Gitta Coaker
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gittacoaker.bsky.social
Gitta Coaker
@gittacoaker.bsky.social
2.1K followers 1.2K following 380 posts
Professor at UC Davis, studying plant immunity and bacterial pathogens. Loves weightlifting, running, and the outdoors.
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gittacoaker.bsky.social
Gitta Coaker @gittacoaker.bsky.social · Jul 29
Excited this paper is finally published! We focused on the inner concave surface of LRR RKs to expand bacterial flagellin perception in plants. Selection indicates expanded perception is more common than previously thought. Experiments led by @jerrytli.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Unlocking expanded flagellin perception through rational receptor engineering - Nature Plants
Receptor kinase FLS2 detects the flg22 epitope of bacterial flagellin. Here the authors identify key residues on FLS2’s concave surface that enable expanded perception of flg22 variants, allowing the ...
www.nature.com
gittacoaker.bsky.social
Enhancing NLR activation by endophytes carrying recognized effectors that are expressed in the presence of ROS. #plantimmunity
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
Genetically engineered plant endophytes broaden effector-triggered immunity
Hou et al. engineer plant endophytes to express effectors that trigger NLR-mediated ETI upon pathogen infection, regardless of whether pathogens carry recognizable effectors. The sentinel bacterium ma...
www.cell.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
biorxiv-plants.bsky.social
A lettuce receptor-like kinase recognizes the highly conserved heptapeptide motif within microbial NEP1-like proteins https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.10.687460v1
November 11, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu
Switzerland is joining Horizon Europe!

We are uniting two research powerhouses.

For cutting-edge innovation that will boost our energy security, digital transformation, health and so much more.

Today is a good day for science, and for our EU-Switzerland partnership.
November 10, 2025 at 2:58 PM
gittacoaker.bsky.social
Faculty got a standard of living increase from the University of California this month. I used mine to donate to the Sacramento Food Bank, because the majority of politicians in the US do not want to feed those in need. www.sacramentofoodbank.org
Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services
www.sacramentofoodbank.org
November 8, 2025 at 4:17 AM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
donmoyn.bsky.social
"If it pleases the court, our position is that the poor people should go hungry"
stevevladeck.bsky.social Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 7d
#BREAKING: The Trump administration is asking #SCOTUS for an immediate “administrative” stay of a Rhode Island district judge’s order that is otherwise requiring it to resume the distribution of SNAP benefits from other funding sources no later than the end of today.
November 8, 2025 at 12:10 AM
gittacoaker.bsky.social
So my mom was in charge of the surveillance system?
November 7, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
adammott.bsky.social
Cool new paper on receptor specificity.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Two residues reprogram immunity receptors for nitrogen-fixing symbiosis - Nature
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...
www.nature.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:26 PM
gittacoaker.bsky.social
USDA issued the following statement today, AFRI deadlines extended: www.nifa.usda.gov/grants/progr...
Due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, staff from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture have been unable to answer questions related to grant applications or provide technical assistance to potential applicants for programs with an open Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs). As a result, application deadlines for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Competitive Grants Program Foundational and Applied Science (FAS) Program (USDA-NIFA-AFRI-011134) will be extended, with new deadlines communicated upon the conclusion of the Radical Left Democrat shutdown. If an application has already been submitted, applicants may revise and resubmit prior to the new deadline.
November 6, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
petrovadmitri.bsky.social
Please register for BAPG at Stanford 12/6, especially if you want to give a talk or a poster. The deadline is Nov 16. bapg2025.github.io/bapg2025stan... And please reshare on bsky!
November 5, 2025 at 3:50 PM
gittacoaker.bsky.social
“I wish Andrew Cuomo the best in private life” - Mamdani’s victory speech
November 5, 2025 at 4:27 AM
gittacoaker.bsky.social
Long lines on UC campus on Nor and So Cal for the special election on #prop50. Ballot called literally 1 second after the polls closed. A blowout. It’s a yes. Voters are mad.
November 5, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
keikoutorii.bsky.social
🧬🌱Research Specialist Position Open🌱🧬 -Please spread the words
HHMI, UT Austin. NGS-based analyses/single cell biology to investigate environmental and hormonal control of plant stem cell differentiation. Requires both wet lab and bioinformatic skills.
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Extern...
Research Specialist - Torii Lab
Primary Work Address: 2500 Speedway, Austin, TX, 78712 Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account. About the Lab We are currently seeking a proactive Research Specialist to s...
hhmi.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
November 1, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
moffettpeter.bsky.social
Beautiful work by Ingrid Berenice Sanchez Carrillo on the in situ structure of the Arabidopsis nuclear pore complex.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
In situ architecture of the nuclear pore complex of the higher plant Arabidopsis thaliana - Nature Plants
Using advanced imaging techniques and computer modelling, the authors were able to create a detailed structural model of a nuclear pore complex from a seed plant.
www.nature.com
October 31, 2025 at 7:52 PM
gittacoaker.bsky.social
Happy Halloween
October 31, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
kseniakrasileva.bsky.social
🚀 New preprint!
We introduce K-PROB, a k-mer–based Bayesian framework that mines pangenomic promoter and expression diversity to predict cis-regulatory elements driving gene expression variation in crops 🌽🌱
🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.27.684862v1
#Genomics #GeneRegulation #Maize #Soybean
Natural variation in regulatory code revealed through Bayesian analysis of plant pan-genomes and pan-transcriptomes
Understanding the genetic code of cis-regulatory elements (CREs) is essential for engineering gene expression and modulating agronomic traits in crops. In plants, CREs underlying rapid evolution of ge...
biorxiv.org
October 29, 2025 at 4:47 PM
gittacoaker.bsky.social
Sunset was cooperating during my run but not my dog.
October 30, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
ucdavisplants.bsky.social
🌱From Nature Communications: A newly cloned resistance gene, Lr.ace-4A/Lr30, provides near-immunity to leaf rust in durum wheat, offering a powerful tool for future wheat breeding. (Jorge Dubcovsky)
▶️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#PlantScience
Genome-assisted identification of wheat leaf rust resistance gene Lr.ace-4A/Lr30 - Nature Communications
Leaf rust threatens wheat production worldwide. Here, the authors report a high-quality genome assembly of the leaf rust resistant durum wheat landrace PI 192051 and the cloning of the leaf rust resis...
www.nature.com
October 28, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
cbibberson.bsky.social
Come join us in Knoxville!

