Marc Somssich

@somssich.bsky.social

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Plant Scientist R&D Trait Program Manager (Biotic Stress) @KWSGroup.bsky.social Web: https://linktr.ee/somssich Personal Account

Grain ears with brown fungal ergot outgrowths in a field.
Marc Somssich and Rosa Lozano-Durán standing next to a sign in front of the glass facade of the KWS headquarter cantine. The sign has the KWS logo on the right side, and the text "Seeding the Future - since 1856" on the left side.
Cyril Zipfel on stage at KWS. He looks into the crowd which is not in the picture, and gestures toward the screen. There one can see the title slide of his talk "Understanding, using and engineering plant immunity", as well as his name and affiliations Universität Zürich and TSL.
The header of the paper: PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM, Vol. 18. 1965. The title “Organic Growth Factor Requirements of Tobacco Tissue Cultures” is shown, followed by the author’s names Elfriede M. Linsmaier and Folke Skoog. Their affiliation is Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 6, Wisconsin. The paper was received on July 27th, 1964.
An excerpt from Folke Skoog’s autobiographical review “A Personal History of Cytokinin and Plant Hormone Research”, describing the manuscript submission process: The manuscript was graciously typed by Department of Food Chemistry secretaries who had no previous experience with either the English language or my penmanship. On Easter eve I carried the manuscript by hand to my friend, Professor Hans Burstrém, editor of Physiologia Plantarum, at his vacation residence on the outskirts of the city. He accepted it for publication, practically sight unseen, and, fortunately for me, without review by experts, or else it might not have been published, certainly not in the detailed form submitted.
A table showing the composition of the revised medium, i.e. MS medium
Growth promoting effect of sap added to the medium of tobacco plants. A graph shows that over 50 days the plant fresh weight increased to around 11 g in the control plants, but 27 g in the plants treated with sap. The legend reads: “Figure 1. Effect of tobacco leaf extract on the growth of tobacco pith tissue (T-2, 10 g/l. of medium: Expt. started Mar. 7. 1958). Curve I with, curve 11 without leaf extract added to the standard basal medium.”
The header of the paper: PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM, Vol. 15. 1962. The title “A Revised Medium for Rapid Growth and Bio Assays with Tobacco Tissue Cultures” is shown, followed by the author’s names Toshio Murashige, Folke Skoog. Their affiliation is Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 6, Wisconsin. The paper was received for publication on April 1, 1962. To the left of the paper header is a black and white headshot of a smiling Toshia Murashige, and to the right a black and white headshot of a serious looking Folke Skoog.
A view of Earth from space. The sun is just coming up behind earth making the atmosphere glow. The sentence "A bright future for NLR bioengineering!" is written above. On the right hand side is a small image of Sophien Kamoun giving his talk.
Two rows of leaves from (1) alfalfa, (2) sugar beet, (3) endive. (4) spinach, (5) oats. The lower row shows the leaves after exposure to smog in the form of ozone breakdown products.
An image of Jan Arie Haagen-Smit in his lab. He is wearing a lab coat and his sitting with a notebook behind two large glass beakers.
The Avena Test. Two decapitated coleoptiles are shown. One grows straight up. On the other, an auxin-soaked agar block is placed on one side, resulting in strong cell elongation on that side, while elongation is inhibited on the other side. This leads to this coleoptile bending to one side.
A text from the paper. It reads: “The term cytokinins, therefore, is intended to correspond to the term auxins, which likewise includes a chemically heterogeneous group of natural and synthetic substances with biological activity like that of 3-indoleacetic acid, and to the term gibberellins, which refers to still another group of chemically related substances with distinctive physiological properties. As the term cytokinin was selected after much consultation and deliberation, we hope it will be favorably received by all workers. To avoid further confusion with animal physiology and within our own field, we urge that it be adopted, and that the use of the term kinin and various other synonyms to designate kinetin-like growth factors be discontinued. FOLKE SKOOG, F. M. STRONG Departments of Botany and Biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison CARLOS O. MILLER Department of Botany, Indiana University, Bloomington 25 February 1965
A plate showing calli growing at different IAA and kinetin concentrations and ratios. High kinetin and low auxin generates shoots, low kinetin and high auxin generates roots. Low of both arrests growth, and high of both promotes tissue proliferation.
