News

We thank Shakunthala Natarajan for updating latest news about the group

Plant Genome Sequence Assembly and Annotation (Part1)

Unlock the secrets of plant genomes with this intensive, hands-on course in "Plant Genome Sequence Assembly and Annotation". Designed for doctoral students and postdoctoral researcher in genomics and bioinformatics, this course offers practical training in processing and assembling Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) long-read sequencing data. Participants will learn to perform quality control, assemble high-quality plant genome sequences using tools like HERRO, Shasta, and NextDenovo2, and carry out structural genome sequence annotation with HISAT2/STAR, GeMoMa, and BUSCO. The course emphasizes real-world applications, providing participants with the skills to interpret, validate, and refine genome assemblies and gene models specific to plant systems. Whether you are starting your first genome project or looking to enhance your bioinformatics toolkit, this course will give you the expertise to tackle complex plant genomic data with confidence.

https://www.denbi.de/training-courses-2025/1948-plant-genome-sequence-assembly-and-annotation

From Gene Models to Biological Insights - Functional Annotation (Part2)

Gain deeper biological insights from genome data in the course "From Gene Models to Biological Insights – Functional Annotation". This course focuses on turning structural gene annotations into meaningful biological interpretations through rigorous quality control and comprehensive functional annotation. Participants will learn how to assess annotation quality using tools like BUSCO, identify and classify functional elements with InterProScan, KIPEs, MYB_annotator, and tRNA-scanSE, and detect repetitive elements using EDTA. The course also covers the construction and visualization of gene trees with IQ-TREE3 and iTOL, enabling participants to analyze gene family evolution and gene duplication events. Designed for those with basic command-line experience, this course is ideal for researchers aiming to connect genome annotations to biological function and evolutionary context. Participation in the course “Plant Genome Sequence Assembly and Annotation” is highly recommended as a foundation.

https://www.denbi.de/training-courses-2025/1949-from-gene-models-to-biological-insights-functional-annotation

7th Plants and People conference

Boas will be giving a talk in the 7th Plants and People conference taking place in Potsdam, as an invited speaker. His talk titled "Big Data-Driven Discoveries in Specialized Plant Metabolism" will cover exciting research stories from our lab on how we unravel new genes, biosynthetic pathways and many more evolutionary secrets using biological data. It would also throw light on some useful bioinformatic tools and methods we are developing to wrangle big data and derive biological insights. If you are participating in the conference, do not miss the talk scheduled for the second session on day 1. We also wish Boas a fruitful and scientifically engaging conference experience!

Samuel recently attended his first conference in the scenic city of roses - Hildesheim! The conference was specifically aimed at early career researchers and was organized by the German Botanical Society's (DBG's) sections - "Natural Products" and "Applied Botany". Samuel also got an opportunity to present his research through a talk titled "Blushing traps: When a carnivore goes on a nitrogen diet". Along with useful research inputs for his further work, he also gleaned some nice ideas from the talks of fellow researchers. With some good research inspirations from the conference, he is thankful to the organizers for the event, and is all set to take next strides in his research on Utricularia. Stay tuned for exciting research stories on the tiny bladderwort from him! More impressions on his conference visit can be found at: https://mstdn.science/@samnm/115151781950041399.

Harnessing Big Data to Unlock Specialized Plant Metabolism for Metabolic Engineering

Boas gave a talk at the Frauenhofer IME in Aachen. This talk covered genomics and transcriptomics presenting work on Digitalis purpurea as an example for the discovery of a gene responsible for a trait. Our work on dark pigments and the characterization of the withanolide biosynthesis were also presented. The power of coexpression analyses was demonstrated. KIPEs and CoExpPhylo served as important examples for tools to facilitate the functional annotation of plant genes.

🎓 Exciting news for Uni Bonn students!
Next week, we’re welcoming Björn Pietzenuk for an inspiring career talk about genomics. Don’t miss the chance to hear about his journey and insights!

📍 Botanik-Hörsaal (Nussallee 4)
🕕 6 PM c.t.
📅 Sep 1st, Monday

It has been sometime since the Pucker lab shifted to Bonn and we have been having a great time here! We recently enjoyed the institute summer party at the courtyard on a perfect sunny day. Along with good food and funny banter, we had a chance to meet other colleagues here at IZMB too! Of course, we had a barbecue as well, just in case you are wondering :)

We also recently published a review on plant genomic methods using ONT. From detailed guidelines for a genomics novice to inputs on the latest technologies and methods in the field for the seasoned, this review has something for everyone. Grab a cup of coffee and give a read to our preprint here: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202508.1176/v1.

Preprint alert! Our latest preprint offers a nice overview on the evolutionary story of the LAR gene involved in the later steps of the flavonoid pathway. Spruced up with comprehensive phylogeny, synteny and expression analyses, this new research on the LAR gene duplication is bound to interest you. It can be accessed here: 10.1101/2025.08.06.668978.

We have some new group members too! Sofia Lara Guerrero, Sritama Banerjee, and Alireza Najafi Fard are joining us as interns. Welcome to our group!

Our lab also got a beautiful hand-painted picture of our group logo from the visiting students. We must say that they are a bunch of multi-talented peeps and we are so thankful for this piece of art!

Eine Wissenschaftlerin und ein Wissenschaftler arbeiten hinter einer Glasfassade und mischen Chemikalien mit Großgeräten.

The undergraduate visiting students from USA are returning back starting this week. We had a wonderful time with them doing science and having fun outside the lab. What more could be a fitting farewell to them other than another social event?! Yes. We had a wonderful evening this week. We wish them the best for all their future endeavours and also bon voyage for their journeys back home ...