Peter Meng

Aspect Ratio as Driver of Bacterial Competition!
Our latest work uncovers this simple and powerful determinant of bacterial competition. We demonstrate that longer bacteria consistently dominate colony fronts—even when outnumbered. The mechanism? Collective alignment.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Wishing you all a successful and productive year ahead.

Common chemical pollutants inhibit human gut bacteria - Nature Microbiology We uncover hundreds of inhibitory interactions between industrial and agricultural chemicals and gut bacteria. Systematic genetic analyses reveal bacterial survival mechanisms against pollutants and t...

#ResearchBriefing

Inhibitory interactions between industrial and agricultural chemicals and gut bacteria make a case for considering antibacterial activity in chemical safety assessment.

#MicroSky #MicrobiomeSky 🦠🧪💻

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

There are often a lot of seagulls here.

So happy to attend the 'Symposium on Plant Immunity and Crop Disease Resistance' in Sanya! Learned so much from the experts' sharing and gained a lot of new knowledge. It was incredibly rewarding!
#PlantImmunity #CropDiseaseResistance #Symposium #Sanya

My Supervisor

A bacterial signal coordinates plant-microbe fitness trade-off to enhance sulfur deficiency tolerance in plants Mukherjee et al. report fitness trade-off between plants and the rhizosphere microbiome under sulfur deficiency, mediated by the tri-peptide signal glutathione. Competition among rhizosphere bacteria ...

A bacterial signal coordinates plant-microbe fitness trade-off to enhance sulfur deficiency tolerance in plants: Cell Host & Microbe www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Your diagram is really beautiful, with great color coordinatoon.

You just want to install an R package.
But the screen goes red.
Your stomach drops.
Even pros dread this moment. Here's how to survive it: 🧵

SALICYLIC ACID SENSOR1 reveals the propagation of an SA hormone surge during plant pathogen advance Salicylic acid (SA) is a key phytohormone that orchestrates immune responses against pathogens, including Pseudomonas syringae bacteria. The timing and extent of SA accumulation are tightly controlled...

FRET sensor for SA developed. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our paper, describing how the T6SSs of P. putida shape the tomato rhizosphere, is now in its final format in @isme-microbes.bsky.social ISME Communications. If you'd like to learn more, here is a thread (1/11) or read the Article doi.org/10.1093/isme....

Finally out, such an awesome piece of work, very proud of this one: www.cell.com/cell-systems... #MicroSky

Localized glutamine leakage drives the spatial structure of root microbial colonization Plant roots release exudates to encourage microbiome assembly, which influences the function and stress resilience of plants. How specific exudates drive spatial colonization patterns remains largely ...

Localized glutamine leakage drives the spatial structure of root microbial colonization | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Very excited to see our @nikogeldner.bsky.social lab x Feng Zhou lab work featured on the cover of Science!
(1/5) We reveal how root architecture and nutrient leakage shape spatial patterns of microbial colonization, moving beyond traditional models of uniform exudation.

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

Here's 123 new bryophyte genomes for you!
Apparently, bryophytes time and again include microbial genes in their genomic repertoire, and occupy a langer gene space than vascular plants.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pleased to share our new article in Cell Host & Microbe, a collaboration with the group of Zhong Wei at NJAU

Common mycorrhizal networks facilitate plant disease resistance by altering rhizosphere microbiome assembly

Free share link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1lnTD6t8JE...

Resistance gene enrichment sequencing refines the Brassica napus NLRome Resistance gene enrichment sequencing produces a complete repertoire of nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptors for Brassica napus, overcoming pri

Resistance gene enrichment sequencing refines the Brassica napus NLRome url: academic.oup.com/plphys/artic...

Phenazines contribute to microbiome dynamics by targeting topoisomerase IV - Nature Microbiology Computational analysis and pairwise assays reveal that bacterial topoisomerase IV is a target of microbially produced phenazines, which informs synthetic-community design to treat fungal crop infectio...

#NewResearch

Computational analysis and pairwise assays reveal that bacterial topoisomerase IV is a target of microbially produced phenazines, which informs synthetic-community design to treat fungal crop infection.

#MicroSky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The "Florédex" ✨, a pokémon-inspired vector collection of the greatest flower designs and their science is coming along nicely 🌷🧬

All hand-drawn, digitalised, and animated.

Genetic architecture of a light-temperature coincidence detector - Nature Communications Light and temperature provide critical information guiding developmental transitions in plants. This study shows that blue light signals via PHOT2 and low temperature signals via CAMTA2 are linked, tr...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Interactions between native soil microbiome and a synthetic microbial community reveals bacteria with persistent traits

#transwellsystem #Pseudomonas

#mSystems

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Love this thread, Tommy! So true.
I'd love to translate it and share it with my followers on my WeChat Official Account. I'll be sure to credit you and link back to the original post.
Let me know if you're okay with that. Thanks a lot!

The classic scenario:
Wet lab colleague: "The data looks a bit weird..."
Me (alarm bells ringing internally): "Oh?"
Wet lab colleague: "Is there something wrong with your code?"

🧵 So you want to be a computational biologist?
1/ It’s not about pushing buttons. It’s late nights, failed scripts, breakthroughs, and detective work with data. Let’s dive.

The resistosome story continues...
Another beautiful structure - this time from a (modified) wheat NLR 🌾

Engineering crop flower morphology facilitates robotization of cross-pollination and speed breeding A genome editing and AI-driven robotic system that overcomes floral barriers to facilitate automated hybrid breeding in tomato and soybean.

Engineering crop flower morphology facilitates robotization of cross-pollination and speed breeding: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Biosynthesis of a major plant immunity hormone, salicylate, changed drastically during evolution of flowering plants Salicylate (SA) is a key plant immunity hormone, which induces immunity against biotrophic pathogens. Two SA biosynthetic pathways are known: the isochorismate synthase (ICS) and the phenylalanine amm...

Biosynthesis of a major plant immunity hormone, salicylate, changed drastically during evolution of flowering plants

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

Linalool-triggered plant-soil feedback drives defense adaptation in dense maize plantings High planting density boosts crop yields but also heightens pest and pathogen risks. How plants adapt their defenses under these conditions remains unclear. In this study, we reveal that maize enhance...

Linalool-triggered plant-soil feedback drives defense adaptation in dense maize plantings | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Super excited to share our paper online 🚨today🚨 in Cell Host & Microbe‬! Xiaomei Ren @xiaomeiren.bsky.social and Mason Clark @rmasonclark.bsky.social‬ co-led discovery of ecological factors for Acinetobacter baumannii carriage in the gut, a reservoir for pathogen spread. 🎉

tinyurl.com/443kfefk

Special Issue Alert for August!
Plants & Microbes: Growing Insight
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...