Chemical structure of kinetin from the 1955 paper. It reads: From the above and previously published evidence it was concluded that kinetin most probably is 6-furfurylaminopurine, I. The formula is C10H9N5O.
Pictures show Fig. 4. Top and side view of a plant which differentiated and grew out of a liquid culture kept in weak artificial light.
An image from White’s paper “Potentially Unlimited Growth of Excised Plant Callus in an Artificial Nutrient”, showing the growing calli from his Nicotiana glauca X N. langsdorffii hybrids. They are placed next to each other by age, youngest (0 weeks) and smallest on the left, biggest and oldest (10 weeks) on the right. Below this row of calli are two close-up views that show the wrinkly surface. The figure caption reads: Fig. 2-4.-Fig. 2 (above). A series of cultures of excised hybrid tobacco callus cultivated in vitro. The cultures vary in age from 0 (extreme left) to 10 weeks (extreme right). X1.7.-Fig. 3 (lower right). Detail of a tissue fragment similar to that shown at the left in figure 2. The surface is irregular, but there is no evidence of differentiation. X20.-Fig. 4 (lower left). Detail of a 20-weeks-old culture. There is still no macroscopic evidence of differentiation. The tissue mass is so friable as to be easily broken up with a needle. X2.3. (Photographs by J. A. Carlile.)
The header of the Article “Optimum Nutrient Solutions for Plants” by D. R. Hoagland, published in Science Vol 52, Issue 1354, pp. 562-564 on 9 Dec 1920. DOI: 10.1126/science.52.1354.562
A quote from Skoog’s personal history of plant hormone research: “said, “Well, those biochemists..., I tell you, I wouldn’t go there. There’s a young Dutchman just come here to work, and he has a new thing, something that stimulates growth. I’ll talk to him, and you can work with him.” So I started to work with Dolk, which was the beginning of my work with plant hormones.”
The authors of the two papers. Carlos O. Miller standing on the left, looking down upon a couple of glass beakers. Opposite him, from the back to the front, are Malcolm H. van Saltza, Francis Shigeo Okumura, Folke K. Skoog and Frank M. Strong. Below the photo are the headers of their two papers describing kinetin, the first cytokinin: “Kinetin, a cell division factor from desoxyribonucleic acid” by Carlos O. Miller, Folke K. Skoog, Malcolm H. van Saltza and Frank M. Strong, and “Structure and synthesis of kinetin” by Carlos O. Miller, Folke K. Skoog, Francis Shigeo Okumura, Malcolm H. van Saltza and Frank M. Strong. Both published in 1955 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
An Arabidopsis leaf-infection assay with Alternaria alternata showing lesions on Col-0, defenseless (abi1-1 coi1 eds1 ein2 rbohD sid2) and cyp79b2b3 plants. The lesions are worst on cyb79b2b3, intermediate on the defenseless plant, and least on Col. Similarly, plants infected with Pseudomonas syringae show strongest susceptibility in an eds1 sid2 background, medium susceptibility in defenseless, and least in Col.
Fritz Kragler standing on stage at KWS, pointing to the ground where he stands and asking "is this where I stand?" Behind him is his cover slide showing a root tip glowing in blue and the title of this talk "Lost in translation: mRNA long-distance transport and breeding".
