Baptiste Castel

Plöttr 2.0.0. has landed. evompmi.github.io/plottr/ A fresh interface, two new tools and some quality of life tweaks. SVG exports work great with @inkscape.org

Did you know that Selaginella kraussiana lycophytes have explosive spore dispersal? Neither did we, until we noticed the spores getting everywhere when we were trying to image them! New blog post from our former summer student Mo Inall: biology.ed.ac.uk/plant-scienc...

Happy to share that I’ve joined @inrae-france.bsky.social as a permanent researcher, studying fungal diseases of crops 🌿 I’m part of the Leptosphaeria team at @inrae-bioger.bsky.social, based on the new @agroparistech.fr campus in @parissaclay.bsky.social Open to collaborations and applications!

The last talk of the meeting! We’re a little sad that #MAdLand2026 is coming to an end, but very happy to welcome our guest speaker, @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social from Toulouse. He will talk about the evolution of plant–microbe interactions at the water-to-land transition. 🌱 #plantsci

Still one week to apply!

Goodbye Norwich! I had such a great time at the @kamounlab.bsky.social Alumni and friends meeting, followed by #ECPP2026 and #BSPP2026, reuniting with old friends, and making new ones. It's always so special to come back to the fine city. Until next time!

We found that TIR domains in animal immune proteins, including the human TLR4, are enzymes that cleave NAD+ to produce the signaling molecule cADPR Read our new preprint by talented Bohdana Hurieva: “Conserved catalytic activity of immune TIR domains in animals” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

1/ ✨ New preprint alert ✨ It is my pleasure to share: "Stepwise evolution of the developmental and symbiotic functions of DELLA in land plants" Here we investigated the role of the single GRAS transcription factor DELLA in #MyMarchantia doi.org/10.64898/202... #PlantScience A thread...

Research highlight by @natplants.nature.com on our study at @lrsv-toulouse.bsky.social : Fungi genes to fight fungi ! ⏬️

Congratulations to Sonomi Yamaguchi for her paper at @nature.com. Sonomi discovered Clover defense and explained how nucleotide signals control each step of viral sensing, immune regulation, and viral restriction – named for her beautiful "four-leaf" structures 🍀 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Benthamiana rhapsody 🎶 🌱 How benthi is the go-to system for cracking the activation mechanism of an Arabidopsis TIR-NLR immune receptor— that’s the rhapsody. Congrats He Zhao and Selvaraj for this wonderful collaboration 👇🏼 doi.org/10.64898/202...

CPK28 was already present in the first land plant, and presents a paradox: the Marchantia version can perfectly replace the Arabidopsis version for immunity, but does not seem to participate to immunity in Marchantia ... A lot more molecular data here => www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

1/9 Our latest paper on immunity mechanisms in Marchantia just out @pnas.org ! 🔽 Close collaboration between our former PhD students @karimaelm.bsky.social and @chloe-beaulieu.bsky.social ! and the old gard @jacquet-chris.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Congratulations Sylvain and @nemopeeters.bsky.social !

📢 2 PhD Positions Available in Plant Immune Receptor Bioengineering at Imperial College London 🌱 Start: Oct 2026 📅 Deadline: 10 Feb 2026 🇬🇧 UK/settled status only 💰 Fully funded (48 months) ℹ️ Info: shorturl.at/po61I #PlantImmunity #PlantPathology #SyntheticBiology 🙏 Share with interested candidates!

VACANCY - We're looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the @philcarella.bsky.social Group, working in the field of Evo-MPMI (Evolutionary Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions). okt.to/yIlgTU Closing date - 10 February 2026 Salary - £37,500 - £45,350 Contract - Full-time, 3 years

New paper led by @hannasusi.bsky.social shows biodiversity responses to carbon farming are highly context-dependent—varying by management, index and taxa 🌱🪱🐞🐦. Abundance is the most sensitive early indicator for detecting biodiversity impacts! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We’re looking for a postdoc to investigate Pseudomonas viridiflava virulence across diverse plant lineages. The 3yr position will combine plant and microbial molecular biology to understand core processes of infection - email for more info & apply online @ www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/po...

WE GOT FERNS, folks. I hope you like ferns. If you don’t, just listen and you will like ferns. 🌿🌿🌿 Dr. Li is hilarious and charming and you will love him. And ferns. In conclusion: ferns. www.alieward.com/ologies/pter...

