Thaís Dal’Sasso
@thaisdalsasso.bsky.social
Computational and systems biology 👩🏻💻, adaptive evolution 🧬, plant-microbe interactions 🪴 | Postdoc @envgenlab.bsky.social
🎉 Our new paper is out! We assembled a telomere-to-telomere genome 🧬 of Sporisorium scitamineum and showed how two smut strains with contrasting virulence deploy distinct early-infection programs on resistant and susceptible sugarcane genotypes. DOI: doi.org/10.1186/s128...
November 5, 2025 at 4:01 PM
🎉 Our new paper is out! We assembled a telomere-to-telomere genome 🧬 of Sporisorium scitamineum and showed how two smut strains with contrasting virulence deploy distinct early-infection programs on resistant and susceptible sugarcane genotypes. DOI: doi.org/10.1186/s128...
Had a great time organizing & teaching the MadFungi transcriptomics workshop. We spent three amazing days on RNA-seq for plant–microbe interactions and had great conversations with brilliant MSc/PhD students! 🌱🍄
#RNAseq #PlantMicrobeInteractions #Bioinformatics #PlantPathology
#RNAseq #PlantMicrobeInteractions #Bioinformatics #PlantPathology
We’re excited to host the first MadFungi Research Unit workshop in Kiel, welcoming MSc and PhD students from across Germany! Over three days, this workshop will cover many aspects of RNA-seq analysis in plants 🌱 and fungi🍄🟫.
September 24, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Had a great time organizing & teaching the MadFungi transcriptomics workshop. We spent three amazing days on RNA-seq for plant–microbe interactions and had great conversations with brilliant MSc/PhD students! 🌱🍄
#RNAseq #PlantMicrobeInteractions #Bioinformatics #PlantPathology
#RNAseq #PlantMicrobeInteractions #Bioinformatics #PlantPathology
Reposted by Thaís Dal’Sasso
Important read if you use LLMs for science knowledge discovery around plants "What Large Language Models Know About Plant Molecular Biology" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... As per usual LLMs appear to propagate biases.
What Large Language Models Know About Plant Molecular Biology
Large language models (LLMs) are rapidly permeating scientific research, yet their capabilities in plant molecular biology remain largely uncharacterized. Here, we present MoBiPlant, the first compreh...
www.biorxiv.org
September 21, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Important read if you use LLMs for science knowledge discovery around plants "What Large Language Models Know About Plant Molecular Biology" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... As per usual LLMs appear to propagate biases.
Reposted by Thaís Dal’Sasso
Really happy this is out in preprint - Congratulations to @graemekettles.bsky.social @zymohaider.bsky.social, and everyone involved for their hard work completing this study! It examines a Z. tritici effector that is a molecular mimic of plant LRRs, and suppresses PTI www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Molecular mimicry of plant cell-surface immune receptors by fungal secreted leucine-rich repeat proteins
Leucine-rich repeat (LRR) receptor-like kinases (LRR-RLKs) are important plant immunity proteins. The wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici produces many virulence effectors during infection; however, m...
www.biorxiv.org
August 24, 2025 at 8:35 PM
Really happy this is out in preprint - Congratulations to @graemekettles.bsky.social @zymohaider.bsky.social, and everyone involved for their hard work completing this study! It examines a Z. tritici effector that is a molecular mimic of plant LRRs, and suppresses PTI www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Thaís Dal’Sasso
Dolly (@dollymehta.bsky.social) developed a pipeline to screen for conserved #RNA structures across genomes.
She then applied it ~14,000 #plastid genomes and identified nearly 60 conserved structures.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
She then applied it ~14,000 #plastid genomes and identified nearly 60 conserved structures.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Genome-wide identification of conserved RNA structure in plastids
The systematic discovery of functional RNA structure directly from sequence remains a central challenge in genomics. Plastid genomes, with their deep evolutionary history and extensive data availabili...
doi.org
August 25, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Dolly (@dollymehta.bsky.social) developed a pipeline to screen for conserved #RNA structures across genomes.
She then applied it ~14,000 #plastid genomes and identified nearly 60 conserved structures.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
She then applied it ~14,000 #plastid genomes and identified nearly 60 conserved structures.
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Great talk this afternoon by Joy Bergelson at #ESEB2025! 🌱 She showed how a small number of NLRs in Arabidopsis can recognize P. syringae, and how a protein interaction model can help explain ETI responses.
August 20, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Great talk this afternoon by Joy Bergelson at #ESEB2025! 🌱 She showed how a small number of NLRs in Arabidopsis can recognize P. syringae, and how a protein interaction model can help explain ETI responses.
