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Journal of Experimental Botany @jxbotany.bsky.social · 7d

💡 SPECIAL ISSUE VIEWPOINT 💡

Immune proteases are promising targets for protein engineering 🛠️ to boost disease resistance in plants 🌾 - Schuster et al.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/jxb/...

#PlantScience 🧪 @marischuster.bsky.social @aciattoni.bsky.social

Fig. 1.Four classes of roles of immune proteases illustrated via examples. (i) Pathogen perception: Required for Cladosporium Resistance-3 (Rcr3) protease is inhibited by the fungal avirulence effector Avr2. The Rcr3-Avr2 complex is recognized by the immune receptor Cf-2, triggering a defence response (Kruger et al, 2002). (ii) Regulation of the immune response: METACASPASE 4 (MC4) is activated by calcium upon wounding or pathogen attack. MC4 cleaves tonoplast-located ProPEP1 releasing PEP1 to the apoplast where it is perceived by PEP RECEPTORS (PEPRs) thereby initiating defence responses (Hander et al, 2019). (iii) Counteracting pathogen effectors: soybean aspartic protease GmAP5, degrades the Phytophthora sojae virulence factor glycoside hydrolase family 12 (GH12) protein, XEG1 (Xia et al., 2020). (iv) Direct pathogen attack: secreted aspartic proteases (SAPs) cleave Pseudomonas syringae MucD protein thereby suppressing bacterial growth (Wang et al., 2019).

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Michael Hothorn @structplantbio.bsky.social · 13d

Amazing work by the Santiago lab @unil.bsky.social. The malectin-LRR receptor kinase IGP1 senses cello-oligomers to alert the plant immune system & enhance disease resistance. Very nice discovery & mechanism.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Yasin Dagdas @plantophagy.bsky.social · 19d

Dear @dfg.de & @erc.europa.eu Why don't you do the same? What's stopping us from adopting this model to all tax-payer funded research in Europe? journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

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Adithya Acharya @adithya1972.bsky.social · 28d

In the beautiful Freiburg, South Germany home to the Black forests 🌳to learn more about proteomics based mass spectrometry by ProteoCure Training School hosted by @uniklinik-fr.bsky.social

Excited to be attending and knowing more about it!

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Boas Pucker @bpucker.bsky.social · Sep 5

The LAR gene (key to proanthocyanidin biosynthesis) occurs in two copies in many plant species — a great example of how gene duplication drives plant evolution #FlavonoidFriday shorturl.at/5uMtv & doi.org/10.1101/2025...

LAR tree showing deep gene duplications. Source: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.06.668978

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Adithya Acharya @adithya1972.bsky.social · Sep 3

Day 1 - Leucorea Wittenberg IPB Retreat

Excellent talk by guest speaker Prof.
Ekkhard Neuhaus from Kaiserslautern🧬🧪

@ipbhalle.bsky.social

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Mariana Schuster @marischuster.bsky.social · Sep 2

What a treat! Ekkehard Neuhaus is our guest of honour at the @ipbhalle.bsky.social retreat taking place today and tomorrow at the Leucorea in Wittenberg

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Boas Pucker @bpucker.bsky.social · Aug 22

Thinking of starting a plant genome sequencing project?

Check out this step-by-step guide:

Cookbook for Plant Genome Sequences
📖 www.preprints.org/manuscript/2...

#Genomics #Bioinformatics #LongReads
@puckerlab.bsky.social

www.preprints.org

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Mariana Schuster @marischuster.bsky.social · Aug 18

Jie Huang ( #PlantChemetics lab) and I wrote a dispatch on Zhang et al.'s work (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) describing a #protease effector that cleaves the extracellular domain of a plant receptor-like kinase, and it's none other than BAK1!

Enjoy!
authors.elsevier.com/a/1ldGk3QW8S...

authors.elsevier.com

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IPB Halle @ipbhalle.bsky.social · Aug 11

📣We offer a #PhDPosition in a trilateral program “Future Proofing #Plants to a Changing Climate" with Martina Ried-Lasi (funded by @dfg.de, @ukri.org-BBSRC, NSF, USDA-NIFA).

🔗More: www.ipb-halle.de/en/career/jo...

📅Apply now!

#PlantSci #SciJobs #PlantSciJobs #PhD #PlantBiology #BiologyPhD

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Mariana Schuster @marischuster.bsky.social · Aug 11

Last week to apply for this exiting position!

Mariana Schuster @marischuster.bsky.social · Jul 14

I am looking for a (bio)chemist to join the lab and help us making affinity-based probes for proteases! The project is truly interdisciplinary with a strong computational chemistry component, peptide synthesis and plant biochemistry!
Text me if interested and please spread the word!

IPB Halle @ipbhalle.bsky.social · Jul 14

📣We offer a #PhDposition @dfg.de-funded #RTG2670 BEAM: "Beyond Amphiphilicity - Self-Organization of Soft Matter via Multiple Noncovalent Interactions" with @marischuster.bsky.social.

🔗More: www.ipb-halle.de/en/career/jo...

📅Apply now!

#MolecularModelling #Proteases #SciJobs #PhDjobs

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Yasin Dagdas @plantophagy.bsky.social · Aug 7

Junior #GroupLeader position @mpipz.bsky.social
on Plant Development & Diversity ‼️ #plantsci www.mpipz.mpg.de/5697690/job_...

Group leader (m/f/d) | Plant Development and Diversity

The successful applicant will be expected to build an independent research group to study plant development and/or its natural variation.

www.mpipz.mpg.de

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Dani Stevens, Ph.D. @danimstevens.bsky.social · Jul 15

#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...

