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Diana Gómez De La Cruz

@dianagdlc.bsky.social
210 followers 208 following 6 posts

Postdoctoral scientist in the Zipfel lab at UZH 👩🏻‍🔬🌾🪴🧬🧫

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Reposted by Diana Gómez De La Cruz
The Sainsbury Laboratory @thesainsburylab.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
📣NEW DISCOVERY: Plant immune receptors can evolve by mimicking effector targets & that insight enables us to engineer a disease-resistance gene that can recognise two major crop pathogens 🌾 www.tsl.ac.uk/news/plants-... @dianagdlc.bsky.social @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social @johninnescentre.bsky.social
AlphaFold2 model of the LRR domain of MLA3 in complex with Pwl2. The structure on the right is colored by pLDDT score, accompanied by the predicted aligned error plot of the model. (B) Structure comparison of Pwl2 in complex with its host target OsHIPP43 (Protein Data Bank ID 8R7A, upper panel), and the C terminus of MLA3, according to AlphaFold2 (lower panel). (C) Superimposition of the structure of Pwl2 in complex with OsHIPP43 and the model of MLA3 (C terminus) with Pwl2. Side chains of MLA3 and OsHIPP43 amino acids at the binding interface with Pwl2 are shown for comparison. Model of molecular mimicry in NLR evolution. In the integrated domain (ID) model, effector targets are incorporated into NLRs as decoy domains that trigger immunity upon effector binding. We propose an alternative model in which LRR domains evolve to mimic the binding interface of effector host targets. In the case of MLA3, the LRR C terminus mimics the Pwl2 host target HIPP43 to directly bind Pwl2. We further propose that LRR domains can harbor multiple effector binding interfaces, raising the question of whether molecular mimicry is broadly present across NLRs that confer recognition of multiple pathogens.
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Diana Gómez De La Cruz @dianagdlc.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
So proud to see this story finally out!🎉 We added new data since our previous preprint—transgenic barley plants with an engineered immune receptor that fights off two fungal pathogens at once. Short 🧵 and link to the original preprint thread on X👇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Molecular mimicry of a pathogen virulence target by a plant immune receptor
Plants and animals respond to pathogen attack by mounting innate immune responses that require intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins. These immune receptors detect pathog...
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Reposted by Diana Gómez De La Cruz
Mauricio Contreras @mpcontreras.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Check out our latest work! AlphaFold 3 revealed a transient immune receptor complex that eluded biochemical studies for almost a decade 🤯 We describe a conserved structural logic underlying sensor–helper communication in an NLR immune receptor network 🧵👇
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Reposted by Diana Gómez De La Cruz
Biochemical Society @biochemsoc.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
As an emerging leader in plant innate immunity, we're thrilled to present Mauricio Contreras with a 2027 Early Career Research Award! Alongside advocating for Open Science and preprint review, Mauricio's "activation-and-release" and "NLR resurrection" models are already referenced worldwide.
Award announcement for Dr. Mauricio P. Contreras from University of Tübingen, Germany, receiving the Early Career Research Award at The Biochemical Society 2027 Awards.
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Reposted by Diana Gómez De La Cruz
Josh Bennett @joshwbennett.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Excited to attend my 1st ISMPMI conference, and present our work on a paired wheat CNL/MLKL receptor mechanism! 🌾 Come chat to me at my poster on Tuesday, P-050! 📜 If you miss my poster session, I will be talking in: Crop resistance genetics and genomics on Wednesday - 16:25-16:35!
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Reposted by Diana Gómez De La Cruz
Marc Somssich @somssich.bsky.social · 17/05/2025
Over the last couple of years I have been writing individual chapters of what I call 𝗔 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 Each chapter covers a specific, basic, but for some reason special and interesting aspect of #PlantScience research. Have a look here 👇🧵
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Reposted by Diana Gómez De La Cruz
AmirAli Toghani @amiralito.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Up and ready! Find me at P-267 today for some molecular evolution and NLR biology! 🥬💻 You can also find the poster and preprint below 👇🏻 #2025ISMPMI
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Reposted by Diana Gómez De La Cruz
Clémence Marchal @clemmar.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Viral genomes might encode more proteins than we initially thought! Intrigued? Come see my poster on the identification of potentially new ORFs in the potato virus X genome. Tuesday 9:55-11:30, P-266 @geminiteamlab.bsky.social #2025ISMPMI
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Reposted by Diana Gómez De La Cruz
Thorsten Langner @thorstenlangner.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
From lesions to lessons: 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of filamentous plant pathogen genomics. In our new review, we present lessons we learned over the past 2 decades and discuss the future of plant pathogen genomics. Take a first look! apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/...
apsjournals.apsnet.org
From Lesions to Lessons: Two Decades of Filamentous Plant Pathogen Genomics | Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions®
Filamentous plant pathogens pose a severe threat to food security. Current estimates suggest up to 23% yield losses to pre- and post-harvest diseases and these losses are projected to increase due to ...
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