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ECRs, one week to go! Please join us for an exciting event: The Sainsbury Laboratory Summer Conference in Plant-Microbe Interactions for Early Career Researchers 20th – 31st July 2026 Norwich, UK Application deadline: 12:00 BST (UTC +1) Monday 30th March 2026 www.tsl.ac.uk/tsl-summer-c...

As an emerging leader in plant innate immunity, we're thrilled to present Mauricio Contreras with a 2027 Early Career Research Award! Alongside advocating for Open Science and preprint review, Mauricio's "activation-and-release" and "NLR resurrection" models are already referenced worldwide.

Congratulations to Prof. Eva Stukenbrock on her appointment to the Leopoldina. Her research on fungal pathogens helps us better understand evolution and protect crops. www.evolbio.mpg.de/3882989/eva-... #EvolutionaryBiology #Leopoldina

📣Last week another @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social dropped: "A fungal pathogen effector that shapes host plant microbiota kills bacteria through lipoteichoic acid binding and membrane disruption" a joint effort by @nicksnelders.bsky.social & @gabriellapetti.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Plants thrive in complex and often hostile environments by continuously sensing and responding to a wide array of biotic and abiotic challenges. Central to this surveillance system are cell surface receptors, including receptor kinases and receptor proteins. Recent advances have revealed how these receptors not only recognize pathogen- and damage-associated molecular patterns but also perceive endogenous peptides and environmental signals. Importantly, emerging evidence highlights extensive crosstalk between immune and abiotic stress signaling, with shared components and co-regulatory mechanisms shaping an integrated response. In this review, we synthesize recent discoveries on the diverse roles of cell surface receptors in detecting external and internal signals, coordinating defense and stress tolerance, and balancing these processes with nutrient acquisition.

Johannes Debler from CCDM Perth delivered today a captivating talk on novel and mysterious nucleic acid elements identified in fungal plant pathogens. Cheers to one more "not-yet-known" 🧬🧬 @jwdebler.bsky.social @theccdm.bsky.social @curtinuniversity.bsky.social #GRDC #Transposon #Ascochyta

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. https://scim.ag/4tsDqRr

📢 EffectorGeneP is finally here! Stop missing small, single-exon or orphan genes from your favourite pathogen genome. Current tools only annotate 15%-78% of effector genes, EffectorGeneP finds 95% - including the large AvrSr26 family in stem rust. #Bioinformatics 📖 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#ISCLB2026 may not have made much noise on social media, but the science and discussions in person were outstanding. 🌾🧬 Grateful to everyone who shared their work on cereal disease & resistance, and for the opportunity to present mine. I’m leaving Banff with plenty of new ideas and inspiration. 😊