Medicine Nobel goes to scientists who revealed secrets of immune system ‘regulation’ Mary Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi discovered cells that protect the body from autoimmune diseases.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to three scientists for discovering a class of immune cells that help to prevent the body from attacking its own tissues

go.nature.com/48QDdAJ

Our paper, describing how the T6SSs of P. putida shape the tomato rhizosphere, is now in its final format in @isme-microbes.bsky.social ISME Communications. If you'd like to learn more, here is a thread (1/11) or read the Article doi.org/10.1093/isme....

Genomic correlates of tailocin sensitivity in Pseudomonas syringae Abstract. Phage-derived bacteriocins, also referred to as tailocins, are structures encoded by bacterial genomes and deployed into the extracellular enviro

Here’s published version of our manuscript using GWAS to investigate tailocin sensitivity in Pseudomonas syringae. TL:DR pretty clear LPS is tailocin receptor but also that P.syringae often completely swaps out its entire O antigen biosynth pathway w/ recombination

academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

Biofilm Researchers - The standard registration rate expires on October 9 (late registration is a bit more expensive)! Also, check out our Session II invited speakers (all speakers can be viewed at the ASM Biofilms Conference website lnkd.in/gkG3Rh2q)

We discovered a new horizontal gene transfer mechanism: tail-less cf-PICIs hijack free phage tails extracellularly, forming infectious chimeric virions that drive both intra- and inter-species transfer among bacteria. @jonaszpatkowski.bsky.social @tcostalab.bsky.social @jrpenades.bsky.social

Check it out! A proper team effort from past and present group members and a great collaboration with @sergemostowylab.bsky.social

New in JB: Fleitas, Rebollar & Bustamante explore the strategies that bacteria use to combat antimicrobial peptides - here they focus on "releasome" mechanisms that are the first line of defense.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@asm.org #JBacteriology

DYK most P. aeruginosa carry filamentous phage(s) that don't need to kill the cell to reproduce?

We 👉🏻@nanamikubota.bsky.social show that these Pf phages can go ROGUE.

"Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness"

🔗 authors.elsevier.com/c/1lt5I3QW8S...

Assessing antimicrobial resistance connectivity across One Health sectors|Nature Water. Led by T. Zhang & L. Li, our new paper discusses connectivity at ecological, microbial & genetic levels; & advocates for cross-sector studies. www.nature.com/articles/s44... @natwater.nature.com

Nice to see Genevieve @lcbofficiel.bsky.social and Patricia @pbernalt6ss.bsky.social meeting in Marseille to exchange about protein secretion

Back to back seminars @scelse.bsky.social Gad Frankel from @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social and Niranjan Nagarajan from NUS and A*STAR

Structure of a distinct β-barrel assembly machinery complex in the Bacteroidota - Nature Microbiology Structural and functional characterization of the β-barrel assembly machinery complex in Bacteroidota reveals a distinct, seven-component complex with a large extracellular domain that may enable β-barrel–surface lipoprotein complex assembly.

Structure of a distinct β-barrel assembly machinery complex in the Bacteroidota | Nature Microbiology https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-025-02132-2

Delighted to share that Lyuboslava Harkova passed her PhD viva today with only minor corrections. Her thesis focused on virulence regulation in Acinetobacter baumannii. Special thanks to Prof Jake Malone and Dr Ayca Sayi Yazgan for being fantastic examiners

New in JB: Fung, Visick et al. show that a single SNP can impact biofilm formation and colonization of its squid host by V. fischeri.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@asm.org #JBacteriology

Polymyxin B lethality requires energy-dependent outer membrane disruption - Nature Microbiology The antibiotic polymyxin B requires bacterial metabolic activity to cause sufficient damage to the outer membrane to access the inner membrane, which it permeabilizes via an energy-independent mechanism to kill the cell.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#microsky

A bacterial signal coordinates plant-microbe fitness trade-off to enhance sulfur deficiency tolerance in plants Mukherjee et al. report fitness trade-off between plants and the rhizosphere microbiome under sulfur deficiency, mediated by the tri-peptide signal glutathione. Competition among rhizosphere bacteria ...

Bacteria enhance sulfur deficiency tolerance in plants

Rhizosphere microbiome is remodeled under sulfur (S) deficiency with competition among bacteria increasing their release of glutathione, which benefits the plant at expense of bacterial fitness
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Acinetobacter phages use distinct strategies to breach the capsule barrier Author summary Acinetobacter baumannii causes life-threatening and often antibiotic-resistant infections thereby posing a global threat. Accordingly, there is an urgent need for alternative treatments...

I said I will never work on phages, but having @micheleleroux.bsky.social next door made me change my mind. Here is Alexis's new paper showing how different phages deal with the capsular barrier to infect Acinetobacter! A great collaboration between our labs!
journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

📢A new effector-triggered immunity role for GBP1! No place for pathogens to hide now that GBP1 can detect extracellular pathogens that hijack the actin cytoskeleton. Surprise*suprise* GBP1 does this independently of LPS! 🧵
biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

PhD fellowship in biofilm-phage interactions

PhD fellowship in biofilm-phage interactions - with Mette Burmølle at University of Copenhagen 🇩🇰
deadline 1 October 2025

employment.ku.dk/faculty?show...

#phagesky #microsky

Metagenomics for Microbiology Metagenomics for Microbiology, Second Edition unveils the intricate and diverse world of microbial communities, emphasizing their critical roles in he

Metagenomics for Microbiology 2nd Ed provides an opportunity to reflect on the growth of the metagenomics field, from new applications to technological advances. The chapters cover methodology, analysis, AI, omics, and more.
shop.elsevier.com/books/metage...
#microbiome #omics #DataScience

Great thank you

There seems to quite a few new faces lately, so if I haven’t already added you, but you’d like added please let me know and for anyone interested in following more microbial natural products folks, then our starter pack is now 100 strong go.bsky.app/72NeGsT

Happy to be added

Molecular basis of ParA ATPase activation by the CTPase ParB during bacterial chromosome segregation - Nature Communications ParABS systems partition chromosomal DNA and low-copy plasmids in bacteria. Here, the authors elucidate the mode of interaction between ParA and ParB and clarify how ParB stimulates the ATPase activity of ParA to drive the segregation process.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#microsky

Capturing 100 years of antibiotic resistance evolution Researchers dive into the pre-antibiotic history of bacterial plasmids to understand the spread of treatment-resistant infections worldwide.

Capturing 100 years of antibiotic resistance evolution
www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/r...

#MicroSky

Pleased to share the new article from UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy PharmD/PhD student Daniel Sun focused on repurposing FDA-approved agents to inhibit virulence, restore antibiotic susceptibility, bolster host defenses, and modulate inflammation v. S. aureus
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

The Humble Microbe Could Help Us Understand Life Itself Unlocking the basic science of microbes, especially those that live in extreme environments, could help us find life elsewhere in the universe.

Microbiologist Paula Welander studies fossils, but not dinosaur bones or ammonite imprints. Instead, she looks for microscopic clues left behind by microbes that lived millions of years ago.

It was a pleasure to meet Gadi Frankel from @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social @scelse.bsky.social and host a dinner at Chopsuey with @cwhitch.bsky.social and @figlegend.bsky.social

(1/9)For over a century, antibiotics were found by slow, painstaking, serendipitous screening.
Today we share a different path: the first demonstration of deep reinforcement learning (RL) for antibiotic discovery.

Delighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols.
Thread 1/n