Four Images: A scientist in a lab looking at a pipetting robot, a greenhouse with lots of pots containing plants, a scientist with drones and other euipment in a field, and a tractor driver with lots of high-tech equipment in the cockpit. The text is: TalentCampus@KWS May 29, 2026 A look behind the scenes: All KWS research and development departments open their doors
e-Xtra: The Extended Plant Immune System Supplemental Table 1: A symphony of song titles reflecting research milestones that chart the historical progression culminating in the concept of the extended plant immune system. Song titles are listed in order of appearance as headings in the main text (link to Spotify Playlist). • Start Me Up – The Rolling Stones (1981) • Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac (1976) • Ground Control to Major Tom (ISR) – (from “Space Oddity” – David Bowie (1969)) • Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger – Daft Punk (2001) • Cornerstone - Arctic Monkeys (2009) • Ironic - Alanis Morissette (1995) • The Sound of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel (1964) • Live and Let Die – Paul McCartney and Wings (1973) • Going Back to My Roots – Odyssey (1981) • A New Dawn (from “Feeling Good” – Nina Simone (1965) • Message in A Bottle – The Police (1979) • What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger – Kelly Clarkson (2011) • Cry for Help – Rick Astley (1991) • Higher Ground – Stevie Wonder (1973) • Born to Be Wild – Steppenwolf (1968) • With a Little Help from My Friends – The Beatles (1967) • Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen (1975) • Another Brick in the Wall – Pink Floyd (1979) • We Can Work It Out – The Beatles (1965) https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3thM9y47O87sFmgZhC3MCq?si=34b7a87f5ac6482d&nd=1&dlsi=2 704f62fbceb4d01
Abstract For the past two years, I have been contemplating how best to write this review that not only reflects on a few significant and nostalgic moments in my more than three decades of professional career in the molecular plant-microbe interaction (MPMI) field, but also offers my personal outlook on the future aimed at inspiring young scientists to join this exciting discipline. Rather than a comprehensive overview, I would like to place greater emphasis on the “whys” and the “hows” than the “whats”. I finally decided to use technological advancements critical for the development of our field as a thread to connect the past with the future. Founder's Review
Photo of a computer Screen showing the title slide of my presentation "A Short(ish) History of Plant Model Research" with the subtitle "120 Years of Arabidopsis Research". Above the slide, a small image of me, the host of the Seminar Series, Carolin Delker, and the official account of the SNP2Prot research consortium is visible.
A graph plotting the CSIRO funding as a percentage of GDP from 1978 to 2025. In 1980 it was around 0.17 %, since then it has sharply fallen to 0.03 %.
Gal Ofir at the KWS Headquarters. He is standing in front of a large world map, which shows KWS' Research Centres and Stations. Behind him, below the map, are four silos containing sugar beet seeds in different stages of processing, from raw, to cleaned, processed and final product. It is visible that the volume filles get's smaller and smaller and with each processing step.
Rick van de Zedde on stage at KWS showing an overview image of the NPEC, including the open field, Greenhouse, high-throughput chamber, ecotron, plant-microbe interaction and multi environment modules.
Our colleague Gerry Fink has likened this handful of organisms to the Security Council of the United Nations because, among the world’s multitude of organisms, they garner most of the attention of researchers and dictate the distribution of most of the biomedical research funds that are not targeted to specific diseases. A few other organisms—the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the mustard plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the zebrafish Danio rerio, and the frog Xenopus laevis— may qualify for seats on the council, but membership is limited. But
Almost everything we know about the fundamental properties of living cells—how they grow and divide, how they express their genetic information, and how they use and store energy—has come from the study of model organisms. These simple creatures traditionally include the bacterium Escherichia coli and its bacteriophage viruses, bakers’ yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, and the mouse Mus musculus, each a representative of the diversity of life.
His studies were now raising questions that could only be fully addressed by the application ofthe newly emergingmolecular biology approaches. These were slow to permeate into the plant sciences, and I remember the look ofconfusion on colleagues’ faces when Chris took a swig of his pint of beer and then announced that we needed to adopt cloning approaches.
The EU flag and the sentence Co-funded by the European Union
A vinyl box with six colored vinyl LPs sticking out of its right side. The Title "Guns in Rosettes" is on top, with the subtitle "The Arabidopsis chemical weapons arsenal" just below. Then there is an Arabidopsis plant with machine guns sticking out. Below is the statement "6-LP LIMITED EDITION COLORED VINYL BOX SET"
Max Koch on stage at the KWS ScienceSlam with Host Gina Wied. The Title slide for his presentation shows himself and the headline/title: Visiting Talk: Max Koch - How we became famous with beer.
Nataliia Rybchenko on stage presenting her documentary on Sunflower production in Ukraine. The slide behind her shows Sunflowers on the right, and text on the left. The text says: "The idea behind the film: The sunflower is more than a strategic crop, it's a symbol of resilience, heritage, and life - a land that keeps giving, even in dark times. Stories of science, business, culture, and emotion reveal its meaning. Our film's title, 'Sunflower: Meanings that seed the future', reflects this.
A graph showing violin plots. On the y axis is the perceived morality of people from 0 to 8. On the x axis the time points 40 years before my birth, 20 years before my birth, at my birth, 20 years past my birth, today. The morality value is constant until birth, and then declines.
A hand holding a sugar beet at the edge of a carrot field.
