Fantin Mesny
@mesny.bsky.social
Post-doctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Marcel van der Heijden (University of Zürich, Switzerland).
Fungal biology | Soil & plant microbiota | Ecology & evolution | Plant-microbe-microbe interactions | Genomics | ...
Fungal biology | Soil & plant microbiota | Ecology & evolution | Plant-microbe-microbe interactions | Genomics | ...
Pinned
Fantin Mesny
@mesny.bsky.social
· Aug 15
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
📣 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
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
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
Still using 16S/ITS profiling? You might want to reconsider👀
Our new paper presents pangenome-informed amplicons that provide up to 10× higher phylogenetic resolution than full-length ribosomal markers- while remaining cost effective and scalable!
microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Our new paper presents pangenome-informed amplicons that provide up to 10× higher phylogenetic resolution than full-length ribosomal markers- while remaining cost effective and scalable!
microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
High-resolution profiling of bacterial and fungal communities using pangenome-informed taxon-specific long-read amplicons - Microbiome
Background High-throughput sequencing technologies have greatly advanced our understanding of microbiomes, but resolving microbial communities at species and strain levels remains challenging. Results...
microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Still using 16S/ITS profiling? You might want to reconsider👀
Our new paper presents pangenome-informed amplicons that provide up to 10× higher phylogenetic resolution than full-length ribosomal markers- while remaining cost effective and scalable!
microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Our new paper presents pangenome-informed amplicons that provide up to 10× higher phylogenetic resolution than full-length ribosomal markers- while remaining cost effective and scalable!
microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
📣 Now announcing the journal publication 📄 of our work in @newphyt.bsky.social on how Verticillium undermines the plant's 🌱 "cry for help": terrific work by @antonkraege.bsky.social & @wolki95.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/nph....
Undermining the cry for help: the phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae secretes an antimicrobial effector protein to undermine host recruitment of antagonistic Pseudomonas bacteria
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...
doi.org
October 30, 2025 at 8:47 AM
📣 Now announcing the journal publication 📄 of our work in @newphyt.bsky.social on how Verticillium undermines the plant's 🌱 "cry for help": terrific work by @antonkraege.bsky.social & @wolki95.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/nph....
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
Apple is entering the protein folding arena.
SimpleFold: Folding Proteins is Simpler than You Think arxiv.org/abs/2509.18480 🧬🖥️🧪 github.com/apple/ml-sim...
SimpleFold: Folding Proteins is Simpler than You Think arxiv.org/abs/2509.18480 🧬🖥️🧪 github.com/apple/ml-sim...
September 25, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Apple is entering the protein folding arena.
SimpleFold: Folding Proteins is Simpler than You Think arxiv.org/abs/2509.18480 🧬🖥️🧪 github.com/apple/ml-sim...
SimpleFold: Folding Proteins is Simpler than You Think arxiv.org/abs/2509.18480 🧬🖥️🧪 github.com/apple/ml-sim...
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
Given the tremendous diversity of microorganisms in the world, why do only a small fraction cause disease?
My essay in #PLOSBiology argues that the answer is lack of opportunity and that humans encounter only one new bacterial pathogen for every 1.4b years lived.
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
My essay in #PLOSBiology argues that the answer is lack of opportunity and that humans encounter only one new bacterial pathogen for every 1.4b years lived.
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Why are there so few pathogens? Ecology and evolution in pathogen emergence
Why are there so few pathogens, and what determines their emergence? This Perspective argues that ecological and evolutionary forces (host availability, geographic exposure and microbial innovation) w...
journals.plos.org
August 21, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Given the tremendous diversity of microorganisms in the world, why do only a small fraction cause disease?
My essay in #PLOSBiology argues that the answer is lack of opportunity and that humans encounter only one new bacterial pathogen for every 1.4b years lived.
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
My essay in #PLOSBiology argues that the answer is lack of opportunity and that humans encounter only one new bacterial pathogen for every 1.4b years lived.
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
Could humans and AI one day form a single “evolutionary individual”? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology raise this question in a new publication exploring human–AI interdependence.
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3836073/news...
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3836073/news...
September 11, 2025 at 6:56 AM
Could humans and AI one day form a single “evolutionary individual”? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology raise this question in a new publication exploring human–AI interdependence.
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3836073/news...
www.evolbio.mpg.de/3836073/news...
