Thorsten Langner
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thorstenlangner.bsky.social
Thorsten Langner
@thorstenlangner.bsky.social
Group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tuebingen. Adaptive evolution of filamentous plant pathogens 🌾🍄🧬. Love nature and music 🎸🥁 dogfather 🐕
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Great talk by @delphinem-p.bsky.social from @geminiteamlab.bsky.social yesterday: “Hijacking the Plant #Spliceosome” on how alternative splicing drives #viral infection and #tomato fruit development 🍅

Thanks to our host @incavirus.bsky.social for organizing this insightful seminar! 👏
November 27, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Anna Backhaus, group leader at @leibnizipk.bsky.social, has been awarded the 2026 IWGSC–Feuillet Early Career Award and will receive her award at the Plant & Animal Genome Conference (PAG) in San Diego, California (USA) in January 2026. Congratulations!

www.wheatgenome.org/people/early...
Anna Backhaus
Anna Backhaus has been awarded the 2026 IWGSC–Feuillet Early Career Award and will receive her award at the Plant & Animal Genome Conference (PAG) in San Di...
www.wheatgenome.org
November 27, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
How do new centromeres evolve while staying compatible with the division machinery?

Discover it in our new Nature paper! We show centromeres transition gradually via a mix of drift, selection, and sex, reaching new states that still work with the kinetochore.

👉 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09779-1
November 26, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Undergrads in the UK, Ireland, Canada, and the US!

One week left to apply for a funded internship in my lab!

📌 Details below
🔁 Please repost to spread the word!
Undergrads from Canada, Ireland, UK, & US: Don't miss the DAAD-RISE #plantscience funded internship at @ipbhalle.bsky.social with @snp2prot.bsky.social. Apply by Nov 30th: daad.de/rise/en/rise-germany/find-an-internship 🌱
November 23, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Is human limb regeneration science fiction? 🤯 What if the oxygen we breathe suppresses our ability to regenerate? @canaztekin.bsky.social busts myths and reveals the potential of regeneration. Watch the video: www.fml.tuebingen.mpg.de/71433/videos #BiologyMyths
November 26, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Six months after leaving Academia, I am back giving a lecture on #PlantScience History as Guest Speaker of the @snp2prot.bsky.social Program @unihalle.bsky.social.

Thank you @carolindelker.bsky.social for inviting & hosting me.
It was a pleasure to talk about Arabidopsis History to the students. 🙂
November 26, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
AI model Helixer predicts eukaryotic genes ab initio, directly from a plain text FASTA file.

No RNA-seq.
No protein homology.
No repeats, hints, or curated evidence.

Raw genome → accurate gene models.
Deep learning + HMM, published in @natmethods.nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Helixer: ab initio prediction of primary eukaryotic gene models combining deep learning and a hidden Markov model - Nature Methods
By leveraging both deep learning and hidden Markov models, Helixer achieves broad taxonomic coverage for ab initio gene annotation of eukaryotic genomes from fungi, plants, vertebrates and invertebrat...
www.nature.com
November 26, 2025 at 6:00 AM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
PRESS RELEASE – Dr Hassan Salem to lead independent research group on plant-insect interactions

Following an international search, we are delighted to announce that Dr Hassan Salem @hassansalem.bsky.social will be joining us in early 2026: www.jic.ac.uk/press-releas...
November 24, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Another super exciting news! Don’t miss the opportunity to join these excellent research programmes🚀
Some news 🎉
After five incredible years in Tübingen, it’s time to say goodbye.

Starting February, the Mutualisms Lab will relocate to the John Innes Centre, right next door to @berasymbionts.bsky.social and her group at The Sainsbury Laboratory 🪲🦠
November 24, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
We (Nordborg & Weigel labs) need input on the next generation of genome browsers & data download modes for the #Arabidopsis #1001GenomesPlus project. We have now a curated collection of over 500 long read genomes.