The use of a highly simplified environment may incur consid- erable collateral damage for all of plant biology; with the current status quo for in- door cultivation, especially of small ephemeral plants such as A. thaliana, similar artificial conditions are replicated
I recently gave a talk to early career researchers, and one point I emphasized was the importance of understanding the literature. There’s a tendency to overlook older publications, and this can lead to problems. A lot of solid foundational science from the 1950s or 1960s is often ignored by younger researchers, who typically don’t go back that far in their literature searches. The issue is further compounded by the reliance on secondary sources, where older publications are cited, but often inaccurately. There have been several instances where a paper is cited, but upon checking, it’s clear that the citation is incorrect or misinterpreted. Understanding the history of your field is crucial, even if it means going back many years. And many of these older papers may not be easily accessible anymore, which is another challenge.
Caroline Dean sitting on a bench in front of some greenery.
A seminar room. There are three people seen from behind on the left side. Opposite them on the other side of a table are Stefan Meldau and Gitta Coaker. All people are facing a screen which shows a bacterium, the flg22 epitope in its flagellum and the LRR receptor domain of FLS2.
As we are now in the thick of the wasp season, it may interest some of the readers of NATURE to know that cocaine is a remedy for wasp or bee stings. It acts apparently not only as a temporary local anæsthetic, but seems also to have the power of destroying the poison of the sting. I happened to have some 1/6th grain cocaine tabloids for hypodermic injection when a lady was badly stung by a wasp a year or two ago. Such stings have a great effect on her, not only producing a very large and painful swelling, but making her feel more or less unwell for two or three days. One tabloid dissolved in a few drops of water, and applied with the finger at once, almost removed the pain; a second, applied an hour or two after, completed the cure. A few days later I found the cocaine equally effective in the case of a young girl who had been severely stung. Since then I have kept a small bottle of a strong solution of cocaine ready for use, and it has always proved effective. It should, of course, be applied as soon as possible, but only two days ago I found that it gave great relief seven or eight hours after the sting. J. F. D. Donnelly
Author information of A. B. Basset, showing the affiliation as Grand Hotel, Alassio, Italy.
I BELIEVE the phrase that “language was given us to conceal our thoughts” only holds good in diplomacy, and it may therefore be reasonably expected that a professor of science should endeavour to teach his pupils to express themselves in clear, concise and literary English. The German language lends itself to a process known as word-building, and for aught I know to the contrary, the word “Schwefelkohlenstoff” may be good, literary German. But this process is altogether foreign to the genius of the English language, and I cannot imagine a more barbaric or misleading conglomeration of verbiage than the phrase “chalk-stuff-gas.” Chalk is popularly associated with lime, or, to speak more accurately, with calcium, and to call a substance “chalk-stuff-gas” which does not contain an atom of calcium appears to me a misuse of language, especially as CO2 can be prepared in various ways without using any substance containing calcium, or what is popularly known as “chalk” or “lime.” It seems to me that it would be difficult to invent a more suitable phrase than “carbon dioxide,” since it expresses in terse and pointed language the chemical composition of the gas. A. B. Bassett
Two screens. On the right, Keith Slotkin can be seen giving a talk. On the left is his slide showing examples of effects transposons have in biology, such as the colour of moths to fit into their surroundings.
The cover slide of Remco Stam's talk. The Title is "Natural variation in plant pathosystems: a path toward durable resistance".
An image of rosette leaves on which guns and toxins in vials are placed. The background is green with chemical forumlae. The text under the leaves reads "Guns in Rosettes - The chemical weapons arsenal of Arabidopsis" and "Mark & Tony feat. Lt. Dän".
Model showing the two distinct response zones. F. oxysporum infects an A. thaliana root tip via the meristematic zone, where it colonizes the vasculature (purple cells=colonized zone). The tissue around this zone undergoes immediate programmed cell death (dark gray cells). As the colonization front (light purple line) progresses in the vasculature, so does a cell death front (black line) across all tissues. In an attempt to prevent the fungus from infecting more tissue and spreading through the vasculature to all parts of the plant, the plant triggers the HR in a small, spatially confined group of cells immediately adjacent to the colonization front (yellow cells), the HR zone. HR is activated by SA in combination with ET, ROS, and DAMP signaling. Slightly removed from the HR and colonized zones, the plant launches a second line of defense to combat the spread of the pathogen in the defense response zone (orange cells). This response is dependent on WRKY11 and JA/ET biosynthesis and signaling. JA and SA are mutually antagonistic, thereby establishing the two spatially separate zones of distinct action. WRKY11 is furthermore a negative regulator of basal resistance. Upon colonization by F. oxysporum, the plant therefore represses WRKY11 in all tissues other than the vasculature, therefore releasing basal resistance genes in these tissues from repression and allowing these cells to activate basal immunity in the case of spread of the infection. Long-distance signaling via the PEP pathway further contributes to this.
