Marc Somssich
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somssich.bsky.social
Marc Somssich
@somssich.bsky.social
Trait Program Manager (Biotic Stress) @KWSGroup.bsky.social

Author @preLights.bsky.social
Editor @ThePlantCell.bsky.social

Web: https://linktr.ee/somssich

Personal Account
This week we welcomed @galofir.bsky.social from @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social at @kwsgroup.bsky.social for our #PlantScience R&D Lecture.
It was a pleasure to finally meet, learn about his #PlantImmunity & #ImmunoGenomics work to uncover evolutionary conserved defense mechanisms, & talk plant science. 👍🤓
November 14, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Rick van de Zedde was here at @kwsgroup.bsky.social to talk about his work making sense of the tons of data generated by the #PlantScience NPEC phenotyping platform run by @wurplant.bsky.social & @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social. Very interesting work, including producing smartphone apps for easy use.
November 7, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Adding insult to injury, they go on to say that Arabidopsis thaliana COULD be considered an important model too... but not really. "Seats are limited", and how important is food really??

#PlantScience #PlantBlindness
October 24, 2025 at 8:12 AM
An article on Model Organisms, published in Science in 2005, lists the Models that together represent "the diversity of life".
Guess which model is missing from the list?

This view is one major reason why it's so difficult to obtain funding for basic plant research.

#PlantBlindness #PlantScience
October 24, 2025 at 8:10 AM
I came across this beautiful obituary for Chris Lamb in @annualreviews.bsky.social, authored by Richard Dixon:

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

It's very well written, putting his science into perspective & also painting a picture of Chris as a person and mentor.

#PlantScience #PlantImmunity
October 17, 2025 at 12:23 PM
This article was written while I was funded by the European Union under the @horizoneu.bsky.social Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions program.
October 10, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Our article "Guns in Rosettes: The Arabidopsis chemical weapons arsenal" is finally published @plantphys.bsky.social!
You can download the #OpenAccess PDF here:

doi.org/10.1093/plph...

But real connoisseurs of #AntimicrobialCompounds will want to get the vinyl boxset: #PlantScience #PlantImmunity
October 9, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Headliner at the #KWSScienceSlam was Max Koch from @uni-goettingen.de, talking about how he accidentally became famous with beer.

As a side-project, the physicist studied how the POPP! sound is produced when a swing-top beer bottle is opened. #BeerScience

See below for his paper & media coverage.
October 9, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Nataliia Rybchenko from @kwsgroup.bsky.social Ukraine presented her 'Sunflower' documentary at the #KWSScienceSlam.
Ukraine is the global leader in sunflower oil production, but amid the war, the sunflower has also become a symbol of freedom for Ukraine.

Documentary:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u2U...
October 9, 2025 at 4:46 AM
People: "Things used to be better."

Scientist: "When did it start getting worse?"

People: "When I was born."

From "The illusion of moral decline" by Adam Mastroianni.
shorturl.at/FFEDV
October 4, 2025 at 1:41 PM
The merchandise one gets on a KWS field trip.
September 16, 2025 at 12:59 PM
What a statement... (see screenshots)

Great article by @derekseveri.bsky.social et al. on the importance of including "real world" conditions in #PlantScience work, to ensure that one is actually studying plant biology and not just plant behavior in a lab environment.

www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
August 22, 2025 at 5:29 AM
Very interesting interview with #PlantScience Pioneer Peter Langridge:

"[...] one point I emphasized was the importance of understanding the literature" 👌

"Understanding the history of your field is crucial, even if it means going back many years." 👍

www.mdpi.com/about/announ...
August 13, 2025 at 5:49 AM
August 1, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Today, we had @gittacoaker.bsky.social here for the @kwsgroup.bsky.social #PlantScience lecture. Always nice to hear the latest research on the flagellin pathway. Check out her preprint on the rational design of an FLS2 receptor domain with expanded pathogen recognition profile:
shorturl.at/uxAoj
July 11, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Here's another nice Letter to @nature.com:

It's recommended to carry a flask of cocaine solution at all times, in case you (or somebody) get's stung by a bee or wasp.

But even back then there were these boring people with "medical degrees", claiming that cocaine injection is "not free of risk" 😉
July 7, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Yes, he is writing out of the Grand Hotel.
July 4, 2025 at 8:51 AM
I really like the old Letters to @nature.com, back when they were actual Letters, not research articles.

Like this one (1904), in which A. B. Basset implores scientists to use "the genius of the English language" rather than, say, the primitive German with its "barbaric" compound words. 😬😁
July 4, 2025 at 5:55 AM
After we heard about tomatos in Einbeck, Keith Slotkin told us about #Transposons live from St. Louis. He updated us on how he developed TATSI (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) further, and how this resulted in his new genome editing company Spearhead Bio (danforthtechnology.com/spearhead-bio/).
June 2, 2025 at 7:14 PM
This week's #PlantScience lecture brought @rstam.bsky.social & @sev1panier.bsky.social here to Einbeck to talk about their #PlantGenomics work on wild tomatos.
Very cool work on understanding R gene diversity and QDR in the wild & on a population level.
#PlantImmunity
I'll link some papers below. 👇
June 2, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Next, we wanted to map the activation of antimicrobial compound production pathways.

But, I felt that I should first write an overview article on all such compounds in Arabidopsis.

I did so with two big shots in the field for @plantphys.bsky.social.

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝗣𝗗𝗙 𝗼𝗿 𝟭𝟴𝟬-𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗩𝗶𝗻𝘆𝗹!
May 30, 2025 at 9:53 AM
We then used the reporters to create a first map of the plant immune system, based on local activation of #Phytohormones #Jasmonate #SalicylicAcid & #Ethylene in response to #Fusarium colonization.

shorturl.at/V3QWV

This work was completed @mpipz.bsky.social with @horizoneu.bsky.social funding.
May 30, 2025 at 9:53 AM
To visualize where exactly in the plant certain #PlantImmunity pathways respond to infection, we needed fluorescent reporters. So, we spent the Covid-19 pandemic cloning plant immune system promoters (PIPs):
shorturl.at/ybTfb

75 (in image) are available as #GreenGate donors on @addgene.bsky.social.
May 30, 2025 at 9:53 AM
I also found that the #PlantCellWalls field is not for me, so I decided to move on.
But not before writing a review on the field, this time as an "At a Glance" article for @jcellsci.bsky.social, so once again the Company of @biologists.bsky.social published my career-step-summary.

shorturl.at/TjtYz
May 30, 2025 at 9:53 AM
But at least we got a short paper on #PlantCellWalls, #PlantGravitropism and #Phytohormones out in @plantcellphysiol.bsky.social.

shorturl.at/t69rU

Nonetheless, the support from the @dfg.de was fantastic (highly recomment their PostDoc Fellowship!), and I had a great time as postdoc in Australia.
May 30, 2025 at 9:53 AM