Frances Pitsillides

Congratulations 👏👏👏

Congratulations to @marlenygarcial.bsky.social for defending her PhD today 👩‍🎓

She is an outstanding researcher, labmate and friend who makes every project, discussion, and coffee break better. It’s been a privilege to work with you.

I can't wait to see all the amazing science you'll do next! ✨🪲🐝

Huge thanks to Ruth Ley, Heike Brötz-Oesterhelt & Andreas Brune for being part of Marleny’s committee. And the Mutualisms Lab for a masterful hat & celebration!

Marleny is off to an exciting postdoc w/ Philipp Engel in Lausanne 🇨🇭

Thrilled to share our work in @natcomms.nature.com!

Thankful for a great collaboration ☺️

Grateful for the support of the @humboldt-foundation.de and the @mpi-bio-fml.bsky.social

More details below.

Bacterial entrapment of a fungal carbon repressor prevents plant colonization Xu et al. demonstrate that diverse bacteria trap the carbon repressor CreA in the nucleus, thereby suppressing pathogenesis-related gene expression. This reveals a conserved bacterial strategy that ex...

Bacterial entrapment protects plants from fungi

Diverse bacteria trap fungal carbon repressor CreA in nucleus, suppressing pathogenesis-related gene expression. Consortium of CreA-targeting bacteria confers broad-spectrum resistance in field trials
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Plant Pathogens Moonlighting as Beneficial Insect Symbionts Herbivorous insects can shape the epidemiology of disease in plants by vectoring numerous phytopathogens. While the consequences of infection are often well-characterized in the host plant, the extent...

Can plant pathogens boost vector fitness?

Together with @hassansalem.bsky.social, we review how phytopathogens can spread further by moonlighting as insect symbionts 🪲 More on this nifty lifestyle in @annualreviews.bsky.social!

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Very excited to share this article written with my PhD advisor @hassansalem.bsky.social, highlighting the amazing work on organ remodeling for symbiosis by Nishino et al @fkttkm.bsky.social. A fascinating system to think about!

Extensive horizontal transfer of transposable elements shapes fungal mobilomes Romeijn et al. reveal that horizontal transposon transfer is widespread in fungi, contributing up to 70% of transposon content in some taxa. The authors uncover thousands of events across diverse line...

Extensive horizontal transfer of transposable elements shapes fungal mobilomes

@currentbiology.bsky.social by @jromeijn.bsky.social et al from @mfseidl.bsky.social

www.cell.com/current-biol...

The biodiversity, genomics, ecology and evolution of mushroom-forming fungi - Nature Reviews Biodiversity Mushroom-forming fungi have along evolutionary history and a suite of important ecological roles. This Review highlights advances in understanding of Agaricomycetes evolution and ecology driven by gen...

Everything you always wanted to know about mushroom-forming fungi! Great collab with amazing mycologists. Thanks Laszlo Nagy for leading this effort!

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Our December issue is out!

www.nature.com/nmicrobiol/v...

The image shows a female Asian tiger mosquito cadaver covered by mycelium (white) following infection with spores of an engineered Metarhizium strain. Parts of the mycelium produce spores (green) that can again attract and kill mosquitoes.

New light on old stones: a fossil #fungus in #symbiosis with one of the oldest known land plants

@chistinesd.bsky.social, et al.

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

@dromius.bsky.social @ffercoq.bsky.social #PlantScience

Summary also available in French and Spanish.

Historic transposon mobilisation waves create distinct pools of adaptive variants in a major crop pathogen - Nature Communications In this study, the authors analysed a large genomic dataset to trace how jumping genes shaped the global spread of a major wheat pathogen and reveal bursts of activity over decades that drove adaptati...

TEs aren’t just genomic parasites, they’re also engines of genomic novelty.

Our new study with ~2,000 Z. tritici genomes shows repeated TE mobilization waves during global expansion.

With @danielcroll.bsky.social & @guidopuccetti.bsky.social

🧬 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#TEworldwide

Figure 3 from the paper by Worobeic et al in Fungal Biology (August 2025) showing 10 pictures of fossil microsclerotia of dark septate endophytic fungi.

Fungal fossils tell a story of resilience: research by Worobiec et al. published in #FungalBiology (Aug 2025) traces dark septate endophytic (DSE) microsclerotia from the Eocene to today, revealing long-term plant–fungus associations.
👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

1/ Ever needed to annotate TEs in a fungal genome, but didn't know where to start?

We have released #MycoMobilome, a community-focused non-redundant database of transposable element consensus sequences for the fungal kingdom, constructed from >4,000 fungal genomes!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs Dinidorid stinkbugs were reported to possess a conspicuous tympanal organ on female hindlegs. In this study, we show that this organ is specialized to retain microbial symbionts rather than to perceiv...

Wow, nature is too cool! Structures on stinkbug hind legs that used to be interpreted as ears are actually chambers with fungi. The bugs coat their eggs in those fungi to protect them against parasitoid wasps. 🧪

Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Widespread shifts in genome architecture and trophism across fungi. Phylogenetic positions of the shifts identified for genome size. Negative values denote an identified decrease in the genomic trait value while positive values denote an increase in the genomic trait value.

Fungal #GenomeSize variation is largely driven by TEs & lineage-specific genome defenses. @tbadet.bsky.social & @danielcroll.bsky.social show that presence/absence of RIP mutation systems influences #genome architecture, identifying a likely novel defense mechanism @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4hcC5tx

A common bracket fungus on the side of a tree

Xylaria fungus growing out of a tree stump

Small cap mushrooms surrounded by fallen leaves and grass in a woodland

🍄 Today marks #UKFungusDay where we get to celebrate the weird and wonderful kingdom of Fungi.

As well as being fundamental to a healthy ecosystem, and often fascinating to spot, #Fungi can be devastating to plant and animal populations.

Reductive evolution of the DNA replication machinery in endosymbiotic fungi The molecular machinery for replicating and repairing DNA accurately is critically important for life and highly conserved across the Tree of Life. Here we show that two major lineages of fungi, Glome...

I’m super happy to present the first discoveries of the RIKEN-Cambridge Joint Crop Symbiosis Research Team, based in Japan 🇯🇵

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

A thread 👇

Whole genome sequencing of historical specimens from the world's largest fungal collection yields high‐quality assemblies High-throughput molecular studies of museum specimens (museomics) have great potential in biodiversity research, but fungal historical collections have scarcely been examined, leading to no comprehe...

Very excited to share that my first 1st author publication is available at the journal of #NewPhytologist !

Congratulations to the entire team that worked on this project including the #KewFungarium Team. 👏 🍄‍🟫

If you are interested in the topic, feel free to read it here: doi.org/10.1111/nph....

Hi Danny, I’d really appreciate being added, thank you!

Had an amazing time at #ESEB2025 in Barcelona, learning new science, meeting great people, and presenting my PhD work on genomic signatures of symbiosis in a beetle-associated fungus. Surreal that my poster won 2nd place! Grateful to the #MutualismsLab, MPI Biology & ESEB for the support 🍄🪲

The Tübingen & Amsterdam crews have landed in Barcelona for #ESEB2025! Cooling off with helados before the science (and festivities) begin🍦

The scope of #fungi #biodiversity is only beginning to be fathomed.

Every day almost ten new species are described. 🍄🤯

David Hibbett László Nagy and Henrik Nilsson introduce the fungal tree of life. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Gibellula sp. - fungus Infecting a spider

Gibellula sp. 🕷️ #fungifriends