An example of a plant cell, showing the compartments Cell Wall, Apoplast, Plasma Membrane, Cytoplasm and Nucleaus, and plant immune system pathways conecting them. For several of the pathways we have cloned reporters. They are marked with numbers.
Three petri dishes with Arabidopsis seedlings. In the plate labeled "Control", the seedlings stand upright. In the plate labeled "EBL", a brassinosteroid phytohormones, the plants are all flat on the surface. On the last dish, labeled "BRZ", an inhibitor or Brassinosteroids, they are short, but most stand up again.
An image showing several siliques of Arabidopsis plants next to each other in the top row, and Arabidopsis seedlings in the second row below. Some siliques are straight and lean, as they should be, others are club-shaped and deformed. Some roots are "of average" length, but some are also stunted and short. These two effects represent problems in stem cell maintenance in either shoot or root meristems.
Changes in average BAK1-GFP fluorescence lifetime and anisotropy over time. Left: Exemplary two-dimensional (2D) MFIS plot demonstrating the effects of various combinations of hetero- or homo-FRET on fluorophore lifetime and anisotropy. A purple sphere is in the top left corner, a blue sphere a bit lower in the right top corner. An Orange sphere is even lower on the left side, a yellow sphere in the bottom right corner. The blue sphere represents the unexcited fluorophore. The average donor fluorescence weighted lifetime t is plotted on the x axis, and the anisotropy (r) on the y axis. Hetero-FRET results in a decrease in t and an increase in r. Hence, the data points would shift from the position of the blue to the violet sphere. Homo-FRET results in a decrease in r with no effect on t. The data point would shift to the yellow sphere. A combination of homo- and hetero-FRET results in a decrease in both t and r. The data point would shift to the orange sphere. Right: MFIS plot for BAK1-GFP in cells coexpressing FLS2-mCherry exposed to the indicated peptides. t is the average of six cells per time point. The control measurements cluster in the top right corner, similar to the blue sphere in the example plot. After peptides addition, the measured cells plot gradually more to the left and more down, thereby following a trajectory that would lead to the Orange sphere in the example plot. Thus, Homo- and Hetero-FRET are happening.
Title slide of Thomas Kroj's (INRAE Plant Health Institute Montpellier) presentation. The title is "Insight into the molecular dialogue between plants and pathogenic fungi from the investigation of rice blast disease". The background shows fungal mycelia in turquoise fluorescence, the outline of plant cells can be seen in magenta. At the interface of the two, fungal hyphae growing into a plant cell can be seen in yellow.
The banner of the feed "Plant Science Research". The Pin in the top right corner is activated.
A low quality screenshot of a text that reads: The strategy was to utilise specific anti-bodies to precipitate apoA-I and to 'co-precipitate' 125I-labeled apoproteins if there was any association.
As Keith Roberts has recently remarked in Nature1, plants should be wonderful systems for the study of development. Why, then, has progress in understanding cell differentiation and morphogenesis in plants been so slow? One reason, surely, has been the lack of a plant equivalent of the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster: a rapidly breeding species that is easy to keep in large numbers in the laboratory, and is ideal for intensive study by the combination of molecular and genetic techniques that has proved so successful in dissecting the regulation of development in Drosophila. But it seems plant scientists need look no further, for the indications from a recent meeting are that the small weed Arabidopsis thaliana (the common wall cress; see sketch) could prove to be just the right subject. And the hope that molecular biology will transform practical plant breeding must have been boosted by reports at the same meeting of the correctly regulated expression of exogenous genes introduced into plants using the natural vector system provided by the bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens.
An actin track can be seen as thick, bright yellow bundle stretching from left to right across each of the four frames. On top of the bundle, a small myosin walker moves along the track hand-over-hand. It looks like a caterpillar on a stick.