaspora margarita this week. Not only does it form ENORMOUS spores, but also bunches of knobbly 'auxiliary cells'.
Can't find a description of auxiliary cell function anywhere...does anyone know what they do?
#mycosci #fungi

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Reposted by Jen McGaley

Thomas Irving @endosymb.bsky.social · May 9

Sharing some of my own #mycorrhiza #microscopy from @paszkowskilab.bsky.social

Rhizophagus irregularis inside a rice lateral root (plant & fungal CWs stained with calcofluor white, 400x mag)

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · May 8

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
Some chunky hyphae and arbuscules of the mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis, running along the length of a rice root. Coloured by depth in the root.
#mycosky #fungi #microscopy

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Jen McGaley @jenmcgaley.bsky.social · Apr 16

Mid-week #mycorrhiza 🍄
Roots are busy places... here's a rice root packed with mycorrhizal fungal arbuscules 🔬

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Reposted by Jen McGaley

Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) @spun.earth · Apr 11

Good news for fungal networks in Europe as the EU moves towards healthier soils.

The Soil Monitoring Law will pave the way for healthier soils that benefit us, and our environment: buff.ly/SodAQYg

Protect soils.
Protect the Underground.

📷 Seth Carnill and Quentin van den Bossche

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