Max Planck Independent Research Group
Plant Pathogen Evolution
How plant pathogens
emerge and evolve
Working at the interface of microbial evolution, pathogen genomics and host-microbe interactions to uncover disease origins and prevent future emergence
About the group
Understanding disease emergence from wild to field
We study the evolutionary processes and genomic basis of pathogen adaptation to novel hosts and environments. Bridging field and lab, we trace outbreak origins in wild reservoirs, explore host-microbe coevolutionary arms races, identify mobile elements altering virulence, and investigate how pathogens exploit self-recognition to alter infection outcomes.
Research
Origins of plant disease outbreaks
We trace the origins of infectious disease outbreaks in crop plants, identifying nonagricultural reservoirs and genomic changes linked with emergence
Intermicrobial antagonism
We explore mechanisms of intermicrobial recognition and antagonism and how these alter infection events
Mobile elements driving adaptation
We investigate how recombination and mobile elements drive pathogen adaptation to novel hosts and resistance to viral infection
Host-microbe
interactions
We investigate how host immunity alters infection outcomes and host-pathogen coevolutionary arms races
Exploration of banana disease origins
The Max Planck and Universitas Gadjah Mada field team completed a successful 2026 field season sampling banana, clove, potato and tomato in Indonesia. Learn more about this work here.
Sonja Beiter wins first prize at IBWS 2026
Sonja won first prize for her poster presentation on contact-dependent inhibition in Ralstonia pseudosolanacearum at the 2026 International Bacterial Wilt Symposium in Wageningen. Congrats Sonja!
New insights into a historic outbreak
Evseeva et al. (2026) GBE reveals how a historic outbreak of bacterial wilt disease caused by the parallel expansion of two pathogenic Ralstonia spp. is linked with mobile element exchange between both species and the acquisition of novel genes. Read more about it here.
Daria Evseeva, Ph.D. summa cum laude
Daria defended her doctoral thesis on the role of recombination in mediating microbial interactions and disease emergence and has started a postdoc on Yersinia pestis evolution using ancient DNA samples. Congrat Daria!
Pathogen emergence on non-model hosts
Dr. Marketa Vlková-Žlebková and Fang Wei Yuen review how outbreaks caused by Pseudomonas spp. in kiwifruit reveal there are multiple pathways to specialisation on the same host plant. Check it out here.
A mobile element manipulates metabolism
Colombi et al. (2024) PNAS show how a broadly distributed mobile element circulating in plant pathogenic Pseudomonas syringae manipulates the metabolism of its bacterial host, with potential consequences for plant infection. Read it here.
We're always looking for rigorous and creative researchers
Internship and thesis projects are available for B.Sc. and M.Sc. students currently enrolled at the University of Tübingen.
Doctoral students are recruited via the International Max Planck Research School at the Max Planck for Biology.
Prospective postdoctoral researchers interested in joining the lab and developing a research project proposal can contact Honour McCann directly, including your CV and relevant experience.