It was easy with this amazing team!!

give me some time...:p

Gracias Nacho!!

Thank you!!

(9/9) This work was a joint project between the labs of @bertderybel.bsky.social, Tom Beeckman, Tina Kyndt and Carolina Escobar. Huge thanks to all co-authors, especially PhD students Melissa and Almudena. @psb-vib.bsky.social 🌾🌱

(8/9) We hope this approach inspires others to study complex plant–pathogen interactions across species, using single-cell transcriptomics to uncover molecular mechanisms in systems that are otherwise very hard to track!

(7/9) These orthologous genes were previously linked to auxin distribution across tissues. Strikingly, mutating them in both rice and Arabidopsis reduced infection by >30%. This offers a promising opportunity to engineer resistance in both dicots and monocots.

(6/9) Next, we looked for the TFs driving the transcriptional reprogramming captured in our dataset. AtATHB2/OsHOX28 emerged as prime candidates, specifically expressed under infection and predicted by MINI-EX to be enriched only during infection.

(5/9) In fact, this population of cells correspond to the giant cell precursors, that a few days later will develop into the giant cells induced by the nematode.

(4/9) Within the nematode clusters, we found a subpopulation of cells characterized by the expression of the orthologous genes AtEXPA4 and OsEXPA7.

(3/9) We found clusters that were exclusive to RKN infected roots, which we call “nematode clusters”, and they appear to be transcriptionally very similar between Arabidopsis and rice.

(2/9) We used single-cell transcriptomics in Arabidopsis and rice roots, comparing mock vs. RKN infection, to capture the transcriptional reprogramming underlying this process from the very early stages.

(1/9) Root-knot nematodes (RKN) are plant parasites that induce giant cells inside root galls. The origin of giant cells is a 𝘥𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘰 organogenesis process, occurring from very few cells when the nematodes invade their hosts.