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faltegoer.bsky.social
Altegoerlab
@faltegoer.bsky.social
Group leader at Heinrich-Heine University | Exploring different aspects of fungal interactions | Passionate about Structural Biology | altegoerlab.de
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Excited to share our latest work, spearheaded by @gabmrojas.bsky.social!

GPCRs are central sensors in eukaryotes, but little is known about them in fungi. In Ustilago maydis, we now uncovered a host-dependent GPCR mechanism that promotes fungal infection.

Gabriel nicely explains the full story👇
🧵How does a pathogen know it has entered its host?

New preprint!🎉It’s a pleasure to share my first first-author preprint from my PhD journey!
We uncover a novel co-evolved peptide–GPCR system in the fungus Ustilago maydis that senses host entry and triggers infection (doi.org/10.1101/2025...)
(1/5)
A co-evolved peptide-GPCR system senses host entry to drive fungal infection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.26.678928v1
Reposted by Altegoerlab
#Lichens form their complex thalli through a partnership involving at least a fungus and an alga. But can these living structures be rebuilt in vitro? For more than a century, people have tried. With @spribille.bsky.social we revisited 150 years of #lichen #resynthesis to ask: has anyone succeeded?
November 7, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
Genomic and phenotypic insights into the expanding phylogenetic landscape of the Cryptococcus genus journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...
Genomic and phenotypic insights into the expanding phylogenetic landscape of the Cryptococcus genus
Author summary Cryptococcus is a genus of fungi that includes both pathogenic species capable of causing life-threatening infections in humans and many environmental species that inhabit soil, fruit, ...
journals.plos.org
November 11, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
New publication by Juan Carlos De la Concepcion, Nick Irwin, & @plantophagy.bsky.social at the GMI from @oeaw.bsky.social revealed that Exo70 undergoes changes in electrostatic charge, causing it to break from its original complex & take on new functions.

Read more: www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/detail/n...
October 31, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
📣 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
Reposted by Altegoerlab
📣 I’m excited to share two open positions in my lab @leibniz-hki.de. For this interdisciplinary project with @luziagyr.bsky.social, I’m seeking (1) an enthusiastic PhD student interested in fungal natural product research and genetic engineering, as well as (2) a technical assistant 👇🏻
October 21, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
Now out in Science! Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are key regulators of the cell cycle. In @vcushing.bsky.social's magnum opus, we use #cryoEM to figure out how the CDK-activating kinase recognises CDKs to fully activate them - a key step in cell cycle control.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Structural basis of T-loop–independent recognition and activation of CDKs by the CDK-activating kinase
Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are prototypical regulators of the cell cycle. The CDK-activating kinase (CAK) acts as a master regulator of CDK activity by catalyzing the activating phosphorylation o...
www.science.org
October 16, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
📣 New @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social preprint, another joint-venture of @wolki95.bsky.social & @antonkraege.bsky.social, co-directed by @nicksnelders.bsky.social. Here’s a 🧵
Differential contributions of an antimicrobial effector from Verticillium dahliae to virulence and tomato microbiota assembly across natural soils https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679524v1
October 14, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
🚀 New preprint!
We used a human cell-free translation screen (~28 000 compounds) to discover NT-2, a #Fusarium -derived #mycotoxin that blocks human ribosomes.
#Cryo-EM at 1.72 Å reveals a link between chemical inhibition and ribosome dormancy.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A human cell-free translation screen identifies the NT-2 mycotoxin as a ribosomal peptidyl transferase inhibitor
Translation inhibitors are invaluable for probing ribosome function and therapeutic applications, but systematic discovery in human systems is limited by the lack of scalable, screening-compatible cel...
www.biorxiv.org
October 13, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
I’m excited to share our new preprint from @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social lab!
🌱 Our latest study reveals how Magnaporthe oryzae synchronizes organelle trafficking and autophagy to infect plants. (1/13)
📄 Read more: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Synchronous spatio-temporal control of autophagy and organelle trafficking is necessary for appressorium-mediated plant infection by Magnaporthe oryzae
The blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae infects plants using a specialised infection structure called an appressorium that generates physical force to break the rice leaf cuticle. Appressorium development...
doi.org
October 11, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
1/13 Thankfully, both you and your plants have a lot of sophisticated ways to fight off invading pathogens.
In our new preprint, we describe a new way in which animals and plants share a common strategy to ward off harmful bacteria.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A secreted citrus protease cleaves an outer membrane protein of the Huanglongbing pathogen
Plants secrete a variety of proteases as a defense response during infection by microbial pathogens. However, the relationship between their catalytic activities and antimicrobial functions remains la...
www.biorxiv.org
October 10, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
Fran @frangordilloc.bsky.social and I wrote this piece on one of our favorite topics: the evolutionary relevance of co-receptors for immune receptor transfer in #plants 🌱
#EvoMPMI #MPMI

Check also the beautiful paper by Zhang et al. on the PRR STOMR and discover what happened to its co-receptor 😱
October 9, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
Please RT:
We have an opening for a junior group leader position in „Phage Biology & Biotechnology“.
www.fz-juelich.de/de/karriere/...

