We are pleased to announce that our newest work has now been published in Current Biology. Of course full OA! Congratulations to all authors and thanks to all collaborators.

Here is the full reference:

Liang P, Schmitz C, Lace B, Ditengou FA, Su C, Schulze E, Knerr J, Grosse R, Keller J, Libourel C, Delaux PM, Ott T (2021)
Formin-mediated bridging of cell wall, plasma membrane, and cytoskeleton in symbiotic infections of Medicago truncatula
Current Biology; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.04.002
pre-print deposited at:bioRxiv; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.10.197160

We are happy to see a new paper from the Quax lab published. Thanks for involving Marta, head of our TEM unit.

Tittes C, Schwarzer S, Pfeiffer F, Dyall-Smith M, Rodriguez-Franco M,
Oksanen HM, Quax TEF (2021) Cellular and genomic properties of
Haloferax gibbonsii LR2-5, the host of euryarchaeal virus HFTV1.
Frontiers in Microbiology, DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.625599

pre-print on bioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.26.354720v1.full

We are happy to share our latest pre-print on the membrane-resident and heteromeric remorin complex, which we just deposited on bioRxiv. It has been a long journey with numerous experimental attempts to unravel the function of group 1 remorin proteins. Thanks to all authors for their contributions and inputs.

Abel NB*, Buschle CA*, Hernandez-Ryes C*, Burkart SS, Deroubaix AF, Mergner J, Gronnier J, Jarsch IK, Folgmann J, Braun KH, Bayer E, Germain V, Derbyshire P, Menke FLH, Kemmerling B, Zipfel C, Küster B, Mongrand S, Marín M, Ott T (2021)
A hetero-oligomeric remorin-receptor complex regulates plant development
pre-print deposited at: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.28.428596v1

We are happy to announce that our head of EM, Marta Rodriguez-Franco, could contribute with her expertise to a new paper published by the by the Quax lab. Congratulations to all authors!

Schwarzer S, Rodriguez-Franco M, Oksanen H. M, Quax TEF (2021). Growth
Phase Dependent Cell Shape of Haloarcula. Microorganisms 9(2), 231

In a study led by Jesús Montiel from the lab of Jens Stougaard at the University of Aarhus, we show that intercellular colonization of Lotus japonicus roots by the rhizobium strain IRBG74 requires a partially different genetic make-up compared to strains infecting in an intracellular manner. Thanks for letting us being a partner in this study and congratulations to all authors!

Montiel J, Reid DE, Grønbæk TH, Mølsted Benfeldt C, James EK, Ott T, Ditengou FA, Nadzieja M, Kelly S, Stougaard J (2020)
Distinct signalling routes mediates intercellular and intracellular rhizobial infection in Lotus japonicus
accepted in Plant Physiology
pre-print deposited at: bioRxiv; doi:10.1101/2020.05.29.124313

Congratulations to the team of Sonja Albers from the University of Freiburg, who demonstrated in a recent article that the MinD4 protein oscillates along the cell axis and stimulates the formation of chemosensory arrays and archaella in the archaeon H. volcanii. We greatly appreciate that Marta Rodriguez-Franco, head of our EM unit, could contribute to this nice story.

Nußbaum P, Ithurbide S, Walsh JC, Patro M, Delpech F, Rodriguez-Franco M, Curmi PMG, Duggin IG, Quax TEF, Albers SV (2020).
An Oscillating MinD Protein Determines the Cellular Positioning of the Motility Machinery in Archaea.
Current Biology, doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.09.073

Here, we studied morphological responses of Arabidopsis roots to the presence of rhizobia depend on nutritional signalling.

Enjoy reading. Comments are more than welcome. Please address them to Sebastian, corresponding author of this manuscript.

Find the study at: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.08.287219v1

We are happy to see the multi-lab effort being published in Plant Cell now. It originates from a great collaboration between several lab, demonstrating that proximity labelling is working in different plant species. Thanks to everyone involved.