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
🚨 New pre-print from the lab! We performed a large-scale meta-analysis of the uncultured gut #microbiome in >10,000 metagenomes enabling us to identify a new candidate biomarker of health. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Meta-analysis of the uncultured gut microbiome across 11,115 global metagenomes reveals a new candidate biomarker of health
The human gut microbiome plays an important biological role in host health, yet over 60% of gut species remain uncultured and hence inaccessible to experimental manipulation. Here we analysed 11,115 h...
www.biorxiv.org
September 10, 2025 at 11:44 AM
🚨 New pre-print from the lab! We performed a large-scale meta-analysis of the uncultured gut #microbiome in >10,000 metagenomes enabling us to identify a new candidate biomarker of health. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
Reproduction in ants 🐜 just keeps blowing my mind 🤯
But this here is the crown for sure... for now.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
(go also check out obligate chimerism, social chromosomes, clonal production of females and males, and much more...)
But this here is the crown for sure... for now.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
(go also check out obligate chimerism, social chromosomes, clonal production of females and males, and much more...)
One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature
In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...
www.nature.com
September 3, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Reproduction in ants 🐜 just keeps blowing my mind 🤯
But this here is the crown for sure... for now.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
(go also check out obligate chimerism, social chromosomes, clonal production of females and males, and much more...)
But this here is the crown for sure... for now.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
(go also check out obligate chimerism, social chromosomes, clonal production of females and males, and much more...)
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
🌎👩🔬 For 15+ years biology has accumulated petabytes (million gigabytes) of🧬DNA sequencing data🧬 from the far reaches of our planet.🦠🍄🌵
Logan now democratizes efficient access to the world’s most comprehensive genetics dataset. Free and open.
doi.org/10.1101/2024...
Logan now democratizes efficient access to the world’s most comprehensive genetics dataset. Free and open.
doi.org/10.1101/2024...
September 3, 2025 at 8:39 AM
🌎👩🔬 For 15+ years biology has accumulated petabytes (million gigabytes) of🧬DNA sequencing data🧬 from the far reaches of our planet.🦠🍄🌵
Logan now democratizes efficient access to the world’s most comprehensive genetics dataset. Free and open.
doi.org/10.1101/2024...
Logan now democratizes efficient access to the world’s most comprehensive genetics dataset. Free and open.
doi.org/10.1101/2024...
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
Super excited to share that my PhD research paper is finally out!
@newphyt.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/nph....
@parkergroup.bsky.social
@newphyt.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/nph....
@parkergroup.bsky.social
Cooperation between a root fungal endophyte and host‐derived coumarin scopoletin mediates Arabidopsis iron nutrition
Iron acquisition is a critical challenge for plants, especially in iron-deficient soils. Recent research underscores the importance of root-exuded coumarins in modulating the root microbiome communi.....
doi.org
August 21, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Super excited to share that my PhD research paper is finally out!
@newphyt.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/nph....
@parkergroup.bsky.social
@newphyt.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/nph....
@parkergroup.bsky.social
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
"We show that unrelated proteins have a universal tendency towards convergent evolution of secondary and tertiary motifs, causing an excess of high-scoring FP alignment... previous methods routinely overestimate significance by up to six orders of magnitude."
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Protein structure alignment significance is often exaggerated
Machine learning has generated millions of high-quality predicted protein structures, creating a need for computationally efficient structure search algorithms and robust estimates of statistical sign...
www.biorxiv.org
August 17, 2025 at 10:53 PM
"We show that unrelated proteins have a universal tendency towards convergent evolution of secondary and tertiary motifs, causing an excess of high-scoring FP alignment... previous methods routinely overestimate significance by up to six orders of magnitude."
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
📣 Massively proud of this ⬇️ great study, led by the brilliant @mesny.bsky.social surprisingly uncovering that many pathogen effectors stem from ancient antimicrobials 🤯 #EffectorWisdom #EvoMPMI
📣 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
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
August 15, 2025 at 7:58 AM
📣 Massively proud of this ⬇️ great study, led by the brilliant @mesny.bsky.social surprisingly uncovering that many pathogen effectors stem from ancient antimicrobials 🤯 #EffectorWisdom #EvoMPMI
📣 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
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
August 15, 2025 at 7:47 AM
📣 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
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
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
📣 Happy to see the journal publication 📄 of our work on Starships 🚀 in Verticillium fungi: terrific work led by @yukiyosato.bsky.social
rdcu.be/exBSp
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
July 24, 2025 at 10:40 AM
📣 Happy to see the journal publication 📄 of our work on Starships 🚀 in Verticillium fungi: terrific work led by @yukiyosato.bsky.social
rdcu.be/exBSp
rdcu.be/exBSp
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 🧵 ⬇️
A thread 🧵 ⬇️
July 20, 2025 at 3:43 PM
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 🧵 ⬇️
A thread 🧵 ⬇️
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
Our paper is now online in Science Advances! Congrats @saskiahogenhout.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social and all coauthors!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Aphid effectors suppress plant immunity via recruiting defense proteins to processing bodies
Aphids hijack plant immunity via p-bodies, but plants fight back with a heat shock protein in an unexpected twist on defense.
