Now in Nature: Essential genes mutate less

Mutation bias reflects natural selection in Arabidopsis thaliana

Grey Monroe et al., Nature, published online January 12, 2022

Since the first half of the twentieth century, evolutionary theory has been dominated by the idea that mutations occur randomly with respect … Read the rest

Again ERC grants for current and former WeigelWorld members

Rafal Gutaker, former postdoc with Hernán Burbano and now a group leader at Kew Botanical Gardens, and Derek Lundberg, current postdoc and soon Group Leader at SLU Uppsala, won ERC Starting Grants. Rafal’s project GREENrice aims to unlock … Read the rest

MethylScore for calling differentially methylated regions

MethylScore, a pipeline for accurate and context-aware identification of differentially methylated regions from population-scale plant WGBS data

Patrick Hüther et al. bioRxiv 475031 doi 10.1101/2022.01.06.475031 (posted January 6, 2022)

Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) is the standard method for profiling DNA … Read the rest

Last paper of 2021 in ISME J: Protective Pseudomonas

Commensal Pseudomonas protect Arabidopsis thaliana from a coexisting pathogen via multiple lineage-dependent mechanisms

Or Shalev et al., ISME J, published December 11, 2021

Plants are protected from pathogens not only by their own immunity but often also by colonizing commensal … Read the rest

A Celebration of Plant Science 2021

International symposium on occasion of Detlef’s 60th birthday

Current and former members of the Weigel Lab present the “Celebration of Plant Science 2021“, a free International Online Symposium with exceptional line up of speakers, on Dec 16, 2021. More information … Read the rest

Derek named a Wallenberg Academy Fellow!

Derek wins Wallenberg Academy Fellowship for his new lab at SLU

Wallenberg Academy Fellows, the career program for young researchers launched by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation in 2012, provides long-term funding for young, promising Swedish and foreign researchers … Read the rest

Congratulations, Dr. Thanvi Srikant!

Thanvi successfully defended her thesis on the interplay between DNA methylation and gene expression in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Congratulations, Thanvi!

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In MBE: North American Arabidopsis

Multiple Sources of Introduction of North American Arabidopsis thaliana from across Eurasia

Gautam Shirsekar et al., Molecular Biology and Evolution, published September 9, 2021

Large-scale movement of organisms across their habitable range, or migration, is an important evolutionary process … Read the rest

In Nature: collaborative paper on immunity

The EDS1–PAD4–ADR1 node mediates Arabidopsis pattern-triggered immunity

Rory N. Pruitt et al., Nature 598, 495–499 (2021)

Plants deploy cell-surface and intracellular leucine rich-repeat domain (LRR) immune receptors to detect pathogens1. LRR receptor kinases and LRR receptor proteins at the plasma … Read the rest

In eLife: How to measure microbial load and community

Host-associated microbe PCR (hamPCR) enables convenient measurement of both microbial load and community composition

Derek S Lundberg et al., eLife 10:e66186 (2021)

The ratio of microbial population size relative to the amount of host tissue, or ‘microbial load’, is a … Read the rest

Congratulations, Dr. Or Shalev Skriptchak!

Or successfully defended his PhD thesis on plant-microbe-microbe dynamics

Congratulations, Or!

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Congratulations, Dr. Cristina Barragan!

Cristina successfully defended her PhD thesis on genetic incompatibilities in Arabidopsis thaliana and Arabidopsis arenosa.

Congratulations – very well deserved summa cum laude degree!

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10M€ ERC Synergy Grant “PATHOCOM” awarded

PATHOCOM aims to discover how pathogens team up to cause disease

Together with Fabrice Roux from CNRS in Toulouse and Joy Bergelson from the University of Chicago, we have been awarded one of the prestigious and highly competitive Synergy Grants … Read the rest

Congratulations, Dr. Alba Gonzalez!

Alba successfully defended her PhD thesis on the co-evolution of Arabidopsis thaliana and its pathogen Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis.

Congratulations, Alba!

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Congratulations, Dr. Sergio Latorre!

Sergio successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘Phylogenomic and population history inference using ancient DNA’

Congratulations, Sergio!… Read the rest

Congrats to Moi (again): Forbes 30 under 30

Moises Exposito-Alonso named a member of the 2020 class of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Europe list in science and healthcare

Out of the thousands of nominees, the 30 finalists in each of the 10 categories comprise “the world’s most impactful … Read the rest

Cell Host Microbe: NLR-dependent & -independent functions of RPW8/HR proteins

Atypical Resistance Protein RPW8/HR Triggers Oligomerization of the NLR Immune Receptor RPP7 and Autoimmunity

Lei Li et al., Cell Host Microbe, published Feb 26, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2020.01.012

In certain plant hybrids, immunity signaling is initiated when immune components interact in … Read the rest

Detlef to receive Novozymes Prize

Lifetime achievement award comes with 3 million kr

“The 2020 Novozymes Prize is being awarded to Professor Detlef Weigel (photo) for his outstanding research contributions that have led to groundbreaking new knowledge of the genetic structure of plants. His work … Read the rest

Congratulations Moi! Award of the American Society of Naturalists

Moises Exposito-Alonso receives 2020 Jasper Loftus-Hills Young Investigator Award of the American Society of Naturalists

The American Society of Naturalist’s Young Investigator Award goes to applicants who completed their PhD three years preceding the application deadline or are in their … Read the rest

PhD studentship applications open!

International Max Planck Planck Research School (IMPRS) “From Molecules to Organisms”

Deadline for next IMPRS round: February 29, 2020

Talented junior scientists are offered the opportunity to earn a doctorate under excellent research conditions in Tübingen.  Fully-funded projects are offered … Read the rest