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Reposted by Stéphane Hacquard

Clémence Marchal @clemmar.bsky.social · Sep 4

Super excited and honoured to have been awarded an ERC Starting Grant for CooPAIRation!

How do plant immune receptors work together to trigger an immune response? Can we modulate immune responses for disease resistance? We will tackle these questions in CooPAIRation

Positions to be announced soon!

European Research Council (ERC) @erc.europa.eu · Sep 4

📣 The ERC Starting Grant call results are out!

Find out which early-career researchers will receive funding this year, what they will be investigating, where they will be based... plus lots of other #ERCStG facts & figures for 2025!

➡️ buff.ly/IsafuFh

#FrontierResearch 🇪🇺#EUfunded #HorizonEurope

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Fantin Mesny @mesny.bsky.social · Aug 15

📣 NEW PREPRINT 📝

We identified evolutionary origins of many fungal effectors!
We show that fungi secrete lots of antimicrobial proteins, and that some of them were repurposed by plant pathogens for host immune suppression.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

cc @teamthomma.bsky.social

Plant-associated fungi co-opt ancient antimicrobials for host manipulation

Evolutionary histories of effector proteins secreted by fungal pathogens to mediate plant colonization remain largely elusive. While most functionally characterized effectors modulate plant immunity, ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Fantin Mesny @mesny.bsky.social · Jul 20

Coming back from 5 days of great science at #2025ISMPMI, I wanted to share some of my highlights, and particularly to mention my favourite presentations by early career researchers.

A thread 🧵 ⬇️

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Kenichi Tsuda @kenichitsuda.bsky.social · Jul 18

I'm very happy that this paper is now published in PNAS!

Isochorismate-based salicylic acid biosynthesis appears to have emerged in the Brassicales after the divergence of C. papaya, likely within the timeframe between the divergence of B. maritima and R. odorata.

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

Emergence of isochorismate-based salicylic acid biosynthesis within Brassicales | PNAS

Salicylic acid (SA) is a major defense phytohormone. In Arabidopsis thaliana, the isochorismate (IC) pathway is the primary route for pathogen-indu...

www.pnas.org

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kathywippel.bsky.social @kathywippel.bsky.social · Jul 16

Our paper on Pseudomonas intra-genus competition in SynComs on Arabidopsis roots is now out @plosbiology.org ! 🎉
If you want to chat about the story, visit poster 374 tomorrow, Thursday #2025ISMPMI

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Pseudomonas intra-genus competition determines the protective function of synthetic bacterial communities in Arabidopsis thaliana

The plant microbiome can protect its host against detrimental bacterial strains. This study shows that competition among Pseudomonas bacteria in synthetic bacterial communities determines how well the...

journals.plos.org

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Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research @mpipz.bsky.social · May 14

Celebrating a new PhD at @mpipz.bsky.social! 🎓 Dr. Ram Sevak Raja Kumar defended her thesis in @hacquardst.bsky.social’s lab. Congrats, and all the best for what’s next! 🌟 #PhDone #PlantScience

The post shows a picture of Ram after successfully passing her viva on a green background with words congratulating him on acquiring the PhD title.

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Stéphane Hacquard @hacquardst.bsky.social · Apr 15

Thanks Ute!

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Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research @mpipz.bsky.social · Apr 10

📣Paper Alert! 📣New publication out by @hacquardst.bsky.social and his team on the development of MetaFlowTrain – a new tool to study metabolic exchange and interactions within microbial communities @naturecomms.bsky.social 👏🥳Congratulations! 👉https://bit.ly/44jnM1H
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

MetaFlowTrain: a highly parallelized and modular fluidic system for studying exometabolite-mediated inter-organismal interactions - Nature Communications

Metabolic interactions shape ecosystems but remain hard to study. Here, authors present MetaFlowTrain, a modular, low-cost fluidic system controlling metabolic fluxes between microbes, and show its va...

www.nature.com

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Apr 11

Very clever design and nicely presented. 👍

Guillaume Chesneau @chesneau-g.bsky.social · Apr 11

🚨Excited to share our new publication! MetaFlowTrain, a highly parallelized and modular fluidic system to study exometabolite interactions between microbes-microbes-plants 🌱
@hacquardst.bsky.social @herpell.bsky.social S.Wolf S.Perin @mpipz.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNUf...
🧵Thread 5/5:

MetaFlowTrain : A Highly-Parallelized and Modular Fluidic System.

YouTube video by Guillaume Chesneau

www.youtube.com

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Stéphane Hacquard @hacquardst.bsky.social · Apr 12

Thanks very much Johana!

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Eva Stukenbrock @estukenbrock.bsky.social · Apr 11

New post doc opportunity in our team at Kiel University in the north of Germany. We are looking for a motivated molecular biologists to unravel plant-microbe interactions in grasses. Please see: www.uni-kiel.de/personal/de/...

More to our research and group here: www.environmental-genomics.de

Aktuelle Ausschreibungen

www.uni-kiel.de

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Emily White @emily-white.bsky.social · Apr 11

Come and work with me!

