Félix Ramos-León

Structure-function studies of Vibrio cholerae quorum-sensing receptor CqsR signal recognition Author summary Quorum sensing, a form of bacterial cell-cell communication, regulates diverse developmental behaviors. This study investigates CqsR, a transmembrane receptor in Vibrio cholerae, the ga...

It is rare as an editor to get to take on an article so uniquely in your wheelhouse. Sharing some wonderful work by Guarnaccia et al. from the Perez, Ng, and Neiditch labs. #structuralbiology of #pathogens @plos.org
dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Spx inhibits expression of the SwrA•DegU master flagellar activator in Bacillus subtilis | Journal of Bacteriology Bacterial flagella are elaborate machines that are inserted through the bacterial cell envelope. The regulation of flagellar gene expression is organized in hierarchical tiers that largely correlate w...

Spx inhibits expression of the SwrA•DegU master flagellar activator in Bacillus subtilis

-in JBacteriol

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Ten PhD contracts at CSIC in Synthetic Biology.

Passionate about biophysics or computational molecular biology? Join Daniel Lopez's @mib-lab.bsky.social and me at @cnb-csic.bsky.social studying bacterial membrane microdomains!

lifehub.csic.es/synbio-cofund/

(Please spread the word, thanks!)

The diderm cell envelope is not a stack of layers but a unified scaffold of Inner Membrane–Peptidoglycan–Outer Membrane.
We discuss how tethering the OM to the PG in E. coli preserves integrity — and extend the concept across diderm bacteria.
Curr Opin Microbiol: doi.org/10.1016/j.mi...
#microsky 🔬

A 3UTR-derived small RNA modulates the life-cycle of the cholera toxin-encoding filamentous phage, CTXphi https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.02.691856v1

Cool work from Heath Murray's lab where they use Cas9 nickase to study how ssDNA breaks are repaired in Bacillus subtilis #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Charge segregation in the C-terminal linker of FtsZ enables Z-ring scaling with prokaryotic cell width Bacterial cytokinesis is orchestrated by the Z-ring, a cytoskeletal structure formed by treadmilling filaments of the tubulin-like GTPase FtsZ. During assembly, filament curvature must match the cell ...

Happy to share a new preprint from the lab: Marko became interested in whether the disordered linker of FtsZ might influence how the protein organizes into the Z-ring. And this led to some surprising findings!
Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Congratulations to Celia Municio-Diaz in the lab for this new publication, showing that Cell Wall mechanosensors taken from distant yeast species can still function and detect forces in the foreign cell wall of fission yeast cells!

@ijmonod.bsky.social @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social

Schematic overview of the process of DNA-affinity / pull down identification of unknown nucleic acid-binding proteins

Identification of Previously Unknown DNA-Binding Proteins Using DNA Affinity/Pull-Down Methods Followed by Mass Spectrometry

Jutras, Babb, Jusufovic, Krusenstjerna, Saylor, Verma, and Stevenson

Current Protocols 2025, 5:e70264
doi: 10.1002/cpz1.70264

#MicroSky

Our review is now available #OpenAccess online and as formatted PDF doi.org/10.1093/fems...

Chromosomal Topological Domain Formation Modulates Transcription and the Coupling of Neighboring Genes in Escherichia coli Chromosomal topology and transcription are tightly coupled, yet the quantitative impact of topological constraints on transcription, supercoiling, and the potential coupling between neighboring genes ...

‘Chromosomal Topological Domain Formation Modulates Transcription and the Coupling of Neighboring Genes in Escherichia coli‘ by Drs. Nico Yehya, Christopher Bohrer, and collaborators, is now available on bioRxiv. Check it out! doi: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Multi-omics profiling reveals atypical sugar utilization and a key membrane composition regulator in Streptococcus pneumoniae - Nature Communications The pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae can adapt to diverse microenvironments in the human body. Here, De Bakker et al. study these adaptation responses, showing unusual sugar utilization and identifyi...

Really cool paper from @vincentdebakker.bsky.social @jonbakerlab.bsky.social now published @natcomms.nature.com #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

An Aeromonas variant that produces aerolysin promotes susceptibility to ulcerative colitis Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a severe inflammatory bowel disease affecting millions of people worldwide, but the factors driving the condition are poorly understood. In tissue samples from individuals w...

A toxin-secreting gut bacterium may fuel ulcerative colitis by killing protective immune cells that maintain intestinal homeostasis, according to a new study in Science.

The findings suggest potential for new treatment strategies. https://scim.ag/4rjvjqA

Now properly published at @natcomms.nature.com with few additional experiments incl. demonstration of Daptomycin's ability to depolarise non-growing cells.
See the original preprint-thread for a summary of our findings.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#microsky

Structural basis of lipopolysaccharide assembly by the outer membrane translocon holo-complex - Nature Communications The asymmetric distribution of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on the surface of the bacterial outer membrane is essential and crucial for antibiotic resistance. Here, authors characterize the LPS translocon...

