Research Associate: Plant-fungal interactions

An investigation of plant receptor-like kinases identifies regions of these proteins that control whether immune or symbiotic signalling pathways are activated, with minimal changes to specific r...

The Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS) is looking for an Editor-in-Chief to join its prestigious journal FEMS Microbiology Reviews for an initial period of three years, starting i...

Bierenbroodspot et al. use phylogenomic analyses to study Coleochaetophyceae, phragmoplastophytic streptophyte algae that are well-known for their complex bodies. They trace that the famous discoidal ...

Symbioses have been fundamental to colonization of terrestrial ecosystems by plants and their evolution. Emergence of the ancient arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis was followed by the diversification of alternative intracellular symbioses, such as the ericoid mycorrhizae (ErM). We aimed at understanding how these diversifications occurred. We sequenced the genomes of ErM-forming liverworts, and reconstituted symbiosis under laboratory conditions. We demonstrated the existence of a nutrient-regulated symbiotic state that enables ErM and underlies intracellular colonization of plant tissues. Comparative transcriptomic analyses identified an ancestral gene module associated with intracellular symbiosis beyond ErM. Genetic manipulations in the liverwort Marchantia paleacea, phylogenetics and transactivation assays demonstrated its essential function for intracellular symbiosis. We conclude that plant have maintained, and convergently recruited, an ancestral gene module for intracellular symbioses.

Aktuelle Ausschreibungen

Background High-throughput sequencing technologies have greatly advanced our understanding of microbiomes, but resolving microbial communities at species and strain levels remains challenging. Results...

The evolutionary diversification of an exocyst subunit was enabled by electrostatic shifts leading to its dissociation from the ancestral complex.

During pathogen attack, plants recruit beneficial microbes in a ‘cry for help’ to mitigate disease development. Simultaneously, pathogens secrete effectors to promote host colonisation through vario...

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Parasitic plants rarely attack themselves, suggesting the existence of a kin-avoidance mechanism. In the root parasitic plant Phtheirospermum japonicum, prehaustorium formation is triggered by host-se...