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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

PlantEvolution 🌱🌾 @plantevolution.bsky.social · 1d

Game changer for cell-based plant genetics: the labs of Caixia Gao & Jin-Long Qiu have developed very efficient self-replicating vectors and they just published a very nice proof-of-concept paper.
#plantscience
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

Oliver Bossdorf @bossdorf.bsky.social · 2d

JOB ALERT! Do you also love large ecological experiments? Become coordinator of our big new geo-biosphere experiment in @terra-cluster.org. 7-year position! Follow link for details.
@gfoesoc.bsky.social
@britishecologicalsociety.org
@ecologicalsociety.bsky.social
@uslter.bsky.social

Please repost!

Stellenangebote: Universität Hohenheim

Aktuelle Stellenangebote der Universität Hohenheim.

www.uni-hohenheim.de

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

GeminiTeamLab @geminiteamlab.bsky.social · 5d

How do geminiviruses maximize their limited coding capacity? Our recent preprint uncovers splicing of viral transcripts as one more strategy used by this viral family. We show that RNA splicing is prevalent in the geminivirus TYLCV — and required for infectivity! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Pervasive splicing in a plant DNA virus

Viruses maximize their limited coding space through strategies that increase transcript and protein diversity. In mammalian viruses, splicing is a well-established mechanism for proteome expansion, ye...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

ZMBP @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social · 6d

Have you noticed someone new here? 👇
Welcome @mpcontreras.bsky.social, our new junior group leader at the ZMBP!
#newPI #plantscience #MPMI

Isabel Monte @isabelmonte.bsky.social · 6d

Thanks Sebastian @pfeilmeier.bsky.social for coming to the @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social for a #TRR356 seminar. We have all enjoyed discussing with you about #MPMI, Xanthomonas, hydathodes and more!

Three ZMBP junior PIs (Mau, Margot and Isa) and Sebastian sitting in a bar with some empty glasses

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

Yasin Dagdas @plantophagy.bsky.social · 13d

Dear @dfg.de & @erc.europa.eu Why don't you do the same? What's stopping us from adopting this model to all tax-payer funded research in Europe? journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

ZMBP @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social · 29d

📢 Job alert! #PlantSciJob
We are opening a Professorship (W1-TT) in Plant Biochemistry at the ZMBP @unituebingen.bsky.social
Apply by October 17th

Please spread the word!

More info 👇
uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/...

Open Professorship (W1-TT) at the ZMBP, University of Tübingen (Germany). Deadline October 17th. More info: https://uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche-fakultaet/fachbereiche/zentren/zentrum-fuer-molekularbiologie-der-pflanzen/zmbp/job-opportunities/#c12494

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Mauricio Contreras @mpcontreras.bsky.social · 29d

Some of the first reviews are now online! @benkoch96.bsky.social, @gene-boy.bsky.social, Amal, @yusugihara.bsky.social, Love and myself reviewed this super impressive preprint by Puccetti et al. from Daniel Croll's lab! See our review in the link below 👇
prereview.org/reviews/1707...

PREreview of “A pangenomics-enabled platform for the high-throughput discovery of antifungal resistance factors in crop pathogens”

Authored by Benjamin Koch, Yordan Dolaptchiev, Mauricio P. Contreras, Yu Sugihara, Love Odunlami, and 1 other author of TSL Preprint Club

prereview.org

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

The Sainsbury Laboratory @thesainsburylab.bsky.social · Sep 5

Another Preprint Pizza Party has come and passed!

Students, postdocs and RAs from TSL and @johninnescentre.bsky.social gathered to discuss and review recent @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social articles 📝
Pizza kept the spirits high during this challenging task 🍕

#PreprintCommentClub #PreprintPizzaParty

About twenty people are gathered around five tables, discussing about biorxiv preprints

Six people with their laptops are sitting around a table and discussing.

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · Sep 7

BIK1-RIN4 complex links plant immunity and pathogen virulence https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.03.673898v1

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · Sep 5

Amazing #CelebratingAlumni news this week (Thread)

(1/3) Clemence Marchal @ClemMarchal received an @ERC_Research Starting Grant -- CooPAIRation "Optimised plant immune receptor pairs" erc.europa.eu/news-events/...

The ERC awards €761m to the next generation of scientists in Europe

The European Research Council (ERC) has selected 478 early-career researchers across Europe to receive this year’s Starting Grants. With a total funding of €761 million, these grants support excellent...

erc.europa.eu

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

Universität Tübingen @unituebingen.bsky.social · Sep 4

Dr. Joel Frohlich vom fMEG-Zentrum der Medizinischen Fakultät und Dr. Clémence Marchal vom @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social haben jeweils einen Starting Grant des @erc.europa.eu eingeworben! Herzlichen Glückwunsch! 👏 Mehr Infos: 👉 uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet... #ERCStartingGrants #Molekularbiologie

Text auf rotem Hintergrund: 'Zwei neue Starting Grants in der Medizin und der Pflanzenforschung. Hochdotierte Projektförderungen für Dr. Joel Frohlich und Dr. Clémence Marchal'. Darüber Porträtfotos von Dr. Joel Frohlich und Dr. Clémence Marchal.

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Mauricio Contreras @mpcontreras.bsky.social · Sep 5

I'm going to miss my Norwich family to bits 🥲💔. Sad to leave but excited for what lies ahead for the Contreras lab at @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social!

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Mauricio Contreras @mpcontreras.bsky.social · Sep 5

Can't believe my
@thesainsburylab.bsky.social chapter is coming to an end! Feels like only yesterday I was starting my predoc with @kamounlab.bsky.social 🥲 Learned so much from several generations of TSL scientists, made some discoveries and a lot of friends! Time flies when you're having fun...

Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · Sep 4

It’s essentialy a week of festivities to bid San Mau @mpcontreras.bsky.social farewell after 7+ incredible amazing years! Work hard, play hard…

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · Aug 11

We just published: Why you should sequence your plasmids (and how to do it for free)

Through @GetGenome scientists in 100 countries can access free whole-plasmid sequencing —giving researchers the confidence to move their experiments forward.

medium.com/p/why-you-sh...

Why you should sequence your plasmids (and how to do it for free)

Through GetGenome, scientists in 100 countries can access free whole-plasmid sequencing — removing barriers, improving quality control…

medium.com

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · Aug 4

I just published: Data vs hypothesis driven research: the false dichotomy

This post is adapted from a talk I gave @plantae_org Find out more 👇
medium.com/p/data-vs-hy...

Data vs hypothesis driven research: the false dichotomy

This post is adapted from a talk I gave at the Plantae Presents webinar More Money, More Data: Data-Driven versus Hypothesis-Driven…

medium.com

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

Tera Levin @teralevin.bsky.social · Aug 5

I'm excited to announce our new biorxiv preprint, wherein we investigate the evolution of the weirdest genetic locus I've ever seen! Behold the tgr genes of the social amoeba, which mediate self/non-self discrimination during facultative multicellularity 🐅 🧵 1/
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Hypermutable hotspot enables the rapid evolution of self/non-self recognition genes in Dictyostelium

Cells require highly polymorphic receptors to perform accurate self/non-self recognition. In the amoeba Dicytostelium discoideum, polymorphic TgrB1 & TgrC1 proteins are used to bind sister cells and e...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

PlantEvolution 🌱🌾 @plantevolution.bsky.social · Aug 2

1/3 New preprint led by Shanshan Wang, in collaboration with the Timmermans lab.

Several groups have presented sc/snRNA-seq analyses of Arabidopsis leaves after bacterial infection before. Is there anything left to discover? Turns out: Yes.

#plantscience
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

pfeilmeier.bsky.social @pfeilmeier.bsky.social · Jul 29

Finally a method to identify plant RNA-binding proteins! 🧬 This enables so much new biology to discover from immunity to development! 🤯 🪴 Established by the incredible Victor Sanchez with @havandenburg.bsky.social @uva.nl Congratulations!!

bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · Jul 29

Protocol for capturing the RNA-binding proteome from plants using orthogonal organic phase separation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.29.667348v1

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

AmirAli Toghani @amiralito.bsky.social · May 9

Happy to share that our Helixer deeplearning-based annotation of 230 superasterid genomes is now online on
@datadryad.bsky.social
💻🌱

doi.org/10.5061/drya...

Check out how we used 69 of them to study the molecular evolution of a plant immune receptor network here! 👇

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

bioRxiv Plant Bio @biorxiv-plants.bsky.social · Jul 21

A conserved small RNA-generating gene cluster undergoes sequence diversification and contributes to plant immunity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.20.665670v1

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · Jul 21

I just published: Stop displaying journal names on your slides

A mentoring event at a Congress called for better support of early-career scientists - but what followed sent mixed signals. This blog reflects on those moments and ends with a pledge.

medium.com/p/stop-displ...

Stop displaying journal names on your slides

A mentoring event at a scientific Congress called for better support of early-career scientists — but what followed sent mixed signals…

medium.com

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

Sam Mugford @samtmugford.bsky.social · Jul 20

Anyone at #2025ISMPMI who didn't like my confocal microscopy, here's your chance to come and teach me how to do it better. I think you'll like the amazing team and kit.

John Innes Centre @johninnescentre.bsky.social · Jul 15

VACANCY - We’re seeking an Optical Microscopy Support Specialist to join our Bioimaging Platform, to help train users on light microscopes, collaborate on imaging projects and provide technical support.

www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/op...

Closing date - 11 August 2025
Contract - Full time, indefinite

Optical Microscopy Support Specialist | John Innes Centre

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an Optical Microscopy Support Specialist to join the Bioimaging Platform at the John Innes Centre.

www.jic.ac.uk

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

Margot Smit @likeyoda1.bsky.social · Jul 17

Less than a week left to apply! 🌱💚

Margot Smit @likeyoda1.bsky.social · Jun 5

We're looking for a new PhD candidate to join the lab. Please share 🌱😄

A PhD position (initially 3 years) is available in our laboratory in the Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP), at the University of Tübingen (Germany). The position is available with an intended start date starting January 2026.
Interested applicants should submit a single PDF comprising a motivation letter describing your research interests, an up-to-date CV, and the names and contact information for 2 references to timing.lab@zmbp.uni-tuebingen.de ideally before July 21st.

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Reposted by Mauricio Contreras

Jogi Madhuprakash @jmadhuprakash.bsky.social · Jul 16

🚨 New @biorxivpreprint alert! 🚨
We are thrilled to share our latest findings—building on our earlier work on suppressors of helper NLRs of the NRC family—a Phytophthora infestans L-shaped effector captures resistosome assembly intermediates of tomato NRC3!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/10

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Saskia Hogenhout @saskiahogenhout.bsky.social · Jul 16

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

Effector Innovation in Genome-Reduced Phytoplasmas and Other Host-Dependent Mollicutes

Obligate host-associated bacteria with reduced genomes, such as phytoplasmas, face strong evolutionary constraints, including metabolic dependence on hosts, limited horizontal gene transfer (HGT), and...

www.biorxiv.org

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