Mauricio Contreras

As seen on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social: our story on how the dreaded late blight pathogen hijacks a helper NLR pathway is now out in its final form! 🎉 Meet AVRcap1b: the two-faced effector 🧵👇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Professorship Experimental Plant Biochemistry. Tübingen, Germany. #plantscijob #plantscijobs #plantsciencejob www.academics.de/jobs/w3-prof...

Agrobacterium-mediated transient expression has revolutionized plant research, but is largely confined to solanaceous species. This study shows that an engineered strain allows efficient transient expression across diverse dicot crop species. 🧪 #AcademicSky #plants plos.io/3W0hqlP

Haven't used this is in a while, but a new paper from the group is a good excuse. This is monster of a paper from Sebastian Kaiser about the evolution of non-ribosomal peptides. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Interesting pikobodies talk from @clemmar.bsky.social at #ICBPI2026

Less than 5% chance!!! Come on @erc.europa.eu We need to find a solution. Otherwise, we will lose a generation of young researchers.

New research. Conveniently, Marchantia has relatively few transcription factors. Yet, we need to leverage on that at the family scale to have a more comprehensive picture. In this paper, we focused on ERFs, the second largest TF family. #PlantScience www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to share this bioRxiv where we identify another host target for a Magnaporthe effector. Here we characterise the interaction between the zinc finger fold effector (Tie1) to a conserved family of transcription factors called the Tubby-like F-box proteins (TLPs) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🌱 How do plants read chitin length? The receptor CHIP13 works like a molecular measuring tape. What began 13 years ago with a recalcitrant protein is now in @science.org. Thanks to all my co-authors and colleagues! doi.org/10.1126/scie...

LoL-align is out in @natmethods.nature.com! It aligns protein structures without superposition. More sensitive than TM-align and DALI, producing better alignments 5–20× faster. Now available in Foldseek! 📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 💾 github.com/steineggerlab/foldseek 🌐 search.foldseek.com

Anyone brave enough for an adventure in the uncharted waters of plant immunity and cell biology? We have a PhD studentship available as part of the NRP DTP - join us! biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/how...

🚨 TOMORROW! Rising Stars of IS-MPMI self-nominations close 14 Oct. Early-career? Put yourself forward: a speaking slot in our 18 Nov webinar, and a shot at a plenary talk + funded travel to Jeju 2027. Apply with the link! 👇 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

📣 Applications are now OPEN for the John Innes Foundation Rotation PhD Programme This 4-year #PhD programme trains graduate students in Plant & Microbial Sciences @earlhaminst.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social @thesainsburylab.bsky.social ➡️https://okt.to/qjy60T 🗓️ Apply before 12 Nov '26

A helper NLR monitors catalytic perturbation of a vesicle trafficking regulator targeted by pathogen effectors https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.06.757045v1

Convergent recognition of tobamovirus movement proteins by phylogenetically distinct NLR immune receptors https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.05.756766v1

This Is What 20 Years of Science Looks Like | Kamoun Lab Tribute Twenty years. More than a hundred people. One long-running obsession: how plants and their pathogens fight it out. #KamounLab #PlantPathology #PlantScience #OpenScience #TSL #Norwich #LabLife youtu.be/ZJtN6OBqA6Y?...

Plant Microbe Enthusiasts! Register for our next FREE Road to Jeju Legends in IS-MPMI Webinar featuring Eva Kondorosi, happening October 28, 2026: uchicago.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

🌱New preprint 🎉 I am happy to share this last work of my PhD research! We uncover a novel role of cysteine protease RD19 in immunity. RD19 regulates RBOHD-generated ROS and is required for induced resistance responses. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... More details in the thread below! 🧵

Effector-host networks in the barley powdery mildew pathosystem reveal significant targeting of ubiquitin-associated proteins and transcriptional regulators https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.01.756047v1

#plantsci Assistant Professor position in Canada🇨🇦 www.academicwork.ca/jobs/tenure-... Heard from a colleague that it is a very supportive department!

Great to present a major update to our manuscript: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... In collaboration with @grandpahiro.bsky.social, @sara-stolze.bsky.social, Matthieu Platre & the teams of Götz Hensel & Gunther Döhlemann we demonstrate that….. (1/x)

Our story with @hobbslabutah.bsky.social discovering CBASS sensing of phage proteases out now in @science.org New data include CBASS recognition of diverse proteases beyond T4, and verifying CD-NTase activation loop cleavage as the trigger for defense in vivo www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Rice blast fungus hijacks a rice RALF peptide to initiate infection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.30.754903v1

5 years ago, @hacquardst.bsky.social and I became very interested in 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑠𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑎 𝑐𝑢𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑎, an emerging fungal pathogen that colonizes the roots of many plants 🌱 🍅 🌾 🆕📝 Final result of a huge team effort to uncover the bases of its multi-host compatibility👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very excited to share the first preprint from my PhD with the community! This is also the first paper from the Plant Immunogenomics group with @galofir.bsky.social, so stay tuned for more! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/n 🧵

Exciting News! Sophien Kamoun to give the Opening Keynote Lecture at the 2027 IS-MPMI Congress in Jeju Korea (18-22 July 2027). ismpmi.org/events/2027-...

