Arabidopsis

Really happy to have contributed to a highly multidisciplinary biophysical work published in Nature Plants (1) that reveals how immune activation in Arabidopsis thaliana(pictured above) by bacteria-derived lipopeptides is mediated via specific interaction with membrane sphingolipids and subsequent membrane remodelling that triggers the activation of mechanosensitive ion channels. In this context, neutron reflectometry at MARIA instrument helped to characterize the insertion of Surfactin lipopeptide in the outer leaflet of model membranes and quantify the associated membrane thinning, complementing data from x-ray scattering techniques, microscopy and molecular simulation.

Overall this work offers new compelling insight on a largely uncharacterized plant immune response mechanism where the plant membrane plays a central role. Big congratulations to our Belgian colleagues for establishing and driving this research project!

(1) Membrane remodelling mediates lipopeptide-induced immunity in Arabidopsis Guillaume Gilliard, Jelena Pršić, Jean-Marc Crowet, Catherine Chemotti, Jahed Ahmed, Joseph Lorent, Marie-Dominique Jolivet, Sabrina Egli, Stéphane Egée, Guillaume Bouyer, Gaëlle Race, Lennard van Buren, Anke Van Den Berghe, Anthony Argüelles-Arias, Marion Mathelié-Guinlet, Heba Ibrahim, Manon Genva, Laetitia Fouillen, Cécile Mirande-Bret, Oihana Razin, Brian Vue, Milan Zupunski, W. Patricio Luzuriaga-Loaiza, Estelle Deboever, M. Nail Nasir, Laurence Lins, Patrick Van Der Smissen, Farah Boubsi, Sabine Eschrig, Véronique Germain, Monica Höfte, Cyril Zipfel, Yves F. Dufrêne, Donatienne Tyteca, Alexandros Koutsioubas, Paola Brocca, Guido Grossman, Stefanie Ranf, Stephan Dorey, Barbara De Coninck, Thorsten Nürnberger, Sébastien Mongrand, Julien Gronnier, Valeria Rondelli, Magali Deleu and Marc Ongena Nature Plants (2026)