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Megan McDonald @mcdonaldmeganc.bsky.social · 20d

There are no words to describe how excited and honored I am to take on the role. Already had such amazing support from the plant pathology community in Switz and cannot wait to grow the team further and see how far we can get in tackling our fungal foes. Look out for jobs starting in May 2026!

Departement Umweltsystemwissenschaften (D-USYS), ETH Zürich @usyseth.bsky.social · 20d

We warmly welcome Dr. Megan McDonald as Associate Professor of Plant Disease Dynamics. Her research on fungal diseases in crops will strengthen our expertise and collaborations across plant sciences. 🌱

ETH Zurich @ethz.ch · 20d

At its meeting of 17 and 18 September 2025 and upon application of Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, the ETH Board appointed eight professors. The Board also awarded the title of "Professor of Practice" once.

More info:

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Peter Solomon @plantpathpete.bsky.social · Aug 20

Registrations are rolling in for the 2025 Stromlo Plant Pathology meeting in Canberra (Nov 27–28)! Secure your spot! Speakers: @yasukadota.bsky.social, Cecille Segonzac, @thamlab.bsky.social, @yichangsung.bsky.social, Tek Tay & @danielsyu.bsky.social. Register at tinyurl.com/3e3tx9j2
#strompath25

10th Stromlo Plant Pathology Conference | wheatbiosecurity

tinyurl.com

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Gitta Coaker @gittacoaker.bsky.social · Jul 29

Excited this paper is finally published! We focused on the inner concave surface of LRR RKs to expand bacterial flagellin perception in plants. Selection indicates expanded perception is more common than previously thought. Experiments led by @jerrytli.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Unlocking expanded flagellin perception through rational receptor engineering - Nature Plants

Receptor kinase FLS2 detects the flg22 epitope of bacterial flagellin. Here the authors identify key residues on FLS2’s concave surface that enable expanded perception of flg22 variants, allowing the ...

www.nature.com

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Team Thomma @teamthomma.bsky.social · Jul 24

📣 Happy to see the journal publication 📄 of our work on Starships 🚀 in Verticillium fungi: terrific work led by @yukiyosato.bsky.social
rdcu.be/exBSp

Starship giant transposons dominate plastic genomic regions in a fungal plant pathogen and drive virulence evolution

Nature Communications - Giant transposons, known as ‘Starships’, mediate horizontal gene transfer between fungal genomes. Here, Sato et al. show that Starships occupy genome regions...

rdcu.be

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Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · Jul 17

Going to a conference and hope someone posts about your talk? Make it easy for the posters!!

Tips:
1. Include your handle at beginning and end
2. Make clear what is published/not
3. Have a conclusions slide with key message
4. Highlight new preprint or publication if relevant

#AcademicSky 🦠🧪🧬

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Ksenia Krasileva @kseniakrasileva.bsky.social · Jul 17

«Nothing in plant-microbe interactions makes sense except in the light of microbe-microbe interactions » @teamthomma.bsky.social #2025ISMPMI

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Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · Jul 17

@teamthomma.bsky.social shares the story of how a Verticillium effector that impacts plant growth, actually targets other microbes, not the plant host itself.

Antimicrobial effectors have since been observed in many systems. Can we predict effectors with antimicrobial properties? Yes!
#2025ISMPMI

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Suayb Üstün @suaybuestuen.bsky.social · Jul 17

in the light of evolution it makes so much sense that effectors from pathogens have „ancesteral“ functions and „evolved“ further functions once plants „appeared“ - it‘s a great new concept by @teamthomma.bsky.social and thought-provoking 🤓 #2025ISMPMI

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Suayb Üstün @suaybuestuen.bsky.social · Jul 17

Great talk by @teamthomma.bsky.social who shows that effectors have antimicrobial activities that are ancesteral - other functions within the host have evolved later on to suppress immunity in plants #2025ISMPMI

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KC👨‍🔬🌾🍄🇦🇺 @karchuntan.bsky.social · Jul 17

@teamthomma.bsky.social - a new antimicrobial effector prediction tool is available. This will be useful #2025ISMPMI

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Liz Florez @lizflorez.bsky.social · Jul 17

Corné M.J. Pieterse speaking for all of us! #2025ISMPMI

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Environmental Genomics Lab @envgenlab.bsky.social · Jul 17

To wrap up…!
Why keep an effector the plant can recognize?
Our postdoc Liz Florez shows Z. tritici’s effector AvrStb6 shapes the wheat microbiome, esp. Pseudomonas spp., in susceptible cultivars. A hidden microbial modulation role beyond host recognition?
🗓️ Poster P-166
🔗 doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

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Environmental Genomics Lab @envgenlab.bsky.social · Jul 17

How does heat reshape plant immune responses?
Our PhD student Anica Schmauch shows higher temperatures boost ROS bursts in barley and potentially affect Z. passerinii growth, revealing abiotic-biotic cross-talk in disease resistance.
🗓️ Poster P-424
#2025ISMPMI

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Haileigh Patterson @haileighpatterson.bsky.social · Jul 16

Extremely honoured to be a #2025ISMPMI travel awardee this year, and to be able to present the results of my masters degree all the way from NZ! Come and see me at P-319 to learn about the bacterial microbiome of Actinidia (kiwifruit).