The Dept. of Microbiology 🧫🦠 at the University of Tennessee is hiring 2 Assistant Professors (tenure track, 9-month appt.).

Microbial Drivers of Chronic Disease: apply.interfolio.com/173153Quantitative Microbe-Plant-Environment Interactions: apply.interfolio.com/173345
Job ad for Quantitative Microbe-Plant-Environment interactions position Job ad for microbial drivers of chronic disease position
October 24, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
emjo.bsky.social
Hey Yaniv Brandvain is not on Bluesky but his most recent biostats ebook is live ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/. His stats resources have been so helpful to me as I develop my own stats course, so check it out. Github repo here: github.com/ybrandvain/b...
Applied Biostatistics
ybrandvain.github.io
October 24, 2025 at 2:47 PM
gittacoaker.bsky.social
Lab postdoc appreciation lunch
October 21, 2025 at 4:17 AM
gittacoaker.bsky.social
Nice! I was there last weekend for the waves and this one I stayed home to join a local protest.
annaleen.bsky.social Annalee Newitz @annaleen.bsky.social · 27d
I joined the "human banner" at San Francisco's Ocean Beach. This flag was at the center. It was a gorgeous day with enormous waves. #nokings
The image is taken from an angle, and you can see the ocean tilting 30 degrees in the distance, with a huge crowd in front of it. In the foreground, you can see the giant American flag that is being held up by hundreds of protesters clustered around its edges. This is the human banner from the air. It's sign made from masses of people standing together to form letters. It reads "No Kings Yes on 50." There is an American flag in the middle and a thick border around the banner. (Prop 50 is a California state proposition to gerrymander the state to create more blue districts, in order to combat the Texas law that gerrymanders their state to create more red districts.)
October 19, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
briantylercohen.bsky.social
NYPD announces that zero arrests were made at the massive No Kings protests today after Republicans spent days claiming the protestors are violent terrorists.
October 18, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by Gitta Coaker
iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social
An astonishingly large crowd!
Chicago
October 18, 2025 at 9:18 PM
gittacoaker.bsky.social
#NoKings Davis, CA
October 18, 2025 at 10:12 PM
gittacoaker.bsky.social
I think there is nothing to gain by engaging with bad actors. Block and spend energy elsewhere. I’m looking forward to some nice live music tonight and tomorrow is a lovely day for a protest.
October 18, 2025 at 1:47 AM