The Nature Micro team is expanding and we're looking for someone to champion microbial ecology, plant micro & related areas for the journal

Knowledge of microbial ecology/plant micro is desirable but we're open to applications from all microbiologists

Link below 👇

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Apr 11

📢We are #hiring a full time editor to handle areas including microbial ecology & plant microbiology🦠🌱

This position will work closely with @naturecomms.bsky.social

#microsky #microbiomesky #ecologysky 🧪

Available in NYC, Madrid, or other US offices

Read more & apply here: shorturl.at/yvdYJ

Associate or Senior Editor (Nature Microbiology), Nature Communications

Title: Associate or Senior Editor (Nature Microbiology), Nature Communications Organisation: Nature Portfolio Locations: New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Jersey City or Madrid – hybrid working m...

springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com

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Johannes Herpell @herpell.bsky.social · Apr 11

Would you like to study metabolite-based microbe-microbe or plant-microbe interactions but do not have the tools to?
@chesneau-g.bsky.social came up with a simple solution with great potential! Check out our new publication in @naturecomms.bsky.social and Guillaume’s 🧵 below for details👇

Guillaume Chesneau @chesneau-g.bsky.social · Apr 11

🚨Excited to share our new publication! MetaFlowTrain, a highly parallelized and modular fluidic system to study exometabolite interactions between microbes-microbes-plants 🌱
@hacquardst.bsky.social @herpell.bsky.social S.Wolf S.Perin @mpipz.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNUf...
🧵Thread 5/5:

MetaFlowTrain : A Highly-Parallelized and Modular Fluidic System.

YouTube video by Guillaume Chesneau

www.youtube.com

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Guillaume Chesneau @chesneau-g.bsky.social · Apr 11

5/5. MetaFlowTrain confirms that specific bacterial exometabolites, not media depletion, drive microbial antagonism.
🦠 Pseudomonas R401 WT suppresses SynCom growth via known inhibitory exometabolites.
❌ A triple mutant loses inhibitory power.

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Guillaume Chesneau @chesneau-g.bsky.social · Apr 11

4/5. MetaFlowTrain dissects inter-kingdom microbial interactions via directional exometabolite flow.
🦠 Bacterial SynComs strongly inhibit fungal growth, even without physical contact.
🚫 Up to 82% growth suppression via exometabolites.

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Guillaume Chesneau @chesneau-g.bsky.social · Apr 11

3/5. MetaFlowTrain reveals how soil conditioning alters microbial assembly/exometabolite output.
🦠 SynComs exposed to plant-conditioned peat undergo major community shifts & consume key metabolites (α-KG, fumarate).
🌱 BF SynCom-derived exometabolites impact Arabidopsis germination & root growth.

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Guillaume Chesneau @chesneau-g.bsky.social · Apr 11

2/5. MetaFlowTrain cultivates diverse microbes & collects their exometabolites under continuous nutrient flow.
🌱 Using sterile peat extract, we grew 11 bacterial & 4 fungal strains from the Arabidopsis root microbiota.
💥 Exometabolite profiles differed significantly by strain.

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Guillaume Chesneau @chesneau-g.bsky.social · Apr 11

📝 Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
1/5. 🚂 MetaFlowTrain = 4 modular components:
a. Variety of liquid inputs
b. 24-channel pump enabling parallel metabolic trains
c. 3D-printed gnotobiotic microchambers
d. Multi-layered outputs for cell/metabolite analysis
🔗 protocols.io/view/36wgqd68ovk5/v3

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Guillaume Chesneau @chesneau-g.bsky.social · Apr 11

🚨Excited to share our new publication! MetaFlowTrain, a highly parallelized and modular fluidic system to study exometabolite interactions between microbes-microbes-plants 🌱
@hacquardst.bsky.social @herpell.bsky.social S.Wolf S.Perin @mpipz.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNUf...
🧵Thread 5/5:

MetaFlowTrain : A Highly-Parallelized and Modular Fluidic System.

YouTube video by Guillaume Chesneau

www.youtube.com

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Stéphane Hacquard @hacquardst.bsky.social · Apr 11

Hi Ken! Thanks!!!

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Stéphane Hacquard @hacquardst.bsky.social · Apr 10

Thanks! Let’s hope this system will be useful to the community.

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Stéphane Hacquard @hacquardst.bsky.social · Apr 10

🙏🙏🙏

Stéphane Hacquard @hacquardst.bsky.social · Apr 10

Thanks! We will be happy to help you to set it up.

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Stéphane Hacquard @hacquardst.bsky.social · Apr 10

Many thanks Fantin!!!

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Stéphane Hacquard @hacquardst.bsky.social · Apr 10

We present MetaFlowTrain, an easy-to-build, highly parallelized, and cost-effective fluidic system for studying microbial exometabolites and their roles in modulating microbe–microbe–host interactions. Kudos to @chesneau-g.bsky.social @mpipz.bsky.social
Give it a try: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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