Interested candidates are encouraged to contact me via email for further details.

@spp2330.bsky.social; @mibinet.bsky.social
Junior Group Leader - Phage Biology & Biotechnology
As a leading research institution for microbial biotechnology the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences - Biotechnology (IBG-1, https://www.fz-juelich.de/de/ibg/ibg-1 ) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich foc...
www.fz-juelich.de
October 8, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
A bit late 🙃 but happy to share our recent findings on #cdiAMP signaling in controlling #cyanobacteria #diurnal rhythm in @cp-iscience.bsky.social

www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

#cdiAMP is involved in almost all cellular processes, explaining it's essentiality in #cyano
@hhu.de
@mibinet.bsky.social
Diurnal rhythm causes metabolic crises in the cyanobacterial mutants of c-di-AMP signaling cascade
Biological sciences; Biochemistry; Microbiology; PII-like protein SbtB; c-di-AMP signaling; Cyanobacteria; Carbon/Nitrogen metabolism; Redox imbalance; Photosynthesis; Reactive oxygen species (ROS); C...
www.cell.com
October 7, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
New pre-print from our group showing remarkable synchrony of proliferative growth and regulated cell death during plant infection- each conidial cell has a different fate - by the rice blast fungus. Led by Alice Eseola with @osesmir.bsky.social Lauren Ryder @danmaclean.bsky.social and Martin Egan
Synchronous spatio-temporal control of autophagy and organelle trafficking is necessary for appressorium-mediated plant infection by Magnaporthe oryzae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.680644v1
October 7, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
We’re renewing our collaboration with Google DeepMind!

We'll keep developing the AlphaFold Database to support protein science worldwide 🎉

To mark the moment we’ve synchronised the database with UniProtKB release 2025_03.

www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/t...

🖥️🧬 #AlphaFold
@pdbeurope.bsky.social
October 7, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions at the John Innes Centre.

Repost = nice. Thank you very much!!!
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to give a seminar at the Fellows Conference, which will be held on 10 March 2026.

Candidates who win Fellowships will be offered a Tenure Track Group Leader position from the outset, initially for 5 years.

Find out more: www.jic.ac.uk/training-car...
Independent Research Fellowships Leading to Tenured Faculty Positions | John Innes Centre
The John Innes Centre (JIC), is a world leading centre of excellence in plant and microbial sciences based on the Norwich Research Park, UK. We are inviting applications from outstanding researchers…
www.jic.ac.uk
October 3, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
Viral AlphaFold Database (VAD) is live in Science Advances

~27,000 predicted viral protein monomers & homodimers

Conserved folds across bacteria, archaea & eukaryotic viruses

New toxin–antitoxin system KreTA uncovered

Vast “functional darkness” remains uncharted

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The Viral AlphaFold Database of monomers and homodimers reveals conserved protein folds in viruses of bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes
VAD is a Viral AlphaFold Database of protein monomers and homodimers from viruses infecting hosts across the tree of life.
www.science.org
October 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Excited to share our latest work, spearheaded by @gabmrojas.bsky.social!

GPCRs are central sensors in eukaryotes, but little is known about them in fungi. In Ustilago maydis, we now uncovered a host-dependent GPCR mechanism that promotes fungal infection.

Gabriel nicely explains the full story👇
🧵How does a pathogen know it has entered its host?

New preprint!🎉It’s a pleasure to share my first first-author preprint from my PhD journey!
We uncover a novel co-evolved peptide–GPCR system in the fungus Ustilago maydis that senses host entry and triggers infection (doi.org/10.1101/2025...)
(1/5)
A co-evolved peptide-GPCR system senses host entry to drive fungal infection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.26.678928v1
October 1, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
New week, new tool: Find our Protein Domain Designer tool to generate publication-ready protein domain diagrams here: domaindesigner.farnunglab.com
September 29, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
New Insights Into Bacterial Motility and DNA Transfer:
a small press on our discovery of ComFB signaling family by @claussenarne.bsky.social @hhu.de

www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
w/ @mygalperin.bsky.social @thethormannden.bsky.social
@cmfi.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social @sfb1381.bsky.social
September 29, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
Happy to share the Biodiversity Cell Atlas white paper, out today in @nature.com. We look at the possibilities, challenges, and potential impacts of molecularly mapping cells across the tree of life.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
September 24, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Altegoerlab
Which fungal 🍄 molecules cause zombie 🧟‍♀️ ant 🐜 behaviors? @williamycete.bsky.social has begun to answer this question! He found a peptide that binds to scramblase and affects important odor-dependent behaviors in ants. Spoiler: worms 🪱 played a key role in this research 🧐 doi.org/10.1101/2025...
The First of Us: Ophiocordyceps use a novel scramblase-binding peptide to manipulate zombie ants
Parasite-adaptive manipulation of behavior is a widespread natural phenomenon. While Ophiocordyceps zombie fungi are well-known for hijacking ant behavior to increase their fitness, functionally chara...
doi.org
September 23, 2025 at 12:30 PM