Roeland Berendsen
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rlberendsen.bsky.social
Roeland Berendsen
@rlberendsen.bsky.social
Assistant Professor in the Plant-Microbe Interactions group at Utrecht University, Managing director of NPEC Utrecht, interested in the molecular mechanisms by which plants recruit beneficial microbes and shape their microbiome.
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
Super happy to have our work published in one of my favourite journals @newphyt.bsky.social Amazing effort by Jiayu Zhou and colleagues from @utrechtpmi.bsky.social and UvA. You can find it here: nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @cornepieterse.bsky.social
Arabidopsis root defense barriers support beneficial interactions with rhizobacterium Pseudomonas simiae WCS417
Plant roots interact with pathogenic and beneficial microbes in the soil. While root defense barriers block pathogens, their roles in facilitating beneficial plant–microbe associations are understud...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 8, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Really nice work from @jellespooren.bsky.social showing that disease-suppressive soils might sometimes be generated in the phyllosphere. Turning the concept of soilborne legacies upside down 🌱🦠 With @cornepieterse.bsky.social @svanwees.bsky.social and others @utrechtpmi.bsky.social
Proud to share our latest pre-print manuscript entitled 'Downy mildew disease-suppressive soils transmit a protective core microbiome to the phyllosphere' (lnkd.in/dBk28gnT). Super cool to see the final chapter of my PhD at the Plant-Microbe Interactions group of Universiteit Utrecht now online!
LinkedIn
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lnkd.in
June 18, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
One more week to apply for an open PhD position in my team at Utrecht University. Interested in genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, microorganisms and plant-microbiota interactions, don't hesitate and apply! www.uu.nl/en/organisat...
PhD Position on Decoding Plant Microbiota–Host Specificity Using AI
Join us to generate data and build AI-driven models to decode plant–microbiota host specificity!
www.uu.nl
June 6, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
Dive into the plant root microbiome with Dr. Ronnie de Jonge (Utrecht Uni).
His team uses high-dimensional ‘omics and AI to understand how plant roots recruit beneficial microbes.
Don’t miss his talk at #PPATH2025

buff.ly/mJsUvUO

#AIinBiology #PlantScience
April 23, 2025 at 4:07 PM
@y-song.bsky.social doing a great job at explaining the importance of the potato microbiome at the @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social microbiome day! Hoping the medical and veterinary microbiome scientists in the audience enjoy the change in perspective.
March 6, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
🔬 Exciting #JournalClub in our group today by @nielsaerts.bsky.social! We discussed the immense and multilayered complexity of hormonal cross-regulation in plant immunity, based on this preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... 🌿🧬A must-read for those fascinated by plant defense and signaling!
March 4, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
🚨 We’re hiring–please spread the word! 🚨 Our lab at @thesainsburylab.bsky.social is looking for a pre-doc intern to join our research on plant immunity. If you’re a current undergrad/master’s or recent graduate interested in gaining research experience, please apply! tatsuyanobori.com
March 3, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
@micropresearch.bsky.social starts the second phase in its journey to harness the plant microbiome for (a)biotic stress resilience. Stay tuned for PhD and Postdoc openings this spring! www.microp.org
Welcome Microp
www.microp.org
March 2, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
It's not just PubMed. All NCBI services are down. This includes:

- RefSeq
- NCBI Gene Database
- NCBI BLAST Server
- NCBI Entrez

If this becomes permanent (or if servers slow down), this is a debilitating blow to genome and genomics research.
March 2, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
Excited to share my postdoctoral work from Basel! We discovered a “microbiota receptor” in Arabidopsis that optimises plant immunity, the root microbiome composition, eventually leading to enhanced plant growth.
Preprint alert: Here we report MMF1 - "a microbiota receptor” - through which Arabidopsis plants perceive their soil microbiome. Perception optimises root microbiome composition, immune status and ultimately leads to better growth.

Happy reading...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A TNL receptor mediates microbiome feedbacks in Arabidopsis
Plant performance depends on the soil microbiome. While microbiome feedbacks are well documented, the mechanisms by which plants perceive and mediate these feedbacks remain unclear. We established a f...
www.biorxiv.org
February 27, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
Our newest research on plant-fungal trade published today in @nature.com.

The work, led by scientists from Vrije Universiteit, Princeton University, SPUN & AMOLF combines robotics, mycology & biophysics to reveal underground supply-chain dynamics.

Open access:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
February 26, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
📌Vacancy at the University of Amsterdam!
Join us at the Green Life Sciences with three open positions by my colleagues. 🌱🌻
1/3
PhD position on "Microbial Host Preference in Plant Stress Resilience" in the group of Dr. Kathrin Wippel: werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...
Vacancy — PhD Candidate Microbial Host Preference in Plant Stress Resilience
Are you an early-career researcher with a passion for plant science? Would you like to apply your enthusiasm to a highly relevant project in the field of plant-microbiome interactions? Then we have th...
werkenbij.uva.nl
February 24, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
the mycorrhizal highways moves in waves with trade interests at the forefront flowing dynamically in both ways within hyphae.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A travelling-wave strategy for plant–fungal trade - Nature
Symbiotic fungi control network-level structure and flows to meet trade demands.
www.nature.com
February 26, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
The European federation of Academies of Sciences has posted a statement of concern about the developments in the US. They now have added the option to endorse this statement as an organisation. Would be great if this could go viral. allea.org/portfolio-it...
ALLEA Statement on Threats to Academic Freedom and International Research Collaboration in the United States
allea.org
February 23, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
And folks warn that Chinese GenAI are a risk and manipulative.
grok 2 vs grok 3
February 21, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
Interesting journal club by @mpapadopoulou.bsky.social about www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Evidence for the promotion of specific microbial ecological clusters to increase soybean plant fitness in response to nutrient deficiency. Also interesting for microbiomes4soy.eu
February 18, 2025 at 10:46 AM
We continue to build the Plant Microbiome Starter Pack. Please let us know if you or others are missing! go.bsky.app/QG4wCyf
February 17, 2025 at 7:47 AM
🌱🔬 Exciting to see Yang Song explain our Nature Microbiology paper in this video! Her work shows how the microbiome of seed potatoes can predict plant growth potential—offering a new way to assess tuber quality before planting. Check it out here: www.microp.org/news/168/new...
New video: research highlights from Yang Song Microp
www.microp.org
February 12, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Roeland Berendsen
Great talk by Heribert Hert on microbiomes in relation to drought resistance, regreening strategies and the orphan crop Fonio microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
February 12, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Great line up before the PhD defense of @gijsselten.bsky.social: now Ruben Garrido-Oter on experimental evolution on the plant
February 5, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Maria Suarez Diez (WUR) about constraint-based modelling of SynComs: already complex with a SynCom of three!
February 5, 2025 at 10:43 AM