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Environmental Genomics Lab @envgenlab.bsky.social · Jul 16

What makes wild wheat resistant to domestic Zymoseptoria?
Our PhD student Rune Hansen found wild wheat relatives that stop infection by domestic Zymoseptoria at the stomata, with a pool of candidate genes that could potentially boost resistance in domestic wheat.
🗓️ Poster P-015
#2025ISMPMI

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Giuliana Hessler @giurassicpark.bsky.social · Jul 16

#2025ISMPMI my poster is up! If you are interested in how a family of plant endogenous peptides can act as both signaling and antimicrobial peptides, pass by my poster P-222 on Thursday afternoon.

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Fantin Mesny @mesny.bsky.social · Jul 16

My poster is up at #2025ISMPMI. Come by P-372 Thursday afternoon if you are interested in fungal evolution, effectors and microbial competitions!

More research by @teamthomma.bsky.social at P-091, P-170, P-299, P-317, P-337 and P-388.

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Dani Stevens, Ph.D. @danimstevens.bsky.social · Jul 15

#2025ISMPMI 📣 In silico screening of PRR-epitope interactions is now possible!

Here, we developed mamp-ml to predict their immunogenic outcomes without structural context. Let's accelerate engineering plant receptors for robust resistance! 🚀🌱 Small 🧵

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

mamp-ml: A deep learning approach to epitope immunogenicity in plants

Eukaryotes detect biomolecules through surface-localized receptors, key signaling components. A subset of receptors survey for pathogens, induce immunity, and restrict pathogen growth. Comparative gen...

www.biorxiv.org

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Léa Monge-Waleryszak @lwaleryszak.bsky.social · Jul 15

Are chromatin remodelling complexes targets of bacterial effectors PopP2 & XopJ6 ? Check out our work at #2025ISMPMI ! P-163 presented Wednesday afternoon by my amazing PhD supervisors Laurent Deslandes & Valerie Pacquit. @lipme-toulouse.bsky.social @ismpmi.bsky.social

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Liz Florez @lizflorez.bsky.social · Jul 15

Would have been great to see you too! 🥹 but I’ll pass by your poster for sure 😊

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Liz Florez @lizflorez.bsky.social · Jul 14

🧪⚔️ When a fungal effector tries to coexist with plant apoplastic bacteria

My poster’s not up until Thursday, but you can already check it out on Zenodo 👀
📎 zenodo.org/records/1585...

🧾 Poster P-166, Thur 17th, 1:30 pm
#2025ISMPMI

The fungal effector AvrStb6 regulates the wheat pathobiome

Zymoseptoria tritici, the causal agent of the foliar disease Septoria tritici blotch (STB), is a major wheat pathogen in Europe. Although several wheat resistance (R) genes have been identified, Z. tr...

zenodo.org

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Morgan Carter @morgancarterphd.bsky.social · Jul 14

@mcdonaldmeganc.bsky.social presents on the ToxB fungal effector. Pacbio long-read sequencing ~doubles detection of transposons compared to short-read. Helpful for finding where the multiple copies of ToxB -flanked by TEs- are throughout the genome. Sometimes in tandem copies! #2025ISMPMI

Scientific presentation with a PowerPoint slide showing a global map with sample locations and ToxB genotype

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Environmental Genomics Lab @envgenlab.bsky.social · Jul 14

🌿 Curious about microbiomes, effectors, resistance genes, and temperature stress?
Come meet our team at #2025ISMPMI
We’ll be presenting posters all week on Zymoseptoria–plant interactions, wild relatives, and immune manipulation!
🧵 Thread with posters & schedule ⬇️

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Environmental Genomics Lab @envgenlab.bsky.social · Jul 11

🌾🍄 The Environmental Genomics group (@estukenbrock.bsky.social lab) is excited to be at #2025ISMPMI! We’ll be sharing posters on plant resistance, host–microbe interactions, effector function and more! Stay tuned!

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Liz Florez @lizflorez.bsky.social · Jul 11

Just got my first request to review a manuscript 📄 from a decent journal (not one of the usual predatory ones). Turns out it’s never too late for new academic experiences! #DeepReadingMode #PostdocLife

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