The Sainsbury Laboratory

New Publication: Engineering an Exo70 integrated domain of a barley NLR for improved blast resistance (2026)

Engineering an Exo70 integrated domain of a barley NLR for improved… Home/ Publications/ Engineering an Exo70 integrated domain of a barley NLR for improved blast resistance Engineering an Exo70 integrated domain of a barley NLR for improved blast resistance Published: 09.06.26 Authors: Saado I, Brabham HJ, Bennett JW, Lam AHC, Hernández-Pinzón I, Moscou MJ, De la ...

TSL Synbio just deposited 192 plasmids on Addgene! 🧪

After several months of hard work by our Synbio team, Mark and Liam, we’re delighted to share two full 96-well plates of our highly requested plasmids:

MoClo Plant Promoter, Plant Terminator and Chromoprotein/Low Copy (LC) Acceptor Kit
MoClo N-Terminal and C-Terminal Tag Kit

Find them here: https://www.addgene.org/kits/youles-moclo-plant/

A huge thanks to Mark Youles and Liam Egan for their hard work - we’re delighted that these are now easy to access for scientists worldwide, bringing TSL's total contribution to Addgene to 1533 plasmids! 🧬

It's fantastic to see our ambitious Next Generation Infrastructure project with John Innes Centre receiving BBC coverage.

Our shared HP3 vision, "Healthy Plants. Healthy People. Healthy Planet.”, extends far beyond the UK.

Through investment in cutting-edge scientific infrastructure, we're creating the world-class environment needed to accelerate breakthroughs in plant and microbial research and address global challenges.

Read the full article here:

Could £400m research park plan make Norwich a global science hub? Experts hope a revamp at the Norwich Research Park could lead to more scientific breakthroughs.

New Publication: A plant pathogen effector blocks stepwise assembly of a helper NLR resistosome (2026)

A plant pathogen effector blocks stepwise assembly of a helper NLR… Home/ Publications/ A plant pathogen effector blocks stepwise assembly of a helper NLR resistosome A plant pathogen effector blocks stepwise assembly of a helper NLR resistosome Published: 05.06.26 Authors: Seager BA, Harant A, Contreras MP, Hou LY, Wu CH, Kamoun S, Madhuprakash J (2026) Reference:....

New Publication: A potato late blight pathogen effector interacts with ENTH-domain protein TOL9a and an activated helper NLR to suppress immunity (2026)

A potato late blight pathogen effector interacts with ENTH-domain… Home/ Publications/ A potato late blight pathogen effector interacts with ENTH-domain protein TOL9a and an activated helper NLR to suppress immunity A potato late blight pathogen effector interacts with ENTH-domain protein TOL9a and an activated helper NLR to suppress immunity Published: 05.06.26 Au...

New Publication: Molecular mimicry of a pathogen virulence target by a plant immune receptor (2026)

Molecular mimicry of a pathogen virulence target by a plant immune… Home/ Publications/ Molecular mimicry of a pathogen virulence target by a plant immune receptor Molecular mimicry of a pathogen virulence target by a plant immune receptor Published: 04.06.26 Authors: Gómez De La Cruz D, Ingram T, Zdrzałek R, Taylor J, Wawryk-Khamdavong A, Bachowska K, Banfield MJ...

New Publication: Synchronous spatiotemporal control of autophagy and organelle trafficking is necessary for infection by Magnaporthe oryzae (2026)

Synchronous spatiotemporal control of autophagy and organelle… Home/ Publications/ Synchronous spatiotemporal control of autophagy and organelle trafficking is necessary for infection by Magnaporthe oryzae Synchronous spatiotemporal control of autophagy and organelle trafficking is necessary for infection by Magnaporthe oryzae Published: 03.06.26 Authors: Eseol...

New Publication: Natural small RNA-based defense informs engineering of host-induced gene silencing in plant disease resistance (2026)

Natural small RNA-based defense informs engineering of host-induced… Home/ Publications/ Natural small RNA-based defense informs engineering of host-induced gene silencing in plant disease resistance Natural small RNA-based defense informs engineering of host-induced gene silencing in plant disease resistance Published: 03.06.26 Authors: Koch BL, Qi F, Fang X, Ma W,....

New Publication: Starch and tuber traits of diploid potato lines B26 and B100 and their hybrids (2026)

https://www.tsl.ac.uk/publications/167758

Starch and tuber traits of diploid potato lines B26 and B100 and their hybrids - BMC Plant Biology Diploid potato breeding enables faster genetic improvement via selection against deleterious alleles in in**ed lines, unlike breeding by intercrossing tetraploid varieties. Starch is the major source of calories in potato tubers, but the starch properties of diploid lines have rarely been reported.....

NEWS: Our scientists have discovered direct evidence that immune receptors can evolve by mimicking effector targets and used that insight to engineer a disease-resistance gene capable of recognizing two major crop pathogens.

This new publication was authored by researchers from The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) and the John Innes Centre (JIC) in Norwich, UK, in collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) University of Minnesota laboratories in the USA.

“This breakthrough discovery led by Diana Gómez de la Cruz and Matthew Moscou has revealed how molecular mimicry can be used by plants to defend themselves against pathogen attack. Using the new tools of computational structural modelling, we have an opportunity to harness this discovery to develop completely new durable resistant crops in future. It is very exciting.” — Prof. Nick Talbot FRS, co-author and TSL's Executive Director

“This project highlights how long-term fundamental research and collaboration across groups and institutions can uncover basic biological principles and translate them into practical solutions for agriculture.” - First author, Diana Gómez de la Cruz

https://www.tsl.ac.uk/news/plants-mimic-pathogen-target-as-a-decoy-for-detection