www.science.org
July 17, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Our paper is now online in Science Advances! Congrats @saskiahogenhout.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social and all coauthors!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
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
July 17, 2025 at 4:43 PM
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
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
#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.
July 16, 2025 at 8:49 AM
#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.
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.
More research by @teamthomma.bsky.social at P-091, P-170, P-299, P-317, P-337 and P-388.
July 16, 2025 at 6:27 AM
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.
More research by @teamthomma.bsky.social at P-091, P-170, P-299, P-317, P-337 and P-388.
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
🧪⚔️ 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
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
July 14, 2025 at 2:39 PM
🧪⚔️ 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
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
Happy to be back in Cologne for #2025ISMPMI !
July 13, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Happy to be back in Cologne for #2025ISMPMI !
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
Hot off the printer!
Our lab will be introducing PHYTOMap to the MPMI community. Interested in spatially mapping both microbiomes and plant gene expression? Come see our posters at #2025ISMPMI
P-315 by @siyusong.bsky.social
P-441 by @hsuanpai.bsky.social
Our lab will be introducing PHYTOMap to the MPMI community. Interested in spatially mapping both microbiomes and plant gene expression? Come see our posters at #2025ISMPMI
P-315 by @siyusong.bsky.social
P-441 by @hsuanpai.bsky.social
July 7, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Hot off the printer!
Our lab will be introducing PHYTOMap to the MPMI community. Interested in spatially mapping both microbiomes and plant gene expression? Come see our posters at #2025ISMPMI
P-315 by @siyusong.bsky.social
P-441 by @hsuanpai.bsky.social
Our lab will be introducing PHYTOMap to the MPMI community. Interested in spatially mapping both microbiomes and plant gene expression? Come see our posters at #2025ISMPMI
P-315 by @siyusong.bsky.social
P-441 by @hsuanpai.bsky.social
The Swiss Mycology Symposium is getting started at @wslresearch.bsky.social in Birmensdorf!
June 27, 2025 at 7:34 AM
The Swiss Mycology Symposium is getting started at @wslresearch.bsky.social in Birmensdorf!
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
We are excited to share our new story with you! We show how losing a binding domain can flip an antimicrobial fungal effector into a host immune suppressor, highlighting functional specialization along the saprotrophy-to-symbiosis continuum. Read more: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
June 20, 2025 at 5:25 PM
We are excited to share our new story with you! We show how losing a binding domain can flip an antimicrobial fungal effector into a host immune suppressor, highlighting functional specialization along the saprotrophy-to-symbiosis continuum. Read more: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
Last week, our latest @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint was released, a joint-venture of @antonkraege.bsky.social & @wolki95.bsky.social and co-directed by @nicksnelders.bsky.social a 🧵
Undermining the cry for help: The phytopathogenic fungus Verticillium dahliae secretes an antimicrobial effector protein to undermine host recruitment of antagonistic Pseudomonas bacteria https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.09.658588v1
June 16, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Last week, our latest @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint was released, a joint-venture of @antonkraege.bsky.social & @wolki95.bsky.social and co-directed by @nicksnelders.bsky.social a 🧵
Reposted by Fantin Mesny
Happy to share our work on a recombinant interspecific smut hybrid of two fungal maize pathogens which helped us to understand how the regulation of effector genes determines infection style and tumor formation. Thanks to Gunther Doehlemann, Weiliang Zuo & Tom Winkler!
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
www.cell.com
June 15, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Happy to share our work on a recombinant interspecific smut hybrid of two fungal maize pathogens which helped us to understand how the regulation of effector genes determines infection style and tumor formation. Thanks to Gunther Doehlemann, Weiliang Zuo & Tom Winkler!
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
www.cell.com/cell-reports...