Arora D*, Abel NB*, Liu C*, Van Damme P*, Vu LD, Tornkvist A, Impens F, Eeckhout D, Goossens A, De Jaeger G*, Ott T*, Moschou P*, Van Damme D* (2020)
Establishment of Proximity-dependent Biotinylation Approaches in Different Plant Model Systems
Plant Cell; https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00235
pre-print deposited at: bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/701425

We are happy to share the new results from our lab.

Plant cell infections are tightly orchestrated by cell wall (CW) alterations, plasma membrane (PM) resident signalling processes and dynamic remodelling of the cytoskeleton. During root nodule symbiosis these processes result in morpho-dynamic responses including root hair swelling and curling, PM invagination and polar growth of a tubular infection structure, the infection thread (IT). However, the molecular details driving and guiding these PM remodelling events remain to be unravelled. Here, we studied a formin protein (SYFO1) in M. truncatula that is specifically induced during rhizobial infection. Phenotypical analysis of syfo1 mutants clearly indicates that the encoded protein is required for efficient rhizobial colonization of root hairs. SYFO1 itself creates a proteinaceous bridge between the CW and the polarized cytoskeleton. It binds to CW components via a proline-rich N-terminal segment, which is indispensable for its function. On the cytoplasmic side of the PM SYFO1 is associated with actin accumulations supporting the hypothesis that it contributes to cell polarization in vivo. This is further sustained by the fact that cell shape changes can be induced in a stimulus-dependent manner in root protoplasts expressing SYFO1. Taken together we provide evidence for the evolutionary re-wiring of a generic cytoskeleton modulator into a symbiosis-specific response.

Liang P, Schmitz C, Lace B, Ditengou FA, Keller J, Libourel C, Delaux PM, Ott T (2020)
A formin-mediated cell wall- plasma membrane- cytoskeleton continuum is required for symbiotic infections in Medicago truncatula
bioRxiv; https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.10.197160

We are delighted that we could contribute to the development of PULSE, the first transcriptional switch, which allows optogenetic manipulation in plants that are grown under ambient white light. It was a great collaboration with the Zurbriggen lab (CEPLAS/University of Düsseldorf, Germany). More to come.

Read more:

Rocio Ochoa-Fernandez, Nikolaj B. Abel, Franz-Georg Wieland, Jenia Schlegel, Leonie A. Koch, J. Benjamin Miller, Raphael Engesser, Giovanni Giuriani, Simon M. Brandl, Jens Timmer, Wilfried Weber, Thomas Ott, Rüdiger Simon, Matias D. Zurbriggen
Optogenetic control of gene expression in plants in the presence of ambient white light
Nature Methods (accepted 18 May 2020, published online 29 June 2020)
DOI: 10.1038/s41592-020-0868-y

Online publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41592-020-0868-y

Great to see a new pre-print from the lab of Jens Stougaard with work lead by Jesus Montiel being deposited on bioRxiv. We are happy to have been able to contribute some aspects of transcellular infection of Rhizobium sp. IRBG74 in Lotus japonicus roots to this nice piece of work.

Find more at:

Montiel J, Reid DE, Grønbæk TH, Mølsted Benfeldt C, James EK, Ott T, Ditengou FA, Nadzieja M, Kelly S, Stougaard J (2020)
Distinct signalling routes mediates intercellular and intracellular rhizobial infection in Lotus japonicus
bioRxiv; doi:10.1101/2020.05.29.124313

Marta Rodriguez-Franco, head of our EM unit, contributed data to a new project with our long standing and very efficient collaborators Tessa Quax and Sonja Albers (both University of Freiburg). Congratulations for this nice piece of work to all authors .

Li Z, Rodriguez-Franco M, Albers SV, Quax TEF (2020). The switch complex ArlCDE connects the chemotaxis system and the archaellum. Molecular Microbiology, doi:10.1111/mmi.14527