Did you miss yesterday's fantastic Legends of IS-MPMI webinar with @jonathandgjones.bsky.social? You can watch the whole thing on our YouTube channel! 👇 youtu.be/yynU5Bu8BRM?...

Now out! Together with Kenneth Berendzen, Yu Zhou et al., in a commendable team effort, set up a FANS-FAPS protocol for the isolation of plant Cajal bodies @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social — revealing kingdom-specific protein composition: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Pathway to Independence – an interview with Josep Mercadal In this interview, @josepmercadal.bsky.social talks about the importance of interdisciplinary diversity for developmental biology, as well as his hopes and plans for his future lab. doi.org/10.1242/dev....

🚨 Please share! 🚨 I'm recruiting a fully funded 4-year Gatsby Sainsbury PhD studentship at Durham! 🌱🤖 Designing plant immune receptors from scratch, combining AI protein design with structural biology and plant immunity. If you're interested please get in touch! benthamlab.org shorturl.at/U2PdV

9 researchers from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), including 4 Colombians awarded #ERCStg2026. euraxess.ec.europa.eu/worldwide/la... and if I get this right, 97 LAC in total have been awarded ERC grants: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/worldwide/la...

🚨Reminder: Our next Legends of IS-MPMI webinar with @jonathandgjones.bsky.social is TOMORROW! The webinar is completely free and open to the public. Register using the link below👇, don't miss out!

Nominations are open for IS-MPMI’s 2027 Early Career Achievement Award​​ and the Outstanding Achievement Award. These awards recognize the outstanding science, teaching, mentoring, outreach, and service to the community of our members​. Nominate by 1 Dec, 2026. ismpmi.org/events/congr....

We are crowdfunding for a bench in a peaceful spot at Winterbourne Botanic Garden in Birmingham in memory of Philippa Borrill. Please share widely. Please email me or @drelunadiez.bsky.social for more details. 💚🌾🌿🌳 If you would like to contribute, the link is below ⬇️.

Our story on DELLA in Marchantia paleacea is now published (including few updates): doi.org/10.1111/nph.... Thanks again to all co-authors!! #PlantScience

Our interdisciplinary collaboration with Stephanie Kath-Schorr group characterizes Thio-pRib-AMP, an enhanced derivative of a natural plant nucleotide immune second messenger. Thio-pRib-AMP leaf spray increases plant disease resistance. Check it out: doi.org/10.21203/rs....

Synthetic FLS2 receptor oligomer boosts plant innate immunity | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Check out our new preprint: a very cool fluorescence tool developed by @samwalds.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Two seemingly unrelated sides of our lab collided today in the AWESOME new Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system poster: flowers 🌸 and phylogenomics 🧬 Need a new genome? Just pick up the phone and “dial-a-genome” 📞🧬 @getgenome.bsky.social www.tudelft.nl/en/hortus-bo...

For actually constructing phylogenetic trees, I have compiled this separate repository which I have written over several years with advice and best practices for constructing phylogenetic trees. Any feedback on this is also welcome! github.com/davidjhoey/p...

The Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at UC Berkeley currently has two open Assistant Professor positions (aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05382 & aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05522). Interested individuals are welcome to apply to one or both searches.

ʙɪɴᴅᴄʀᴀꜰᴛ2 is out, and we're not waiting for the paper. The full code drops today, free for academic and industry use. We're releasing it early so you can start designing right now, and bring its full power to the current Adaptyv competition. github.com/PacesaLab/Bi...

Think the proteasome & its regulation is highly conserved? Think again🔄 Our new preprint (🧵 by lead author @glangin.bsky.social 👇) reveals how gene expansion, regulatory diversification & stress-responsive specialization shaped the evolution of the proteasome in 🌱 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The PhD and Postdoc application links are now live! Come join me at UNIL to work on deep learning for protein structure, interactions & design. pickybinders.org#open-positions

Finally a more intuitaive way to learn pLDDT/pAE? 😎 sokrypton.github.io/protein_figh... (Character idea from @hannes-stark.bsky.social & Alex Waldherr)

6 years later, he has an ERC... @delaconcepcionjc.bsky.social uni-tuebingen.de/universitaet...