Very happy to share our work on lipopolysaccharide assembly by the Lpt complex, published today in @natcomms.nature.com
Fantastic collaboration with @raffaeleieva.bsky.social l and t @pstansfeld.bsky.social
Congrats to all authors, especially Haoxiang, Axel & Violette
🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Apply now to attend the next EMBO Bacterial Networks meeting #EMBOBacNet

🗓️13-18 September 2026
📍Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain

📝Program and registration info: meetings.embo.org/event/26-bac...

👩‍🔬Organised with co-chair @s-lab.bsky.social and ECR @coralietesseur.bsky.social

#MicroSky

The University at Albany Biomedical Sciences Department is hiring at the Assistant Professor level. We are looking for researchers at the intersection of infectious disease and artificial intelligence:
albany.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdeta...
#infectiousdisease #artificialintelligence

Why does daptomycin resistance appear so fast in Enterococcus? We finally have a clue.

DAP resistance in enterococci pops up quickly. What’s been missing is why resistance-associated membrane changes look the way they do, and why the classic path of mutations is so predictable.

A two-component system signaling hub controls enterococcal membrane remodeling in response to daptomycin https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.16.688641v1

We're hiring! My dept. is looking for a candidate with a research program focusing on plant systems. All areas of molecular and cellular biology research will be considered. Not sure if you'd fit? Reach out to me. Please share! #microsky

Universal rules govern plasmid copy number - Nature Communications Plasmids exhibit a broad range of sizes and copies per cell, and these two parameters appear to be negatively correlated. Here, Ramiro-Martínez et al. analyse the copy number of thousands of diverse b...

Curious about plasmid biology? Our latest paper is out now in Nature Communications! 🚨

doi.org/10.1038/s414...

We analyzed thousands of diverse bacterial plasmids to shed light for the first time on a key aspect of plasmid biology: plasmid copy number. 1/7 👇

I’m excited to share my recent postdoc work. Here, we interrogate how different phage infection outcomes (productive vs. restrictive) affect the expression of phage defense systems. We find that a restricted infection not only inhibits the phage but also induces increased immune protein abundance.

Bacteria export alarmone synthetases that produce (p)ppApp and (p)ppGpp | mBio Alarmone synthetases are intracellular enzymes that promote bacterial survival by responding to environmental stress. Although extracellular alarmone production has been reported in Streptomyces, the ...

Bacteria export alarmone synthetases that produce (p)ppApp and (p)ppGpp 🦠🤯

From Boyuan Wang and John Whitney

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Molecular insights into phycobilisome assembly pathway reveal crystalline bodies in cyanobacteria https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.13.688327v1

Structure and encapsulation of carbonic anhydrase within the α-carboxysome | PNAS Carboxysomes in cyanobacteria and certain proteobacteria enable efficient CO2 fixation by encapsulating ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxyge...

Structure and encapsulation of carbonic anhydrase within the α-carboxysome from Halothiobacillus neapolitanus:

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@selimlab.bsky.social Probably interesting for the SPP initiative.

@pnas.org

LPS O-antigen polysaccharide length impacts outer membrane permeability of enteric gram-negative bacteria | mBio The outer membrane (OM) of bacteria like Escherichia coli and Shigella flexneri forms a barrier that protects cells against antibiotics and immune effectors. The surface-exposed leaflet is filled by l...

#microsky

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Applied Molecular Microbiology | John Innes Centre John Innes/Rudjer Bošković – Summer Schools in Applied Molecular Microbiology Applications are invited for a summer school on Microbial Specialised Metabolites: Discovery…

EVENT - Apply today for the John Innes/Rudjer Bošković: Applied #Molecular #Microbiology Summer School (Microbial Specialised Metabolites: Discovery, Biosynthesis and Function)

🗓️ 12 - 20 Sept 2026

📍Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Deadline: 23 Jan 2026

www.jic.ac.uk/training-car...

Staphylococcus haemolyticus Population Genomics Provides Insights into Pathogenicity and Commensalism Staphylococcus haemolyticus is a common commensal bacterium but also an opportunistic pathogen, frequently implicated in bacteraemia and sepsis in preterm neonates and immunocompromised patients. Desp...

Heroic work by @bluebirdsjunk.bsky.social in pulling this mammoth study together

'Staphylococcus haemolyticus Population Genomics Provides Insights into Pathogenicity and Commensalism'

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The cell envelope of diderm bacteria: a unified scaffold, not a stack of layers www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #jcampubs

📢 Postdoc position: Biochemistry & Bacterial cell biology

in our group at Marburg University, Germany, funded by the ERC Advanced Grant "C-SWITCH"

🔗More information at shorturl.at/OlvlL
📅Deadline: Nov 30, 2025

Please repost. #Postdoc