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

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Sophien Kamoun @kamounlab.bsky.social · Jul 11

I just published: Why I’m skipping the Congress this year (And why you should still publish your posters)

Publishing your poster creates a citable record and protects you from bad actors.

#ISMPMI2025 #OpenMPMI #AcademicChatter #PhDchat

medium.com/p/why-im-ski...

Why I’m skipping the Congress this year (And why you should still publish your posters)

Publishing your poster creates a verifiable and citable record of your work. It also protects you from bad actors — the evidence will be…

medium.com

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IPB Halle @ipbhalle.bsky.social · Jul 14

📣We offer a #PhDposition @dfg.de-funded #RTG2670 BEAM: "Beyond Amphiphilicity - Self-Organization of Soft Matter via Multiple Noncovalent Interactions" with @marischuster.bsky.social.

🔗More: www.ipb-halle.de/en/career/jo...

📅Apply now!

#MolecularModelling #Proteases #SciJobs #PhDjobs

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Boas Pucker @bpucker.bsky.social · Jul 7

There is still time to apply 👇
#MSCA #Postdoc #Biotech #Bioinformatics #Genomics

Boas Pucker @bpucker.bsky.social · May 31

🚨 Seeking a brilliant postdoc for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship! Work at the interface of bioinformatics, evolution & biotech.
🌱 Join a top German university
💡 Great science, strong mentoring
👉 www.izmb.uni-bonn.de/en/pbb/contact
#MSCA #Postdoc #Biotech #Bioinformatics #AcademicJobs

Figure summarizing the PuckerLab research interests. Source: https://www.pbb.uni-bonn.de

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Mariana Schuster @marischuster.bsky.social · Jul 2

As predicted! Plant pathogens cleave immune (co) receptors to avoid perception!

Tatsuya Nobori @tatsuyanobori.bsky.social · Jul 1

A conserved Phytophthora apoplastic trypsin-like serine protease targets the receptor-like kinase BAK1 to dampen plant immunity
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A conserved Phytophthora apoplastic trypsin-like serine protease targets the receptor-like kinase BAK1 to dampen plant immunity - Nature Plants

Phytophthora secretes a conserved trypsin-like serine protease, PsTry1, that suppresses apoplastic immunity by cleaving the extracellular domain of the co-receptor BAK1, revealing a novel mechanism by...

www.nature.com

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Alexander Ciattoni @aciattoni.bsky.social · Jun 30

Really happy to be at the 20th Plant Science Student Conference #PSSC2025 @leibnizipk.bsky.social
I am looking forward to exciting talks and discussions in the next few days.

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Mariana Schuster @marischuster.bsky.social · Jun 23

The thrill of punching the "submission" button!
This time a review with the lab first PhD student @adithya1972.bsky.social and great colleagues from @ipbhalle.bsky.social Martina Ried-Lasi and Anna Bannmüller. Grateful for the good work of the students and with fingers crossed!

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Mariana Schuster @marischuster.bsky.social · Jun 20

Picking strawberries 🍓 with the lab ☀️🕶️

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Mariana Schuster @marischuster.bsky.social · May 26

I am happy to share our viewpoint on immune protease engineering!

academic.oup.com/jxb/advance-...

Hacking the immune system: plant immune protease engineering for crop protection

Immune proteases are promising targets for protein engineering to boost disease resistance in plants.

academic.oup.com

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Martin Hundhausen @mhundhausen.bsky.social · Jan 14

Die Leibnitz-Gemeinschaft vollzieht den #eXit.
Richtig so: Wissenschaftsorganisationen gehören nicht auf eine Plattform, die wissenschaftsfeindlich wurde.

Screenshot des textes:

Die Leibniz-Gemeinschaft verlässt X

Die Geschäftsstelle der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft stellt ab sofort ihre Aktivität auf der Social-Media-Plattform X ein. Diese hat sich zu einem Ort entwickelt, der nicht mehr mit den Werten der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft vereinbar ist.

„Als Forschungsorganisation steht die Leibniz-Gemeinschaft für demokratische Werte, insbesondere Wissenschaftsfreiheit, wissenschaftsbasierte, transparente Informationen und internationale Kooperation“, betont Leibniz-Präsidentin Martina Brockmeier: „X hat sich zu einer Plattform entwickelt, die all dies nicht mehr würdigt und die Verbreitung von Desinformation und Menschen- und Demokratiefeindlichkeit in einem erschreckenden Maß begünstigt. Der Verbleib auf der Plattform X ist daher mit unseren Werten nicht mehr vereinbar.“

Umfangreiche Veränderungen des Algorithmus benachteiligen seit längerem systematisch das Ausspielen wissenschafts- und faktenbasierter Inhalte. Hierdurch ist die Anzahl der Menschen spürbar gesunken, die über den X-Account der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft erreicht werden können. Die Reichweite der veröffentlichten Posts entspricht nur noch einem Bruchteil der Follower. Gleichzeitig wird X im Vergleich zu anderen Social-Media-Plattformen von der Gesamtbevölkerung deutlich weniger genutzt.

Die Leibniz-Gemeinschaft wird sich weiterhin am öffentlichen Diskurs auf Social Media beteiligen, um auch über diese Kanäle Erkenntnisse und Informationen aus der Wissenschaft zu gesellschaftlich relevanten Themen zu kommunizieren. Gleichzeitig wird die Leibniz-Gemeinschaft die Entwicklungen in den Sozialen Medien aufmerksam und kritisch verfolgen.

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