Please help us by filling out this questionnaire: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Next generation of 1001 Genomes Plus browser and data download
Please indicate all features you would like to see in a browser that displays features of completely sequenced Arabidopsis thaliana genomes
docs.google.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Super excited to be joining @thesainsburylab.bsky.social and to begin this new chapter in Norwich!!
And thrilled to be neighbours with the Mutualisms Research Group at @hassansalem.bsky.social and the wider community at @johninnescentre.bsky.social. Can’t wait to get started! 😁
November 24, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Highly recommended! Nice team, exciting science, and a great place to work! 🪲🌱🍄
November 25, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
And if you are at the postdoctoral stage, consider applying for the first of two four-year openings to join the group at JIC. Applications are due on December 15th, for a start date in 2026. jobs.jic.ac.uk/Details.asp?...
John Innes Centre
jobs.jic.ac.uk
November 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
There’ll be several opportunities to join the group, starting w/ a PhD studentship via the BBSRC-NRP Doctoral Training Partnership.

Team up w/ us, @saskiahogenhout.bsky.social & @berasymbionts.bsky.social to answer how microbes shape insect behavior:
biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/mic...
Microbial determinants of behaviour in herbivorous beetles (SALEM_J26DTP) | Doctoral Training Partnership
Many animals rely on beneficial microbes for nutrition, defence, or reproduction. In this project, the student will explore an exciting new dimension of these relationships:
biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk
November 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Some news 🎉
After five incredible years in Tübingen, it’s time to say goodbye.

Starting February, the Mutualisms Lab will relocate to the John Innes Centre, right next door to @berasymbionts.bsky.social and her group at The Sainsbury Laboratory 🪲🦠
November 24, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Congrats to all the @thesainsburylab.bsky.social prize winners this year! A special shoutout to our own Phon Green for her incredible research support, especially managing a HUGE number of plants, from Arabidopsis to crops 🤯
November 19, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
We're looking for a PhD student! If you're interested in #fungal #genomics & #TEs, meiotic drive, or pathogens, please consider applying. The project is about toxin/antidote genes in the human fungal pathogen A. fumigatus. uu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...
November 19, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Today is a big day as the Precision Breeding Act comes into force 🌱

@kamounlab.bsky.social: “This is a milestone for UK science and innovation. We now have the regulatory framework to translate discovery into impact — improving crops, strengthening food security, and benefiting society” 🌿
November 13, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Our new collaborative work led by @taliamycota.bsky.social
Jiajun Cui & Emma Caullireau between my lab @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @cloeucl.bsky.social & the Karasov Lab (tkarasovlab.org) @uofubiology.bsky.social
and collaborators: @plantricia.bsky.social et al.

tinyurl.com/5yx2wmz5

(1/n)
November 18, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Come celebrate 50 years of the GRC Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology series!!

www.grc.org/cellular-and...
November 17, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
This is a remarkable study describing a new fungal species in a 407 million year old plant - Rugososporomyces lavoisierae Strullu-Derrien and Schornack sp. nov - using some amazing technology. Worth a read 👇
Confocal scanning laser microscopy, fluorescence lifetime imaging & Raman analyses allowed @nhm-london.bsky.social, @slcuplants.bsky.social & @cambridge-ee.bsky.social researchers to resolve plant & fungal structures fossil
Read in @newphyt.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/nph....

@dromius.bsky.social
November 14, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Our paper on the #genome of the Trebouxia #photobiont from Xanthoria is now out in @newphyt.bsky.social! Check below for a near-chromosome level assembly, secretome analysis, evidence of ancient HGT, and transcriptomic comparison of the alga in symbiosis and in pure culture
doi.org/10.1111/nph.70728
November 12, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Gluing a bulky host protein onto an immune surveillance complex is a wild mechanism of viral immune evasion!

@natmicrobiol.nature.com
#phagesky #phage #microsky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 12, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Plz RP. Come join us at @slcuplants.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk to study effector-targeted plant processes impacting plant cell biology and development.
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/post-do...
www.schornacklab.net
November 6, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Thorsten Langner
Thrilled to share our latest review on receptor kinase processing in plants! 🌱

Huge congratulations to @adithya1972.bsky.social and Anna for leading this work, and a big thank you to our fantastic collaborator Martina-Ried Lasi for making this a truly rewarding team effort!
Shedding light on receptor kinase processing
journals.plos.org
November 4, 2025 at 8:25 AM