Reposted by Thaís Dal’Sasso
📣 Happy to see the journal publication 📄 of our work on Starships 🚀 in Verticillium fungi: terrific work led by @yukiyosato.bsky.social
rdcu.be/exBSp
rdcu.be/exBSp
Starship giant transposons dominate plastic genomic regions in a fungal plant pathogen and drive virulence evolution
Nature Communications - Giant transposons, known as ‘Starships’, mediate horizontal gene transfer between fungal genomes. Here, Sato et al. show that Starships occupy genome regions...
rdcu.be
July 24, 2025 at 10:40 AM
📣 Happy to see the journal publication 📄 of our work on Starships 🚀 in Verticillium fungi: terrific work led by @yukiyosato.bsky.social
rdcu.be/exBSp
rdcu.be/exBSp
Reposted by Thaís Dal’Sasso
In #GENETICS, @3rdreviewer.bsky.social and @smishra677.bsky.social show it is possible to estimate recombination solely using the allele frequency spectrum and provide a genealogical interpretation of the results, showing how #MachineLearning can provide insights into biology.
buff.ly/emixz9W
buff.ly/emixz9W
July 16, 2025 at 10:04 PM
In #GENETICS, @3rdreviewer.bsky.social and @smishra677.bsky.social show it is possible to estimate recombination solely using the allele frequency spectrum and provide a genealogical interpretation of the results, showing how #MachineLearning can provide insights into biology.
buff.ly/emixz9W
buff.ly/emixz9W
Reposted by Thaís Dal’Sasso
#2025ISMPMI 📣 In silico screening of PRR-epitope interactions is now possible!
Here, we developed mamp-ml to predict their immunogenic outcomes without structural context. Let's accelerate engineering plant receptors for robust resistance! 🚀🌱 Small 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Here, we developed mamp-ml to predict their immunogenic outcomes without structural context. Let's accelerate engineering plant receptors for robust resistance! 🚀🌱 Small 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
mamp-ml: A deep learning approach to epitope immunogenicity in plants
Eukaryotes detect biomolecules through surface-localized receptors, key signaling components. A subset of receptors survey for pathogens, induce immunity, and restrict pathogen growth. Comparative gen...
www.biorxiv.org
July 15, 2025 at 11:28 PM
#2025ISMPMI 📣 In silico screening of PRR-epitope interactions is now possible!
Here, we developed mamp-ml to predict their immunogenic outcomes without structural context. Let's accelerate engineering plant receptors for robust resistance! 🚀🌱 Small 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Here, we developed mamp-ml to predict their immunogenic outcomes without structural context. Let's accelerate engineering plant receptors for robust resistance! 🚀🌱 Small 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Thaís Dal’Sasso
New online! A genomic perspective on fungal diversity and evolution
A genomic perspective on fungal diversity and evolution
Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 30 June 2025; doi:10.1038/s41579-025-01195-6In this Review, Mondo and Grigoriev explore the central role of omics approaches to investigate the biology and evolution of fungi and understand phylogeny and how traits evolved over time within the fungal kingdom.
www.nature.com
June 30, 2025 at 10:29 AM
New online! A genomic perspective on fungal diversity and evolution
Admixture’s impact on Brazilian population evolution and health | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Admixture’s impact on Brazilian population evolution and health
Brazil, the largest Latin American country, is underrepresented in genomic research despite boasting the world’s largest recently admixed population. In this study, we generated 2723 high-coverage who...
www.science.org
May 16, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Admixture’s impact on Brazilian population evolution and health | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Thaís Dal’Sasso
FYI: New online! Transcriptomics in the era of long-read sequencing
Transcriptomics in the era of long-read sequencing
Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 28 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41576-025-00828-zAdvances in long-read sequencing are driving the implementation of these technologies for transcriptome profiling. The authors provide a comprehensive guide to long-read RNA sequencing, including experimental and computational tools, current applications, challenges and opportunities.
www.nature.com
April 18, 2025 at 11:24 AM
FYI: New online! Transcriptomics in the era of long-read sequencing
Reposted by Thaís Dal’Sasso
The rest of Mendel's alleles characterized! So, out of 7 traits, 3 caused by TE insertions!!! (though apparently there are two different green alleles, one cause by a TE insertion, but another a promoter deletion allele)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genomic and genetic insights into Mendel’s pea genes - Nature
Characterization of the genetic architecture underlying the 7 pairs of contrasting traits studied by Mendel and the over 70 additional agronomic traits in pea (Pisum sativum) reveals their m...
www.nature.com
April 26, 2025 at 2:15 AM
The rest of Mendel's alleles characterized! So, out of 7 traits, 3 caused by TE insertions!!! (though apparently there are two different green alleles, one cause by a TE insertion, but another a promoter deletion allele)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Thaís Dal’Sasso
Comparative genomics needs to use phylogenetic methods: why, how and common questions www.nature.com/articles/s41... @annadewar.bsky.social @lauriebelch.bsky.social
A phylogenetic approach to comparative genomics - Nature Reviews Genetics
Controlling for phylogeny is essential in comparative genomics studies, because species, genomes and genes are not independent data points within statistical tests. The authors review the application ...
www.nature.com
January 8, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Comparative genomics needs to use phylogenetic methods: why, how and common questions www.nature.com/articles/s41... @annadewar.bsky.social @lauriebelch.bsky.social