A novel pathosystem between Aeschynomene evenia and Aphanomyces euteiches reveals new immune components in quantitative legume root-rot resistance. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.11.698850v1

I’m happy to share our new preprint! We uncovered the full diversity of bacterial TIR-based antiviral immune signaling, massively expanded the known diversity of Thoeris systems, and revealed conservation of TIR-derived immune signals across the tree of life. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New preprint from our group led by @metalichen.bsky.social on the discovery of a Starship giant transposable element in the genome of a lichen-forming fungus.

PhD opportunity in our lab - deadline passes on Dec 2nd - don’t miss out!

🛑Exciting update from our work with @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social team on the ericoid mycorrhizal symbiosis❗❗ 🔥New results support a conserved three-gene module and master regulator for nutrient-responsive intracellular accommodation of fungal symbionts🤯 Check the nice thread below👇🏼 #plantscience

Sooo happy to see this preprint out 🍄☘️! Congratulations @leocastanedo.bsky.social @katharinamel1.bsky.social et al. ! It has been a long journey, from developing ericoid-mycorrhizae in the lab (Leo) to the genetics in Marchantia (Katharina), and many other details (#teamwork)

Congratulations!

Humbly share our latest work led by @himanshuchhillar.bsky.social my phd student And thanks to all collaborators Henk-jan @brunongou.bsky.social @jonathandgjones.bsky.social

A first dive in fern x pathogen interaction! More to come! Congratulations @baptistebio.bsky.social @jacquet-chris.bsky.social et al.!

Want to see ferns under attack and how they respond to pathogens? Check out our latest paper! doi.org/10.1186/s129... Congrats on this huge team effort to @baptistebio.bsky.social @madeleinebaker.bsky.social @kellerjeanphd.bsky.social @maximebonhomme.bsky.social @pierremarcdelaux.bsky.social

~12 years after we coined it EPP1 with @oswaldovaldesl.bsky.social one afternoon when we were postdoc with @jeanmichelane.bsky.social! Congrats @melaniekrich.bsky.social @tatiana-vernie.bsky.social et al. for the hard work! EPP1 is the fourth member of the Common Symbiosis Pathway 🍄🌱!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... and www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Two papers to tell us more about mysterious EPP1, a protein required for symbiosis. Well done @tatiana-vernie.bsky.social and all co-authors.

...and three more fern genomes @molbioevol.bsky.social ! Not-so-static static lineages! academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

VACANCY - Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions We’re inviting applications from outstanding researchers who either hold, or wish to apply for, Independent Research Fellowships. APPLICATION DEADLINE: 10 November 2025 Click here to apply: jic.link/Fellows

www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... Fun read today: Did figs and chilli peppers 'domesticated' humans?

Our recent paper @newphyt.bsky.social @anajusagasti.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social is featured today in the Sunday Post! Thanks Sally McDonald for your piece helping to promote and communicate Scotland’s rich fossil heritage nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Very happy to share our latest work “Systematic discovery and engineering of synthetic immune receptors in plants” out in @science.org ! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Outstanding paper ! -> receptor-like cytoplasmic kinase AeRLCK2 mediates Nod-independent rhizobial symbiosis in Aeschynomene legumes | The Plant Cell | Oxford Academic

Super excited to share our new preprint! 🎉 This project has been an incredible learning experience, thanks to the amazing lab and wonderful people I get to work with. Huge thanks to my supervisor! @plantevolution.bsky.social

1/3 New preprint led by Shanshan Wang, in collaboration with the Timmermans lab. Several groups have presented sc/snRNA-seq analyses of Arabidopsis leaves after bacterial infection before. Is there anything left to discover? Turns out: Yes. #plantscience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

For those who are not familiar with SA research history, we humbly introduce a review we wrote years ago: www.cell.com/trends/plant... @cp-trendsplantsci.bsky.social

🦠🧍‍♀️From bacterial to human immunity. We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity. Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

First Ma lab #GMI paper is now online! It‘s a mini-review on insect-induced plant #galls —their coolness and research potential! Plant galls induced by insects: Coordinated developmental reprogramming and defence manipulation www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Are chromatin remodelling complexes targets of bacterial effectors PopP2 & XopJ6 ? Check out our work at #2025ISMPMI ! P-163 presented Wednesday afternoon by my amazing PhD supervisors Laurent Deslandes & Valerie Pacquit. @lipme-toulouse.bsky.social @ismpmi.bsky.social

@charlesrleveillee.bsky.social is introducing the concept of „EDEN“ in his talk in the concurrent session „local and inter-organ signaling“ #2025ISMPMI see also his great review: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#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...

@federicalocci.bsky.social presents the fonction of non canonical TIR immune receptors #2025ismpmi